TravelStream™ news feed for member lucyrose on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/lucyrose en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 01 May 2008 03:42:23 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1207725840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1207725840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1207725840/tpod.html Thu, 01 May 2008 03:42:23 -0400 Lifes a Beach

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Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

After a day of travel we are welcomed into the most built up city on our itinerary with a woman paying our busfare. Mainly because i couldnt get to the old travel pouch under my clothes under my two backpacks. so that was nice and a complete and utter summary of people in singapore. You barely have to get a map out before people ask where you need to get to. The immigration was quite stressful because we actually flew into Johor Bahru in Malaysia and got a bus to S, we had to keep getting off and on as we left malaysia and then got a stamp on entering Singapore..GAH! its definately not a shopaholic backp[acker friendly system i tell you.
They call SIngapopre the 'Fine City' because they fine you for everything, Jaywalking (i e crossing anywhere where there isnt a 'legal crossing', which is fyi anywhere) smoking in public, eating on public transport and even carrying durian fruit around. Durians are massive lychee like things, all spikey, but basically they STINK and are meant to taste delicious. but they are illegal. a fruit is illegal. ridiculous.
We find our way with various directions to our hostel which is the cleanest ive seen yet....its like sleeping in Ikea. Were pretty much written off for this first night so eat in a food court and want to pass out. Han and I go on 'mission find train tickets' so we can leave in a few days. when we eventually find the station its all shut. i thought were meant to be in a city???? 24 HOUR SERVICE PLEASE>!>!>

The next day we rinse the free breakfast and duss back to the trainstation to get tickets....navigating the various tubestations is interesting, but we buy the appropriately named 'tourist pass' so we can get around easily....we lose ourselves in various Plazas tring to find Solder as hol has broken her glasses...find some and then go to the famous Singapore ZOo for the rest of the afternoon. Pretty much the coolest zoo ive ever been to (out of London Zoo, and Bristol Zoo) in fact its more like Longleat in that all of teh animals are kept i HUGE enclosures completely like their natural environment. The orang-utans are my fave, i was quite gutted we couldnt see them in Borneo but we just didnt have the time to fly to teh other side of the island, so seeing them here virtually freeroaming was quite an experience. They are terrifyingly Human, one old man one just sat and watched us for about 10 minutes, watching him, watching us...i wonder what he was thinking. There was a couple snuggling and loads of little ones swinging aorund like mentalists. YOu, for a small fee, could have your photo taken with them, but we abstained, and moved along to see the Polarbears in their Air con enclosure catching live fish for din, and see the white tigers and the rhinos...it was pretty cool. I broke my flip flop which is never the best thing to do, but in a free roaming zoo it majorly sucks..i had to buy some new ones in the zoo shop, theyre very white and chav. wonderful.
That night we went to Raffles and had Singapore Slings, at just over a tenner each they are the most expensive drinks ive ever bought, but i guess its the experience you pay for, with the live band and teh building surrounding you lit up all funkily! was quite cool to go to the bar and 'put it on my card' the bartender asked if i came here often. HAHAHHAHAH! yeah right! wed all dressed up for funsies though so sat eating Roti in the food court later caused a bit of a stir.
Tomorrow we leave to go to Kuala Lumpur- another big city, another country, some more stamps in the ol'PassPort : )xxxxxx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1207550520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1207550520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1207550520/tpod.html Thu, 01 May 2008 03:22:28 -0400 Lifes a Beach

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Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

We arrive in Kota Kinabalu and get a local bus to the hostel that we booked from Bristol oh so long ago...its nice here, were in our first dorm room which is an 'experience' travelers are meant to have...We meet a really nice girl and her grumpy med student boyf who recommends a restaurant across the road where we discover a most fabulous invention called a Roti which is a kind of pancake which you have with cheese or egg or onion and lentil or masala sauce...this becomes our staple food item whilst in Malaysia. Anyways, the menu is all in Malay, so we discover this quite by accident, but its always kinda fun to just point at something and not know what on earth your going to get. (later on this technique comes back to bite me in the arse..)

We spend our day in KK shopping as holly has no mountainous clothes..ive been carrying trusty thermals and fleecy things around since we left but we end up purchasing matching bobble hats to keep our heads warm and do a grand tour of several 'Plaza's or Malls. Holly buys a full 80s tribute outfit complete with orange joggers with white 'go-faster' stripes down the side... Twas not exactly culturally reckoning but whatever, we decide that the next day we will visit an island off the coast...
Manukan was pretty much a tiny paradise of white beach and crystal clear water... We got off the boat and could see shoals of tropical multicoloured fish swimming just below the surface...we walk along the jetty and find a spot on the beach without people near us (this isnt hard, its practically deserted) lube on the old suncream and run like small children into the sea which, for your information is like entering a just run bath....wahhhhoooooooooooooooooo!!!! its mighty hot and we fry a little, despite applying suncream liberally 4 times hannah ressembles a freshly cooked lobster on exiting the sea. we cover up and sit in the shade the palm trees create and babble about all of the 'paradesical' moments weve had...and what on earth we will be doing this time tomorrow.
Basically, for some reason that i cannot quite remember, i though that, in the name of Rucksack Club we should climb a HUGE mountain whilst enjoying our travels around S.E Asia...Mount Kinabalu, on the island of Borneo is half the size of Everest and the Highest peak in Malaysia...at 4095 metres tall is a bloody beast.
We booked our ascent as there are only so many places at the lodge under the summit, and therefore we couldnt back out due to sheer laziness....
We got up at an ungodly hour, woke up most people in our dorm whilst vacating teh premisis and ate a relatively unsubstantial breakfast of peanut butter and white toast...a driver called henry drove us through the fabulous national park to get to the base of the montagne, and i slept the entire way, missing it all....we met our guide, Petrus who is about 45 and fitter than the three of us put together. He climbs it twice, maybe 3 times a week and has run to the top in and hour and 45 minutes......we start at Timphon gate and begin our uphill struggle, just to say weve done it...after about a kilometre were jolly and happy, by 2 and 3/4s were tired and hungry...at each reststop hut we have a bite to eat and look at the rapidly changing landscape...i give my nature valley bar to a hungry and inquisitve squirrel and take many photos of my shoe in the process, trying to capture the 'moment'...
Teh clouds roll in and i put on my bright orange 'Orange' Glastonbury poncho as it drizzles, but im sweating so much inside that i might as well just not wear it...the trees change from rainforesty jungly exciting ones with calling birds and squeaking bugs to akind of brush by the time we stagger to the top and find our way into the heated lodge...its taken us 5 hours to walk not very far..And then we find our accomadation has been changed to the 'unheated' Gunting Lodge, another half a Km up the path, and our dins are back her in an hour. grumblegrumblegrumble. Our lodge is a room with 4 bunks, on a corridor of other same rooms...the showers are hot but i cant bear to undress to have one cos everything else is cooollld....i have 2 wool blankets on my bed and hope to god thatll be enough.
At din we talk to a really nice girl called Rachel who is climbing up with her Ma...shes English too and done a lot of shopping too so we have a large amount in common. Dinner was all you can eat and we stuffed ourselves, having found out that you dont get breakfast til after youve summited and returned at 10am the next morning...
BEd at 8pm, havent done that since about year 7.
Several bangs wake us at 2am...i slept ok in all of my clothes, which makes getting out of bed fairly unpleasantly cold. Blearily we find Petrus who is looking spritely and we begin the last 2km walk up top..../passing people suffering from Altitude sickness having to drop back. Torches are the only thing lighting the way and its steps and rocks which quickly turn into sheer granite slabs and ropes to pull yourself up. I havent wanted to give up as much in my whole life, as when i saw the summit (not visble from the bottom as its so high) and realised how far away it was....but i thought of all the things that would be waiting for me once id done it. mainly all you can eat fried breakfast, but also a massive sense of achievement, and self belief that if i want to spend my weekend hill climbing for pleasure, i can.
Sunrise is at 6am and we make it with 10 minutes to spare. the air is ridiculously thin and were all wheezing and stopping every 5 metres to catch our breath...i feel geriatric. AT the top were a combination of people whod been waiting for hours, and those who like us had just made it in time. behind us was a long trail of littloe torch lights indicating the people who hadnt made it in time. To be perfectly honest teh rising of teh sun was lost oin me. i was too busy being pleased with myself to pay ultimate attention./ After about half an hour at the top hunger strikes and we return back to teh lodge, stripping off clothes as the sun heats us through and thanking god that we had climbed it in the dark, because if id seen what i was doing idve stopped hours before!!!
Breakfast was appreciated greatly, TEA!! and Eggy Bread and scrambled eggs and cereal and weird green rice pudding with tapioca balls in. our decent was worse than the ascent. My legs seized up and we hobbled down. it took the same amount of time to get down as it did to get up....a shameful thing to admit....we wewrent exactly an advertisement for success either...all the people passing us saw the pain in our eyes and the obvious effort of taking small steps downhill...we put fear in many a persons heart im sure.
We had lunch and got our certificate and apologised to Petrus for being so young and yet so pathetic and got returned safely to Summer Lodge in Town. The next day we were to fly to Jahor and then travel on to Singapore so for tonight at least we crash out....
Theres one for Rucksack Club : )
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1207290600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1207290600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1207290600/tpod.html Thu, 01 May 2008 02:36:30 -0400 Lifes a Beach

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Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

Sorry its taken me so long to write....im a little behind as you may gather and ive been on some islands which i will write about which were lacking in affordable internet places......
Anyway, Kuala Lumpur airport was pretty much the same as any other, i have to write a little about it otherwise the map with the red line on following my progress would be inaccurate and we cant have that. anyways, there McDonalds even out here, which is a shame, but for the first time in weeks i have FRESH milk, FROM A COW!! i buy a couple of cartons and consume them like a kid at playtime...wahooooo...flights are flights and the travel part of travelling tends to suck so there we go...nothing new to be said : )
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Siem Reap, Cambodia

Its hollys birthday, and what more could she appreciate than a special bottle of Cambodian Muscle wine and of course, a heart shaped donut, AND some hersheys chocolate kisses. Lovely friends we are. (sorry if the punctuation is out...the keyboard is in a plastic bag. for some reason). We get on a mini bus where, once again the seatbacks dont stay up and hanskel's seat is on a 45 degree slant. something that seems to shock the driver. Holly passes the muscle wine around as we brace ourselves for a long drive in this wehicle that could only be described as 'interesting', when we are offloaded and put on a coach. they bang on the kareoke and set off. We stop halfway so we can empty our bladders and purchase some fried tarantulas...MAde some tuna sandwiches instead and stank out teh coach-whoops.
Arrived and got taken by tuktuk to the hostel where we wanted to stay, but tehy were full. Queue crack of thunder and pouring rain. so tuktuk drives like a maniac, were clingiing on for dear life to our bags, precariously wobbling on the front. HE turns sharply into a guesthouse and drives through the border of palms to the porch and under it. we decide to stay. i think hes happy. The rest of that day we were confined to that room, unfortunately there was a t.v which meant we accidentally watched The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe. the new one obviously...and discussed the levels of attractiveness/annoyngness of the characters. then we watched alot of WWF wrestling and wrote our journals. Went out for some din when the rain had subsided and found a place called Temple Bar, which had some traditional dancers doing their thang. There was a guy LOVING being dressed up as a peacock. i feel he was more comfortable in the makeup than the girl. drank some Angkor BEer, not as nice as Beerlao i have to say, and tehn went to the night market. Holly received a Same Same, But Different teeshirt from us as well...if you are unfamilliar with this concept, if you boil it all down, everything here is same same, but different- guesthouses, restaurants...its all the same....we are in fact same, same, but different. i wanted a shirt too, but we thought it would be too sad. and samey.
The next day we got up laterrss and went to look around (at the market)...stopped to ask for directions in a crazy posh hotel which was SOOO AIR CONNED AND POSH. they sent us on our way quickly however, all sweaty and fake la-coste-y. Cambodia is without doubt the hottest place on earth.
'hello lay-deeee you buy scarf?' is what everyone says. 'all silk, all silk'- everything here is silk. nylon is silk, polyester is silk. it became a running joke, we had to take it in turns to ask if marble, wood, plastic, was in fact silk. sometimes they were DEFINATELY silk! Decided to eat in a restaurant called dead fish, after meeting some rich englishwomen with a 'driver' who recommended it...basically it is a multi tiered health and saftey nightmare- imagine, 40 foot to the ceiling, many platforms with pulleys to take your orders to you, selling alcohol! and whats more, they have about 8 full grown crocs in a pen cos it used to be a croc farm and they didnt want to sell them to the meat trade. fair dos. had rubbish noodles, and the worst service at the first place weve come across where service is included. BAH! Bought some mangoes from the market, off a woman eating a foetal chick. basically once the eggs begin to develop ( blastocyst stage, any biologists reading) they skewer them and barbie them. it was half black half white and she kept pulling stuff out of it...made me wretch. although i do eat both egg and chicken this just seemed a bit wrong. Went back to the hotel to find that we had no electricity. this morning we had had no water, despite this fact they had managed to do our washing (WITHOUT DETERGENT-GRRRRRRRR) and lose one of my tops. the guy tried to give me a man's one instead. didnt fool me! met the 'talk for england couple' in a bar and ate and drank 'Angkor Sunsets'- they talked for england, tehy had been to angkor that very day, their favourite temple was the tree one, it has trees wrapped around it, in some ways the trees were better than the temple itself, he does love his trees, yes he does...........................................
Up at 5am to go to Angkor to see the sunrise..were cold for the first time zoooming along on the tuktuk...arrived just in time to see it,which was cool. tehre were wild horses roaming around and for a while we found ourselves alone, perched at the top of one of teh lesser temples at angkor, in silence. there were mILLLLLIONS of tourists there, but it didnt detract too much from the experience. down creepy cool tunnels you would stumble across mini shrines with candles burning. Its a shame, during teh war the temples werel looted and most of the buddhas are now headless. Angkor is the most famous of the complex nbetwork of temples, which spread out for 34 square kilometers. its the one with the three towers - i believe Cambodia to be the only country with a national monument on its flag. i may be incorrect.
After seeing that, and our first MONKEY of the trip, who was chilling on the stone bridge over the river, (non rabid you will be pleased to know, the primate not the river) we went to Angkor Thom- which has HUGE 8 foot faces staringf at you from every angle. i honestly haev absolutely no idea how they were ever put up there. Met the cousin of Scabalicious- this dog had a hole the size of an apple, just removed of flesh in its back. you could see its bones. i was eating. grossss.... next we climbed to the top of a massive temple which was basically just some stairs. it was almost midday and i think my body was attempting to create pores to chuck sweat out of. We walked along the elephant walkway, couldnt work out why it was called that until we got off and then realiesed that tehre were 8 foot stone elephants holding it up. missed the terrace of the leper king- couldnt find it.
lastly, after lunch and a while searching for the elusive Tuktuk we went to the Tallest temple in Angkor, the stone was HOTTTT and really steep. some small children skipped past us making us feel silly. Lastly, the grand finale was teh 'ANgelina Temple' as we named it, the one in tombraider!! WOOOO! we were idiots and tried to walk on all the ground so as to be able to say we walked in Angelinas footprints, and posed with our 'guns' hanging from vines and the likes. the french tourists were vaguely amused by us, some were more interested in us faffing around than in the tree entangled stone work. gotta love trees. mmm.
That night we met up with hollys cousin Olly, but were pretty darn knackered so arranged to have dins with him and his friend sam the night after. at teh dead fish. apparently the fish and chips is amazing. Laundry still hasnt turned up.
Next day, it happens to be lunchtime by the time were up- so we go and eat at a local place called the 'khymer kitchen'- mick jagger has eaten tehre, so we take some jagger wide mouthed photos whilst we wait for our food. IT WAS SOOO GOOD. i had a pumpkin thing. cant describe it, will attempt to reconstruct it when i get home if anyone is interested? Then, as Siem ReaP IS so small we decided to base our whole day on eateriesss- went to a place called 'butterfly garden', which was surprisingly lacking in butterflies...via another posh hotel that had SCENTED air con! a wooop- as you can tell, little things have become vair important!
That evening, after finally getting my top back (doubt it has seen the washing machine) we went to meet Sam and Ollie....got an amazing platform seat, right above the little dancing stage where a embarrased dancer stood for a good five mins waiting for the music to start! our beer arrived on a pulley system, and sam and ollie arrived with some american girls who ignored us, and a pretentious londoner....had a really nice meal, fish and chips was sadly for england, the best ive ever consumed, and then we sat on a rickety balcony esque thang chatting. Pretentious Londoner likes 'Jack Wills' girls, ie tracky bums, messy hair, big oversized bags, you get the idea, look like theyve just 'fallen out of bed looking fabulous'- we haev a debate about this, due to the fact that they spend bloody HOURS getting ready to look like theyve only taken 5 mins. he likes the fact that the 'spend ages trying to look good for guys'- good god. we leave as were flying to borneo via Kuala Lumpur tomorrow, and they go to 'get the girls out'. apparently there are some 'well cool' 'gals' at their hostel who should be 'a lot of fun'. one of them he refers to as 'Ginge' cos he cant be arsed to remember her name.
The next day we have to PAY to LEAVE cambodia. 25 dollardollars! pahhhhh. almost miss our flights as the guy 'forgets' to update the electronic board. do the walk of shame down the aisle of the plane.....whooops!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1206444180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1206444180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1206444180/tpod.html Wed, 09 Apr 2008 22:44:11 -0400 Lifes a Beach

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The coach journey was so long it became a JOKE! We slept on the beepy coach, got chucked off at 6am and told to wait for the next one. Got on the next one and got chucked off because apparently it wasnt the right one. Got told to get on the next one which was a sleeper bus which we hadnt paid for. So we stayed on. A sleeper bus has seats that recline fully and theyre stacked on top of each other like bunkbeds. SWEET! get some kip and watch the world go by...Vietnam. 70% of agricultural land is rice paddies, so its really green. Except if you go inland too much, or away from the Mekong river it gets really dry. the soil is a tangerine colour and only scrubby stuff grows.
The road the coach took was along the coastal path for a bit, precarious and wobbley, but no worries, the beach isnt far below and i wouldnt mind a dip...the sand is a lemon sorbet yellow (i know, im being pretentious with my colour descriptions, ill stop) the sea was turquoise and shining and beautiful...stopped for lunch and had some yummy seafood.
Ended up in Saigon (old name) or HCMC as i will refer to it..ho chi mihn is tooo long...at night and followed the rough guide to a hostel down a backstreet...we were tired after sitting and doing nothing all day, but booked a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels the next day, which was free....except there was a catch. we had to TEACH a class of KID for 2 hours at an international school...sounded like a good once in a lifetime opportunity, so we went for it.
Up the next day, had breakfast and a randomer called Kaaarr-lll came over and said could he hang with us for the day....so we said 'yer were going to these tunnels like, you can like join us if you like yeerr?' Got the bus, and the other (secret) catch was we had to stop at a Handicapped Handicrafts Shop. I dont joke. How can handicrafts be handcapped you ask? well theyre made by people affected by the Agent Orange that the Americans dumped all over the place willy nilly. It seemed like exploitation really so we looked on cringing. Then we went to the Tunnels, which were the bass for the (correct me if im wrong) VietKong rebellionish thing during the vietnam war...there are 40kms of tunnels that are spread over 3 levels. The bottom one is no more than a crawl space. gross. So we saw the man traps set for the americans, one was called the 'armpit sqeezer', and then we went down and along one set nearest the surface. its the sort of claustrophobic experience that i dont especially like anyway, but it was coupled with the fact our group was quite big so you walked head in ass all the way along. lovely. We got an icecream at the place where all the macho men can fire an AK-47 (just to say they have, because they are soooo manly, and need justification to prove this fact). Vietnam is the sort of place where this experience, of shooting a machine gun, can be optionally coupled with consuming a bottle of beer (6.4%). genius. It wasnt especially an informative visit, so in the afternoon, with karrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl (newzealander, quite a nice guy) we went to the war Remnants Museam.
Probably the most sobering exhibition ive ever seen. Just photo after photo of the people, soldiers and children all caught up in the stupid fighting. there was a photo taken split seconds before a group of women and kids were all shot, the caption underneath was by the photographer who said he had asked the soldiers to pause so he could capture the moment. HELLO SICKO. theyre about to die. have some respect. idiot.
There was that famous one of the little girl, all naked, crying and running away from the bomb blast, in the whole section dedicated to agent orange. There were even some preserved foetuses, with two heads. god.
After that we went to teach some e-numbered up kids English. The teachers gave us some workbooks and told us to spend time saying the words and have the kids repeat them. Then the teachers left us with classes of 20 6-12 year olds. on our lonesomes. for 45 minutes! gah! its surprising how quickly hangman and the hokey cokey get boring. i tried SO hard to entertain them..teach them. but most of them were way above the level of work set, but not advanced enough to hold a conversation. i drew a map of the world on the board and we played 'find england'....then i just tried to keep them quiet as they ran free. whoops.
repeat again after 'break' and im exhausted! We go out for dinner and end up sitting next to a Mersey Couple, who are very funny. laughing at,mind you. The woman continually pulls a hillarious face (think sucking salted lemons. or doing tequila slams) and then recounting the story of the weigh in she had had the previous night. Basically you can pay to be told that, by asian standards, you are obese. so she did. she was '11lbs overweight', id say 6, fairly. anyway. this machine began playing the Titanic theme as she stepped on, which we found hillarious. and her partner was adding to this comic analogy by saying 'its cos youre an iceberg love, you'd ve sank that ship haha'. HAHAHAHAH!! then she claimed that the snake a small boy was swallowing 'had a beak' hehehehehe!!!!!!!!!!!
Early to bed for us, were leaving tomorrow. Going daaaawn the Mekong innit?
Saigon was an exciting city, buzzing not overpowering. we like it. it ranks higher than Hanoi. A whooopdedoooooo!
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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

So, we have a well deserved lie in, after all of the beardy fun the night before...went to find breakfast as our Guesthouses' was excruitiatingly cher, think 75p for a boiled egg! PAH! well, this city isnt really geared for travellers, no little gigi cafe coffee shops, only the prices are touristy and theyre shootiing themsleves in the foot cos now the locals cant afford anything.
Anyway, Holly is partial to the old supermarket, so we go into 'Lucky Mart' and wander around in the cool...its airconditioned but the meat coolers are even cooler...considering Cambodia is by far the hottest place weve been so far- maybe due to the concrete emitting heat that it has absorbed or something sciency like that? So, supermarkets, theyre rather facinating arent they? they have boxes of raw chicken drumsticks where you and everyone else in the country picks their own....lovely...
We buy fresh fruit and MILK-FRESH MILK-NON UHT-NON SOYA- ACTUAL COW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! me and han drink a carton each and breathe on each other because we are such ladies. We sit on the steps in the supermarket eating this previously described feast, a totally normal activity in England..maybe just in Bris, i dunno, were all rather common, but anyway it facinated everyone to see all of these white gals guzzling milk sat on the steps up to the department store..
We trek in the heat to the Independence Memorial, a big thing in the middle of a roundabout, vair structural and not exceedingly attractive, and slather on suncreama s we walk.. Our plans are merely to visit the royal palace and teh silver pagoda, and take a exceedingly delightful stroll along the outside of the palace on a road shut to cars, making up a song called 'SweatyBack'- you get the general idea, although i will put the lyrics up at some point.... We got stopped by a monk collecting alms for something or other...basically we were taken by the shiney gold card he gave us- we had a chat to him for a bit about Buddhism, and gave him some riels- probably about 5 billion, in return for World Peace and sexy boys..fair deal i think? non?
Entered the royal palace, didnt realise you had to cover legs, guidebook only mentions shoulders-grr rough guide- so we comically pull our shorts down to cover knees, and are let in as our shirts cover our Rude booooi boxer bums....make some muttery comments about wedgees and how stupid it is that 'theoretically' my leopard print, turquoise knickknacks are on show, but that isnt half as indecent as my knees. i quite like my knees. SO the sprinklers are on on the perfect green lawns and i have to restrain my inner child who pleaded to be allowed to run around in them...i have a feeling the decency patrol wouldnt appreciate wet t-shirt competiions either.
The palace itself is actually many different buildings, all equally splendid, the throune hall is pretty darn posh, then we went into the 'outfit' room and found out that they wear a different colour every day- vair jazzy! should introduce that as some kind of national uniform- i Vote fluro yellow on thursdays. Chatted to another monk, who didnt promise World Peace or sexies, but was interested in where we came from, so had a civilised convo with him, and went in search of t'silver pagoda, which we couldnt see...saw another emerald buddha tho.
Went to a cafe (FOUND ONE) and annoying french woman and VB were there....woopdedoo. they pretended they didnt know us untill i waved infuriatingly at them ( a trick i learned from my mother at a young age who used to do it to our baldy neighbours). Ate a pizza that night. it was disappointing, but we didnt feel like paying 'white rates' again.
The following day is our day apart, so after getting breakfast and booking our bus to Siam Reap (for tomo) we duss off on our own- all headed for the genocide museam- S21.
I find a LURRVEly petite cafe, called the Bodhhi Tree which basically is in Ex-Pat central, the bourgoisie area of Phnom Penh (tehre are loadssss of ex pats) but its empty when i go in...whitewashed exteriour wall opens into a courtyard with trees everywhere and little benches and tables. Tehre are appletrees everywhere and bougonvillia and all sorts a nice flaaarss. i write my journal and have luncheon and then head for the Genocide Museam which was in fact a high school. The classrooms were turned into tiny cells, no bigger than an average sized door lain on the floor. the beds and manacles are left for people to see, often with a blown up pixellated photo on the wall of a corpse that was found in the manacles on the bed the day it was taken over. I found it most eerie that they used the climbing ropes from kids 'games/p.e' sessions in the playground, as gallows. The fronts of the open blocks were covered in barbed wire so people couldnt put themselves out of misery. Tehre were photos and photos of everyone who was put there by teh Khymer Rouge, children, adults, pregnant women..some have huge pupils, wide with terror. others are blank and emotionless. some have a glint of defiance, and i feel proud of these people..only 7 people survived S21. the killing fields, not far out of the city are where thousands and thousands of bodies were recovered from mass graves. These people had done nothing wrong.
It was really nice to be there alone. There are 'no talking' signs everywhere but in all honesty people dont need to be reminded. This only happened about 30ish years ago and i think is a sensitive subject still. theres a gallery there about the leaders of teh KhymerRouge, who all deny any knowledge of S21. Whilst we were in Cambodia their trials were going ahead- the problem is most of them have died of old age and the families robbed of members will never achieve a sense that justice has been done.
as i left a man whose face had mostly been burnt off thrust a hat at me, he wanted money. I think in some ways this is taking advantage of the place, of the attrocities, playing on peoples consciences, adn on their sympathies, having just attempted to understand the massacres you are faced with another attrocity. I didnt give him any money. I walked away quickly avoiding teh incessent and relentless 'tuktukcheapcheap'.
That evening we went back to the Boddhi Tree, its Hollys 19th tomorrow and Han and i took her out. The food was fabulous, we ate inside this time, in an old colonial french styled house, that looked like something out of the Habitat Catalogue. Nice! the waiters tried to teach us how to say 'thankyou' in Cambodian (ah-coon) and laughed at our pathetic attempts at 'repeat after me'.
The next day we checked out. Holly received her fabulous gifts, including a bottle of Cambodian Muscle WIne. Its meant to make you strong. its key ingredient is deer antler. TASTEY!!!!
onandon to siam reap.................to be continued...im going bed, g'nightxxxxxxx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1206626640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1206626640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1206626640/tpod.html Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:03:34 -0400 Lifes a Beach

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Chau Doc, Vietnam

Whatever happened to Delta Goodrem?
lalalala.
So were up and out of our guesthouse early early, have to get the owners up to check out. We get on a posh bus and have some quality ipod time, and some quality air con time, both are very important i assure you. We had an over eager guide who wittered on over the bass of some choonage telling us all about the name of HCMC which the guide the day before had already explained- Saigon is a type of tree that is abundant in that area...but then Ho Chi Minh had an ego trip and named it after himself. or something. So were off to the delta of the Mekong- Delta= where the river splits off and looks like a tree if you look at it from space, and then meets the sea. That is the official definition i tell thee. we drive to get to this river thingy, for a coupla hours, and then get on a boat to see a floating market, where peops take the ol boat out to buy some wares from the other peops who sell them from their boats. Except twas abot 10am by now and most of this exchange was over, so the young laddies of the boats were dossing and yelling. Their mothers were a washing and the men were being all manly strong and lying in hammocks. They suspend whatever theyre selling that day from a bamboo pole, so there are loads of fish limply dangling and meat hunks waggling as the boats gently rock. A few pineapples and coconuts float on by, theyve obviously fallen off fruity boats.
We went to see some 'workshops'- one made coconut sweets, the process was pretty standard. mash up coconut, add sugar, malt, malt extract, sucrose, glucose, dextrose, maltose, maltase, and leave to rot teeth. We sampled a load of that, then watched this woman barely break a sweat as she sat making ricepaper. She was in a room with no ventilation, a coal fire burning and she was bent over steaming this ricey mixture. About 5 billion of my pores were pouring sweat, she looked at me and i could tell she was thinking 'eeeergh'.
We then watched them make popped rice, which is like pop corn. you know how thats made- get one of those bags outta the cupboard and put in the microwave on 400 for 2 minutes, or until the bag has self-inflated. nuff said. Guidey McGuide took us over to this rotting vat of ricewine and reptile. it wasnt actually rotting, obviously it was preserving the debris. Anyways, she was bigging it up, saying how it helps build up strength and the likes, and offers it around. Noone takes her up. Im in a group of oldies, and couplies with studenty types who all look quite daring. Nothing. so i volunteer. I get a shot glass and smell it, thinking it will reek. Ive made cocktails that smelt worse than this did, so i shot it, noticing in the corner of my eye, the less than beady eye of a crow that was hidden under salamander and snake coils. ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
so, in conclusion, i feel much stronger. it was a bit like tequila.
One of the oldie men wanted to try it but his wife wouldnt let him. bless.
We moved on from the workshop section of the trip, back on the boat we drifted (not literally) along the delta, looking at the water hyacinth banks and the rice paddies. We stopped at an 'Ethnic Minority Village'. Id like to make a point here. Why on EARTH is that a selling point? We have enough minorities in our own countries, why do we need to visit here?? grrr. Anyway, it was an Islamic Ethnic minority, most of Vietnam is Christian or Buddhist. It was full of weaving girls and small children selling cakes. the guide told us not to buy them (wouldnt have anyway) cos the kids should have been in school. Also she told us that men in the village could have up to 4 wives and at 13 girls had to stay in their rooms all day so men couldnt look at them. Until about 15 years ago. Now they work all day out of their rooms. Good old equal rights movements.
HAd a wee then got back on the boat and off to luncheon. The boat couldnt get to the place we were eating so we all had to get on pushbikes....han goes 'ooooh im going to fall off, i havent ridden one in...'*crash*
I was riding along, hit a kerb in the middle of the street. i know, what was it doing there? anyway, so i go over it, han hits it, stops and the next thing i hear is her crashing to the ground, skinning her knee. Another ailment to add to her cut up toe from thai waterfall, insect bites, sunburnage (not bad, dont worry)..............GAH. So shes bleeding unsexily everywhere and gets whisked off to the restaurant while holly and i peddal on in the heat. get there, eat some meat and rice, for thats all it was, and cycle back to the boat. Hannah has it rough with us, were relatively unsympathetic, so she gets on the bike and proves her masculinity, along with the rest of us. Back on a boat, and more gazing at the beautiful surroundings, kids somersaulting of branches into the river, cows being washed, people waving etcetc. Go to the hotel, where for the first time in a while we have separate beds. a BALCONY!!! its sooooooooooo hot and gross, the fan pathetically wafts its warm air around.
Up early again, for breakfast of 2 fried eggs adn a baguette which is effectively (affectively????) an air bubble with crusts. Back on a bus to get a boat to see a fishfarm, a house where people live, with a HUGE cage under it in the river with loads of fish in it. Pretty much standard cage, standard fish, you need no description. We then motor to the Cambodian border (how exciting, we get more STAMPS!!!!!!!!!) awoowooo!Spend all of our stupid Vietnamese money and get what we have named 'funny money' as change when we buy luncheon, as the guide gets our visas. 8000Riels is a quid, but you get NOTES only and the notes start at 50 riels, about 1/8th of a penny. You cant even buy things for 50 riels so thats annoying. and they take american dollardollarbills, worth more, and give you shitty riel change. Anyway, lunch was nice, and i ate half a pineapple for good luck, and then we got off at the immigration compound (it had badminton courts and grassy lawns) and immigration officers lounging around, who then jump up and run to their little booths. Our visas are soooo cool, and we got lots of stamps which literally (C&E!!) makes my day!
so, were in CAMBODIAAA!! how exciting, until we get on a bus, and realise our trip to a All You Can Eat fruit Orchard is non existant. grrr.
The people with us are so bloody whingey though. We have whiney canadian 3some. she is highschoolesque and obviously spoiled by her father- she must have her own credit card, i can tell these things. And a couple who i couldnt be bothered to pay attention to. There is a poofey belgian woman who later on earns the title 'most antisocial of all', a brit couple who seem normal, and a brit 'oldie' couple who won golds at the 'talking olympics'. Want to make a point here, dont get me wrong, im merely observing, i have no preconceived prejudices, except the one against americans, about people from any nation. except Brits who embarrass me by being rowdy and drunk and disgusting and racist and naive etc...
i LIKE Canadians, i proudly related to canadians, but why are all the ones i meet out here so whiney and annoying??? and as for Europeans, I went to a FABULOUS festival in belgium last year, they make delicious chocolate and do good crispy fluffy chips with lashings of mayo that make me spotty just thinking about, but this ginger poofey haired woman was inexcusably dull and unengaging. i dont say that in a mean way, she went out of her way to not engage socially. i could see her perspire from the effort of being so boring.
ANyway, by thins time they were all whining about the bus and why wasnt it a boat and la de darrr. i had a bit of a go about the lack of fruit, but the guide cant do anything if the travel agent sold you a different trip! Teh next bus we get on, has enough seats for 7, 2 of them dont have seat backs that stay up, they merely rest on the knees of the people behind. us. Were on there with the oldies, which makes a total of 5, adn the guide tells normal english couple to get on, but PoofeyGinge does, and refuses to get off, which means teh other bus is overcrowded. We drive along looking at the scenery, which is massively different from Vietnam. Flat and drier, cows and donkeys pull carts along the road which is about as flat as Jordan's Chest (it has been newly reduced i hear? she sold her implants on ebay the classy gal). I dont get too much time to admire the views for talking couple, who are lovely, are telling us their life story (she is 76, has great grand children, a daughter whos IVF has just left her pregnant with twins, theyve lived in leicester all their lives, just been visiting their son in NZ...........lost their luggage....angry emails to airline................)We arrive in Phnom Penh, Cambodian capital, its as mad as Bangkok, busy as Hanoi but somehow i like it...they leave us at the King's Guest House and we get a 5 bed room for the three of us. Play a bit of bouncing on the bed olympics, the normal couple - mark and sarah- turn our air con on with the remote theyve just paid to use, and we all go out for a few drinks and some eats.
The ATMS dish out US dollars, there are begging kids everywhere, who arent homeless or poor, but have learnt that if they ask enough, they get. not from us, were too stingey. We eat in a restaurant that puts its prices up because were white (i no lie) and drink quite a few Angkor Beers in celebration of our arrival in Cambodia. The evening climaxes as we discuss the torture devices women use to look beautiful-think wax and eyelash curlers- and Mark epilating his beard. Probably the funniest thing ive seen in a while!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1207316820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1207316820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1207316820/tpod.html Sat, 05 Apr 2008 07:54:05 -0400 Lifes a Beach

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Hoi An, Vietnam

SO we arrived, after a hideous coach trip, with wee stops behind buildings and lights out at 8pm. And lights on at 10pm, and 11pm, and midnight and the driver honking the horn like a lunatic continuously. We got to Hue, where we hoped to look round. but the company had messed up our tickets so i SHOUTED for the first time since we left Bris. and we got on the but straight to Hoi An and THEN hoiked our packs all the way to our HOTEL. Yes, hotel i tell thee, and i know, were backpackers right? but it was the cheapest there was. Admittedly we didnt look hard, but imagine you are me. Sweaty. clammy. tired. deadish cat trying to catch the computer mouse as you use it. in hanoi, of which you already know my feelings.
then you see this:
Green Fields Hotel- Four quid a night...for the 3 of us.
-free cocktail hour.
-free fruitbasket
-bath
-guarenteed hot water
-free internet
-free all you can eat breakfast

i think, enough has been said. so we arrived, dumped our stuff and went exploring. its on the riverside, a tiny villagey feel, think morrocan esque square buildings, all in a lemon yellow paint. sun beating down.
Hoi An is famous for its tailors, so we were scouting around, knowing full well that we had just emptied our bags, convieniantly you may think, to once again fill them with CLOTHES!! not any old clothes, but TAILORED ONES. on the CHEAPSIES!
found a few good tailors, went and indulged in Banana and Rum cocktails, by the pool. gotta love no Health and Saftey over here. That night was the full moon, and all the locals dressed as wolves and ran around. no just kidding, they turn all the lights out and light everywhere with little lanterns, and its all very pretty.
Set alarm for breakfast. Probably the only time this trip that i havent minded getting up at 7am.
Stuff ourselves and sneak a baguette and some bananas for luncheon and duss out to get measured. Now imagine this. You are a woman, for some this may not be hard to imagine, for others you might as well give up cos you will never understand. anyway, so you are and you have an innate yearning for beautiful, well fitting clothes that make you feel fabulous. well you have now arrived in HEAVEN! Th'oung Tailors (thong,tha'thongthong thong)is where we went, and they measured every little bit of my body, even the measurements that you think useless, like under your bum to your little toe. i joke. but they did an awful lot and then we decided what we wanted made...i looked through books and books of designer collections and catwalk shows and picked out a dress and a jacket. i know. stupid, im in asia, its pushing 40C and i bought a winter coat. ah well.
So, they say come back at 6:30 and we say can we come back at 7 cos 6:30 is right in the middle of free cocktails, so they agree, and we go shopping in the market to celebrate our clothes being made...
Got bcak to the hotel and scared some men off from the poolside as we go for a dip. I discover the timer mode on my camera and we entertain ourselves for a good 45minutes. Then go shower and drink cocktails which we think they weakened when they saw us. We go, quite cheerfully, to our fitting to find our clothes pretty darned perfect, except for han, whom despite taking copious amounts of measurements, they thought had 15cm long arms. and a lot of back flab. which for your information, she doesnt. at the moment. (you should see all the oreos shes getting through!) She might have to buy two seats on the plane home. nah. shes fit,as usual. so a few adjustments are needed and we decide to go back the next morning. Eat at a place where the waitress is younger than us and is very touchy feely. we place bets on how many times she can touch our shoulders and arms and hair before the meal is done. i think it was a rounded 6 each! we gave her a tip. And went to bed. (this place has pink mosquito nets too, aparently i am becoming a worse bedfellow and steal all the covers and take up lots of space and wake up looking nicer than everyone else which makes them grumpy)
Steal more for lunch at breakfast and go for our fitting, all is well and good and we collect our garments. to celebrate holly and i order shorts. and i see a nice fabric and think it should be used so i get a skirt made. As you have guessed, our trip mainly involves retail therapy.
Today, was EASTER!! han had some miny chocolate orange eggs that her mum had given her (THANKS JOAN!! : ) ) which we ate by the pool. they were rather a melty mess, except theyd hardened enough to encorporate the foil in interesting ways, which we then spat at each other because we are such ladies.
Then we drank more cocktails and went for an Indian (Amanjeet, we ate a CURRY!!!) and planned Operation Borrowers.
Next morning, up, at breakfast with my daybag, sit outside away from the beady eyes of the 'table guarders'. The general idea of this operation was to get as much food as possible beacuse were leaving today on a 22hour bus journey and comfort eating is niiiice.
SO we get a bag of pineapple, some sandwiches, boiled eggs, the list goes on....anyway it was successful. Holly and i pick up our shorts and we all walk to the beach. It had rained on our plans to go the previous day and the bus wasnt until 6. It was a 5km walk, which we had been told was 2, or 3..but anyway, we got there and they sold lots of mad, jazzy beach shorts, which i had to be restrained from buying as well as all the other crap that id bought (added about 4kg to mybag). What you wont understand, if you arent still in that female mindset that i told you to be in earlier, is that when something that you vaguely like, costs 13pence, or whatever, poundfifty, its REALLY hard not to get it, just BECAUSE ITS SO BLOODY CHEAP, you might as well.
get to the beach and get sand in my shorts and bag and probably knickers. and all of these beach sellers come up to us trying to sell us oreos, and ritz crackers, and playing cards, and tiger balm and mentos, and stuff that we have! so we tell them and some go away. this one extra toothless one sat down with us and wouldnt leave. 'We have it all' we say, 'YOU LIIIIIEEEE' she replies, so we get all of our stuff out, including a pineapple from our free fruit basket, some travel sweets, postcards, pens, lighters, etcetc, she wasnt very amused and left in a sulk. 'NEXT TIME YOU BUY FROM ME!'
Wander back to the hotel, and board the bus on a trip to hell. no joke, it ended up being 26hours long, with another beepy mental driver. we spent a WHOLE DAY on a bus.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
ps. i tried really hard with my spelling, even though im touch typing, cos mum said i should.
love you mumxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1206095760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1206095760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1206095760/tpod.html Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:40:43 -0400 Lifes a Beach

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Hanoi, Vietnam

Hanoi still sucks.
Girl is still lovely
Cat is indefinately 100% dead. it is gone. : (
hang around and get a shower.
Get some munch for our journey out of hell.
listened to britney spears's new album on lovely girls phone speakers. quality.
got free food from guesthouse.
played sardines on a minibus with 5 people crammed in who didnt have a seat.
got on coach for Hoi An.
13 hours, here we go.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1205921280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1205921280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lucyrose/1/1205921280/tpod.html Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:35:38 -0400 Lifes a Beach

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Halong Bay, Vietnam

The cat is what i would now call 90% dead. we get up and watch more Musical Soap with the girl, the storyline is now very 'juicy', as i would say- many characters in love with one girl, she doesnt like any of them, but is in fact in love with her third cousin, twice removed, who is in fact her father...that sort of thing. Get on a bus to take us to Ha Long, with- Quiet German Couple, Sick Asian Couple (she was sick in a bag 5 minutes in, then promptly fell asleep on his shoulder), and Entire Family inc. Grannies and Small Boys x2. Fabulous. On the way we make a stop off, something that has become commonplace- its at a handicapped centre, where disabled people make stuff and you buy it at extortionate prices. dont buy anything, unsurprisingly, and we move on to Ha Long Bay, which is full, AGAIN of over-large Americans. squeexze our way through and find, wait for it, 'The Dream Voyage'" (barf), our Junk that is anything but. its wooden and polished and has a dragon on the front, and sunwarmed loungers on the top deck, and a wilting palm in a pot as token greenery. Inside the tables are laid with napkins in the shape of boats and there are glasses for WINE! thank the lordy ong Quiet Germans are on the boat, along with Old German Retired, Evidently (OGRE) and Bangkok teachers asscoiation ( a couple from the international school who quizzed us about the UK educational system. HEllo? were out here to get AWAY from it. pfft) The coolest kids on the boat were some malaysians on holiday. It was like hanging out with teenagers, wahooo. because obviously i dont do that enough right? One of them is the head of the malaysian commonwealth, who tells us about how hes met the queen, his brother is their, and his niece and her husband. we share more than a few laughs (and drinks) with them.
Anyway, we eat a scrumptious seafoody lunch with OGRE who says nothing. and then we visit some caves. Ha LOng bay is famous cos its full of 1000 little islands with inlets and greenery and stuff, all very beautiful. except it was kind of like safari, where you justr see Jeeps, cos we ended up admiring the boats quite alot. The caves were all lit up with jazzy lights and there were special formations that were so ''obviously'' elephants and the likes...DIno, the funny guy stole the laser pointer fro m our guide and pointed out many 'saggy bums' and the likes. We had an icecream. wasnt as good as a fanny one. but it was nice. Then we went kayakin, took a km tripout to Cat Ba island, and back, which took longer than expected...Han ended up with the guide in the bac of hers, who was useless, tired after about 2 minutes and a dead weight. very amusing. for me and ho. Had some Din which was equally fishy and good, watched an awfully dubbed horror movie (all characters were voiced by one man) so it was more of a comedy, and looked at the moon. We accidentally stole the only double room on the boat, as we got first dibbs due to the fact that there are three of us and only 2 person rooms. i think ALL of the couples were slightly annoyed! hahaha!
SLept well, up early to find that despite the fact we are surrounded by water, we have none. wonderful. Dino chouruses 'GOODMORNINGVIETNAM'every 10 or so minutes and we begin our trip back to the harbour....and to hanoi. Eat in a restaurant before we go bac, food isnt so great, but there is a massive Vat of Snake wine (complete with Bird and feathers) that you can buy shots to...we didnt. get the bus back to Hanoi, stopping at a different disabled centre. Why oh Why?
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