TravelStream™ news feed for member sidom on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/sidom en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:27:58 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1207047480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1207047480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1207047480/tpod.html Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:27:58 -0400 An adventure to follow...

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Seville, Spain and Canary Islands

No we are not lost, however our back packs and all our other worldly possessions have gone walkabout, as has my parents car. So after 14 months of losing nothing other than a lonely planet and a tin of tuna we've got nothing to show for it all. At least we've had this blog to keep us company and some photos on line.Anyway Sevilla is a great city, one could easily spend 4 days visiting it and soaking up the Spanish atmosphere. Although we're back in Europe at least we're not working yet! Well Simon did do some digging in the garden.One minor, yet somewhat major update - we've got our bags back. Nothing missing whatsoever and so all our photos are back where they belong. This time we were careful not to park anywhere with our luggage in the back and even managed to visit some Roman ruins in Italica.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1204988640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1204988640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1204988640/tpod.html Sat, 24 May 2008 10:50:04 -0400 An adventure to follow...

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Penang, Malaysia

Feels like we've come full circle since leaving and being back in Malaysia which was our stopover on the way to Aussie last year.Chinatown is the place to stay for cheap lodgings but hotels seem to be run by Indians here, the tandoori is not half bad. Georgetown is the centre of Penang, just opposite Butterworth, both of which have a colonial past which is still evident in the buildings. Our bus from Thailand took the ferry between the two towns, it only takes 10 minutes but presumably is quicker and cheaper than the road.Election fever has hit the country since it's only the second election in peoples' memory. The incumbent has won although they've lost the majority and need to form a coallition to get anything passed in Parliament. Our friends are really happy and excited about the result since it vindicates everything they've said and felt about the corruption in government, now they've had a slap. Even the ex-PM said that in Japan a PM with such poor results would commit Hari Kari (of course he chose the current PM)!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1205676480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1205676480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1205676480/tpod.html Thu, 03 Apr 2008 06:58:08 -0400 An adventure to follow...

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Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Not climbing Gunung Kinabalu, the highest mountain in south east Asia (4095m) just driving around but this could be a challenge here since the roads are nearly the worst in south east Asia. Thee and Simon took the wheel of a zebra car (the interior) and went from the west coast to the east and back.Orangutan are still found here and although they are dying out the Sepilok rehabilitation centre has plenty around to please visitors. They are extremely versatile having two long arms with almost human hands and two feet whioh double as hands too.Only complaint with Sabah is the tiered pricing for tourists which doesn't appear to exist on peninsular Malaysia. It makes foreigners pay up to 6 times more than a local for entry into parks and nature reserves.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1204373520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1204373520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1204373520/tpod.html Sun, 09 Mar 2008 00:33:53 -0500 An adventure to follow...

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Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand

As you may have noticed we're a bit out of synch with the islands now here but we are just exercising authors rights to write whichever order suits us. Perhaps we're less polite than the people of Nakhon Si Thammarat where the Thais perform their Wai at every opportunity especially our co-pilot on the way here. Only thing worth stopping for here was the Wat Mahatat museum and this only if you are interested in the trading history of ceramics.On the way down south we also stopped at Phetchaburi where the only site was a wat up on a hill. One must watch out for monkeys who are only too eager to steal from unsuspecting people, i.e. don't bring any food or shiny objects. In our opinion it's because too many people stupidly feed them and so they know that you have some goodies in your plastic bags.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1204546440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1204546440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1204546440/tpod.html Sun, 09 Mar 2008 00:26:50 -0500 An adventure to follow...

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Ko Phayam, Thailand

The islands certainly have lots of creepy crawlys on them and smelly fruits (at least when they are rotting), we're sharing our acommodation with several ants, a few geckos and a large spider just outside the door. That's not really the point though, the beaches are great, the sea clear and warm and the sun is burning up.On our first island Ko Mak in the north east we stayed in a place known as "A Little Moon Place" right in the middle of the jungle, yet on the edge of the sea too. The first question was not would you like a beer, but "do you smoke ?". Most of the German clientele did and spent quite a lot of their time giggling like crazy people. We quite liked the town Trat back on the mainland which gives access to this place, the night market food is good, the people are relaxed and very helpful - the owner of our guesthouse peddled all the way to the bus station to make sure our bus waited for us.Second stop down in the south west Ko Phayam, we stayed more or less where everybody else does. The sea was on the doorstep, well it was after the white sandy beach in anycase. Spent Simon's birthday here partying in a bar with lots of like minded people, just drank beer unfortunately - however there was dancing :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1204007160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1204007160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1204007160/tpod.html Fri, 07 Mar 2008 07:07:34 -0500 An adventure to follow...

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Bangkok, Thailand

Not exactly our thought on the city but that of an English woman and her husband from said city. We'd previously met them in the jungle where they were bird watching so their feeling of being overwhelmed by the noise and frenetic pace is quite understandable. In fact most Asian cities have their noise factor and kinetic energy ramped up as high as possible, in China it was the hooters and music for shopping, Vietnam favoured the loud exhaust pipe and hooters whilst Bangkok is just loud from sheer volume of traffic. However Thailand has changed a lot in the past year, perhaps we are now immune to the taxi drivers and touts especially after Vietnam. It seems somehow cleaner and the people more friendly, although slightly more expensive. We even splashed out on some great Japanese food around Siam square.Around Pat Pong we were of course approached by a number of dodgy characters attempting to get us into ping pong shows, if we weren't interested by this they had a whole menu of other delightful ideas, among them was "electric pussy" which we couldn't quite work out. However it's far less seedy than 14 years ago, now it's more of a parody of what it used to be, perhaps London's Soho suffered some of the same transformation.For something more cultural we took a tour around the national museum which contains some fairly interesting history about the country. Thailand must have been pretty large before the 20th century and all the land concessions that they gave to the English (parts of Burma and Malaysia) and the French (Laos and Cambodia). There was also a lot of fantasy (something like tales of the Arabian Nights) mixed in with what was otherwise quite plausible.We bumped into a guy (Marcus) who we haven't seen since China jumping down some dunes, he's in Bangkok to meet his father after 18 months travelling. Anyway after this meeting we avoided Khao San and stayed around Siam square which is not just about Louis Vuitton and Gucci but has some cheaper market areas. We could have restocked our wardrobes but have not the space or the inclination. A mall stop was in order to catch a flick at the cinema, after standing for some kingly anthem with accompanying pictures we saw "Jumper", nothing to do with warm clothing (although this would have been nice in the air con) but ist's about a guy who can teleport (don't bother).Although less people are wearing their yellow T-shirts this year there was evidence of royal fervour around, one of the royals recently died so her photo is all over the place (not as much as the king) and black and white ribbons decorate many of the government buildings.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1202988600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1202988600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1202988600/tpod.html Sat, 01 Mar 2008 01:26:19 -0500 An adventure to follow...

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Nakhon Ratchassima, Thailand

We could hardly believe it when we arrived in Thailand this time, the roads are good, the bus services are not crammed to the seams, there are shopping malls and ATM's everywhere (the capital of Laos is proud to have 150 ATMs as the tourist office will tell you).Nakhon Ratchassima is a useful base for visiting the Isaan and since we've visited before we feel quite at home. Our first port of call was to Nang Rong to visit a few of the oldest Khmer ruins in Thailand - rather like we did when staying here before. We met a bunch of travellers who wanted to do the same thing so we spent the day with them travelling in the back of a pick up. The temples still boast a number of carvings but it seems that the most interesting pieces have been placed in museums (to protect them?). The better of the temples is Muang Tham where the architecture is more obvious as are the joins used for the huge stone blocks (rather like wood joints in the form of a T or L).Once again we placed ourselves in the back of unknown person(s) pick up and went into one of Thailands large national parks - Khao Yai. The jungle is always full of strange sounds, particularly the bird which sounds like a speaker or megaphone - unsighted but definitely heard everywhere. A small half day trek through the jungle led us to a waterfall where we tried to find more willing people to drive us back led us on another adventure. The doctors and nurses who took us in their minivan decided that we'd like to accompany them on a 60km trip to see another waterfall before getting back to the visitor centre. One of the younger ones (Nicknamed Apple) also tried to convince us that we should sing something but we declined so she did us the honour (several times).Our final stop was the English sounding town of Chantabur[y]i but it was in fact more influenced by the French. In anycase now it's part of Thailand and has plenty of colourful wats though its Vietnamese catholic cathederal makes an interesting sight. It's also home to the rabbit in the moon or at least this symbol represents the city - the moon is for serenity, the rabbit we're not sure :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1202723400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1202723400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1202723400/tpod.html Wed, 27 Feb 2008 02:40:02 -0500 An adventure to follow...

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Vientiane, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

This is easily the most laid back capital in the world, or at least in Asia, the only traffic is from the early morning/evening rush hour and they still have a sort of curfew on the bars. We spent plenty of time dining in relative luxury in several of the French run restaurants (it seems that 60% of the expats are French in this town) and drinking cafe.In our city tour we only visited a couple of sites, the Wat Haw Pha Kaeo with it's large number of 600 year old buddha statues and Xieng Khua (Buddha Park). The buddha park is more amusing than religious since the statues are placed all over the place without any apparent organisation or even great attention to detail. Our trip back to town was the most eventful thing since the bus picked us up "out of turn", the other drivers were really upset with him and one even blocked the road for 5 minutes whilst shouting at our driver.We now have to leave Laos since the visa is only good for one month, after which we'd end up being fined 10 US dollars a day and probably not be allowed back in if we tried. We really recommend this country though since the people are great and always have a welcoming smile as well as a loud "sabai dee" for us.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1201868460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1201868460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1201868460/tpod.html Wed, 13 Feb 2008 04:49:17 -0500 An adventure to follow...

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Luang Namtha, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

We started off from Luang Prabang in a sangthaew (long open backed bus) with a few other tourists to get up to Nhong Khiaw. Luckily it had a high powered motor since the surrounding mountains climb up steeply and we only took 3.5 hours. We met a retired American couple who were interested in bird watching but should have been out spotting buterflies since they are more plentiful (the Lao eat birds). Then strangely enough they were on our next three departures, in a boat, and on the next 2 buses, Dom found the lady's feet extremely funny, size 45 but only 1m60.Nhong Khiaw and Muang Ngoy are linked only by river so one takes a boat between them, the boat however makes such a racket that you cannot speak for the hour that the trip takes. Saying that our boat appeared to break down twice and the driver had to get us to the side of the river so as not to be swept downstream and all the way back to Luang Prabang. Perhaps the driver had been drinking the day before since we noticed a lot of merry making - especially amongst the women who were singing and dancing after drinking copious amounts of lao lao (whisky). Simon was offered (could he refuse) at least 5 glasses and Dom had to do some dancing to keep them happy. We took a quick walk around the countryside here and came across some caves which were used by the government in hiding during the American bombing. When will they learn bombs didn't stop communism and they don't bring democracy either, saying that Lao is not really communist, unlike Vietnam and China.Nam Tha is as far north as we're going, any further and we'll be back in China, the idea was to do some trekking and see some ethnic villages. It's also a really relaxing place, popular for massage and has some good food, lao, indian and western. We made an eco-trek through the tourist office (which we cannot recommend enough) and two friends we made (Florence and Clement), it was fantastic and is what "eco" tourism should be. The villages we went through and stayed in do not appear to have been touched by tourists, nothing is for sale, there is no hassle only people going about their daily lives and us getting to participate - or at least visit the schools and eat the food. We were invited by the chief to see a real live Hmong shaman performing his ritual to heal an old woman, of what we don't know, but the chanting was fascinating if somewhat monotonous (especially after 2 hours). The sacrificed pig was used in the hope of drawing out the malicious spirits and looked like it would be eaten. We passed a Lantern village where the women make paper all day long - 4 large sheets - it's really thin and not much good for anything so they burn it! Their origins are in China so they first write on the paper in Chinese, at least those that know how.On the second and third day trekking we tried lots of medicinal plants and other edibal "fruits" - most of them too bitter to offer any pleasure but we guess the Lao don't go hungry for long. Every meal though was great, we did have to suffer through a lot of rice though and think we've now had enough. The Khmu brought out a 5 litre pot of rice wine which we had to drink glass by glass through a straw (at least the group was large) until the taste was no longer alcoholic (i.e. after each drinking session water was added to top up the pot).Simon visited a Tai Dam (black tai) village on the last day of their 3 day festival, people were dancing, drinking and otherwise occupied. The childrens merrygoround was great since there was no electicity just 2 or 3 people to push it around, at 3 minutes a time it must be exausting for a whole day as Simon can attest to after just 2 minutes.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1201598940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1201598940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sidom/start-2007/1201598940/tpod.html Tue, 12 Feb 2008 07:19:37 -0500 An adventure to follow...

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Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

There are plenty of Wats all over town in this World Heritage listed site, but it's probably on the Unesco list because of its French colonial buildings. It's the most touristic site in all of Lao and as soon as we arrived it felt like the tuk tuks were onto us, it's not as aggrssive as Vietnam but still a little annoying, all the more so when you realise that they have a monopoly on the rental of bicycles and motorbikes. Even so it's a beautiful town nestled between the Mekong and the Nam Ou river.We visited the local museum which used to be the kings palace, on display were some interesting royal gifts from around the world including a piece of the moon from the US. The royals didn't live in any degree of luxury compared to western standards, but out here their home rates 6 stars. Out of all the Wats we chose to visit the eldest Xien Thong which shows typical Lao architecture and a special wall decoration. Glass pieces are combined together in different colours to depict scenes of everyday life, this technique may have originated in the temple or in the palace, it's also present in the theatre. Also on our visiting list, rather bizzarly was a new guest house being opened by an Australian, it's set up on the other side of the river over a bamboo bridge. You look for the monkey on a fence and if you're a women don't go anywhere near it, for some reason it doesn't like them. Best of all though is the night market which serves delicious Lao food at cheap prices, we went 3 nights out of 4 and the other evening we had some frogs. When we didn't eat here the baguette sandwiches were great, the Laos make much better bread than the Vietnamese!
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