Okay, I shall finish off yesterday in due course. (Including me getting hit by a motorbike!! Don't worry; I'm fine! :P)
And today shall be written up later as well. (It was basically a 10 hour bus journey that should have taken 6 hours, although various things happened on the way)
I won't be blogging (probably) for the next 5 days, until the night of the 5th, or possibly on the 6th as I'm doing a 5-day motorcycle tour from Da Lat to Hoi An!!
The man is an easy-rider; there's a whole group of them who do it and they're written up in the Lonely Planet guide book, so it's all kosher!
I'm soo excited!! And he's going to teach me and let me ride for a bit too!!! Yay!!! We'll be going up through the Central Highlands rather than the coast and I can't wait!!
I'm staying in a rather nice hotel tonight, so I'm going to go make use of it!
Speak soon!!!
(to be continued! )
Tuesday 30 June 2009
Monday 29 June 2009
Ho Chi Minh City - 29th June 2009
I did a bit of washing this morning and hung it up in my room hoping it would dry. I was then out of the house by 9am. Unfortunatly the dogs weren't around to wish me good luck.
I got a moto to the Jade Pagoda for 40,000 dong. There were a few ponds outside, some full with turtles, and others with fish in. The pagoda itself was quite pretty, it was built in the cantonese period/or by the cantonese, I cannot quite remember. It had some features that were very obviously chinese, the faces of the huge wooden statues inside, and the writing. The place was filled with the smell of incense sticks which was pleasant. It wasn't really anything special, although its style was obviously quite different to things I had seen before.
Next stop was to the history museum which was just like most other history museums; old pottery and chairs and various other things. For history lovers it was well organised and vaguely interesting; there were huge stone carvings from Cambodia, and elsewhere there was a mummy which freaked me out a bit as I felt I'd been cursed by looking at it. I took extra care on the roads after leaving.
On my travels I passed a pet shop, which seriously needs to invest in some fish contraception, as they had so many in very small spaces! It was quite ridiculous; I'm sure not that many people can actually own or want to own fish! I also passed a shop selling various teas, such as artichoke tea leaves; which made me think of Helen (Raleigh). I managed to get the lady in the shop to recommend me one, based on my very limited Vietnamese vocabularly from the day before yesterday!
I saw, from the outside, the Notre Dam Cathedral, which I had thought was in France, but apparently not! Outside there was a couple who were dressed in wedding outfits and were getting their photo taken. I'd presumed it was a photo shoot, as their faces didn't really fit like they'd just been married. They hadn't looked overly in love, and the way the man near by lay out the woman's wedding dress made it seem more like a photo shoot. I'm still not quite sure whether it was or not, as I later saw them all piling into a taxi, which seems a little low key for someone with such a fancy wedding dress. Of course I snapped a picture too!
I popped into the post office, mearly to admire it as it had been mentioned in the guide book. It was quite nice, and there were some quite cool features, like the rooms used for private telephone calls, and the ceiling too.
I bought a phrasebook as I thought it might come in handy; and I wanted the lady following me to get lost as she was beginning to become irritating!
The Reunification/Independence Palace was closed until 1pm, so I waited around in a park until it opened again. I had quite a nice time reading my book apart from annoying vendors coming up to me offering me various things which I didn't want to buy! A couple of girls were sat on a nearby bench, studying, they managed to shoo away the annoying vendor, and we had a bit of a chat as well.
The palace was quite cool, very large and posh. There were 4 floors and a basement. Mainly showing lots of wealth of the person who owned it; a games room, personal cinema and various other expensive unnecessaries! In the basement were the maps and radios and various war type memoriabelia. It all looked very nice, and it reminded me a bit of the New Parliament building in Canberra. I nearly didn't go down to the basement as I was feeling a bit lazy, but I was glad I did as it was the most interesting part of the building. It seemed to tunnel around the place and I probably would have got lost was it not for the clear signage!
A moving stop was next; the War Reminants Museum; which had been described in the guidebook as a huge guilt trip on the Americans, although they had been mentioned, it wasn't as obvious as was suggested in the guide book. There were many photos and memoirs by those affected by the American invasion; mainly by Agent Orange; a toxic gas that caused brain damage and deformities in its victims. It was horrific to see so many photos and peoples descriptions of victims being led off to be tortured and killed. There was a section on the photographers who had died taking photos of the various sites of war, which I found interesting. It also thanked all the countries who had supported Vietnam in the war, as well as showing pictures of protesters etc. Outside was some rather shocking photos of people shortly after being tortured; some of whom were dead. Others remained alive but with paralysis and other such problems. There was a list of the many horrendous types of torture used which sounded like something out of a thriller book or film. There was an example of a chamber where the victim was chained up in a certain position and left there for long periods of time; where all physiological processes must be carried out; this was particularly distressing for women. Another technique also used mainly on women was putting a snake up the leg of her trousers. It was quite an eye-opener. It made me think of all the wars going on at the moment, all the stories we are yet to hear, and how pointless they are!
During the day I somehow managed to drink 1.5 litres of water, plus other non-water drinks and was shocked to not need the toilet all day! It just shows how much sweating one does out there!! Not pretty!
On my way back to the hotel, following the Lonely Planet walking guide, I passed a french renaussaince (sp?) style town hall, which looked rather posh. Not too far away was also the also very posh, Municipal Theatre!
I walked through a street market which is one of the few places that stinks more than me! The smell of fish and meat is horrendous! It is a shame as the place is so lively and it's nice looking at all the things for sale. I tend to stop breathing or just breathe out heavily whenever I see such stalls.
It looked like it might start to rain, so I decided to pop into an internet cafe. It was so noisy! It was packed out with many teenage boys playing games, and despite all having headphones on, they made a complete racket! I watched the first 20 minutes of the Top Gear: Vietnam Special, just covering up to De Lat. I recognised the places in Saigon that I'd visited that day! It was rather cool!
I popped into a bread shop to get a snack, before heading the final few streets back to my hotel. Unfortunatly, what I thought was a one way street, turned out to be a 99% one way street! And I ended up getting hit, very lightly, in the shoulder by a motorbike! I apologised before hastly returning to my hotel.
I had dinner in a small cafe; a tofu burger with chips, and a fruit drink; both absolutely delicious!! Lots of people passed me by, and came in to offer books, nodding horses (like nodding busters) and various other things. It was a bit of a pain, and I think the cafe must be used to it, as there is a sign on the table translating 'No thank you, please leave me alone' into Vietnamese!
After stripping and showering, I decided it would be a good idea to book a bus ticket to Da Lat for the following day. So I popped across the road to the nearest travel agent (of which there are many, as most hotels have one!), and got a bus ticket for $7. The lady didn't look particularly Vietnamese and was a bit grumpy! It was 8pm, so I suppose she'd probably had a very long day!
I didn't sleep well overnight; I was a bit too hot and had lots of dreams; I was probably scared of sleeping in, as the bus was to leave at 8am.
I got a moto to the Jade Pagoda for 40,000 dong. There were a few ponds outside, some full with turtles, and others with fish in. The pagoda itself was quite pretty, it was built in the cantonese period/or by the cantonese, I cannot quite remember. It had some features that were very obviously chinese, the faces of the huge wooden statues inside, and the writing. The place was filled with the smell of incense sticks which was pleasant. It wasn't really anything special, although its style was obviously quite different to things I had seen before.
Next stop was to the history museum which was just like most other history museums; old pottery and chairs and various other things. For history lovers it was well organised and vaguely interesting; there were huge stone carvings from Cambodia, and elsewhere there was a mummy which freaked me out a bit as I felt I'd been cursed by looking at it. I took extra care on the roads after leaving.
On my travels I passed a pet shop, which seriously needs to invest in some fish contraception, as they had so many in very small spaces! It was quite ridiculous; I'm sure not that many people can actually own or want to own fish! I also passed a shop selling various teas, such as artichoke tea leaves; which made me think of Helen (Raleigh). I managed to get the lady in the shop to recommend me one, based on my very limited Vietnamese vocabularly from the day before yesterday!
I saw, from the outside, the Notre Dam Cathedral, which I had thought was in France, but apparently not! Outside there was a couple who were dressed in wedding outfits and were getting their photo taken. I'd presumed it was a photo shoot, as their faces didn't really fit like they'd just been married. They hadn't looked overly in love, and the way the man near by lay out the woman's wedding dress made it seem more like a photo shoot. I'm still not quite sure whether it was or not, as I later saw them all piling into a taxi, which seems a little low key for someone with such a fancy wedding dress. Of course I snapped a picture too!
I popped into the post office, mearly to admire it as it had been mentioned in the guide book. It was quite nice, and there were some quite cool features, like the rooms used for private telephone calls, and the ceiling too.
I bought a phrasebook as I thought it might come in handy; and I wanted the lady following me to get lost as she was beginning to become irritating!
The Reunification/Independence Palace was closed until 1pm, so I waited around in a park until it opened again. I had quite a nice time reading my book apart from annoying vendors coming up to me offering me various things which I didn't want to buy! A couple of girls were sat on a nearby bench, studying, they managed to shoo away the annoying vendor, and we had a bit of a chat as well.
The palace was quite cool, very large and posh. There were 4 floors and a basement. Mainly showing lots of wealth of the person who owned it; a games room, personal cinema and various other expensive unnecessaries! In the basement were the maps and radios and various war type memoriabelia. It all looked very nice, and it reminded me a bit of the New Parliament building in Canberra. I nearly didn't go down to the basement as I was feeling a bit lazy, but I was glad I did as it was the most interesting part of the building. It seemed to tunnel around the place and I probably would have got lost was it not for the clear signage!
A moving stop was next; the War Reminants Museum; which had been described in the guidebook as a huge guilt trip on the Americans, although they had been mentioned, it wasn't as obvious as was suggested in the guide book. There were many photos and memoirs by those affected by the American invasion; mainly by Agent Orange; a toxic gas that caused brain damage and deformities in its victims. It was horrific to see so many photos and peoples descriptions of victims being led off to be tortured and killed. There was a section on the photographers who had died taking photos of the various sites of war, which I found interesting. It also thanked all the countries who had supported Vietnam in the war, as well as showing pictures of protesters etc. Outside was some rather shocking photos of people shortly after being tortured; some of whom were dead. Others remained alive but with paralysis and other such problems. There was a list of the many horrendous types of torture used which sounded like something out of a thriller book or film. There was an example of a chamber where the victim was chained up in a certain position and left there for long periods of time; where all physiological processes must be carried out; this was particularly distressing for women. Another technique also used mainly on women was putting a snake up the leg of her trousers. It was quite an eye-opener. It made me think of all the wars going on at the moment, all the stories we are yet to hear, and how pointless they are!
During the day I somehow managed to drink 1.5 litres of water, plus other non-water drinks and was shocked to not need the toilet all day! It just shows how much sweating one does out there!! Not pretty!
On my way back to the hotel, following the Lonely Planet walking guide, I passed a french renaussaince (sp?) style town hall, which looked rather posh. Not too far away was also the also very posh, Municipal Theatre!
I walked through a street market which is one of the few places that stinks more than me! The smell of fish and meat is horrendous! It is a shame as the place is so lively and it's nice looking at all the things for sale. I tend to stop breathing or just breathe out heavily whenever I see such stalls.
It looked like it might start to rain, so I decided to pop into an internet cafe. It was so noisy! It was packed out with many teenage boys playing games, and despite all having headphones on, they made a complete racket! I watched the first 20 minutes of the Top Gear: Vietnam Special, just covering up to De Lat. I recognised the places in Saigon that I'd visited that day! It was rather cool!
I popped into a bread shop to get a snack, before heading the final few streets back to my hotel. Unfortunatly, what I thought was a one way street, turned out to be a 99% one way street! And I ended up getting hit, very lightly, in the shoulder by a motorbike! I apologised before hastly returning to my hotel.
I had dinner in a small cafe; a tofu burger with chips, and a fruit drink; both absolutely delicious!! Lots of people passed me by, and came in to offer books, nodding horses (like nodding busters) and various other things. It was a bit of a pain, and I think the cafe must be used to it, as there is a sign on the table translating 'No thank you, please leave me alone' into Vietnamese!
After stripping and showering, I decided it would be a good idea to book a bus ticket to Da Lat for the following day. So I popped across the road to the nearest travel agent (of which there are many, as most hotels have one!), and got a bus ticket for $7. The lady didn't look particularly Vietnamese and was a bit grumpy! It was 8pm, so I suppose she'd probably had a very long day!
I didn't sleep well overnight; I was a bit too hot and had lots of dreams; I was probably scared of sleeping in, as the bus was to leave at 8am.
Sunday 28 June 2009
Ho Chi Minh City - 28th June 2009
I had an early morning this morning, 6.45am, as I had to be at the tour bus office for 8am ready to visit the Cu Chi tunnels and the Cao Dai Temples.
On getting dressed a gecko ran from under my shoe which was quite sweet although it made me a bit nervous about what other animals lurked in the room! Either I have been previously unobservant, or the gecko had pooed in my shoe, as there seemed to be a like-substance there unwaking when there had not been previously.
It took me a while to get dressed; maybe the heat made me slow. Thankfully I had the wisdom to book my tour with a company close by, and by 7.20 I was already outside waiting for my tour bus to arrive. A local man invited me to sit down and order a drink while I was waiting, so I ordered a iced black coffee, which was one of the most heavenly things I have tasted, and at 5000 dong, you can't go wrong!! (18p or so!) We chatted for a bit, he seemed friendly, although his motives were yet to be revealed; he was a moto driver and was offering to take me a tour around town for a few hours as a tour. I told him I'd think about it, and although he spoke good English and he seemed nice, I would much prefer to see the city walking. I bought a few supplies of water and biscuits to last me the day, and by 8, to tour guide had arrived and we were led to our minibus.
The guide who spoke pretty good English, was a bit of a comic! He kept us entertained for the first 10 minutes or so, and gave us an insite into the Cao Dai Temple, before letting us nap until we arrived at our first "Happy Place" stop! aka. a toilet; named as such as you go in not-happy, and when you leave, you're happy!
I slept most of the way, although ever so often I would be aware of things around me; a blind man crossing the road; and a legless man (no, not in the sense the Brits use the word!)
Shortly after 9, for our first Happy stop, we rolled into a Handicapped Handicrafts store, where we saw the production line for wooden pieces of art, with egg shells and mother of pearl placed delicately; such as wine holders, noodle bowls etc. They were really amazing, although quite expensive!
Next stop, was the Cao Dai temple. There were lots of people dressed in white robes, and a few in a blue, yellow or red robe. Each colour signifies a different religion out of Taoism, Buddhism and Confusciasm. They worship the 'all seeing eye' which reminded me completely of Lord of the Rings. I'm not sure what came first, LOTR or this religion, which was created in 1926, but there is definetly some kind of plaugerism going on!
The temple was beautiful, there were lots of eyes, and at the top of the shrine was, for some reason, Jesus, and various other people to worship. There are three saints in this religion, although I cannot remember details about them. The were different heights of steps going up to the shrine; which of the different levels you were allowed on, depending on how practiced/highly ranked you were. There was a rather cool staircase which climbed around one of the towers; it was in the shape of a dragon. We were allowed to walk around the temple, although it had to be in a certain direction, which seemed rather random! The ceremony began at 12, by which time the tourists had made it up the stairs to an overhanging balcony looking down onto the worshippers. There was a band playing, made up of some kind of guitars, a gong, and some singers. The music was really enchanting and beautiful. The worshippers joined in with the singing, which was rather 'hmmm' and 'ahhh' like. I'm not sure how long it lasted, although by 25 past we were due back at the tour bus. I'd seen and heard all that I needed to by then.
The van was now being driven by the tour guide, who seemed to swerve and stop suddenly an awful lot, and the ride was quite bumpy, I was surprised the suspension didn't break!
Next up was lunch; rice and vegetables, which was really quite tasty.
We then continued back towards Ho Chi Minh City, to the Cu Chi tunnels; tunnels which were created so that the residents of Cu Chi could hide and be protected from the Americans in the anti-American war, as the Americans had wanted to take over Cu Chi, probably on their way to Ho Chi Minh City. We watched a film about the tunnels, which sounded rather like the film at the end of Kill Bill 2, with the music, the sound of the voice etc, the theme... which made it quite enjoyable! Women fighted too; one even won an award for blowing up an American tank. The Vietnamese, who also were farmers, set clever traps and were tactical with their missiles and grenades and managed to not be defeated by the Americans! (Yay! - I think...)
The tunnels themselves had three stories. For the kitchen, they had to dig a tunnel to let the smoke out, as to not give away the tunnel's position. It was really quite clever, they even had a room as a honeymoon suite! (I don't think the guide was pulling our legs when he said that!)
In case the Americans tried flooding them out with pumped water from the Saigon River, the third, lowest level, had a drain out into the river, so it never flooded, which is quite clever.
There was some rice paper being made in one of the huts; and under some of the other huts were examples of traps, which looked a bit dodgy although I'm sure they must have worked, otherwise how would the Vietnamese have won the war?!
There was also a hole in the ground which would have been the size of the original start to the tunnel; people must have all been size 0 in those days, as there was no way any of us would have fitted down it!! Imagine if someone had put weight when they were down there (unlikely I know!) they might not be able to get back up again!
We went for a brief break into a shop, where we were given the opportunity to fire an AK47 or other such gun. The noise was incredibly loud; it made me subconsciously shut my eyes every time it went off, and even though I knew to expect a noise, it still made me jump.
Finally it was time to head down to the tunnel! And of course the monsoon came; I had my umbrella, but I still got completely soaked. The guide had checked we had no heart conditions, although strangely enough he never checked for claustrophobia, or a fear of the dark, which may have been more appropriate. We headed down, and had to slide ourselves a meter down to get to the tunnel. It was really quite scary. I was last to go down, which made me nervous as I didn't want to be left behind. We were only walking 100m bit my legs felt every bit of it. We had to crouch for all of it, which made it really hard to move, and for some bits we even had to do commando crawl!I have no idea how the people at the front managed to go so fast through the tunnel; it felt like an agility course for dwarf hamsters. It didn't help that it was very dark, and even though every so often there were red lights slightly lighting up the place, it was a relief that someone had brought a proper torch. I bumped my head quite a few times, and I was breathless by the end, although I'm not quite sure how! I was glad that I wasn't left behind. The guide had told us that when the Americans made it into the tunnels, if they survived the hidden grenades and traps that were in the entrance to the tunnels, they never came back out again as they got so lost!
The drive back was extremely bumpy; we passed a really pretty cemetary, which looked like the bodies were raised above the ground. There was also a fairground toy in one of the fields!
There was a curiously named fashion shop named Dung; which I found amusing; and even more so, a man on the road, thankfully quite near to the edge, who was suitably praying!! I'm sure he'll need it if he spent much longer there! A van full of rather dashing sailors passed us by; their suits were very smart and pretty. I'm not sure if they were actually sailors, but they looked like them!
Unfortunatly someone wasn't so lucky, as in the middle of the road, a crowd was gathered around an unconscious man with a pizza box and motorbike sprawled nearby. He seemed to have some sort of head injury, although maybe he was lucky and it was just pizza splattered on the road. No one seemed to be doing anything to help him, although to be honest I wouldn't really have known whether to have checked for him to be breathing or to have not moved him at all either. I was a bit upset after seeing the poor man. I had been tempted to hire a motorbike and travel north, in Top Gear style, although seeing him, it rather put me off! I was surprised he was my first dead/dying person on the road, but it still was a bit of a shock.
We got dropped off almost outside my guesthouse which was handy. I was still soaking wet from the monsoon, so I went inside to get changed. I stripped off in the hall (of my shoes and socks at least) and was greated by the two 3 month old brother and sister puppies! They seemed to have warmed to me as they were no longer barking at me but were licking my feet and I spent quite a while with them stroking them and being licked to death in return. They are absolutely adorable!!
I then spent the next three hours eating and drinking in my favourite coffee shop, even though the coffee isn't that great to be honest! but it's worth it for the internet!
At 9pm I headed back to my guesthouse hoping for a good nights sleep ready for my long hike the following day, and hoping that my shoes had dried off! Walking for 7 hours in wet trainers doesn't sound like fun to me!
On getting dressed a gecko ran from under my shoe which was quite sweet although it made me a bit nervous about what other animals lurked in the room! Either I have been previously unobservant, or the gecko had pooed in my shoe, as there seemed to be a like-substance there unwaking when there had not been previously.
It took me a while to get dressed; maybe the heat made me slow. Thankfully I had the wisdom to book my tour with a company close by, and by 7.20 I was already outside waiting for my tour bus to arrive. A local man invited me to sit down and order a drink while I was waiting, so I ordered a iced black coffee, which was one of the most heavenly things I have tasted, and at 5000 dong, you can't go wrong!! (18p or so!) We chatted for a bit, he seemed friendly, although his motives were yet to be revealed; he was a moto driver and was offering to take me a tour around town for a few hours as a tour. I told him I'd think about it, and although he spoke good English and he seemed nice, I would much prefer to see the city walking. I bought a few supplies of water and biscuits to last me the day, and by 8, to tour guide had arrived and we were led to our minibus.
The guide who spoke pretty good English, was a bit of a comic! He kept us entertained for the first 10 minutes or so, and gave us an insite into the Cao Dai Temple, before letting us nap until we arrived at our first "Happy Place" stop! aka. a toilet; named as such as you go in not-happy, and when you leave, you're happy!
I slept most of the way, although ever so often I would be aware of things around me; a blind man crossing the road; and a legless man (no, not in the sense the Brits use the word!)
Shortly after 9, for our first Happy stop, we rolled into a Handicapped Handicrafts store, where we saw the production line for wooden pieces of art, with egg shells and mother of pearl placed delicately; such as wine holders, noodle bowls etc. They were really amazing, although quite expensive!
Next stop, was the Cao Dai temple. There were lots of people dressed in white robes, and a few in a blue, yellow or red robe. Each colour signifies a different religion out of Taoism, Buddhism and Confusciasm. They worship the 'all seeing eye' which reminded me completely of Lord of the Rings. I'm not sure what came first, LOTR or this religion, which was created in 1926, but there is definetly some kind of plaugerism going on!
The temple was beautiful, there were lots of eyes, and at the top of the shrine was, for some reason, Jesus, and various other people to worship. There are three saints in this religion, although I cannot remember details about them. The were different heights of steps going up to the shrine; which of the different levels you were allowed on, depending on how practiced/highly ranked you were. There was a rather cool staircase which climbed around one of the towers; it was in the shape of a dragon. We were allowed to walk around the temple, although it had to be in a certain direction, which seemed rather random! The ceremony began at 12, by which time the tourists had made it up the stairs to an overhanging balcony looking down onto the worshippers. There was a band playing, made up of some kind of guitars, a gong, and some singers. The music was really enchanting and beautiful. The worshippers joined in with the singing, which was rather 'hmmm' and 'ahhh' like. I'm not sure how long it lasted, although by 25 past we were due back at the tour bus. I'd seen and heard all that I needed to by then.
The van was now being driven by the tour guide, who seemed to swerve and stop suddenly an awful lot, and the ride was quite bumpy, I was surprised the suspension didn't break!
Next up was lunch; rice and vegetables, which was really quite tasty.
We then continued back towards Ho Chi Minh City, to the Cu Chi tunnels; tunnels which were created so that the residents of Cu Chi could hide and be protected from the Americans in the anti-American war, as the Americans had wanted to take over Cu Chi, probably on their way to Ho Chi Minh City. We watched a film about the tunnels, which sounded rather like the film at the end of Kill Bill 2, with the music, the sound of the voice etc, the theme... which made it quite enjoyable! Women fighted too; one even won an award for blowing up an American tank. The Vietnamese, who also were farmers, set clever traps and were tactical with their missiles and grenades and managed to not be defeated by the Americans! (Yay! - I think...)
The tunnels themselves had three stories. For the kitchen, they had to dig a tunnel to let the smoke out, as to not give away the tunnel's position. It was really quite clever, they even had a room as a honeymoon suite! (I don't think the guide was pulling our legs when he said that!)
In case the Americans tried flooding them out with pumped water from the Saigon River, the third, lowest level, had a drain out into the river, so it never flooded, which is quite clever.
There was some rice paper being made in one of the huts; and under some of the other huts were examples of traps, which looked a bit dodgy although I'm sure they must have worked, otherwise how would the Vietnamese have won the war?!
There was also a hole in the ground which would have been the size of the original start to the tunnel; people must have all been size 0 in those days, as there was no way any of us would have fitted down it!! Imagine if someone had put weight when they were down there (unlikely I know!) they might not be able to get back up again!
We went for a brief break into a shop, where we were given the opportunity to fire an AK47 or other such gun. The noise was incredibly loud; it made me subconsciously shut my eyes every time it went off, and even though I knew to expect a noise, it still made me jump.
Finally it was time to head down to the tunnel! And of course the monsoon came; I had my umbrella, but I still got completely soaked. The guide had checked we had no heart conditions, although strangely enough he never checked for claustrophobia, or a fear of the dark, which may have been more appropriate. We headed down, and had to slide ourselves a meter down to get to the tunnel. It was really quite scary. I was last to go down, which made me nervous as I didn't want to be left behind. We were only walking 100m bit my legs felt every bit of it. We had to crouch for all of it, which made it really hard to move, and for some bits we even had to do commando crawl!I have no idea how the people at the front managed to go so fast through the tunnel; it felt like an agility course for dwarf hamsters. It didn't help that it was very dark, and even though every so often there were red lights slightly lighting up the place, it was a relief that someone had brought a proper torch. I bumped my head quite a few times, and I was breathless by the end, although I'm not quite sure how! I was glad that I wasn't left behind. The guide had told us that when the Americans made it into the tunnels, if they survived the hidden grenades and traps that were in the entrance to the tunnels, they never came back out again as they got so lost!
The drive back was extremely bumpy; we passed a really pretty cemetary, which looked like the bodies were raised above the ground. There was also a fairground toy in one of the fields!
There was a curiously named fashion shop named Dung; which I found amusing; and even more so, a man on the road, thankfully quite near to the edge, who was suitably praying!! I'm sure he'll need it if he spent much longer there! A van full of rather dashing sailors passed us by; their suits were very smart and pretty. I'm not sure if they were actually sailors, but they looked like them!
Unfortunatly someone wasn't so lucky, as in the middle of the road, a crowd was gathered around an unconscious man with a pizza box and motorbike sprawled nearby. He seemed to have some sort of head injury, although maybe he was lucky and it was just pizza splattered on the road. No one seemed to be doing anything to help him, although to be honest I wouldn't really have known whether to have checked for him to be breathing or to have not moved him at all either. I was a bit upset after seeing the poor man. I had been tempted to hire a motorbike and travel north, in Top Gear style, although seeing him, it rather put me off! I was surprised he was my first dead/dying person on the road, but it still was a bit of a shock.
We got dropped off almost outside my guesthouse which was handy. I was still soaking wet from the monsoon, so I went inside to get changed. I stripped off in the hall (of my shoes and socks at least) and was greated by the two 3 month old brother and sister puppies! They seemed to have warmed to me as they were no longer barking at me but were licking my feet and I spent quite a while with them stroking them and being licked to death in return. They are absolutely adorable!!
I then spent the next three hours eating and drinking in my favourite coffee shop, even though the coffee isn't that great to be honest! but it's worth it for the internet!
At 9pm I headed back to my guesthouse hoping for a good nights sleep ready for my long hike the following day, and hoping that my shoes had dried off! Walking for 7 hours in wet trainers doesn't sound like fun to me!
Saturday 27 June 2009
Ho Chi Minh City - 27th June 2009
I had a relatively easy morning today, I leisurely got up shortly after 8, which I'm pretty sure is my latest morning yet! And after a cold shower I headed down in search of things to eat, ready to meet Lily in the park for our exchange of English and Vietnamese lessons!
I went back to the stall I'd been eyeing up the night before, and purchased a small gift at a bargain price. The lady recognised me from the previous night. I also booked a tour for tomorrow, of the Cu Chi tunnels and a religious centre which is apparently a cross between Christianity, Taoism and Buddhism, I'll know more tomorrow!! It cost $7, which isn't too bad for a day trip. (Plus 80,000 for entrance into the Cu Chi Tunnels)
I then sat around waiting for Lily. I thought she might not turn up, which wouldn't have been too bad as I would have had more time to do my tour of the city. She arrived shortly after 10, and we sat on a park bench and were going through various phrases. It was hard work, but it was pleasing when I managed to pronounce things correctly. A few people flocked around us, probably about 15 at most, including some security guards who seem to be everywhere. I thought they were going to get us in trouble for loitering or causing a scene, but I think they were just curious! I was able to ask a few children how old they were, what there name was etc! Several people offered to teach me more Vietnamese, although it was really only a couple of guys who stayed around and helped a bit, one of whom was handily studying English! It was good fun, although by 2pm I was completely exhausted!!
Lily had brought along some boiled sweet potatoes which was tasty, but rather dry, I couldn't manage much of it. Whilst I was eating it, the lady who I'd bought something from earlier came and gave me some rice paper, which wasn't unpleasant, but it was a new taste, and I was unable to eat all of it.
I had a bit of a headache, despite drinking almost a litre and a half of water, and so I said I must get on and do some exploring, and I was sure they had places to go too. I was feeling a bit ill, so after dicing with various roads I decided to head back to the coffee shop I'd been in the previous night. I found a English book shop on the way, and got a couple of Kellerman's costing $8 for the two; and then sat down enjoying lunch in the cafe.
I stayed in the cafe quite a while! Until 4pm, and finished my book, and moved on to the next one.
I decided I should probably move on, so after popping to the toilet, I was about to head back to my accomodation, about 5 doors away on the other side of the street. Unfortunatly the monsoon started just as I was about to walk out the door, so I made it two doors down instead into another cafe!! It turned out to be a lot cheaper than my usual upmarket free-internet coffee shop, although there was no internet. I happily read my book for a bit longer until the monsoon had ceised and my eyes were starting to shut by which time it was around 6pm; so I headed back to my accomodation. I read for a short while longer whilst listening to my ipod, before enjoying a lovely (!) cold shower and falling to sleep.
I don't seem to be sleeping that well at the moment. It feels like a rather delayed jet-lag, although I'm pretty sure it is just the heat!
I went back to the stall I'd been eyeing up the night before, and purchased a small gift at a bargain price. The lady recognised me from the previous night. I also booked a tour for tomorrow, of the Cu Chi tunnels and a religious centre which is apparently a cross between Christianity, Taoism and Buddhism, I'll know more tomorrow!! It cost $7, which isn't too bad for a day trip. (Plus 80,000 for entrance into the Cu Chi Tunnels)
I then sat around waiting for Lily. I thought she might not turn up, which wouldn't have been too bad as I would have had more time to do my tour of the city. She arrived shortly after 10, and we sat on a park bench and were going through various phrases. It was hard work, but it was pleasing when I managed to pronounce things correctly. A few people flocked around us, probably about 15 at most, including some security guards who seem to be everywhere. I thought they were going to get us in trouble for loitering or causing a scene, but I think they were just curious! I was able to ask a few children how old they were, what there name was etc! Several people offered to teach me more Vietnamese, although it was really only a couple of guys who stayed around and helped a bit, one of whom was handily studying English! It was good fun, although by 2pm I was completely exhausted!!
Lily had brought along some boiled sweet potatoes which was tasty, but rather dry, I couldn't manage much of it. Whilst I was eating it, the lady who I'd bought something from earlier came and gave me some rice paper, which wasn't unpleasant, but it was a new taste, and I was unable to eat all of it.
I had a bit of a headache, despite drinking almost a litre and a half of water, and so I said I must get on and do some exploring, and I was sure they had places to go too. I was feeling a bit ill, so after dicing with various roads I decided to head back to the coffee shop I'd been in the previous night. I found a English book shop on the way, and got a couple of Kellerman's costing $8 for the two; and then sat down enjoying lunch in the cafe.
I stayed in the cafe quite a while! Until 4pm, and finished my book, and moved on to the next one.
I decided I should probably move on, so after popping to the toilet, I was about to head back to my accomodation, about 5 doors away on the other side of the street. Unfortunatly the monsoon started just as I was about to walk out the door, so I made it two doors down instead into another cafe!! It turned out to be a lot cheaper than my usual upmarket free-internet coffee shop, although there was no internet. I happily read my book for a bit longer until the monsoon had ceised and my eyes were starting to shut by which time it was around 6pm; so I headed back to my accomodation. I read for a short while longer whilst listening to my ipod, before enjoying a lovely (!) cold shower and falling to sleep.
I don't seem to be sleeping that well at the moment. It feels like a rather delayed jet-lag, although I'm pretty sure it is just the heat!
Friday 26 June 2009
Phnom Penh/Ho Chi Minh City - 26th June 2009
I didn't sleep too well during the night as I'd been worrying about waking up on time, and I was a bit hot, and I seemed to have accumulated a few mosquito bites, although I'm not sure where from as I never seem to see any!
I woke to the sound of music, which entertained me in my dreams for a while, before the sound of repetitive knocking broke my daze into consciousness, when I suddenly realised that I'd slept in by 40 minutes and only had ten minutes until I was supposed to be catching the tuk tuk! I opened the door, to my 14 year old tuk tuk driver, who looked like he'd just fallen out of bed himself; lucky for him I'd thrown on my nighty during the night!! as I was in no state myself to have realised otherwise!!
I threw on my clothes and managed to get the tuk tuk in time. The boy seemed to be beeping his horn more than most, even when there was no other cars or drivers on the road! He went over some tretcherious pot holes and I thought he was going to break the poor vehicle.
We arrived at the Central Market in good time, 10 minutes before I was due to be at the bus terminal; and after studying the map a while, I headed off in the wrong direction! and subsequently went in circles until I decided I was going to head to the wrong bus terminal!! My brain eventually turned on at around 6.20am, and after a quick sprint with rucksack on my back, and mini rucksack on my front, I arrived just in the nick of time before the bus was due to leave at half past. I'd past a rather rabbid looking dog, with blood shot eyes, on my journey; poor thing was probably just ill with some curable disease, poor wee thing. Of course, it didn't actually get set off until 7, and I was now dripping in sweat!! I had to hand in my passport, which made me rather nervous, as they dealt with all the border crossings, and I checked they'd put my rucksack (or flung would maybe be a better way to describe it!) into the bottom of the bus.
The bus was packed mainly full of locals, or at least Asians, I was the only white! The man beside me clicked his fingers which was a bit disgusting but thankfully he didn't do it for the whole journey! There was a tv, a rather cool one! which was playing some kind of comedy. There was a Johnny Depp look-a-like (sort of) in a woman's dress, who looked strangely attractive! I had no idea why it was so funny, but the audience kept on laughing! I was a bit annoyed that I hadn't stopped on the way to get some food (although obviously, if the bus had actually set off on time I would have missed it!), as I'd only got some biscuits from London in my bag! (indeed I resisted them for over a week!! Miracle!) and we got a complementary bottle of water too, which was nice and cool.
We passed various curious things; various green uniforms brushing the street and cleaning; a school with many rows of immaculately dressed school children all chanting something or other; and someone selling avocados.
On the back of a truck with building materials, there were a couple of boys, aged 14-15 or so who looked like they were in some sort of lovers hold, although they were probably just cuddling incase they fell off. It was quite adorable!!
There was a TELF centre for 3-4 year olds; various gardening shops selling cactii; a truck full of ducks; very posh looking tabole and chairs set with very smooth, beautiful wood; and crazily enough, statues of kangaroos!!
The land was very flat, and we passed over a few small rivers. There were houses on stilts which looked rather unsafe, although I'm sure they were perfectly safe and well-made!
A few hours into the journey we had to cross a rather large river, so we boarded onto a boat in our bus, and lots of motorbikes piled on, squeezing in between the larger vehicles. A boy was selling some sort of eggs; small and patterned, although I'm unsure what type they were. On reaching the other side of the river a small boy sitting in front of his mum's push-bike, waved at me, they were both smiling, so I smiled and waved back! They were so adorable!! I can tell why celebrities want to adopt kids from abroad, they are so friendly and lovely!! (no offence!!)
Along the streets someone was selling some sort of weird fruit that resembled the spout of a watering can! Also one of the towns had quite a few horses in it, some pulling carts etc.
We stopped for a short break, where most people got out, and started urinating almost side by side along the road!! It was a bit crazy, considering the bus had almost 40 people on it!
We passed through Ba Vet, and stopped at a cafe, but I was a bit anxious about going to the toilet incase the bus drove off without me. We eventually got to the border shortly after 11. It was extremely confusing, as I didn't know whether I needed my passport or whether it would all be done for me. I didn't know which forms I needed etc! I was stamped out of Cambodia, and before getting stamped into Vietnam, a man with a mask came on board and I handed in a health declaration form (which I'd lied on, as there was no way I was going to admit my swollen glands, cough, cold...! to be honest, who would?!) He stuck a thermometer in my ear, and I passed with flying colours!; and I hadn't taken an anti-pyretic for good luck beforehand unlike previously!!
Eventually after being pointed into various directions and asking various people for help I made it through the border! Yay!! On entering Vietnam we passed various "Massage" centres, which were a bit out of the way, and seemed to suggest they were more prostitution centres! There were so many people wearing the famous straw cone shaped hat! There was a rather funky house on the side of one of the river which looked incredibly peaceful; I was eyeing them up for when I move out here officially!
We passed through Cu Chi, which I correctly assumed was where the Cu Chi tunnels were; and an hour or so later we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City. I'd just been dosing for the last leg of the journey, with my legs clamped around my bag and my arms firmly attached to my money belt as advised by someone earlier on my travels. For the most part of the journey I was reading up my $3 Lonely Planet Vietnam guide, and taking notes and planning a route for my walk through the city. I'm going to ad-lib slightly the given walking tour, which takes approximately 7 hours! and is about 3km. (With stops in various museums on the way).
I got off the bus and gathered myself up. A man offered me a moto for 20,000, although later charged me 40,000 (pfh!). I hadn't really thought about the practicalities when I said yes, as I had my huge rucksack as well as my small day rucksack, but thanfully I managed to balance okay on the moto. Most people wear helmets too, unlike in Cambodia. There are some quite cool designs too, and I'm pretty sure I saw them being sold on the side of the road for only one pound!! Bargain!! We went via a ATM, the first one didn't work, but thankfully the next one did. I was a bit nervous when withdrawing money as I wasn't 100% sure I'd remembered the exhange rate correctly. I arrived at the backpacker district, where I was almost guaranteed to find accomodation. I'd aimed to go to a couple of places I'd read about in my guidebook, but they seemed to be non-existant! Random people offered me accomodation which I turned down as I was a bit afraid of walking far and then being ripped off, so a few doors down, I noticed a Room for Rent sign which had a friendly looking lady in the front room. I enquired about the room and at only $5 I decided I'd have a look. It was a couple of floors up, and there was no rats, cockroaches or obvious signs of weirdness to the place, so I decided to take it! I was sweating profusely, yet again! The room had seemed quite a reasonable temperature when I first arrived so I was a bit confused as to why I was still dripping!
It was around half two by this point, and having only eaten three bourbons during the day I decided I really needed to find something to eat. On leaving I noticed that my accomodation had a small puppy, who looked adorable, but was a bit scared of me, although the puppy hiding behind him (his brother) was a lot friendlier! I think I might dog-nap him on my way out! I popped into a small shop, and bought some juice, and enquired about cheap places to eat. I also noted that one of their brands of water was called Joy!! I wanted to take a photo but thought they might think I was a little insane, so I decided against it! Lucky for me, two doors away, was a small vegetarian restaurant which served many variations of tofu! I chose a duck/chicken tofu with rice noodles in a sort of soup! It was very tasty, although I couldn't manage all of it! I struggled at first to eat it with the chopsticks, and after watching me 'play' with my food for a while, the girl waitress suggested I used the spoon-like instrument, as found in Wagamamma's. I think I maybe should have been in training for a while first before coming here!! The meal was a bargain too! Even with a drink it only cost just over a pound!! I couldn't believe it!!
The streets are filled with people selling books, probably photocopies, and also motos for hire; I am sooo tempted!! and I could even buy a stylish helmet to go with it...
I was struggling to cross a road, doing my best not to die! and a moto driver approached me trying to sell me a tour. I told him I just arrived and wanted to chill out for a bit first and do a bit of reading, and so he held my hand and guided me across the street! I think it would be quite useful to hire someone just to help me across the roads to be honest!!
I sat in a park, which is more of a piece of land for people to sit, inbetween the dual carridge-way, although much more spaced out and peaceful than it sounds! I started reading my guidebook again, working out which way I needed to head. I was a bit disturbed by a women a few seats away who was peacefully reading a book, and enjoying the weather like I was, apart from ever 20 seconds, she would clear her throat and make mucus loosening sounds and then spit on the ground, it was rather unpleasant.
I didn't get very far on my walk before I stood up, a man introduced himself and said he was studying English, a common ploy in attempt to mug me I was sure. After a conversation about Vietnam and various other things, I said I was going to head off and go for a walk. We said goodbye, and I was no less well off! Yay!!
I did a bit of scouting for tickets to Cu Chi tunnels, and a half day trip was costing $5 and a full day with visiting a religious centre too, cost $7. These prices are $3 more than listed in the guidebook, but I checked out several places and they all seem to be the same, so I guess inflation must have affected things.
I walked a little further along the park, and came across some kind of festival. There was people dressed up in animal costumes and acting out some sort of play, lots of tables and chairs where children could play with various toys and creative crafts, there was a huge stage which had a poster beside it describing what would be happening over the next few days. There was also a stall selling various stationary and books, and Vietnamese jewellery and crafts; there was a display of paintings by youngsters too. There was a join-in group of people doing some sort of relaxation martial art/exercise class, and also a badminton court, it was a pretty cool show!!
I was enjoying the sights, and got waved at by a couple of local girls who were playing with clay, making little objects. We got into conversation and had quite a nice chat. It was so random!! I felt more like one of them than I did a white, as they were so friendly! I created a hammerhead shark, a gecko and a mouse! We were trying to teach each other our languages which was quite fun! They were aged 31 and 24. Another boy joined us who was in his early 20s, he is due to graduate this year with a law degree. He was telling me about their education system, and it costs $150 a year for university!! I didn't mention how much it cost in the UK! Another lady, who I don't think spoke much English, was asking me a few things, and asked about where I was staying and how much, and she wondered if $5 was expensive! It just shows how expensive things are to people here!
I said I must continue walking as I want to see more things, but I agreed to meet one of the girls the following day so we could teach each other more things!
It started to get dark as I was eyeing up some crafts on a lady's stall, and then the heavens opened!! The lady was doing a good job of selling them, and just as I'd decided what to buy, they had to cover up the stalls due to the rain. She invited me under the cover to keep dry which was really kind of her, but after quite a while I gave up with waiting for the rain to stop, so I said I'd be back the following day, and thanked her for her kindness. I got completely soaked on the way out, and escaped into a coffee shop which was only a couple of doors away from my accomodation. I noticed it had internet, which was what attracted me, but thankfully the coffee wasn't too expensive either, although drinks seem to cost the same as some meals here, so it's best not to drink too excessively in public places! I enjoyed a coffee, and then to take advantage of the internet I bought a smoothie too, which was also delicious! The rain seemed to have calmed a little by 9pm, so I decided to head back to my accomodation.
I woke to the sound of music, which entertained me in my dreams for a while, before the sound of repetitive knocking broke my daze into consciousness, when I suddenly realised that I'd slept in by 40 minutes and only had ten minutes until I was supposed to be catching the tuk tuk! I opened the door, to my 14 year old tuk tuk driver, who looked like he'd just fallen out of bed himself; lucky for him I'd thrown on my nighty during the night!! as I was in no state myself to have realised otherwise!!
I threw on my clothes and managed to get the tuk tuk in time. The boy seemed to be beeping his horn more than most, even when there was no other cars or drivers on the road! He went over some tretcherious pot holes and I thought he was going to break the poor vehicle.
We arrived at the Central Market in good time, 10 minutes before I was due to be at the bus terminal; and after studying the map a while, I headed off in the wrong direction! and subsequently went in circles until I decided I was going to head to the wrong bus terminal!! My brain eventually turned on at around 6.20am, and after a quick sprint with rucksack on my back, and mini rucksack on my front, I arrived just in the nick of time before the bus was due to leave at half past. I'd past a rather rabbid looking dog, with blood shot eyes, on my journey; poor thing was probably just ill with some curable disease, poor wee thing. Of course, it didn't actually get set off until 7, and I was now dripping in sweat!! I had to hand in my passport, which made me rather nervous, as they dealt with all the border crossings, and I checked they'd put my rucksack (or flung would maybe be a better way to describe it!) into the bottom of the bus.
The bus was packed mainly full of locals, or at least Asians, I was the only white! The man beside me clicked his fingers which was a bit disgusting but thankfully he didn't do it for the whole journey! There was a tv, a rather cool one! which was playing some kind of comedy. There was a Johnny Depp look-a-like (sort of) in a woman's dress, who looked strangely attractive! I had no idea why it was so funny, but the audience kept on laughing! I was a bit annoyed that I hadn't stopped on the way to get some food (although obviously, if the bus had actually set off on time I would have missed it!), as I'd only got some biscuits from London in my bag! (indeed I resisted them for over a week!! Miracle!) and we got a complementary bottle of water too, which was nice and cool.
We passed various curious things; various green uniforms brushing the street and cleaning; a school with many rows of immaculately dressed school children all chanting something or other; and someone selling avocados.
On the back of a truck with building materials, there were a couple of boys, aged 14-15 or so who looked like they were in some sort of lovers hold, although they were probably just cuddling incase they fell off. It was quite adorable!!
There was a TELF centre for 3-4 year olds; various gardening shops selling cactii; a truck full of ducks; very posh looking tabole and chairs set with very smooth, beautiful wood; and crazily enough, statues of kangaroos!!
The land was very flat, and we passed over a few small rivers. There were houses on stilts which looked rather unsafe, although I'm sure they were perfectly safe and well-made!
A few hours into the journey we had to cross a rather large river, so we boarded onto a boat in our bus, and lots of motorbikes piled on, squeezing in between the larger vehicles. A boy was selling some sort of eggs; small and patterned, although I'm unsure what type they were. On reaching the other side of the river a small boy sitting in front of his mum's push-bike, waved at me, they were both smiling, so I smiled and waved back! They were so adorable!! I can tell why celebrities want to adopt kids from abroad, they are so friendly and lovely!! (no offence!!)
Along the streets someone was selling some sort of weird fruit that resembled the spout of a watering can! Also one of the towns had quite a few horses in it, some pulling carts etc.
We stopped for a short break, where most people got out, and started urinating almost side by side along the road!! It was a bit crazy, considering the bus had almost 40 people on it!
We passed through Ba Vet, and stopped at a cafe, but I was a bit anxious about going to the toilet incase the bus drove off without me. We eventually got to the border shortly after 11. It was extremely confusing, as I didn't know whether I needed my passport or whether it would all be done for me. I didn't know which forms I needed etc! I was stamped out of Cambodia, and before getting stamped into Vietnam, a man with a mask came on board and I handed in a health declaration form (which I'd lied on, as there was no way I was going to admit my swollen glands, cough, cold...! to be honest, who would?!) He stuck a thermometer in my ear, and I passed with flying colours!; and I hadn't taken an anti-pyretic for good luck beforehand unlike previously!!
Eventually after being pointed into various directions and asking various people for help I made it through the border! Yay!! On entering Vietnam we passed various "Massage" centres, which were a bit out of the way, and seemed to suggest they were more prostitution centres! There were so many people wearing the famous straw cone shaped hat! There was a rather funky house on the side of one of the river which looked incredibly peaceful; I was eyeing them up for when I move out here officially!
We passed through Cu Chi, which I correctly assumed was where the Cu Chi tunnels were; and an hour or so later we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City. I'd just been dosing for the last leg of the journey, with my legs clamped around my bag and my arms firmly attached to my money belt as advised by someone earlier on my travels. For the most part of the journey I was reading up my $3 Lonely Planet Vietnam guide, and taking notes and planning a route for my walk through the city. I'm going to ad-lib slightly the given walking tour, which takes approximately 7 hours! and is about 3km. (With stops in various museums on the way).
I got off the bus and gathered myself up. A man offered me a moto for 20,000, although later charged me 40,000 (pfh!). I hadn't really thought about the practicalities when I said yes, as I had my huge rucksack as well as my small day rucksack, but thanfully I managed to balance okay on the moto. Most people wear helmets too, unlike in Cambodia. There are some quite cool designs too, and I'm pretty sure I saw them being sold on the side of the road for only one pound!! Bargain!! We went via a ATM, the first one didn't work, but thankfully the next one did. I was a bit nervous when withdrawing money as I wasn't 100% sure I'd remembered the exhange rate correctly. I arrived at the backpacker district, where I was almost guaranteed to find accomodation. I'd aimed to go to a couple of places I'd read about in my guidebook, but they seemed to be non-existant! Random people offered me accomodation which I turned down as I was a bit afraid of walking far and then being ripped off, so a few doors down, I noticed a Room for Rent sign which had a friendly looking lady in the front room. I enquired about the room and at only $5 I decided I'd have a look. It was a couple of floors up, and there was no rats, cockroaches or obvious signs of weirdness to the place, so I decided to take it! I was sweating profusely, yet again! The room had seemed quite a reasonable temperature when I first arrived so I was a bit confused as to why I was still dripping!
It was around half two by this point, and having only eaten three bourbons during the day I decided I really needed to find something to eat. On leaving I noticed that my accomodation had a small puppy, who looked adorable, but was a bit scared of me, although the puppy hiding behind him (his brother) was a lot friendlier! I think I might dog-nap him on my way out! I popped into a small shop, and bought some juice, and enquired about cheap places to eat. I also noted that one of their brands of water was called Joy!! I wanted to take a photo but thought they might think I was a little insane, so I decided against it! Lucky for me, two doors away, was a small vegetarian restaurant which served many variations of tofu! I chose a duck/chicken tofu with rice noodles in a sort of soup! It was very tasty, although I couldn't manage all of it! I struggled at first to eat it with the chopsticks, and after watching me 'play' with my food for a while, the girl waitress suggested I used the spoon-like instrument, as found in Wagamamma's. I think I maybe should have been in training for a while first before coming here!! The meal was a bargain too! Even with a drink it only cost just over a pound!! I couldn't believe it!!
The streets are filled with people selling books, probably photocopies, and also motos for hire; I am sooo tempted!! and I could even buy a stylish helmet to go with it...
I was struggling to cross a road, doing my best not to die! and a moto driver approached me trying to sell me a tour. I told him I just arrived and wanted to chill out for a bit first and do a bit of reading, and so he held my hand and guided me across the street! I think it would be quite useful to hire someone just to help me across the roads to be honest!!
I sat in a park, which is more of a piece of land for people to sit, inbetween the dual carridge-way, although much more spaced out and peaceful than it sounds! I started reading my guidebook again, working out which way I needed to head. I was a bit disturbed by a women a few seats away who was peacefully reading a book, and enjoying the weather like I was, apart from ever 20 seconds, she would clear her throat and make mucus loosening sounds and then spit on the ground, it was rather unpleasant.
I didn't get very far on my walk before I stood up, a man introduced himself and said he was studying English, a common ploy in attempt to mug me I was sure. After a conversation about Vietnam and various other things, I said I was going to head off and go for a walk. We said goodbye, and I was no less well off! Yay!!
I did a bit of scouting for tickets to Cu Chi tunnels, and a half day trip was costing $5 and a full day with visiting a religious centre too, cost $7. These prices are $3 more than listed in the guidebook, but I checked out several places and they all seem to be the same, so I guess inflation must have affected things.
I walked a little further along the park, and came across some kind of festival. There was people dressed up in animal costumes and acting out some sort of play, lots of tables and chairs where children could play with various toys and creative crafts, there was a huge stage which had a poster beside it describing what would be happening over the next few days. There was also a stall selling various stationary and books, and Vietnamese jewellery and crafts; there was a display of paintings by youngsters too. There was a join-in group of people doing some sort of relaxation martial art/exercise class, and also a badminton court, it was a pretty cool show!!
I was enjoying the sights, and got waved at by a couple of local girls who were playing with clay, making little objects. We got into conversation and had quite a nice chat. It was so random!! I felt more like one of them than I did a white, as they were so friendly! I created a hammerhead shark, a gecko and a mouse! We were trying to teach each other our languages which was quite fun! They were aged 31 and 24. Another boy joined us who was in his early 20s, he is due to graduate this year with a law degree. He was telling me about their education system, and it costs $150 a year for university!! I didn't mention how much it cost in the UK! Another lady, who I don't think spoke much English, was asking me a few things, and asked about where I was staying and how much, and she wondered if $5 was expensive! It just shows how expensive things are to people here!
I said I must continue walking as I want to see more things, but I agreed to meet one of the girls the following day so we could teach each other more things!
It started to get dark as I was eyeing up some crafts on a lady's stall, and then the heavens opened!! The lady was doing a good job of selling them, and just as I'd decided what to buy, they had to cover up the stalls due to the rain. She invited me under the cover to keep dry which was really kind of her, but after quite a while I gave up with waiting for the rain to stop, so I said I'd be back the following day, and thanked her for her kindness. I got completely soaked on the way out, and escaped into a coffee shop which was only a couple of doors away from my accomodation. I noticed it had internet, which was what attracted me, but thankfully the coffee wasn't too expensive either, although drinks seem to cost the same as some meals here, so it's best not to drink too excessively in public places! I enjoyed a coffee, and then to take advantage of the internet I bought a smoothie too, which was also delicious! The rain seemed to have calmed a little by 9pm, so I decided to head back to my accomodation.
Thursday 25 June 2009
Phnom Penh - 25th June 2009
I had a bit of a lie in this morning, until half 7. When I g0t up I realised my door was slightly ajar which worried me slightly as I was sure I had locked it on going to bed. What was even more worrying was that yet again I'd slept in the nude! On getting ready to go downstairs for breakfast I searched for my key, only to find I'd stupidly left it in the door on the outside. Thankfully all my belongings were still present; a lucky escape, although I'm pretty sure someone will be looking at me strangely in the hostel as I'm sure someone must have opened the door, and has no doubt seen me naked! Brilliant!! Oh well! Another mistake to learn from!
I had the seasame french bread for breakfast, and a huge bottle of water.
The previous night I had enquired about going to the killing fields, but they needed a decent amount of people to go and unfortunatly there wasn't, so instead I went by tuk tuk which cost slightly more; $8 (plus a tip!)
It was still good, and being in a tuk tuk allowed me to take more photos and see more things of interest I think. I felt a bit like royalty as they look rather like a carridge; it reminded me of Lucy's "Queen's wave'' when I had previously mentioned it!
We passed various curious sights, such as an ox-carridge; a boy of aroudn 10 on an adults female bike, which he seemed to struggle to ride!; there were some posh houses with huge gates, I'm not sure who would have lived there; and huge trenches had been digged beside the road, like a moat but with long sticks making a bridge to the houses. There was kids as young as 14 riding motos which I found rather scary!
In the town we passed stalls solely selling durians. For most of the journey the tuk tuk driver had his hand on his horn and was beeping away furiously! Bikes and cars were doing the same, it was quite a racket! I got a fright a couple of times when a huge lorry overtook us and sounded their fog-horn like horn!
There were a few rice fields on the way too. A boy I passed was wearing a playboy t-shirt! And randomly a little girl waved to me and shouted hello! She was so cute!! and only about 6 or 7. Bless her!
It was $3 to enter the Killing Fields. A japanese company privatised the place which was a bit of a shame as they're making money out of Cambodia's tragedy. The wasn't much to see; I looked around in about 45 minutes, although it was all very interesting and it brought home the suffering of those who had been masacred. There was a tower full of skulls inside a memorial. There were so many of them. The were mass graves, some full of around 450 people; others were of women and children. Many people had been murdered by extremely brutal methods to save on bullets. There was a tree which was used for beating children against, and another tree which they hung a radio up, so as to drown out the noise of the victims screams of agony. It was a very peaceful area and was a good place to do some reflecting. It really brings to life films depicting such violence.
When I'd finished, I went to my tuk tuk, where the driver was sleeping in the back! I didn't really want to wake him, so one of the other tuk tuk drivers shouted to him! There was a begger minus a leg outside but I managed to shake him off. Further down the road I saw a few kids playing in the rubble. I heard some chanting which was coming from a school, I'm not sure what they were learning. There were quite a few huts made out of twigs which looked rather cool, and some were used as garages. I also passed a President Foods factory. A boy who seemed to be weighing rubbish or recycling of some sort was stood on a set of scales, like a larger version of kitchen scales, weighing himself. There was a really gorgeous, healthy looking dog jogging down the street as well.
I got dropped off at the Guesthouse and then set off towards the Chruoy Changvar Bridge which was featured in 'The Killing Fields' and was destroyed by fighting in 1975, and then funded by the Japs it was repaired in 1993.
On the way I passed a pet shop, selling pet-fish in milk bottles, quite a few were dead which wasn't to good, plus they were out in the light, so it as pretty much boiled fish. There were also baby bunnies; dutch and other breeds, as well as Russian hamsters.
I was passed by various motos, some with people carrying huge pipes which looked rather dangerous; someone had about 40 dead chickens hanging upside down by their legs; another had so many packages on it that I have no idea how they fitted a person at the very back of the moto, it looked as if the driver had reversed into her and gone 'splat'! It was quite entertaining seeing how much people could fit onto one moto!
I got to the point along the Tonle Sap where I could see the bridge. I was in the sunlight and I was getting pretty exhausted and decided that just seeing the bridge from a distance was good enough for me, so I headed to the nearest cafe and had an iced black coffee, which wasn't as wonderful as those with soya milk, but it came with a glass of cold water, so by the end I was feeling quite refreshed. I read my book for a while to which was very relaxing!
On exiting, I was shouted at by a tuk-tuk driver, who said he recognised me from yesterday! I thought he was pulling my leg, although he did look familiar, although they do look rather the same! I was in conversation with him and one of his fellow drivers, who asked me where I was staying (usually they then offer to take me there), and my friendly tuk-tuk had remembered from yesterday that I was at the Sunday Guesthouse! I was really chuffed!! He was the one that was single and lived with a friend a couple of km from Phnom Penh. I seemed to be indirectly chatting him up by having asked him the previous day about his relationship status, and then today asking him, on arrival at the Russian Market, for his name (for which he also provided a phone number incase I needed his services in future!) It was really random him recognising me! Although I suppose whites stick out like a sore thumb here! (His name was Mr Daroth for reference)!
We went via a bookstore, but it was quite expensive, so I thought I'd just try and find a book at the Russian Market instead. The Russian Market (aka. Psar Tuol Tom Pong), named so as that is where the Russians shopped was huge; full of shops selling clothes from Billabong, Colombia, and Banana Republic, which are all made in Cambodia. I managed to resist buying clothes, although I did fall for a boy of around 12 who spoke very good English and sold me a book based on someone's experiences of the Khmer Rouge, and also a booklet of some paintings to be used as postcards; costing $8 in total. There was a young girl nearby when I was buying from him, and she started following me around, and trying to guilt trip me into buying things; she had such a sad face on and she followed me for about 5 minutes, just fanning me with the postcards; I didn't particularly want to buy any more postcards though! I bought some DVDs which were obviously copies, but they were very cheap; I just hope they work on my laptop, I think it should accept all areas! I bought 4 for $7. I regretfully went into the food section, where I was close to being sick due to the smell, it was awful! I left there as soon as possible, apart from purchasing a lychee drink. I'm not sure why, but the lady poured the can into a plastic bag, filled it up with ice, tied a knot in the top and added a straw!! What a weird way to drink something!!!It was very tasty none the less! I bought a few purses for people as presents, which were rather sweet, before continuing on to another touristy shop. The girl was very friendly and I fell in love with a chess set! I managed to barter down the price a bit, paying $25 for it. The girl was 17, originally from Battambang, and has been in Phnom Penh for 2 years, she'll be going to university next year to study tourism. She was really lovely and after my purchase she gave me a small dragonfly which balances itself on my finger! It was rather cool. I continued looking in the shop, and came across a fan which turns into a hat!! Pretty amazing!! I''ll look a bit crazy wearing it, but it could come in handy! I gave her $5 for it, which is possibly a bit much, but she was a really nice person!! On my way out I was hit by the heat so stopped for a drink; one of the fellow customers invited me to sit down. He was rather old, but had a really sweet face, like a traditional old man look about him! I read my book for a while, before braving the heat again!
I had a few close shaves with the traffic on the way back; I swear waiting on the side of the road must make people delirious especially as you have to shake your head to all the tuk-tuks and motos that pass offering a lift, it makes you want to just run across the road just to get out of the heat and away from the offers!
I popped into an internet cafe on the way back, and it took absolutely ages to load my emails, it got rather frustrating! Ít was pretty cheap though, and the keyboard worked fine which was a relief, and after 5 minutes it sped up a bit! Not bad for 1500 riel an hour! (about 25p!)
Next to me was a boy, no more than 12 years of age, who was looking at porn!! That shocked me a bit, especially as it was in a public place, and it was quite graffic stuff! I think he caught me looking (to see if he was still looking at it!) as he switched over onto something else! I was sat under a fan which was rather nice, although as it was getting to half 5, I was a bit worried about getting back before dark.
I made it back okay, just as torrential rain fell! I stripped off and went out to see how epic the rain was, and there was an american lady sitting reading. We got into conversation, and she invited me out for a meal along with two Scots she had met on her flight out. I had planned on having a one dollar dinner to keep it cheap, but for the sake of company and experience, I decided to join them! By 7pm it had stopped raining and we headed out in a tuk-tuk to the Friends restaurant. It employs and trains street children to be chiefs, waiters etc, and it's profits go to help them. On the way, we passed through rivers! which had once been the roads! It was so hilarious! I thought we were going to get stuck, or the tuk tuk was going to break down or something! It was fun watching the motos follow us. Unfortunatly a car passed us, and completely splashed us! It was a good experience though and I'm glad I'd gone out with them as it was certainly an experience!!
We arrived at the restaurant, where there were very smartly dressed young people. It was amazing to think that they used to live on the streets, and it's hard to place current youngsters I'd met as being street children. I'm not sure how people actually know that they are officially street children.
The menu was a tapas; and even for the vegetarians and vegans there was a good choice! I settled (after quite a while of deliberating), on sweet potato chips (unoriginal I know!) and tofu and vegetables in a delicious sauce. It tasted amazing! I had a tasty smoothie too to top it off. Unfortunatly, or rather fortunatly for my wallet, there were no vegan desserts! So I settled with the $7 meal, plus a bit of a tip.
I organised a tuk tuk to take me around to where the bus was going to be leaving to take me to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City, in the morning. They would drop me at the Central Market, which is quite close by, as the driver was new (and looked about 14!!) and so wasn't too good on the geography of Phnom Penh as yet! It was $2, and with a tip, it made the bus journey come to as much as a minibus straight from my hostel would have cost!! Typical!
I had the seasame french bread for breakfast, and a huge bottle of water.
The previous night I had enquired about going to the killing fields, but they needed a decent amount of people to go and unfortunatly there wasn't, so instead I went by tuk tuk which cost slightly more; $8 (plus a tip!)
It was still good, and being in a tuk tuk allowed me to take more photos and see more things of interest I think. I felt a bit like royalty as they look rather like a carridge; it reminded me of Lucy's "Queen's wave'' when I had previously mentioned it!
We passed various curious sights, such as an ox-carridge; a boy of aroudn 10 on an adults female bike, which he seemed to struggle to ride!; there were some posh houses with huge gates, I'm not sure who would have lived there; and huge trenches had been digged beside the road, like a moat but with long sticks making a bridge to the houses. There was kids as young as 14 riding motos which I found rather scary!
In the town we passed stalls solely selling durians. For most of the journey the tuk tuk driver had his hand on his horn and was beeping away furiously! Bikes and cars were doing the same, it was quite a racket! I got a fright a couple of times when a huge lorry overtook us and sounded their fog-horn like horn!
There were a few rice fields on the way too. A boy I passed was wearing a playboy t-shirt! And randomly a little girl waved to me and shouted hello! She was so cute!! and only about 6 or 7. Bless her!
It was $3 to enter the Killing Fields. A japanese company privatised the place which was a bit of a shame as they're making money out of Cambodia's tragedy. The wasn't much to see; I looked around in about 45 minutes, although it was all very interesting and it brought home the suffering of those who had been masacred. There was a tower full of skulls inside a memorial. There were so many of them. The were mass graves, some full of around 450 people; others were of women and children. Many people had been murdered by extremely brutal methods to save on bullets. There was a tree which was used for beating children against, and another tree which they hung a radio up, so as to drown out the noise of the victims screams of agony. It was a very peaceful area and was a good place to do some reflecting. It really brings to life films depicting such violence.
When I'd finished, I went to my tuk tuk, where the driver was sleeping in the back! I didn't really want to wake him, so one of the other tuk tuk drivers shouted to him! There was a begger minus a leg outside but I managed to shake him off. Further down the road I saw a few kids playing in the rubble. I heard some chanting which was coming from a school, I'm not sure what they were learning. There were quite a few huts made out of twigs which looked rather cool, and some were used as garages. I also passed a President Foods factory. A boy who seemed to be weighing rubbish or recycling of some sort was stood on a set of scales, like a larger version of kitchen scales, weighing himself. There was a really gorgeous, healthy looking dog jogging down the street as well.
I got dropped off at the Guesthouse and then set off towards the Chruoy Changvar Bridge which was featured in 'The Killing Fields' and was destroyed by fighting in 1975, and then funded by the Japs it was repaired in 1993.
On the way I passed a pet shop, selling pet-fish in milk bottles, quite a few were dead which wasn't to good, plus they were out in the light, so it as pretty much boiled fish. There were also baby bunnies; dutch and other breeds, as well as Russian hamsters.
I was passed by various motos, some with people carrying huge pipes which looked rather dangerous; someone had about 40 dead chickens hanging upside down by their legs; another had so many packages on it that I have no idea how they fitted a person at the very back of the moto, it looked as if the driver had reversed into her and gone 'splat'! It was quite entertaining seeing how much people could fit onto one moto!
I got to the point along the Tonle Sap where I could see the bridge. I was in the sunlight and I was getting pretty exhausted and decided that just seeing the bridge from a distance was good enough for me, so I headed to the nearest cafe and had an iced black coffee, which wasn't as wonderful as those with soya milk, but it came with a glass of cold water, so by the end I was feeling quite refreshed. I read my book for a while to which was very relaxing!
On exiting, I was shouted at by a tuk-tuk driver, who said he recognised me from yesterday! I thought he was pulling my leg, although he did look familiar, although they do look rather the same! I was in conversation with him and one of his fellow drivers, who asked me where I was staying (usually they then offer to take me there), and my friendly tuk-tuk had remembered from yesterday that I was at the Sunday Guesthouse! I was really chuffed!! He was the one that was single and lived with a friend a couple of km from Phnom Penh. I seemed to be indirectly chatting him up by having asked him the previous day about his relationship status, and then today asking him, on arrival at the Russian Market, for his name (for which he also provided a phone number incase I needed his services in future!) It was really random him recognising me! Although I suppose whites stick out like a sore thumb here! (His name was Mr Daroth for reference)!
We went via a bookstore, but it was quite expensive, so I thought I'd just try and find a book at the Russian Market instead. The Russian Market (aka. Psar Tuol Tom Pong), named so as that is where the Russians shopped was huge; full of shops selling clothes from Billabong, Colombia, and Banana Republic, which are all made in Cambodia. I managed to resist buying clothes, although I did fall for a boy of around 12 who spoke very good English and sold me a book based on someone's experiences of the Khmer Rouge, and also a booklet of some paintings to be used as postcards; costing $8 in total. There was a young girl nearby when I was buying from him, and she started following me around, and trying to guilt trip me into buying things; she had such a sad face on and she followed me for about 5 minutes, just fanning me with the postcards; I didn't particularly want to buy any more postcards though! I bought some DVDs which were obviously copies, but they were very cheap; I just hope they work on my laptop, I think it should accept all areas! I bought 4 for $7. I regretfully went into the food section, where I was close to being sick due to the smell, it was awful! I left there as soon as possible, apart from purchasing a lychee drink. I'm not sure why, but the lady poured the can into a plastic bag, filled it up with ice, tied a knot in the top and added a straw!! What a weird way to drink something!!!It was very tasty none the less! I bought a few purses for people as presents, which were rather sweet, before continuing on to another touristy shop. The girl was very friendly and I fell in love with a chess set! I managed to barter down the price a bit, paying $25 for it. The girl was 17, originally from Battambang, and has been in Phnom Penh for 2 years, she'll be going to university next year to study tourism. She was really lovely and after my purchase she gave me a small dragonfly which balances itself on my finger! It was rather cool. I continued looking in the shop, and came across a fan which turns into a hat!! Pretty amazing!! I''ll look a bit crazy wearing it, but it could come in handy! I gave her $5 for it, which is possibly a bit much, but she was a really nice person!! On my way out I was hit by the heat so stopped for a drink; one of the fellow customers invited me to sit down. He was rather old, but had a really sweet face, like a traditional old man look about him! I read my book for a while, before braving the heat again!
I had a few close shaves with the traffic on the way back; I swear waiting on the side of the road must make people delirious especially as you have to shake your head to all the tuk-tuks and motos that pass offering a lift, it makes you want to just run across the road just to get out of the heat and away from the offers!
I popped into an internet cafe on the way back, and it took absolutely ages to load my emails, it got rather frustrating! Ít was pretty cheap though, and the keyboard worked fine which was a relief, and after 5 minutes it sped up a bit! Not bad for 1500 riel an hour! (about 25p!)
Next to me was a boy, no more than 12 years of age, who was looking at porn!! That shocked me a bit, especially as it was in a public place, and it was quite graffic stuff! I think he caught me looking (to see if he was still looking at it!) as he switched over onto something else! I was sat under a fan which was rather nice, although as it was getting to half 5, I was a bit worried about getting back before dark.
I made it back okay, just as torrential rain fell! I stripped off and went out to see how epic the rain was, and there was an american lady sitting reading. We got into conversation, and she invited me out for a meal along with two Scots she had met on her flight out. I had planned on having a one dollar dinner to keep it cheap, but for the sake of company and experience, I decided to join them! By 7pm it had stopped raining and we headed out in a tuk-tuk to the Friends restaurant. It employs and trains street children to be chiefs, waiters etc, and it's profits go to help them. On the way, we passed through rivers! which had once been the roads! It was so hilarious! I thought we were going to get stuck, or the tuk tuk was going to break down or something! It was fun watching the motos follow us. Unfortunatly a car passed us, and completely splashed us! It was a good experience though and I'm glad I'd gone out with them as it was certainly an experience!!
We arrived at the restaurant, where there were very smartly dressed young people. It was amazing to think that they used to live on the streets, and it's hard to place current youngsters I'd met as being street children. I'm not sure how people actually know that they are officially street children.
The menu was a tapas; and even for the vegetarians and vegans there was a good choice! I settled (after quite a while of deliberating), on sweet potato chips (unoriginal I know!) and tofu and vegetables in a delicious sauce. It tasted amazing! I had a tasty smoothie too to top it off. Unfortunatly, or rather fortunatly for my wallet, there were no vegan desserts! So I settled with the $7 meal, plus a bit of a tip.
I organised a tuk tuk to take me around to where the bus was going to be leaving to take me to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City, in the morning. They would drop me at the Central Market, which is quite close by, as the driver was new (and looked about 14!!) and so wasn't too good on the geography of Phnom Penh as yet! It was $2, and with a tip, it made the bus journey come to as much as a minibus straight from my hostel would have cost!! Typical!
Wednesday 24 June 2009
Phnom Penh - 24th June 2009
Today was a really early morning; 6am! I wanted to see Lucy and Robbie off, and they planned on a 6.30am breakfast and to have left by 7.45am when there bus arrived. By 7am it was already 34 degrees! Which is an incredible heat; I was a bit nervous about what was yet to come. Breakfast was tasty! A sesame bagette with pineapple jam!
It was time for Lucy and Robbie to go, so we hugged goodbye, and I left shortly after, on a moto! I wasn't offered a helmet, which was the only thing making me feel nervous, as I felt completely safe otherwise! It was $2 which is a bit high to be honest, but it was enjoyable, so I didn't bother bartering although if I use motos in the future I think I'll make a bit more effort! He wasn't travelling at ludicrous speeds, or dodging in and out of traffic so I was feeling pretty confident that I wasn't going to get squished on this particular journey!
I was dropped off at Wat Phnom, as requested. I then immediately felt a bit like Lara Croft! I have no idea why! I think it may have been to do with my clothing, having my camera in my combat style trouser's pocket, ready to whip out when needed! There weren't any other whites around and I felt a bit on edge incase of people pouncing on me for money etc, but it wasn't as bad as the guidebooks made out. The Wat itself was trivial, what made it special was the crazy roundabout around it, and all the character of the surrounding area; an elephant was ready for people to ride around the Wat on; she looked pretty content and was being fed bananas! I walked upwards towards the Wat, which was painted beautifully inside. To my surprise, within the space of about 3 metres, I saw a kitten, a dog, and a monkey!! The monkey happened to be scratching her rear end and then proceeding to sniff her fingers; which was curious to watch!! The area had lots of trees and a few small open buildings around. I sat down on one of many stone benches, as I felt I needed to write down all the things that had amazed me, as I was sure I would forget!
There were lots of merchants trying to sell things, and only a small girl approached me trying to sell me water, unfortunatly I already had a lot in my bag, so wasn't in need of any, although it was nice talking to her, she spoke quite good English.
There were three monkeys around by then; two of which started to have sex in various positions! (that was entertaining!!) One of them was trying to open some type of food which looked really clever, and an even cleverer one approached a unsuspecting victim who was carrying a plastic bag, and then ripped it open and stole out of it various things, including the lady's lunch!! She managed to get her water and a few other things back fortunatly for her!
The son of one of the merchants, around the age of 2 or 3 was playing in a cardboard box, and looked like he was having a whale of a time! He looked just like a kitten!
On leaving the temple, I had quite a few people shouting at me ''moto... moto'' in the hope I'd want transport somewhere. I felt quite proud in saying that I was going to walk! It took me a while to cross the very busy roundabout; dodging all the motos, cars, and tuk-tuks!
I walked down a big main road and heard a crash; at first I thought some kind of bomb had gone off, but thankfully it was some kind of demolition going on! It spread dust everywhere though!
I smiled to a fellow white lady traveller who smiled back! It was a bit random! It's weird meeting white people!
I next arrived at the Central Market. The first stall I passed was selling maps and books. I bought the lonely planet guide to Vietnam, for only $3!! Bargain! On opening it, I realised it was a photocopy, although the pictures inside and the outside all looked proper, so the only person losing out is the Lonely Planet people! I happened to pay an interest in one of the stalls; ie. I slowed down slightly near it, and so they tried to sell me various things, and as soons as people saw one vender talking to me the rest tried. They called "ma'am... ma'am!" They were like contagious sheep!! I got a bit bored of "no thanks, no thanks...'' repetitively!! I used the tactic of not looking them in the eyes, so they'd leave me alone, which worked, although I did feel a bit unfriendly! It was a bit random people trying to sell me men's shirts... do I look like the sort of person who would buy men's shirts?!
I found a shop selling Winter melon tea; I'm not sure what drew me to it, but I bought some, and amazingly enough, it was the same drink as I'd fallen in love with in Singapore a few years back! I was reunited :-)
There were less desirable things in the market aswell, such as many dead fish, and some alive fish, which confused me a bit, as they were out of water; I thought fish suffocated when they came into contact with air out of water. There were also live chickens in very crampt cages, and dead chickens looking very recently killed and plucked. One stall had separated the various body parts of the chickens into head, neck, feet etc... It freaked me out a bit so I left the area rather swiftly.
There was an old lady begging, but I didn't give her any money as there were too many people who would have just followed suit in asking for money.
I happened to pass a place selling bus tickets to Ho Chi Minh City, so I booked onto one, costing me $9; it leaves at 6.30am, which is a bit crazy... I maybe should have gone for the 11am one, especially as I'll have to leave here about 6am, and get up even earlier!
On my excursion I passed some people who were sorting through rubbish, probably looking for food or things they could sell.
I then reached Street 147; an amazing street! Lots of artwork on sale including signs made from wood and stone with the letters chisled out. I was tempted by quite a few pieces of art, but I found a lovely shop with a very friendly man who was selling a beautiful painting of an old Wat, elephants, and randomly enough rabbits in the foreground!! It was only $12!! A bargain! He had a little girl, named Lida! She was so cute! She said hello and we kept on smiling at each other, conversation couldn't really go any further than that! I really need to learn some more phrases!
I popped into a cafe for a drink, a refreshing pineapple drink in the Ebony cafe where a proportion of it is given to fund charitable parties.
On my way into the National Museum, a boy with pretty good English was trying to sell me and light green, and looked sort of chinese like. There were various stone works with engravings on, which date from the 5th-14th century and tell the history of the Khmer. There was also various burial sites mentioned, and information on DNA, C14 dating and ''modern'' techniques used to find out information. There was weaponry and a wooden carridge for a boat, as well as a Royal Palanquin. The Cambodians created all their buildings from their wealth which they'd aquired from selling fish which surprised me a bit. In the garden it was very peaceful, apart from being packed with whites! There were fish in the ponds and it all looked very pretty.
On leaving, I got a bit harassed by a tuk-tuk driver who followed me for absolutely ages, I lost him eventually when I went away from the road into a park! Beisde the Tonle Sap I noticed a lone girl also being harassed by a tuk-tuk! So with that in common, conversation started and we walked a bit together. She was from Hong Kong and was going home the following day after her weeks of travelling.
I'd headed to the Grand Palace but it was shut until 2pm, which spoilt my plan a bit. I continued with the rest of my walking tour and saw the Cambodia-Vietnam monument, and the Independence Monument. My feet were killing me by then and so rather than popping into a cafe I decided to get a tuk-tuk, which was a complete waste of time! I'd wanted to go to a place where apparently you can book a day's volunteering with bears as part of a sanctury 'free the bears.co.au' but the address we eventually arrived at was more like a house than anything else. It took us long enough to get there as firstly the driver set off in the wrong direction! and so I had to direct him on how to get to the street! and secondly he ran out of petrol and stalled for ages before sending a random person to get petrol for him!! I got him to take me to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. He got lost on his way here too! It was ridiculous!! Even when he stopped and asked for directions he continued in the wrong direction!! I eventually told him that we were near enough and I'd walk the rest of the way! It would have been quicker to walk, although my feet were glad of the rest!
I ad-libbed my way to the entrance, and went down a few back alleyways to get to the entrance. I felt a bit nervous but thankfully didn't get mugged etc! On my way I got my foot stuck down an unexpected drain with no grating on it, and I fell over! Thankfully not breaking my camera which was in my pocket, or getting squished by a moto! There was a really cute little girl playing on a tuk-tuk so I said hello and she said hello back, but as before conversation beyond that was impossible! Down one of the back streets there was a group of local teenage boys, one of whom shouted something to me. I have no idea what he said, but he shyed away when I turned around and walked towards them! I asked them for directions which they gave! It was really weird going back to them after they'd shouted something! I've no idea of what they said was complementary or horrible or whether they'd just called me white, as I'd initially thought.
I also passed a French man, who gave me directions, and then I could see I was close as there were whites everywhere!! Outside a boy, also very cute, and speaking good English, sold me a drink which I was quite thankful for! A begger then approached me, who looked quite terrifying as his face looked like it had been burnt in an acid attack, his eyes had been affected too, and in a skin crawling way I felt a bit scared; I definetly would have been terrified if I'd met him down an alley!!
The museum cost $3 entrance. It looked a bit like several Miller Academy blocks. It had previously been a high school, but when Khmer Rouge attacked, they turned it into a place of torture, death and imprisonment. I felt sick which was a bit strange. There were many torture rooms with beds in; then a block of 1x1.5m cubicles where prisoners were tied up. There was barbed wire along the balcony area so suicidal prisoners couldn't jump. There were photos of many who had been murdered, some pre-torture, others post-torture. There were stories written of what had happened to people, how they got involved in the Khmer Rouge either as a torturer or as a victim, or as a victims relative. There was also a blood-curdling room full of depictions of the torture and interrogation methods; cutting of fingers etc. There was also a room with skulls, some with no descriptions, and others with details of how the person died. It was truely awful.
I was feeling a bit lazy, and so decided to take a moto up to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. On the way, I witnessed a RTA involving a bike crashing into a moto who both very nearly got squished by a huge car!! I was absolutely boiling by this point. I drank quite a bit of water but didn't feel much better, I think I was just quite hungry by this point. I hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast and it was now 3pm. I seemed to be too busy sightseeing to stop, and no cafes had caught my eye especially. Despite costing $6.25, I wasn't that impressed by the RP and SP. It seemed not as amazing as some of the things we'd seen in Bangkok. The outsides looked arty, and so did the insides, lots of Buddhas inside the temples. I seemed to be just going from building to building finding shade and fans!These buildings were kept by the Khmer Rouge so that outsiders couldn't say that they'd destroyed the heart of Cambodia etc. The toilet was good though, worked well and it strangely enough
I then made my way back to the hostel. I seem to find the most interesting things when I'm not going to an exact place and I'm just ad-libbing the route a bit! Firstly I found a shop selling English books, although I resisted the temptation to buy! Then I came across a patchwork shop which mum would have liked! I bought her a wee present from there, and took a picture of a hammock which was quilted, and attached to a metal hammock frame.
Also along the route I found a shop selling small silk geckos, and as Lucy had asked me to keep an eye out for geckos as she collects then I got one. It was quite cute! To my surprise, I then came across a real surprise; The Gecko Collection shop; which sells metal geckos! They are pretty cool! I chose the black one for Lucy, which had a orange robe on it, like a Monk, so it looks more Cambodian than the others. I hope she likes it!
I continued walking and saw quite a cute dog who came up to me, I slowly put out my hand to let her sniff me, but after about a second she did an odd 360 degree turn and I thought she was going to bite me, but then she ran off! She probably did have rabies!
I also passed a school, where lots of children were playing happily, and then I passed a few times, groups of kids on the side of the streets playing with a toy, another group were playing badminton! It was quite nice seeing people relaxing and having fun. It was about 5pm by this time, and the roads were getting pretty hecktick I wasn't sure how much longer it would take me to get back to the hostel. I spotted a cafe which served soya milk, so I thought they might have various other vegan things, although they weren't as versitile as I'd thought. One girl was eyeing me up rather strangely as if she'd seen an alien! I think she must have just thought I was a fussy white. She smiled at the end which made me feel a bit better. I ended up having a iced coffee with soya milk, and then a pizza without the cheese. They were pretty delicious! It cost just over $5 in total. To follow they brought me 4 lychee which were delicious!
Someone passed me in a very stylish pink moto, and later on a couple of nurses were cycling home in their usual nursing outfits with a face mask/surgeons mouth guard on which was rather strange!
I finally made it back to the hostel which I was very relieved about, and it was before dark. I went straight on the internet, and unsurprisingly enough, blogged for around 3 hours!! There was a film on in the background which was set in Cambodia. They have a different film on each night which is quite good, although it can be a bit distracting!
It was time for Lucy and Robbie to go, so we hugged goodbye, and I left shortly after, on a moto! I wasn't offered a helmet, which was the only thing making me feel nervous, as I felt completely safe otherwise! It was $2 which is a bit high to be honest, but it was enjoyable, so I didn't bother bartering although if I use motos in the future I think I'll make a bit more effort! He wasn't travelling at ludicrous speeds, or dodging in and out of traffic so I was feeling pretty confident that I wasn't going to get squished on this particular journey!
I was dropped off at Wat Phnom, as requested. I then immediately felt a bit like Lara Croft! I have no idea why! I think it may have been to do with my clothing, having my camera in my combat style trouser's pocket, ready to whip out when needed! There weren't any other whites around and I felt a bit on edge incase of people pouncing on me for money etc, but it wasn't as bad as the guidebooks made out. The Wat itself was trivial, what made it special was the crazy roundabout around it, and all the character of the surrounding area; an elephant was ready for people to ride around the Wat on; she looked pretty content and was being fed bananas! I walked upwards towards the Wat, which was painted beautifully inside. To my surprise, within the space of about 3 metres, I saw a kitten, a dog, and a monkey!! The monkey happened to be scratching her rear end and then proceeding to sniff her fingers; which was curious to watch!! The area had lots of trees and a few small open buildings around. I sat down on one of many stone benches, as I felt I needed to write down all the things that had amazed me, as I was sure I would forget!
There were lots of merchants trying to sell things, and only a small girl approached me trying to sell me water, unfortunatly I already had a lot in my bag, so wasn't in need of any, although it was nice talking to her, she spoke quite good English.
There were three monkeys around by then; two of which started to have sex in various positions! (that was entertaining!!) One of them was trying to open some type of food which looked really clever, and an even cleverer one approached a unsuspecting victim who was carrying a plastic bag, and then ripped it open and stole out of it various things, including the lady's lunch!! She managed to get her water and a few other things back fortunatly for her!
The son of one of the merchants, around the age of 2 or 3 was playing in a cardboard box, and looked like he was having a whale of a time! He looked just like a kitten!
On leaving the temple, I had quite a few people shouting at me ''moto... moto'' in the hope I'd want transport somewhere. I felt quite proud in saying that I was going to walk! It took me a while to cross the very busy roundabout; dodging all the motos, cars, and tuk-tuks!
I walked down a big main road and heard a crash; at first I thought some kind of bomb had gone off, but thankfully it was some kind of demolition going on! It spread dust everywhere though!
I smiled to a fellow white lady traveller who smiled back! It was a bit random! It's weird meeting white people!
I next arrived at the Central Market. The first stall I passed was selling maps and books. I bought the lonely planet guide to Vietnam, for only $3!! Bargain! On opening it, I realised it was a photocopy, although the pictures inside and the outside all looked proper, so the only person losing out is the Lonely Planet people! I happened to pay an interest in one of the stalls; ie. I slowed down slightly near it, and so they tried to sell me various things, and as soons as people saw one vender talking to me the rest tried. They called "ma'am... ma'am!" They were like contagious sheep!! I got a bit bored of "no thanks, no thanks...'' repetitively!! I used the tactic of not looking them in the eyes, so they'd leave me alone, which worked, although I did feel a bit unfriendly! It was a bit random people trying to sell me men's shirts... do I look like the sort of person who would buy men's shirts?!
I found a shop selling Winter melon tea; I'm not sure what drew me to it, but I bought some, and amazingly enough, it was the same drink as I'd fallen in love with in Singapore a few years back! I was reunited :-)
There were less desirable things in the market aswell, such as many dead fish, and some alive fish, which confused me a bit, as they were out of water; I thought fish suffocated when they came into contact with air out of water. There were also live chickens in very crampt cages, and dead chickens looking very recently killed and plucked. One stall had separated the various body parts of the chickens into head, neck, feet etc... It freaked me out a bit so I left the area rather swiftly.
There was an old lady begging, but I didn't give her any money as there were too many people who would have just followed suit in asking for money.
I happened to pass a place selling bus tickets to Ho Chi Minh City, so I booked onto one, costing me $9; it leaves at 6.30am, which is a bit crazy... I maybe should have gone for the 11am one, especially as I'll have to leave here about 6am, and get up even earlier!
On my excursion I passed some people who were sorting through rubbish, probably looking for food or things they could sell.
I then reached Street 147; an amazing street! Lots of artwork on sale including signs made from wood and stone with the letters chisled out. I was tempted by quite a few pieces of art, but I found a lovely shop with a very friendly man who was selling a beautiful painting of an old Wat, elephants, and randomly enough rabbits in the foreground!! It was only $12!! A bargain! He had a little girl, named Lida! She was so cute! She said hello and we kept on smiling at each other, conversation couldn't really go any further than that! I really need to learn some more phrases!
I popped into a cafe for a drink, a refreshing pineapple drink in the Ebony cafe where a proportion of it is given to fund charitable parties.
On my way into the National Museum, a boy with pretty good English was trying to sell me and light green, and looked sort of chinese like. There were various stone works with engravings on, which date from the 5th-14th century and tell the history of the Khmer. There was also various burial sites mentioned, and information on DNA, C14 dating and ''modern'' techniques used to find out information. There was weaponry and a wooden carridge for a boat, as well as a Royal Palanquin. The Cambodians created all their buildings from their wealth which they'd aquired from selling fish which surprised me a bit. In the garden it was very peaceful, apart from being packed with whites! There were fish in the ponds and it all looked very pretty.
On leaving, I got a bit harassed by a tuk-tuk driver who followed me for absolutely ages, I lost him eventually when I went away from the road into a park! Beisde the Tonle Sap I noticed a lone girl also being harassed by a tuk-tuk! So with that in common, conversation started and we walked a bit together. She was from Hong Kong and was going home the following day after her weeks of travelling.
I'd headed to the Grand Palace but it was shut until 2pm, which spoilt my plan a bit. I continued with the rest of my walking tour and saw the Cambodia-Vietnam monument, and the Independence Monument. My feet were killing me by then and so rather than popping into a cafe I decided to get a tuk-tuk, which was a complete waste of time! I'd wanted to go to a place where apparently you can book a day's volunteering with bears as part of a sanctury 'free the bears.co.au' but the address we eventually arrived at was more like a house than anything else. It took us long enough to get there as firstly the driver set off in the wrong direction! and so I had to direct him on how to get to the street! and secondly he ran out of petrol and stalled for ages before sending a random person to get petrol for him!! I got him to take me to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. He got lost on his way here too! It was ridiculous!! Even when he stopped and asked for directions he continued in the wrong direction!! I eventually told him that we were near enough and I'd walk the rest of the way! It would have been quicker to walk, although my feet were glad of the rest!
I ad-libbed my way to the entrance, and went down a few back alleyways to get to the entrance. I felt a bit nervous but thankfully didn't get mugged etc! On my way I got my foot stuck down an unexpected drain with no grating on it, and I fell over! Thankfully not breaking my camera which was in my pocket, or getting squished by a moto! There was a really cute little girl playing on a tuk-tuk so I said hello and she said hello back, but as before conversation beyond that was impossible! Down one of the back streets there was a group of local teenage boys, one of whom shouted something to me. I have no idea what he said, but he shyed away when I turned around and walked towards them! I asked them for directions which they gave! It was really weird going back to them after they'd shouted something! I've no idea of what they said was complementary or horrible or whether they'd just called me white, as I'd initially thought.
I also passed a French man, who gave me directions, and then I could see I was close as there were whites everywhere!! Outside a boy, also very cute, and speaking good English, sold me a drink which I was quite thankful for! A begger then approached me, who looked quite terrifying as his face looked like it had been burnt in an acid attack, his eyes had been affected too, and in a skin crawling way I felt a bit scared; I definetly would have been terrified if I'd met him down an alley!!
The museum cost $3 entrance. It looked a bit like several Miller Academy blocks. It had previously been a high school, but when Khmer Rouge attacked, they turned it into a place of torture, death and imprisonment. I felt sick which was a bit strange. There were many torture rooms with beds in; then a block of 1x1.5m cubicles where prisoners were tied up. There was barbed wire along the balcony area so suicidal prisoners couldn't jump. There were photos of many who had been murdered, some pre-torture, others post-torture. There were stories written of what had happened to people, how they got involved in the Khmer Rouge either as a torturer or as a victim, or as a victims relative. There was also a blood-curdling room full of depictions of the torture and interrogation methods; cutting of fingers etc. There was also a room with skulls, some with no descriptions, and others with details of how the person died. It was truely awful.
I was feeling a bit lazy, and so decided to take a moto up to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. On the way, I witnessed a RTA involving a bike crashing into a moto who both very nearly got squished by a huge car!! I was absolutely boiling by this point. I drank quite a bit of water but didn't feel much better, I think I was just quite hungry by this point. I hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast and it was now 3pm. I seemed to be too busy sightseeing to stop, and no cafes had caught my eye especially. Despite costing $6.25, I wasn't that impressed by the RP and SP. It seemed not as amazing as some of the things we'd seen in Bangkok. The outsides looked arty, and so did the insides, lots of Buddhas inside the temples. I seemed to be just going from building to building finding shade and fans!These buildings were kept by the Khmer Rouge so that outsiders couldn't say that they'd destroyed the heart of Cambodia etc. The toilet was good though, worked well and it strangely enough
I then made my way back to the hostel. I seem to find the most interesting things when I'm not going to an exact place and I'm just ad-libbing the route a bit! Firstly I found a shop selling English books, although I resisted the temptation to buy! Then I came across a patchwork shop which mum would have liked! I bought her a wee present from there, and took a picture of a hammock which was quilted, and attached to a metal hammock frame.
Also along the route I found a shop selling small silk geckos, and as Lucy had asked me to keep an eye out for geckos as she collects then I got one. It was quite cute! To my surprise, I then came across a real surprise; The Gecko Collection shop; which sells metal geckos! They are pretty cool! I chose the black one for Lucy, which had a orange robe on it, like a Monk, so it looks more Cambodian than the others. I hope she likes it!
I continued walking and saw quite a cute dog who came up to me, I slowly put out my hand to let her sniff me, but after about a second she did an odd 360 degree turn and I thought she was going to bite me, but then she ran off! She probably did have rabies!
I also passed a school, where lots of children were playing happily, and then I passed a few times, groups of kids on the side of the streets playing with a toy, another group were playing badminton! It was quite nice seeing people relaxing and having fun. It was about 5pm by this time, and the roads were getting pretty hecktick I wasn't sure how much longer it would take me to get back to the hostel. I spotted a cafe which served soya milk, so I thought they might have various other vegan things, although they weren't as versitile as I'd thought. One girl was eyeing me up rather strangely as if she'd seen an alien! I think she must have just thought I was a fussy white. She smiled at the end which made me feel a bit better. I ended up having a iced coffee with soya milk, and then a pizza without the cheese. They were pretty delicious! It cost just over $5 in total. To follow they brought me 4 lychee which were delicious!
Someone passed me in a very stylish pink moto, and later on a couple of nurses were cycling home in their usual nursing outfits with a face mask/surgeons mouth guard on which was rather strange!
I finally made it back to the hostel which I was very relieved about, and it was before dark. I went straight on the internet, and unsurprisingly enough, blogged for around 3 hours!! There was a film on in the background which was set in Cambodia. They have a different film on each night which is quite good, although it can be a bit distracting!
Monday 22 June 2009
Bangkok/Phnom Penh - 23rd June 2009
We had a lie in this morning until 8am; bliss!! We had breakfast in the hostel, paid for our acconmodation which came to 900 baht, around 18 pounds, for the 4 nights, and then I faffed about on the internet until it was time to head to the airport. I had a bit of a look through a few of the books in the hostel; there was lots of travel books, and also books you could swap your own books with. I looked through '101 places not to visit', which described Bangkok as most likely to die by tuk-tuk crash, which is quite believable!
We then headed off in a taxi to the airport. The airport is such a cool design; it looks a bit sci fi from the outside.
We checked in our luggage; Robbie had to pay 23 pounds for his extra 10kg. My luggage was 14kg in total, so I was rather proud of that! Lucy and I had a quick shuffle of things so her baggage wasn't over the limit. I had a coffee whilst the others had something to eat. It was a bit expensive, but it was thoroughly enjoyable! We then went through security, but unfortunatly there wasn't anything to entertain us at the otherside, other than toilets and our books. I did discover on my trip to the loos, that there was free internet access which I took advantage of! My favourite part of the airport was along the corridors were disgused speakers in the centre, so as I sauntered up and down the corridor I got occasional bouts of classical music which was a nice surprise!
We sat together on the flight. Lucy was rather entertaining as she had her fingers in her ears for the first 20 minutes to stop her ears from hurting, so she was holding her book open with her elbows and got me to turn her pages for her! Robbie and I were reading too.
The people in front of us were wearing the surgeons masks, like a lot of other Asians, but these had lips on, which just looked really wrong!
Thankfully my visa was okay, although I wasn't able to get it changed to a multi-entry visa which would have saved me a bit of money. We got a taxi to the hostel; Lucy was writing as we drove; it was very well written! She noticed that the taxi driver kept one hand on the horn at all times, to shoo motos and other such traffic out the way. He beeped quite a lot! I wondered where his priorities were when he was holding his phone aswell! It's a bit like the previous driver who held onto his phone with his left hand, and then crossed his right hand over from the steering wheel to the gear stick so he could change gears; nerve wracking stuff!!There were huge jams, and Lucy saw someone urinating on the street!
The hostel looked really nice, the room too was great, although I don't know whether it was worth me saving a bit of money to just have a fan instead of air-conditioning, as the room was boiling!! There were geckos running around the walls which was funny to watch! Lucy and Robbie had quite a bit of SKIP work to do, so for most of I planned out a route to walk for the following day. I planned to get a moto to the far end of my wee tour, and then walk back.
We had dinner for which I had tasty noodles and vegetables. It was quite late on. ''The Killing Fields" was on the TV; which I kept looking up at.
I ended up sleeping in the nude as it was just so hot! I'm not sure what I''ll do if I'm in a dorm, especially as dorms tend to not have air-conditioning! I had the fan pointed at me and on full blast all night, and I managed to not pass out due to the heat, which was a good sign! I had an early night, compared to the others, and was in bed by about 11pm I think!
We then headed off in a taxi to the airport. The airport is such a cool design; it looks a bit sci fi from the outside.
We checked in our luggage; Robbie had to pay 23 pounds for his extra 10kg. My luggage was 14kg in total, so I was rather proud of that! Lucy and I had a quick shuffle of things so her baggage wasn't over the limit. I had a coffee whilst the others had something to eat. It was a bit expensive, but it was thoroughly enjoyable! We then went through security, but unfortunatly there wasn't anything to entertain us at the otherside, other than toilets and our books. I did discover on my trip to the loos, that there was free internet access which I took advantage of! My favourite part of the airport was along the corridors were disgused speakers in the centre, so as I sauntered up and down the corridor I got occasional bouts of classical music which was a nice surprise!
We sat together on the flight. Lucy was rather entertaining as she had her fingers in her ears for the first 20 minutes to stop her ears from hurting, so she was holding her book open with her elbows and got me to turn her pages for her! Robbie and I were reading too.
The people in front of us were wearing the surgeons masks, like a lot of other Asians, but these had lips on, which just looked really wrong!
Thankfully my visa was okay, although I wasn't able to get it changed to a multi-entry visa which would have saved me a bit of money. We got a taxi to the hostel; Lucy was writing as we drove; it was very well written! She noticed that the taxi driver kept one hand on the horn at all times, to shoo motos and other such traffic out the way. He beeped quite a lot! I wondered where his priorities were when he was holding his phone aswell! It's a bit like the previous driver who held onto his phone with his left hand, and then crossed his right hand over from the steering wheel to the gear stick so he could change gears; nerve wracking stuff!!There were huge jams, and Lucy saw someone urinating on the street!
The hostel looked really nice, the room too was great, although I don't know whether it was worth me saving a bit of money to just have a fan instead of air-conditioning, as the room was boiling!! There were geckos running around the walls which was funny to watch! Lucy and Robbie had quite a bit of SKIP work to do, so for most of I planned out a route to walk for the following day. I planned to get a moto to the far end of my wee tour, and then walk back.
We had dinner for which I had tasty noodles and vegetables. It was quite late on. ''The Killing Fields" was on the TV; which I kept looking up at.
I ended up sleeping in the nude as it was just so hot! I'm not sure what I''ll do if I'm in a dorm, especially as dorms tend to not have air-conditioning! I had the fan pointed at me and on full blast all night, and I managed to not pass out due to the heat, which was a good sign! I had an early night, compared to the others, and was in bed by about 11pm I think!
Bangkok - 22nd June 2009
We had a bit of a lie in this morning, only getting up at 7.15, before heading out shortly after 8am. On our way to find a tuk tuk we went past a market which smelt quite bad. I was quite tempted by the lychee. Robbie wasn't keen to get a tuk tuk as he was getting a bit sick of all of the tailor shops we'd been taken to, but we got one anyway as we thought we'd just been a bit unlucky in the past, but unfortunatly he was as bad as any; cheap, but he used us a bit like prostitutes, taking us into all the places where they would give him vouchers to buy petrol; It wasn't as bad as two of the three were jewellry shops, which were a bit different! But we had to practically barter with him to take us to the places we wanted to go, before he took us to the annoying voucher shops. He did say he was only charging us 20 Baht each though.
The first stop was to a couple of temples; one from the Ayutthaya period and another from the Bangkok period. Inside the more modern Bangkok period temple was a golden Buddha rescued from Ayutthaya when it was being invaded by the Burmese(?). The temple, although quaint, was incredibly beautiful. There were paintings all over the walls, and the ceiling and tiered platform where the Buddha was sat was pretty too. There was a chair embedded with (can't remember the name) which was really pretty. A man who happened to be in the temple told us about the history of the temples and was really helpful. The temple from the Ayutthaya period wasn't so great, it was a bit more plain, and with no paintings, although it had more Buddha's in it.
Next stop, where we stopped twice, was to a temple where we could get more good luck from the Buddha, it happened to be shut the morning we were there so we couldn't go in.
One of the highlights was climbing the zillions of steps up the Golden Mount. It was a fantastic view of the city, and was quite pretty inside. There were lots of bells on the outside, and trees and other greenary; It felt very natural. It was absolutely boiling that day, and I had to whip out my sunnys. It was a bit hard juggling my camera, glasses, leaflets and the like.
For our final destination on the tuk-tuk journey we got taken to the Grand Palace. We decided to say goodbye to our tuk-tuk driver and we paid him his offered price of 20 baht each, with a bit of a tip. He'd made 10 litres of petrol from pimping us out to the tailor and jewellery shops!
We were glad to see the back of him, although he did look quite cute, and he'd looked so happy with the prospect of getting free petrol.
We were attacked by people trying to sell us boat rides and various other things. I managed to get away from the boat man by using the "I get sea sick, sorry!" approach which made him finally leave us alone! I then got flogged a really beautiful sun-umbrella, made of wood and paper. It's pretty amasing how it can be made out of such things and be so sturdy and well made. It was only 4 pounds too, after a bit of bartering on my part which I'm quite proud of!
People had tried telling us that the Grand Palace was shut, to try to get us to go elsewhere, but we managed to ignore their lies, and get inside anyway. We had to be covered to our knees/shoulders if we were in a dress, and full length trousers and to our elbows otherwise. I was alright in my dress, but Lucy and Robbie had to hire out a wrap to use as a skirt (Lucy), and some trousers. It was 350 baht (7 pounds) entrance to the palace, but it was well worth it. It was so amasing! There were many buildings, all absolutely beautiful with mosaic tiles, murals and lots of statues. There was so much attention to detail and such a range of colours and designs; the place was just stunning, especially in the bright sunlight. This has got to be one of the wonders of the world. There were some practicing buddhists having a study session, and in one of the temples, we heard them praying which was a very calming sound.
We then were getting pretty exhausted due to the heat, and also quite hungry as it had been quite a few hours since breakfast, so we went to the street where I was mobbed by three vendors all chasing after me trying to sell me another umbrella, a booklet of postcards and a painting! One of them chased us quite far down the street until we finally managed to escape into a cafe. It was an old fashioned, quite stylish cafe with quite a few dogs in it; which made Robbie a bit nervous! I had noodles, which looked more like pasta, with vegetables which was very tasty! I tried one of Lucy's spring rolls but it was incredibly spicy!!
We had hoped to go to Wat Pho, a temple, but apparently it was only open in the morning, although on reflection it might have just been someone trying to scam us into going onto a tour instead; I'm not sure.
We got in a taxi to take us to MHC centre (??) where we were going shopping as Robbie needed a few things. It was an incredibly large mall, and very cool to shop in! There were so many shops!! I think there were 7 floors, and it was a bit like Hogwarts in that there were so many escalators in various different directions! There were quite a few shops selling t-shirts with cool slogans on; and Robbie bought a coca-cola t-shirt which he's always wanted! I managed to not buy anything which is quite amasing!! We went on the internet for a while, and had thought about going to the infamous ping-pong show; where girls do various creative/imaginative things with their vagina(!) including shooting out pingpongs; as an alternative to the Ladyboys of Bangkok. We weren't too sure where exactly it was happening, and it seemed like it could cost quite a bit of money if we didn't buy enough drinks, so we decided to just continue shopping. We had dinner in the food hall; I had a chipati (sp?) with a vegetable biryani, which was extremely spicy!! I drank heaps and heaps of water and it practically made me cry! It was unfortunatly very tasty though, apart from putting my tongue on fire so I kept on wanting to eat it!
We were just walking around shopping, when a lone man, looking directly at us, burst out laughing! It was obvious he was laughing at us, but I still have no idea why! We burst out laughing too! It was so random!!! Whatever he found so hilariously funny about us, he obviously couldn't keep to himself!
We got in a taxi back to the hostel, except on the way when we were stopped at a junction, a tuk-tuk drove into the back of us!!! My first ever RTA!! Both drivers pulled into the side of the road, and discussed the scratch a bit, before the taxi driver told us we'd have to pay him and then go in another taxi to get home. I think he was a bit relieved as he didn't seem to really know where he was going anyway! we got into another taxi, and this guy knew even less where he was going; it's incredibly frustrating when they're asking us for directions!!
We had a game of ludo when we got back which was really good fun! Lucy and Robbie also booked themselves in at the Sunday Guesthouse in Phnom Penh, which is where I'll be staying. Poor Lucy seemed to be eaten alive during the day as she's covered with bites; the mosquitos or whatever is biting her don't seem to be as bothered for a bite of Robbie and I.
I had a shower which felt surprisingly warm, and then went to bed around midnight.
The first stop was to a couple of temples; one from the Ayutthaya period and another from the Bangkok period. Inside the more modern Bangkok period temple was a golden Buddha rescued from Ayutthaya when it was being invaded by the Burmese(?). The temple, although quaint, was incredibly beautiful. There were paintings all over the walls, and the ceiling and tiered platform where the Buddha was sat was pretty too. There was a chair embedded with (can't remember the name) which was really pretty. A man who happened to be in the temple told us about the history of the temples and was really helpful. The temple from the Ayutthaya period wasn't so great, it was a bit more plain, and with no paintings, although it had more Buddha's in it.
Next stop, where we stopped twice, was to a temple where we could get more good luck from the Buddha, it happened to be shut the morning we were there so we couldn't go in.
One of the highlights was climbing the zillions of steps up the Golden Mount. It was a fantastic view of the city, and was quite pretty inside. There were lots of bells on the outside, and trees and other greenary; It felt very natural. It was absolutely boiling that day, and I had to whip out my sunnys. It was a bit hard juggling my camera, glasses, leaflets and the like.
For our final destination on the tuk-tuk journey we got taken to the Grand Palace. We decided to say goodbye to our tuk-tuk driver and we paid him his offered price of 20 baht each, with a bit of a tip. He'd made 10 litres of petrol from pimping us out to the tailor and jewellery shops!
We were glad to see the back of him, although he did look quite cute, and he'd looked so happy with the prospect of getting free petrol.
We were attacked by people trying to sell us boat rides and various other things. I managed to get away from the boat man by using the "I get sea sick, sorry!" approach which made him finally leave us alone! I then got flogged a really beautiful sun-umbrella, made of wood and paper. It's pretty amasing how it can be made out of such things and be so sturdy and well made. It was only 4 pounds too, after a bit of bartering on my part which I'm quite proud of!
People had tried telling us that the Grand Palace was shut, to try to get us to go elsewhere, but we managed to ignore their lies, and get inside anyway. We had to be covered to our knees/shoulders if we were in a dress, and full length trousers and to our elbows otherwise. I was alright in my dress, but Lucy and Robbie had to hire out a wrap to use as a skirt (Lucy), and some trousers. It was 350 baht (7 pounds) entrance to the palace, but it was well worth it. It was so amasing! There were many buildings, all absolutely beautiful with mosaic tiles, murals and lots of statues. There was so much attention to detail and such a range of colours and designs; the place was just stunning, especially in the bright sunlight. This has got to be one of the wonders of the world. There were some practicing buddhists having a study session, and in one of the temples, we heard them praying which was a very calming sound.
We then were getting pretty exhausted due to the heat, and also quite hungry as it had been quite a few hours since breakfast, so we went to the street where I was mobbed by three vendors all chasing after me trying to sell me another umbrella, a booklet of postcards and a painting! One of them chased us quite far down the street until we finally managed to escape into a cafe. It was an old fashioned, quite stylish cafe with quite a few dogs in it; which made Robbie a bit nervous! I had noodles, which looked more like pasta, with vegetables which was very tasty! I tried one of Lucy's spring rolls but it was incredibly spicy!!
We had hoped to go to Wat Pho, a temple, but apparently it was only open in the morning, although on reflection it might have just been someone trying to scam us into going onto a tour instead; I'm not sure.
We got in a taxi to take us to MHC centre (??) where we were going shopping as Robbie needed a few things. It was an incredibly large mall, and very cool to shop in! There were so many shops!! I think there were 7 floors, and it was a bit like Hogwarts in that there were so many escalators in various different directions! There were quite a few shops selling t-shirts with cool slogans on; and Robbie bought a coca-cola t-shirt which he's always wanted! I managed to not buy anything which is quite amasing!! We went on the internet for a while, and had thought about going to the infamous ping-pong show; where girls do various creative/imaginative things with their vagina(!) including shooting out pingpongs; as an alternative to the Ladyboys of Bangkok. We weren't too sure where exactly it was happening, and it seemed like it could cost quite a bit of money if we didn't buy enough drinks, so we decided to just continue shopping. We had dinner in the food hall; I had a chipati (sp?) with a vegetable biryani, which was extremely spicy!! I drank heaps and heaps of water and it practically made me cry! It was unfortunatly very tasty though, apart from putting my tongue on fire so I kept on wanting to eat it!
We were just walking around shopping, when a lone man, looking directly at us, burst out laughing! It was obvious he was laughing at us, but I still have no idea why! We burst out laughing too! It was so random!!! Whatever he found so hilariously funny about us, he obviously couldn't keep to himself!
We got in a taxi back to the hostel, except on the way when we were stopped at a junction, a tuk-tuk drove into the back of us!!! My first ever RTA!! Both drivers pulled into the side of the road, and discussed the scratch a bit, before the taxi driver told us we'd have to pay him and then go in another taxi to get home. I think he was a bit relieved as he didn't seem to really know where he was going anyway! we got into another taxi, and this guy knew even less where he was going; it's incredibly frustrating when they're asking us for directions!!
We had a game of ludo when we got back which was really good fun! Lucy and Robbie also booked themselves in at the Sunday Guesthouse in Phnom Penh, which is where I'll be staying. Poor Lucy seemed to be eaten alive during the day as she's covered with bites; the mosquitos or whatever is biting her don't seem to be as bothered for a bite of Robbie and I.
I had a shower which felt surprisingly warm, and then went to bed around midnight.
Sunday 21 June 2009
Bangkok - 21st June 2009
I woke up quite early today; around 5.30am, although not on purpose. I think I'd been quite consciously dreaming about monks so was in a very light sleep. I lay in bed for a few more minutes before going into the shower at 5.50am! (Am I insane?!) Lucy and Robbie were meeting me downstairs for breakfast at 7am, and so I thought it was a good opportunity to crack on with some more blog! (This seems to be quite a trend!) We sat down for breakfast, and my friend the cat (who I from this moment will name Banoffee, just to make things easier), sat on my lap! She is sooo adorable. I really want to take her home. She has such a lovely temperant, and her cry is so sweet! She's a lovely white and ginger/toffee colour. I had two slices of toast, and some coffee; each time I lifted the food to my mouth Banoffee looked up to me, it was so adorable! The coffee was amazing too. We got a pink taxi to the train station, where we got 20 Baht tickets to the old capital of Ayutthaya. Lucy and Robbie both bought a waffle each which looked, and tasted, delicious. The train was absolutely packed and so we were forced to stand for the whole hour and 20 minute journey. I managed to find a box that I could sit on, which I was glad of as I was feeling a bit sick which made me worried about having bad effects from the malaria tablets, although thankfully I think it was just the heat. The journey was pretty exhausting as there was no air conditioning, and just a few fans on the ceiling. A few people were walking up and down the carridges with buckets full of ice and various drinks for sale, as well as various preprepared snacks.We past through a bit of countryside and there was nothing much of excitement on the way, a few train stops but that was all. We were unsure where to get off so asked a lady, to let us know, which was rather handy. At the station a man got into conversation with us about going on a tour and what there was to see in Ayutthaya; he turned out to be a tuk tuk driver, and offered us a 4 hour tour for 400 baht each which wasn't too bad. The day was a bit of a whirlwind as we saw so many things! The tuktuk was thankfully bigger than usual, so we had two rows of seating facing each other inwards from the traffic, rather than the usual facing the direction of the traffic which is a bit of a squish. I was sitting closest to the back of the tuktuk, and when we set off I nearly fell out! It was a bit more thrilling being able to see all the traffic behind us. When we went over a bump in the road, Robbie, the tallest of all of us, kept bumping his head; which I found strangely hilarious! (think it might have been an effect of the heat, making me a bit bonkers!)
One of the first stops was at Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon; costing us 10 Baht entrance fee. It was a really tall temple with Buddha's outside with orange saches on. We were able to climb up quite a few weirdly shaped dipping steps to where various Buddhists were visiting 9 Buddha's and sticking on gold-leaf to restore their colour. I'm not sure of the significance but it seems to be quite a common practice. The view was magnificant from the top. There were also a smaller temple nearby where we went inside and there were lots of Buddha's praying towards a golden Buddha. Outside was a river, and there seemed to be a slight theme of roosters. This was due to a King, who was historically significant, loving cock-fighting according to the tuktuk driver. There were quite a few dogs roaming around, unfortunatly one of which, had several growths growing on her body which looked a bit painful/uncomfortable.
We passed a monument dedicated to the King, which was surrounded by hundreds of roosters; some of which were in a mosaic tile style of gold or silver.
Next stop was Ayutthaya Historical Park where Wat Mahathat was; this entrance was 50 baht. This was very old delapidated; it must have been hundreds of years old. It was really quite beautiful although due to the heat we weren't in the best state to enjoy it. It was quite interesting seeing old temples though.
Next up was Wat Phu Khao Thang where we crossed a small river with some fish in. It was a very tall, white building which thankfully we weren't able to climb up; it would have been way too exhausting anyway!
We went to another temple where inside there was a Big Gold Buddha. On the way up to the temple there were various people trying to sell us things. They had various tactics including pretending to have lost their lower limbs, making incredibly noisy noises with their "frog immitation noise' toy; it was sooo annoying, I'm surprised the person selling them wasn't going insane!! I'm not sure how exciting we found this temple as it was a lot like many others we'd seen. We did however, happily walk around outside as there was a market. I bought a couple of things; a present for Anna and a painting (which today I realised was a very common item! I hate it when that happens, it's still pretty though). Lucy and I had a go at talking loudly in order to get the seller to put the price down a bit but it didn't work too well. On some of the other stalls all I had to do was stand there and they were going down in price at a quick pace; it wasn't even the price that was bothering me though! I just felt I couldn't safely carry the elephant-shaped-coconut lamp home. Entertaining the market visitors was a young girl playing a cello-like instrument; the sort I've seen before in Singapore. It wasn't awful but it wasn't that special either.
The tuktuk man had bought us some pineapple chunks in a bag, which Lucy and I ate; it was absolutely delicious; best ever I would say! We ate it as we drove along in the tuk tuk which was a bit of a heath and safety hazard; as when we came up to a bump we were at risk of stabbing ourselves with the skewer!! Lucy stabbed her hand and I almost ended up with it through the roof of my mouth; thankfully there was no major incident!
Next stop was to a Reclining Buddha which was gigantic! We'd seen a smaller one at one of the temples earlier in the day, but this one was massive in comparison. It was mainly stone-coloured but some of it had gold-leaf stuck on it. We were sold for 20 Baht a flower and incense sticks to give as an offering to Buddha. It was quite fun; nice to be able to join in with the offerings. We were also given a piece of gold leaf to stick on the Buddha. The lady who showed us to the Buddha exstortionatly (sp?) sold us a little charm at a bit of a rip off price. To be honest we hadn't really wanted it, and she didn't really pressure us that much; I'm not sure why we did get it!
At the last temple, the tuk tuk driver bought us each a huge bottle of cooled water which was really appreciated! We were drinking plenty throughout the day, but it's a real treat to have something ice cold!
It was almost the end of the trip, and so he said he'd drop us somewhere where we could have lunch. We gave him 500 Baht each, so a bit of a tip for him. The place he had taken us to for lunch was really nice; it was a floating platform on a river. I had rice and vegetables, with some lemonade which was all delicious. I felt a bit sea sick as whenever a boat passed, the whole platform rocked up and down!
There was a girl celebrating her birthday at another table. Her family sang Happy Birthday in English which was a bit random! They sung it in a much more jazzier way than the Brits do though!
A smallish boat passed, chugging away, which was tugged 4 huge carridges of cargo! It was a really peculiar sight! No idea how the poor boat managed it! There were also some locals on canoes, paddling using just a long stick, with no flat bits to it!
We then walked to the station where I was feeling a bit grumpy due to period pain. It didn't help that after paying 1.5pence for using the toilet it was an annoying crouch toilet!
The station was a bit crazy!; we had to walk across the tracks to get to our platform. On the train, yet again, we didn't get a seat, so decided to sit on the floor. We all got our books, notebooks etc out to kill a bit of time. People looked at us as if we were a bit random when I took a photo of the others!
We got back to the hostel and had a game of ludo; which I won; yay!! I had a shower, which was such a nice feeling after being extremely hot, sweaty and generally feeling disgusting. I was quite pleased that I managed to keep up to date with washing of clothes and washed a few more things.
I put on my dress and we headed out in search of a restaurant we'd read about in Lucy's guide. The tuk tuk driver dropped us off in a very touristy area! We weren't surprised we hadn't seen many tourists out and about; they were all living it up in this area!! There were lots of lively cafes and although we didn't manage to find the restaurant we'd planned on going to, we managed to find another nice one. I had a pizza which was absolutely delicious, and also a strawberry shake which was amazing too!! We then had a bit of a let down of a coffee which tasted rather disgusting, followed by a Sex on the Beach, which was quite nice, although I wasn't able to drink all of it. I came to a bit of a problem when paying the bill, as the lady was standing over me and so I couldn't delve into my bra, and when I did, I still needed to hoick my dress up to get to my money belt, which I definetly wouldn't have managed to do discretely! I had to escape to the toilet briefly! We then went upstairs to use the internet before heading back to the hostel.
One of the first stops was at Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon; costing us 10 Baht entrance fee. It was a really tall temple with Buddha's outside with orange saches on. We were able to climb up quite a few weirdly shaped dipping steps to where various Buddhists were visiting 9 Buddha's and sticking on gold-leaf to restore their colour. I'm not sure of the significance but it seems to be quite a common practice. The view was magnificant from the top. There were also a smaller temple nearby where we went inside and there were lots of Buddha's praying towards a golden Buddha. Outside was a river, and there seemed to be a slight theme of roosters. This was due to a King, who was historically significant, loving cock-fighting according to the tuktuk driver. There were quite a few dogs roaming around, unfortunatly one of which, had several growths growing on her body which looked a bit painful/uncomfortable.
We passed a monument dedicated to the King, which was surrounded by hundreds of roosters; some of which were in a mosaic tile style of gold or silver.
Next stop was Ayutthaya Historical Park where Wat Mahathat was; this entrance was 50 baht. This was very old delapidated; it must have been hundreds of years old. It was really quite beautiful although due to the heat we weren't in the best state to enjoy it. It was quite interesting seeing old temples though.
Next up was Wat Phu Khao Thang where we crossed a small river with some fish in. It was a very tall, white building which thankfully we weren't able to climb up; it would have been way too exhausting anyway!
We went to another temple where inside there was a Big Gold Buddha. On the way up to the temple there were various people trying to sell us things. They had various tactics including pretending to have lost their lower limbs, making incredibly noisy noises with their "frog immitation noise' toy; it was sooo annoying, I'm surprised the person selling them wasn't going insane!! I'm not sure how exciting we found this temple as it was a lot like many others we'd seen. We did however, happily walk around outside as there was a market. I bought a couple of things; a present for Anna and a painting (which today I realised was a very common item! I hate it when that happens, it's still pretty though). Lucy and I had a go at talking loudly in order to get the seller to put the price down a bit but it didn't work too well. On some of the other stalls all I had to do was stand there and they were going down in price at a quick pace; it wasn't even the price that was bothering me though! I just felt I couldn't safely carry the elephant-shaped-coconut lamp home. Entertaining the market visitors was a young girl playing a cello-like instrument; the sort I've seen before in Singapore. It wasn't awful but it wasn't that special either.
The tuktuk man had bought us some pineapple chunks in a bag, which Lucy and I ate; it was absolutely delicious; best ever I would say! We ate it as we drove along in the tuk tuk which was a bit of a heath and safety hazard; as when we came up to a bump we were at risk of stabbing ourselves with the skewer!! Lucy stabbed her hand and I almost ended up with it through the roof of my mouth; thankfully there was no major incident!
Next stop was to a Reclining Buddha which was gigantic! We'd seen a smaller one at one of the temples earlier in the day, but this one was massive in comparison. It was mainly stone-coloured but some of it had gold-leaf stuck on it. We were sold for 20 Baht a flower and incense sticks to give as an offering to Buddha. It was quite fun; nice to be able to join in with the offerings. We were also given a piece of gold leaf to stick on the Buddha. The lady who showed us to the Buddha exstortionatly (sp?) sold us a little charm at a bit of a rip off price. To be honest we hadn't really wanted it, and she didn't really pressure us that much; I'm not sure why we did get it!
At the last temple, the tuk tuk driver bought us each a huge bottle of cooled water which was really appreciated! We were drinking plenty throughout the day, but it's a real treat to have something ice cold!
It was almost the end of the trip, and so he said he'd drop us somewhere where we could have lunch. We gave him 500 Baht each, so a bit of a tip for him. The place he had taken us to for lunch was really nice; it was a floating platform on a river. I had rice and vegetables, with some lemonade which was all delicious. I felt a bit sea sick as whenever a boat passed, the whole platform rocked up and down!
There was a girl celebrating her birthday at another table. Her family sang Happy Birthday in English which was a bit random! They sung it in a much more jazzier way than the Brits do though!
A smallish boat passed, chugging away, which was tugged 4 huge carridges of cargo! It was a really peculiar sight! No idea how the poor boat managed it! There were also some locals on canoes, paddling using just a long stick, with no flat bits to it!
We then walked to the station where I was feeling a bit grumpy due to period pain. It didn't help that after paying 1.5pence for using the toilet it was an annoying crouch toilet!
The station was a bit crazy!; we had to walk across the tracks to get to our platform. On the train, yet again, we didn't get a seat, so decided to sit on the floor. We all got our books, notebooks etc out to kill a bit of time. People looked at us as if we were a bit random when I took a photo of the others!
We got back to the hostel and had a game of ludo; which I won; yay!! I had a shower, which was such a nice feeling after being extremely hot, sweaty and generally feeling disgusting. I was quite pleased that I managed to keep up to date with washing of clothes and washed a few more things.
I put on my dress and we headed out in search of a restaurant we'd read about in Lucy's guide. The tuk tuk driver dropped us off in a very touristy area! We weren't surprised we hadn't seen many tourists out and about; they were all living it up in this area!! There were lots of lively cafes and although we didn't manage to find the restaurant we'd planned on going to, we managed to find another nice one. I had a pizza which was absolutely delicious, and also a strawberry shake which was amazing too!! We then had a bit of a let down of a coffee which tasted rather disgusting, followed by a Sex on the Beach, which was quite nice, although I wasn't able to drink all of it. I came to a bit of a problem when paying the bill, as the lady was standing over me and so I couldn't delve into my bra, and when I did, I still needed to hoick my dress up to get to my money belt, which I definetly wouldn't have managed to do discretely! I had to escape to the toilet briefly! We then went upstairs to use the internet before heading back to the hostel.
Saturday 20 June 2009
Bangkok - 20th June 2009
An early start today; I got up just after 6am, which surprisingly enough wasn't too painful, although it's my body naturally waking up then anyway, and then usually I let it go back to sleep for another 4 hours, so it may have got a bit of a shock today. I had a shower, which nearly made me swear as it was pretty chilly, although I got used to it and eventually it was quite pleasant. It was nice to be dripping clean water instead of sweat for once!!
My sarong from Costa Rica is doing a fine job of drying me, and then itself rather swiftly which I'm chuffed about. It didn't take me too long to get dressed either, and the toilet is easy to flush which is a relief (some can be real pains, so it's awesome news!!)
I got a bit worried about Lucy and Robbie getting ready but we were all out the front ready for a 7am pick up by the tour minibus. I'd popped down a bit earlier to ask for us to all stay another three nights which didn't take very long to sort.
A minibus turned up, but seemed a bit confused and after agreeing that we were going with him, he seemed to change his mind; maybe there were two Lucy's booked...
After 15 minutes, our minibus finally turned up, but to make us even more anxious the other people on the bus seemed to be on completely different tours to us, which was rather worrying. Also, on comparison of prices, we seem to have paid about 4 times as much as the others; 4200 baht instead of what some of the others had paid; 2000 baht for 3 days of tours and 2 nights away. Drat; our first mistake - not haggling and being scammed!
There was an Australia, a couple of Irish and a few others. Our first stop was to a memorial to all the slaves in the war who had been held captive and forced to build a railway. Thousands of people died in the process. It was really quite beautiful, especially some of the flowers, and there was a curious looking moth/butterfly that almost looked like a hummingbird it was that large and flappy. I've not quite identified what it was. I was stalking it for quite a while though!
Next stop was to a JEATH war museum which had a huge train a we entered. The story behind is of the prisoners of war, during the second world war were enslaved on the railways for many years and many just perished due to exhaustion, dehydration, starvation etc. To be honest I found the place as I do most museums, just a bunch of old stuff, but there were some pretty sights, and beautiful building which made it worthwhile. The best bit of all was a man selling some really beautiful paintings. I was extremely tempted, and couldn't decide so after much deliberation decided on three (! - they are amasing though!!!); a tiger, 3 elephants, and a random thai scene, so beautiful, and only for 1200 baht, about 24 pounds!!! bargain!! That's my art sorted from Thailand; I really hope I can find the same sort of thing in Cambodia and Vietnam. I was so chuffed with my purchases that being ripped off didn't really matter for the tour! We bought some drinks, which were lovely and cooling, and then wondered where the rest of our group had gone. I was always feeling a bit scared that they might just drive off and leave us there. Thankfully we remembered that they'd told us to walk around to the Bridge over the River Quai (where trains run to this day).
On the way was a gorgeous tiger cub, who looked really hot and exhausted. I became fixated on the poor fella and managed to lose Lucy and Robbie temporarily! Thankfully they realised they lost me and I was able to catch up with them! This seems to be a growing pattern with me when it comes to seeing animals!! Although the tiger looked too hot and bothered to move, apparently they tend to lounge around during the day anyway.
Walking over the bridge was a terrifying experience. It was a bit like walking on a gymnastics beam; there were so many people on the bridge and to the left of the middle section there was just gaps where we could easily have fallen into the river!; which I nearly did do, as the Australian guy decided to pull my leg by saying "oh my god, there's the minibus leaving!" which he wouldn't have been able to see from where we were but it made me turn around slightly too quickly to look at his face (the best way I know if people are pulling my leg; I'm so guliable!) and I felt myself falter and lose my balance slightly. My heart was racing a bit after that. Thankfully I survived, only to be persued by a lady trying to flog me an information booklet about the River Quai/the bridge etc. I was tempted, and had told her "maybe" on the way onto the bridge, which directly translates as "yes" to the trader! Thankfully I was saved by the Australian who managed to escort me away safely from her!!
The river itself was really pretty; there were floating platforms which were restaurants, and there was so much greenary and hills in the distance. A really beautiful scene. Had I been here before buying the paintings, I may have been tempted to buy yet another as there were some lovely ones of the bridge.
On the way back to the minibus, yet again, I was fixated on this gorgeous tiger cub; and yet again I was a bit behind the group, but the tour guide recognised me and guided me back to the bus! The cub looked a lot more active and cheery now and was getting quite playful. He/she was sooo adorable!!!
Next stop was lunch; it was a bit of a drive away and was further down the river on a lovely floating platform. There was a meat stew, a vegetable stew, rice and for pudding was a delicious, fresh pineapple; absolutely heaven! It was a really good group of people and funnily enough there was a couple from Newcastle Australia there, so we each called each other's group the Newcastle folk!
A couple of rafts flowed down the river whilst we were eating which looked a bit scary. Even scarier however, was going to the toilet. I felt slightly embarassed that I wanted to ask how to use the toilet, but decided to save my embarassment by ad-libbing it! The seat was really low down, and I wasn't sure whether we should put loo roll in a bin, or down the toilet, and also flushing was really confusing! There was a hose pipe, like what one would spray a garden with, and also a bucket of water with a smaller bucket inside it. It was extremely confusing!!
We were off again and next stop was to the elephant park where we were going to be riding the elephant for about 20 minutes. I was quite nervous about doing so as we were sitting on a platform that was just held on by a rope, and when we first set off it seemed to wobble about a bit. We got used to it after a while. Lucy and Robbie were on an elephant, whilst I was on with the Australian guy named Darren. It was good that we were able to photograph each other from our respective elephants! There was the Irish couple aswell; we'd dropped the Newcastle folk off at a waterfall on the way. The boy 'driving' the elephant was only 10 years old. He was really sweet. His English was limited but he managed to ask us a few questions and show his understanding of the UK and Australia. After we'd got out of sight of the base camp and into the jungle area, by which time we were feeling a lot more relaxed, the little boy allowed us to sit in his place, on the elephants neck, in front of the platform/seat. Darren went first, and I finally got up the courage to go. After a few steps I wanted to get back to my seat, although me being me I didn't back out and just stuck too. It was hard work, as I was feeling quite tense as I was scared of falling, so my leg muscles got tired quite quickly and I had to keep my butt cheeks clenched as for some reason it made me feel more secure, as each step of the elephant made the elephants shoulders lift up and down and so I had to alternate my butt cheeks to do the same! It was quite a good work out for them!! At the end of my riding, the elephant lifted her trunk up and sprayed me with what I presume must be elephant snotters... nice!
We had to shout "Huh" to make the elephant walk, and "whoa" to get the elephant to stop. I'd never realised how long an elephant's penis was until the one in front started peeing; it was huge!!!!
Lucy and Robbie got sold a ring made out of hair from the tail of the elephant, and tusk that was in the shape of a tusk, from their driver.
They sold us a photo of us on the elephant which was quite good, at the end of the trek.
Next stop was to pick up the Aussies from the waterfall. Our guide let us out so we could see the waterfall which was quite cool. We didn't get to walk up to the top, but it was quite cool seeing the semi-man-made base of the waterfall, it was rather spectacular! It seemed a very popular spot for locals, very peaceful, and there were lots of kids, and grow-ups too, splashing about in the pool at the bottom. There was also a river running down with quaint bridges over them. There was a particularly beautiful tree aswell, with interesting roots.
The tiger temple was next. I was a bit apprehensive about going as after booking the trip I had done a bit of investigating online and there were mixed opinions about the place; some accusing the place of drugging the tigers etc. On enterring, we had to sign a form saying that we realised that tigers were wild creatures and therefore they could not be held responsible if the tiger accidentally killed us. I was a bit unsure about signing my life away so to speak, although I'd rather be eaten by a tiger than a human. I thought I should maybe write "I do not understand what I'm signing" in the signing box, but as it was in English I thought they might think I was a bit weird, or if the person taking the tickets read it, they might not let me in, so instead I squiggled something that didn't really resemble my signature or my name!
There were several other animals in the reserve, I guessed that they were probably bred for feeding to the tigers, although that's completely my guess. First stop was to have our photo taken with the older tigers. We had to leave bags and loose things at the entrance and then someone took our hand and then another worker/volunteer would take our camera and take all the photos. The tigers were dosing, well, most of them were, but it was at the heat of the day, and if given the chance, we'd probably have been doing the same. The younger tigers which we went to see next were a lot more bouncy and active, as expected. They were really adorable, and although they were kept on leashes they didn't seem to be mistreated, although I think they were looking forward to a bit more freedom, which apparently was coming later in the afternoon, although we unfortunatly had to leave before the "show" started. By show I mean, the tigers were left free to roam in their own sanctuary so we could see them acting more normally.
The drive back was tiring, it took quite a while, about 3 hours. I slept for a bit of it although it wasn't particularly comfortable as I kept on banging my head on the window. The minibus driving pulled up outside the wrong hostel at first; there are many youth hostel association hostels in Bangkok, he'd taken us to the slightly more upmarket one. He seemed to be unsure of where we were going so we showed him on the map, and he called them up, and when we finally arrived the driver smiled so much! It was really cute!
Inside, I washed some clothes before we headed out to the vegetarian restaurant we had seen the previous day. On the way I saw a wild rat which was a bit random, and near the hostel were quite a few gecko's; it was all quite thrilling! I was really nervous as to what the food would be like at the restaurant, but thankfully we all enjoyed our meals. Lucy and I had a deep fried pancake-like thing, stuffed with mushrooms and various other things. The texture and flavours were absolutely amazing! I had a iced soya latte which was heaven as well. I'd wanted one earlier in the day, but most places don't have the soya milk unfortunatly, although it does seem to be quite commonly sold on it's own in cartoons in most places. Robbie had a tofu/vegetable/green pepper curry which looked tasty, but and was tasty, but also extremely hot!! We then stepped next door to the internet cafe, which was cheaper than the previous place we had been to, but it was also extremely slow, and the space key didn't work very well which made typing extremely slow!
Lucy and Robbie embarked on a game of Ludo, which Robbie commited kamikaze in as he was losing. I decided to go downstairs to the lobby of the youth hostel where I continued blogging for a bit longer, and also made even better friends with the gorgeous pussy cat! I really need to find out her name! It was quite a late night again; around midnight.
My sarong from Costa Rica is doing a fine job of drying me, and then itself rather swiftly which I'm chuffed about. It didn't take me too long to get dressed either, and the toilet is easy to flush which is a relief (some can be real pains, so it's awesome news!!)
I got a bit worried about Lucy and Robbie getting ready but we were all out the front ready for a 7am pick up by the tour minibus. I'd popped down a bit earlier to ask for us to all stay another three nights which didn't take very long to sort.
A minibus turned up, but seemed a bit confused and after agreeing that we were going with him, he seemed to change his mind; maybe there were two Lucy's booked...
After 15 minutes, our minibus finally turned up, but to make us even more anxious the other people on the bus seemed to be on completely different tours to us, which was rather worrying. Also, on comparison of prices, we seem to have paid about 4 times as much as the others; 4200 baht instead of what some of the others had paid; 2000 baht for 3 days of tours and 2 nights away. Drat; our first mistake - not haggling and being scammed!
There was an Australia, a couple of Irish and a few others. Our first stop was to a memorial to all the slaves in the war who had been held captive and forced to build a railway. Thousands of people died in the process. It was really quite beautiful, especially some of the flowers, and there was a curious looking moth/butterfly that almost looked like a hummingbird it was that large and flappy. I've not quite identified what it was. I was stalking it for quite a while though!
Next stop was to a JEATH war museum which had a huge train a we entered. The story behind is of the prisoners of war, during the second world war were enslaved on the railways for many years and many just perished due to exhaustion, dehydration, starvation etc. To be honest I found the place as I do most museums, just a bunch of old stuff, but there were some pretty sights, and beautiful building which made it worthwhile. The best bit of all was a man selling some really beautiful paintings. I was extremely tempted, and couldn't decide so after much deliberation decided on three (! - they are amasing though!!!); a tiger, 3 elephants, and a random thai scene, so beautiful, and only for 1200 baht, about 24 pounds!!! bargain!! That's my art sorted from Thailand; I really hope I can find the same sort of thing in Cambodia and Vietnam. I was so chuffed with my purchases that being ripped off didn't really matter for the tour! We bought some drinks, which were lovely and cooling, and then wondered where the rest of our group had gone. I was always feeling a bit scared that they might just drive off and leave us there. Thankfully we remembered that they'd told us to walk around to the Bridge over the River Quai (where trains run to this day).
On the way was a gorgeous tiger cub, who looked really hot and exhausted. I became fixated on the poor fella and managed to lose Lucy and Robbie temporarily! Thankfully they realised they lost me and I was able to catch up with them! This seems to be a growing pattern with me when it comes to seeing animals!! Although the tiger looked too hot and bothered to move, apparently they tend to lounge around during the day anyway.
Walking over the bridge was a terrifying experience. It was a bit like walking on a gymnastics beam; there were so many people on the bridge and to the left of the middle section there was just gaps where we could easily have fallen into the river!; which I nearly did do, as the Australian guy decided to pull my leg by saying "oh my god, there's the minibus leaving!" which he wouldn't have been able to see from where we were but it made me turn around slightly too quickly to look at his face (the best way I know if people are pulling my leg; I'm so guliable!) and I felt myself falter and lose my balance slightly. My heart was racing a bit after that. Thankfully I survived, only to be persued by a lady trying to flog me an information booklet about the River Quai/the bridge etc. I was tempted, and had told her "maybe" on the way onto the bridge, which directly translates as "yes" to the trader! Thankfully I was saved by the Australian who managed to escort me away safely from her!!
The river itself was really pretty; there were floating platforms which were restaurants, and there was so much greenary and hills in the distance. A really beautiful scene. Had I been here before buying the paintings, I may have been tempted to buy yet another as there were some lovely ones of the bridge.
On the way back to the minibus, yet again, I was fixated on this gorgeous tiger cub; and yet again I was a bit behind the group, but the tour guide recognised me and guided me back to the bus! The cub looked a lot more active and cheery now and was getting quite playful. He/she was sooo adorable!!!
Next stop was lunch; it was a bit of a drive away and was further down the river on a lovely floating platform. There was a meat stew, a vegetable stew, rice and for pudding was a delicious, fresh pineapple; absolutely heaven! It was a really good group of people and funnily enough there was a couple from Newcastle Australia there, so we each called each other's group the Newcastle folk!
A couple of rafts flowed down the river whilst we were eating which looked a bit scary. Even scarier however, was going to the toilet. I felt slightly embarassed that I wanted to ask how to use the toilet, but decided to save my embarassment by ad-libbing it! The seat was really low down, and I wasn't sure whether we should put loo roll in a bin, or down the toilet, and also flushing was really confusing! There was a hose pipe, like what one would spray a garden with, and also a bucket of water with a smaller bucket inside it. It was extremely confusing!!
We were off again and next stop was to the elephant park where we were going to be riding the elephant for about 20 minutes. I was quite nervous about doing so as we were sitting on a platform that was just held on by a rope, and when we first set off it seemed to wobble about a bit. We got used to it after a while. Lucy and Robbie were on an elephant, whilst I was on with the Australian guy named Darren. It was good that we were able to photograph each other from our respective elephants! There was the Irish couple aswell; we'd dropped the Newcastle folk off at a waterfall on the way. The boy 'driving' the elephant was only 10 years old. He was really sweet. His English was limited but he managed to ask us a few questions and show his understanding of the UK and Australia. After we'd got out of sight of the base camp and into the jungle area, by which time we were feeling a lot more relaxed, the little boy allowed us to sit in his place, on the elephants neck, in front of the platform/seat. Darren went first, and I finally got up the courage to go. After a few steps I wanted to get back to my seat, although me being me I didn't back out and just stuck too. It was hard work, as I was feeling quite tense as I was scared of falling, so my leg muscles got tired quite quickly and I had to keep my butt cheeks clenched as for some reason it made me feel more secure, as each step of the elephant made the elephants shoulders lift up and down and so I had to alternate my butt cheeks to do the same! It was quite a good work out for them!! At the end of my riding, the elephant lifted her trunk up and sprayed me with what I presume must be elephant snotters... nice!
We had to shout "Huh" to make the elephant walk, and "whoa" to get the elephant to stop. I'd never realised how long an elephant's penis was until the one in front started peeing; it was huge!!!!
Lucy and Robbie got sold a ring made out of hair from the tail of the elephant, and tusk that was in the shape of a tusk, from their driver.
They sold us a photo of us on the elephant which was quite good, at the end of the trek.
Next stop was to pick up the Aussies from the waterfall. Our guide let us out so we could see the waterfall which was quite cool. We didn't get to walk up to the top, but it was quite cool seeing the semi-man-made base of the waterfall, it was rather spectacular! It seemed a very popular spot for locals, very peaceful, and there were lots of kids, and grow-ups too, splashing about in the pool at the bottom. There was also a river running down with quaint bridges over them. There was a particularly beautiful tree aswell, with interesting roots.
The tiger temple was next. I was a bit apprehensive about going as after booking the trip I had done a bit of investigating online and there were mixed opinions about the place; some accusing the place of drugging the tigers etc. On enterring, we had to sign a form saying that we realised that tigers were wild creatures and therefore they could not be held responsible if the tiger accidentally killed us. I was a bit unsure about signing my life away so to speak, although I'd rather be eaten by a tiger than a human. I thought I should maybe write "I do not understand what I'm signing" in the signing box, but as it was in English I thought they might think I was a bit weird, or if the person taking the tickets read it, they might not let me in, so instead I squiggled something that didn't really resemble my signature or my name!
There were several other animals in the reserve, I guessed that they were probably bred for feeding to the tigers, although that's completely my guess. First stop was to have our photo taken with the older tigers. We had to leave bags and loose things at the entrance and then someone took our hand and then another worker/volunteer would take our camera and take all the photos. The tigers were dosing, well, most of them were, but it was at the heat of the day, and if given the chance, we'd probably have been doing the same. The younger tigers which we went to see next were a lot more bouncy and active, as expected. They were really adorable, and although they were kept on leashes they didn't seem to be mistreated, although I think they were looking forward to a bit more freedom, which apparently was coming later in the afternoon, although we unfortunatly had to leave before the "show" started. By show I mean, the tigers were left free to roam in their own sanctuary so we could see them acting more normally.
The drive back was tiring, it took quite a while, about 3 hours. I slept for a bit of it although it wasn't particularly comfortable as I kept on banging my head on the window. The minibus driving pulled up outside the wrong hostel at first; there are many youth hostel association hostels in Bangkok, he'd taken us to the slightly more upmarket one. He seemed to be unsure of where we were going so we showed him on the map, and he called them up, and when we finally arrived the driver smiled so much! It was really cute!
Inside, I washed some clothes before we headed out to the vegetarian restaurant we had seen the previous day. On the way I saw a wild rat which was a bit random, and near the hostel were quite a few gecko's; it was all quite thrilling! I was really nervous as to what the food would be like at the restaurant, but thankfully we all enjoyed our meals. Lucy and I had a deep fried pancake-like thing, stuffed with mushrooms and various other things. The texture and flavours were absolutely amazing! I had a iced soya latte which was heaven as well. I'd wanted one earlier in the day, but most places don't have the soya milk unfortunatly, although it does seem to be quite commonly sold on it's own in cartoons in most places. Robbie had a tofu/vegetable/green pepper curry which looked tasty, but and was tasty, but also extremely hot!! We then stepped next door to the internet cafe, which was cheaper than the previous place we had been to, but it was also extremely slow, and the space key didn't work very well which made typing extremely slow!
Lucy and Robbie embarked on a game of Ludo, which Robbie commited kamikaze in as he was losing. I decided to go downstairs to the lobby of the youth hostel where I continued blogging for a bit longer, and also made even better friends with the gorgeous pussy cat! I really need to find out her name! It was quite a late night again; around midnight.
Bangkok -19th June 2009
Wow! What a start! After a sleepless night in Heathrow airport and an almost 24 hour flight with Royal Brunei Airlines we finally arrived in Bangkok. The flights were brilliant, the foodabsolutely amazing!! An apple stuffedwith an almondand cinammon centre and icing, restaurant standards of interesting vegetable based mains! It wasso delicious! We were kept well filledfor the entire journey,and I was sat beside a very nice young lady who was very interesting. A recent medic graduate (post grad degree) who was visiting herArmy boyfriend in Brunei and then travelling on to Malaysia together. She had a really nice smile!
We had to stop for fuel in Dubai which I thought was pretty cool! There wasn't much to take photo evidence of unfortunatly as we were only off the plane for about 20 minutes. Lucy bought a coffee as she was desperate for one, but got slightly ripped off, $7!! :O
Next stop was Brunei which was a surprisingly small airport. It had a lovely wee gift shop that sold globes made 0f different types of gems in it.
When we arrived in Bangkok we headed through in search of a bus/taxi to take us to the city. A small lady approached us, stressing off the buses and saying we could get a taxi for 200 Baht each (4 Pounds). She lead us to a man waiting beside a car (an unmarked/unofficial taxi) which made us a bit nervous, but we went for it anyway. The lady took a small child out the car, which was a bit random! We didn't really have any idea where we were going, but we'd given the address of the Youth Hostel of Bangkok (the cheaper one) and hoped it was going to be okay. The drive took around an hour. Thankfully when we arrived at the hostel (3pm) they had space. Lucy and I decided to share a private room so we could lock our things in and Robbie was going to stay in a dorm. We were pleasantly surprised by the price, and also by the condition of the room. It was not only air conditioned, but had a nice (but cold) shower! Oh, and a TV which didn't work!! Lucy sat down on one of the beds and it was very hard, although I thought it felt more comfortable than the beds at the halls at uni.
We were all exhausted but thought we should make use of the day, and not confuse our body clocks any more, so went out for a walk. Only a few metres down the road we were standing around looking at the buildings and discussing how to cross a road (apparently the Thai people just ignore the traffic and walk at a steady speed thus allowing the cars to dodge them!) we weren't as confident though! Whilst we were loitering, a very friendly man started talking to us in English. It was such a lovely welcome to the country. We got out our map and he showed us where we should go, and told us to take a tuk-tuk. We set off in search of a tuk-tuk and as we came across one, we were anxious to not be scammed, so were in deliberations about whether we should go with him or not but low and behold, our friendly random tour guide turned up out of the blue and told us to get in which was handy. It was a bit daunting at first; a bit like being on a white water raft, with lots of rapids and ever so often a bump in the road would feet like we were meeting a bit rock in the way. The scariest part was when he did a "u-ey" in the road, where we felt we were about to fall out! We got used to it and were able to enjoy ourselves! It was quite a thrill overtaking people and seeing a fellow tourist in another tuk tuk so we turned and waved which was entertaining! Our first stop was to a Buddhist temple. As it was Buddha day, Buddha would bring us luck if we prayed in the temple. We were unsure whether we should take our shoes off, and whether we were wearing appropriate clothing, but thanfully the school next to the temple had just closed for the day, so the English teacher who had come down himself to pray was able to help us out, and also to guide us in how to pray. The temple itself was really beautiful, and so peaceful. We had to kneel, and put our hands together, then bow down three times, for a minute or so we made a wish, and then to close the prayer we bowed down three more times. It was a really great experience. When we were finishing off, it was almost 5pm, so the local monks came in to do their prayers also. It was really strange to see such a beautiful temple right next to some really run down buildings, although it seems quite common in most of Thailand.
The next stop was to Top-Ten; a personalised tailor shop. It was quite interesting when we arrived as the shop assistants swarmed to us and were treating us really well and letting us try on things and flick through the brochures. We were all quite tempted by the offer of $300, but felt like we shouldn't spend all our money on the first day. The shop assistants got quite grumpy when we said we didn't think we could afford it.
Next stop was to see the Giant Gold Buddha; an absolutely enormous Buddha which was right next to a really pretty mosaiced temple. The were quite a few monks around, getting ready for something that was happening in the evening I think.
We saw quite a few cats and dogs about which I instantly fell in love with, but Robbie seems to have a bit of an obsession with them all having rabies!
We were taken by the tuk-tuk man to another tailor shop, which we instantly thought "oh no!" to; but thankfully they weren't as pushy and they didn't try to guilt trip us when we left. It was full of lots of really beautiful materials, although obviously, being in Asia, a lot is silk, but I was still able to admire the range of colours. The tuk-tuk man gets a fuel voucher for every customer he brings in apparently which is why we'd agreed to be taken in there.
Next stop was the tourist information, it was getting dark by this time, and it rained quite heavily whilst we were in. I was quite thankful for not being out when it poured it down. The man in the tourist information was really funny and charming! They gave us some free water and he was cracking jokes all the time which really made me feel happy. He suggested various things we should do, including going to the old capital, going to a beach, going on a tiger tour, elephant ride, various things in the city, and also to head south to the famous full moon party, which I'd never heard of before. It all sounded really amasing (there is no " " on the keyboard!), but the price he was quoting us was ridiculously high, so we felt we couldn't really afford it. We decided to just settle on doing the Tiger Temple and the Elephant ride, although little did we know we were being majorly ripped off (grh!!) - it cost $120 (75 pounds) for the whole day trip, which we booked for tomorrow. We were really excited about it though, and at the time, we hadn't known what prices to expect, although in future we shall definetly barter quite a bit!
We had taken quite a bit of time in the tourist office, and were anxious about the tuk-tuk driver, who was extremely friendly and ever knew about Newcastle united being relegated!! and offered his sympathies which we found very amusing!! We asked him to take us back to the Youth Hostel as we too were pretty exhausted. We then set out again in search of the internet and food. We didn't have to look far before we came across a small cafe which sold various curries and breakfasts. There wasn't much choice for me... chips or chips! but I was quite happy with them, and I had an amasing pineapple smoothie which made up for it!! Absolutely delicious! Altogether it cost 60 baht (just over a pound! - bargain!!) There was the most beautiful dog in the world in the cafe, so gorgeous. I attempted to speak Thai to her, but she didn't really understand my accent I think. I got a lick out of her though ;) I'm definetly planning on coming back here for the dog and the smoothies!! Lucy and Robbie really enjoyed there curries too; Robbie was at the point of scraping away the varnish on the plate he was really trying to get every last drop!
We then headed off to an internet cafe, which we thought would be everywhere, but it took a while to find one, and when we did, we found three; a bit like buses! It was so nice to get online finally! It was super cheap too, as long as we're not getting scammed, the prices here are amasing!!
We had thought about going to see the ladyboys of Bangkok today, but due to our tiring day, and a 7am start the following morning, we thought we better have an early night. On our way back from the cafe we walked past a ladyboy, definetly not as convincing as the ladyboys in the show seemed to be!
We got back to the hostel, and it didn't take long to get to sleep, we were all completely exhausted!
We had to stop for fuel in Dubai which I thought was pretty cool! There wasn't much to take photo evidence of unfortunatly as we were only off the plane for about 20 minutes. Lucy bought a coffee as she was desperate for one, but got slightly ripped off, $7!! :O
Next stop was Brunei which was a surprisingly small airport. It had a lovely wee gift shop that sold globes made 0f different types of gems in it.
When we arrived in Bangkok we headed through in search of a bus/taxi to take us to the city. A small lady approached us, stressing off the buses and saying we could get a taxi for 200 Baht each (4 Pounds). She lead us to a man waiting beside a car (an unmarked/unofficial taxi) which made us a bit nervous, but we went for it anyway. The lady took a small child out the car, which was a bit random! We didn't really have any idea where we were going, but we'd given the address of the Youth Hostel of Bangkok (the cheaper one) and hoped it was going to be okay. The drive took around an hour. Thankfully when we arrived at the hostel (3pm) they had space. Lucy and I decided to share a private room so we could lock our things in and Robbie was going to stay in a dorm. We were pleasantly surprised by the price, and also by the condition of the room. It was not only air conditioned, but had a nice (but cold) shower! Oh, and a TV which didn't work!! Lucy sat down on one of the beds and it was very hard, although I thought it felt more comfortable than the beds at the halls at uni.
We were all exhausted but thought we should make use of the day, and not confuse our body clocks any more, so went out for a walk. Only a few metres down the road we were standing around looking at the buildings and discussing how to cross a road (apparently the Thai people just ignore the traffic and walk at a steady speed thus allowing the cars to dodge them!) we weren't as confident though! Whilst we were loitering, a very friendly man started talking to us in English. It was such a lovely welcome to the country. We got out our map and he showed us where we should go, and told us to take a tuk-tuk. We set off in search of a tuk-tuk and as we came across one, we were anxious to not be scammed, so were in deliberations about whether we should go with him or not but low and behold, our friendly random tour guide turned up out of the blue and told us to get in which was handy. It was a bit daunting at first; a bit like being on a white water raft, with lots of rapids and ever so often a bump in the road would feet like we were meeting a bit rock in the way. The scariest part was when he did a "u-ey" in the road, where we felt we were about to fall out! We got used to it and were able to enjoy ourselves! It was quite a thrill overtaking people and seeing a fellow tourist in another tuk tuk so we turned and waved which was entertaining! Our first stop was to a Buddhist temple. As it was Buddha day, Buddha would bring us luck if we prayed in the temple. We were unsure whether we should take our shoes off, and whether we were wearing appropriate clothing, but thanfully the school next to the temple had just closed for the day, so the English teacher who had come down himself to pray was able to help us out, and also to guide us in how to pray. The temple itself was really beautiful, and so peaceful. We had to kneel, and put our hands together, then bow down three times, for a minute or so we made a wish, and then to close the prayer we bowed down three more times. It was a really great experience. When we were finishing off, it was almost 5pm, so the local monks came in to do their prayers also. It was really strange to see such a beautiful temple right next to some really run down buildings, although it seems quite common in most of Thailand.
The next stop was to Top-Ten; a personalised tailor shop. It was quite interesting when we arrived as the shop assistants swarmed to us and were treating us really well and letting us try on things and flick through the brochures. We were all quite tempted by the offer of $300, but felt like we shouldn't spend all our money on the first day. The shop assistants got quite grumpy when we said we didn't think we could afford it.
Next stop was to see the Giant Gold Buddha; an absolutely enormous Buddha which was right next to a really pretty mosaiced temple. The were quite a few monks around, getting ready for something that was happening in the evening I think.
We saw quite a few cats and dogs about which I instantly fell in love with, but Robbie seems to have a bit of an obsession with them all having rabies!
We were taken by the tuk-tuk man to another tailor shop, which we instantly thought "oh no!" to; but thankfully they weren't as pushy and they didn't try to guilt trip us when we left. It was full of lots of really beautiful materials, although obviously, being in Asia, a lot is silk, but I was still able to admire the range of colours. The tuk-tuk man gets a fuel voucher for every customer he brings in apparently which is why we'd agreed to be taken in there.
Next stop was the tourist information, it was getting dark by this time, and it rained quite heavily whilst we were in. I was quite thankful for not being out when it poured it down. The man in the tourist information was really funny and charming! They gave us some free water and he was cracking jokes all the time which really made me feel happy. He suggested various things we should do, including going to the old capital, going to a beach, going on a tiger tour, elephant ride, various things in the city, and also to head south to the famous full moon party, which I'd never heard of before. It all sounded really amasing (there is no " " on the keyboard!), but the price he was quoting us was ridiculously high, so we felt we couldn't really afford it. We decided to just settle on doing the Tiger Temple and the Elephant ride, although little did we know we were being majorly ripped off (grh!!) - it cost $120 (75 pounds) for the whole day trip, which we booked for tomorrow. We were really excited about it though, and at the time, we hadn't known what prices to expect, although in future we shall definetly barter quite a bit!
We had taken quite a bit of time in the tourist office, and were anxious about the tuk-tuk driver, who was extremely friendly and ever knew about Newcastle united being relegated!! and offered his sympathies which we found very amusing!! We asked him to take us back to the Youth Hostel as we too were pretty exhausted. We then set out again in search of the internet and food. We didn't have to look far before we came across a small cafe which sold various curries and breakfasts. There wasn't much choice for me... chips or chips! but I was quite happy with them, and I had an amasing pineapple smoothie which made up for it!! Absolutely delicious! Altogether it cost 60 baht (just over a pound! - bargain!!) There was the most beautiful dog in the world in the cafe, so gorgeous. I attempted to speak Thai to her, but she didn't really understand my accent I think. I got a lick out of her though ;) I'm definetly planning on coming back here for the dog and the smoothies!! Lucy and Robbie really enjoyed there curries too; Robbie was at the point of scraping away the varnish on the plate he was really trying to get every last drop!
We then headed off to an internet cafe, which we thought would be everywhere, but it took a while to find one, and when we did, we found three; a bit like buses! It was so nice to get online finally! It was super cheap too, as long as we're not getting scammed, the prices here are amasing!!
We had thought about going to see the ladyboys of Bangkok today, but due to our tiring day, and a 7am start the following morning, we thought we better have an early night. On our way back from the cafe we walked past a ladyboy, definetly not as convincing as the ladyboys in the show seemed to be!
We got back to the hostel, and it didn't take long to get to sleep, we were all completely exhausted!
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