What an awesome last 2 weeks I have just had, I didn't update my blog because the internet there is so expensive! I am back in Bangkok now for 1 night before my flight home and feeling sad to leave.
First I went to Koh Phi Phi, we had to go via Surat Thani so the journey took a while. I met a director called Emma on the bus to Krabi and she was going to Phi Phi too so we found accomodation together in the dorm at The Rock. It is only 150Baht [or Bats, as James likes to call it] a night so it is definatly not the swankiest place we have stayed but it was fine for the week.
The island is really beautiful, easily one of the prettiest places I have been, unfortunatly my camera didn't get much action while I was there, it just didn't really cross my mind I was having so much fun. It is definatly a party town though with large beach parties nightly. Anyone staying at The Rock is clearly on a budget so the classic choice was to buy a bucket from the supermarket for 180Bats and slurp on that for a few hours and listen to some music on an iPod before heading down to the beach. There were a faily large group of us for the whole time.
Spencer and Marcus were from Australia and had done one year of uni already, so where on a short break before term begins again. Dave was another solo traveller from Ireland [I think] and he was just the funniest guy ever. His pulling technique was these crazy dances in the middle of a large group of girls. My favorite was the 3 legged crab complete with hip thrusting and arm waving which was recieved with numerous nervous glances. Luke and another Irish guy, Steven where travelling together and had already been on Phi Phi 10 days when we arrived! Finally there were 3 dutch lads, Robbert, Alex and Koen who were all legends and thrill seekers who loving talking about the 20m cliff jump they had heard about and were keen to launch themselves off.
On our first day Emma and I just headed around town to explore and visit the beach, we met up with Kieren and Sam from the boat and chilled out with them for a beer too. It was nice and relaxing but far too hot for me, I mananged to avoid getting burnt though. That night we went to the non busy end of town for the 'black moon party' Phi Phi edition. It was very bad so we went to the main beach which was a bit better. Stayed up far too late and drank one too many buckets but it was alright.
The next few day we did nothing at all, the day after that we visited long beach. It is a really nice and quiet beach about a 30 minute walk around the island. Swimming on Phi Phi is not great because there is so much rocks and coral that you just slice your feet as it is so shallow. However Long Beach is much better even though you still have to be careful. It was a nice day, we borrowed Brah's frizbee and threw that around a bit.
The day after was the big one, Koen, Alex and me booked ourselves in for the cliff jumping tour. It was only an afternoon tour but we still almost missed it because those guys are so damn lazy and must sleep for Holland. Eithger way we made it and were on a boat with a group of 7 others, 5 Irish guys and 2 girls from the US. First stop was Monkey Bay, where there are alot of monkeys living and you can feed them bananas and stuff but they can get violent and I decided to leave them to thier own devices and view from a safe distance, I didn't want Rabies so close to going home! Next was the main event, the cliff jumping. The lowest jump was a mere 8 meters whcih was pretty damn scary. Alex and Robbert jumped straight off and then did 12m right away. I was scared of the 10m jump and Koen spent literally half an hour looking at the top of the 12m. Robbertt called it a day after 12 but Alex really wanted to jump from 20, so he went straight away to do 15 and then 18m. Unfortunatly the tide was too low for him to do 20. I did 8m again and went straight up to do 12 because I was still pumped so I knew I had to do it fast, Koen finally went for 12 just as I got there so I could jump in quickly. It was amazing, easily the highest I have ever juped from the airtime was huge and I pencilled at the perfect time to not feel a thing. The nutty guide did a backflip off 10m with an excited whoop. Koen didn't want to be out done by his brother so rushed to the 15m with me and Alex in tow. Alex went forst to demonstraight then Koen jumped off just fine. The boats came round because we really needed to leave after this last jump. There was no going back for me, I had to jump off or waste everyones time climbing back and looking like a wimp. So I went for it...I tried to pencil but when I hit the water my hands were still out a little and my right wrist felt like it was ripped clean off. I was, in true melodramatic fashion, convinced it was broken and spent a few minutes asuring the people on the boat that I had broken my wrist before and would need to go to hospital for this one. They were not so convinced and the guide had a look and said it was probably just a sprain it hurt bad for a few days but is feeling better now, it didn't swell up as much as a break would. The boat cruised into a beautiful lagoon where we had a quick swim before going snorkelling around the island a bit. It was a really good snorkel because we saw nearly 10 black tipped reef sharks just feet away from us! Finally was Maya Bay, THE Beach from The Beach. It was a really nice place and we were there just as the sun was setting which was beautiful.
Most of the guys left the dorm during those days and new people came in, it all went very quickly and not much really happened, just chilling out and partying and making some really great friends.
After nearly a week we started getting bored of the constant late nights and partying so Brah, Emma and I decided to move to Railay for a few days.
Railay was near deserted and a really nice place to relax for my last few days. We didn't do much as all, just wandered around visitng a few beachs and exploring the island. We met some really cool brothers from California, Jeff and Tylor. There were both out for a few weeks on vacation and seemed to be having a really great time. Brah was going on a boat trip with them the day I left which I would have really enjoyed but unfortunaly had to head to Bangkok.
It turns out the bar I went to both nights was the one wqhere Sam had been working for a few months when he was out here which is pretty amazing. He built the wooden platform out over the beach that I wa sitting on!!
Now I am in Bangkok and awaiting my flight home in a few days. I am meeting up with Rollo tonight, he flys tomorrow and I am pretty sure I just saw Lucy Trevallion of all people on Khoasan Road. Small world.
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Friday, 19 June 2009
A week in the HK
Arrival:
Johnny met me at the airport and took me for dinner at a Chinese resturant in the airport. It was just a noodle soup and was pretty good. Then we got the very short bus ride [10 minutes] back to his house straight from the terminal.
He lives on the same island as the airport, not on HK island itself. The building is massive and part of a very nice complex with a club house [complete with 2 swimming pools, table tennis, normal tennis, sauna, steam room, anything else...] and everything! I met his mum and his brother who are both really nice. They live on floor 20 so they have a lovely view out to sea. We went over to his aunties flat in the same complex but the next building over, she is on the 43rd floor [ish] and can see right over the building in front into the airport which is really cool. Johnny has a trundle bed in his room so I got his bed and he was on the trundle.
Day 1:
We woke up quite late and went for breakfast with Johnnys mum, brother and gran. It was really nice, they do it nearly every weekend because I dont think they get to see much of each other during the week with both his parents working and getting home late and his brother being a weekly boarder at a local boarding school. His dad just got back from Bejing that morning and I met him just before we left for Mong Kok, the main fashionable shopping area where all the teenagers go.
I picked up a 2GB SD card for 4GBP which was the top priorety and we looked around some of the shops. A very famous market called Ladys Market is in the area too so we walked down there. It is really cool and alot even cheaper than Bangkok. I got an I love HK t-shirt for $30, which is under 3GBP.
We went home in time for tea that night but still managed to stay up till 2ish faffing around.
Day 2:
We got up fairly early and went to breakfast again, this time to a place that did 'English breakfast', it was actually delicious and one of the nicest I have had while out here!
Then we set off on the walk up the mountian to the giant Budda on top of the hill. Johnnys mum said it would take 3 hours but we were rapid and it only took us 1! On the way we got overtaken by a man riding a bike up the hill and carrying it up the steps [there were ALOT of steps]!!! Then we saw an evil lizard trying to be camoflauged on a rock.
At the top we went to a place with huge tree trucks that had been cut in half and a poem carved out of them to tell a story about life or something. Obviously I couldn't read the symbols and Johnny said they didn't really make sense and couldn't be translated but I think it was something about living your life and being a cool dude at the same time.
As soon as we got to the giant Budda it started raining heavily! The Budda is so high its top half was covered by cloud already and we just ran up the steps and took shelter in the shop underneath the Budda. We waited for age for the rain to stop and decided to make a move when it died down quite alot.
Next was a bus to another island, the name escapes me. It was a small market sort of village by the sea. Lots of fish was on sail and after walking around a bit we paid $20 [under 2GBP] to go on a 20 minute dolphin spotting cruise. They are a rare species of dolphin which is whitey/pinky in colour. I was very surprised to see any because the man selling tickets wasn't very convincing but we saw quite alot and had a nice motor round in a powerboat.
We went back to Johnnys for a swim, sauna and food before heading back out into town [Kowloon this time] to meet Johnnys friend Alex and play some Pool.
As soon as we met Alex it started raining, we sheltered in the 7/11 and got some beers. After about half an hour we got impatiant and made a run for the arcade across the road. It is so strange for me, the place to go for teens, girls and boys, is the arcade. Everyone hangs out there playing 'Midnight Club 3', 'Guitar Hero' and 'Dance Dance Revolution'. Admittedly it is very fun and so so cheap I can't blame them, it is just hard to imagine having grown up in the UK.
When the rain stopped we went to the billiards club and stayed there untill 02:30. We played a sort of round robin affair at the pool table [I won overall =D] and a 3 way game of snooker [I lost =D]. We had to wait till 03:35 for the night bus so we grabbed some noodle food from a small resturant. I mentioned earlier that Johnny lives a ways outside of town...we got home at 05:30 after the most round-about bus journey ever that drove past Johnnys house to the airport and then came back via every building even remotely connected to the airport before dropping us off. I got some cool photos of the sunrise from Johnnys window though.
Day 3:
We woke up really late and only had time to go to the peak, so we did. The peak is on the top of a mountian on Hong Kong island that overlooks the city. You have to get a stupidly steep tram up there which was quite exciting. There was an amazing view but it was cloudy so I couldn't get many good photos. On the plus side I bought a Hagen Das from the shop at the top and it was really really good.
I got to look around the financial area of town too, it was interesting to see. The buildings definatly have a fair few more floors than London.
Back in Central [the main area of Hong Kong city where the peak is] we visited a few shops, I bought 2 Nike t-shirts for 9GBP each which was a great deal. Then we went for a beer in a bar but it was quite expensive so only stayed for one. I had heard of a bar where you can go into a freezer room that is at -20 C and have a drink. It is a russian bar with the largest vodka selection I have ever seen and all the different bottles stacked up in the freezer room. So naturally we had a shot of vodka, we didn't think we could stay in there for a long drink! I got Vanilla and Johnny got Strawberry, both were disgusting and tasted nothing like the flavours suggested. Then we got a tram and wandered around Causway Bay, another funky youthful area, for a while before agreeing our legs hurt after the day befores walk and coming home.
Day4:
We went straight to the IFC tower 2 [the main financial tower in HK] because they have a visitors information portal on the 55th floor. The view was incredible and we learnt all about fake bank notes. We met Johnnys friend Billy at the mall [there is a mall at every tube station!] too so he came along. Then we went to a very posh cinema to see Angels and Demons which was great! The cinema had specially imported German leather chairs it was so comfy and only a fiver to get in!! Then we caught the ferry to Kowloon to go to the space museum but it is closed on Tuesdays! We walked down Nathan road instead, which is the longest road in Hong Kong, or one of them. When we had walked all the way to Mong Kok again we caught the tube home and watched Roles Models which was very funny.
Day 5:
To be honest I cant really remember what we did in the morning but we met up with Alex again, somewhere, and headed to the beach in the afternoon. It was 33 C and the only lovely day I had! I spent most of the time swimming and I think I got a tiny bit burnt but it wasn't visible to anyone but myself. We tried out my shuttlecock that I bought in Siem Reap that the locals do keepie ups with, we sucked big time and gave up to play frisbee instead. That was so much fun and we even had some small local kids join in as well haha! Then we went for supper near Times Square, apparently there is one in Hong Kong too which I was totally ignorant of.
Day 6:
Macau. I woke up at 5:45 because we had to leave at 6:30 and I wanted to shower and eat some Corn Flakes before we left. We met Alex at an out-of-the-way tube station that doubled up as the port for ferries to Macau and the mainland . Oh yeah thats what we did before the beach! Bought our tour to Macau! The ferry left at 08:00 so we got a Japanese breakfast. It was OK but tasted alot like I was eating the sea. The ferry took an hour and we met the tour after going through customs and passport control.
Unfortunatly for me the whole tour was in Cantonese so I didn't understand a single word that was said. First stop was a shop that sold dried ham and almond cookies, neither were great and Alex was the only person to make a purchase of cookies.
There are 2 sights in Macau and they are right next to each other. So next we drove to the fort/ wall of burnt down church. Then we walked through town a bit in 'free time'. I couldn't resist an awesome pair of grey jeans and Johnny actually bought some shorts because he was so hot in jeans!
Then we went over to the tower, it is something like 213m high and you can bungie jump off and do other extreme activities. I dont think anyone on our tour did but there was a viewing platform at the top which everyone dissappeared up. I was so tempted to do a bungie jump but it was 100GBP and although it is a 3rd the price of doing it in New Zealand [apparently] I decided I probably couldn't afford it or have the courage to jump off.
A buffet lunch at a nearby hotel was quite delicious, I even ate the head of an octopus after Johnny refused to tell me what it was and I had a nibble. It did not taste nice but Johnny claims that the sauce was not great.
Then we got dropped off at a very big casino with a ferry ticket back and left to our own devices. Naturally we went straight into the casino, the gambling floor was the size of 3 football pitches! Alex played a few games of a random dice game and came out $200 in the green which was quite impressive. Johnny and I opted not to play but enjoyed watching the tables where large crowds had gathered.
We heard that there was a free show across the road so headed over there. We had to wait 1.5 hours before we could get a viewing so checked out that casino and chilled out a bit. Incase you didn't realise, casinos are the main event in Macau. A few of the big Vegas casinos also have ones in Macau, such as the MGM Grand. It is pretty much Las Vegas for Asia. The show was pretty cool, just 15 minutes but it was inside a huge sphere and the whole wall/roof were used as a giant screen. It was something about underwater dragons, it looked more like a technological trailer than a proper show but was cool none the less. They also had a huge water feature in the middle that dropped water down and changed the colour of the light shining through it, there were steam blowers in the walls for when the dragons roared. Very nifty.
We checked out the uni because it was where Alexs dad graduated from, it was just like any other uni to be honest but only $3 for a can of coke which is like 25p.
We wandered around for ages and finally found somewhere for supper, it was a Portugese resturant and was very delicious. Then we went to the nearest pub and had a few cheap beers and played some pool. We got the 10pm ferry back to Hong Kong and went straight to bed, everyone was so tired after waking up so early and walking for so much of the day.
Day 7:
My flight left at 9pm so we still had the whole day to do stuff. We went to a mall we hadn't visited yet and went ice skating for 45minutes - 1 hour, it was so fun, the time went really quickly. The ring is used for the team to train as well so there were random people doing spins and jumps while everyone was falling over around them it was so cool.
Afterwards we headed for a chinese resturant to have Dim Sum for lunch. It is traditionally a breakfast food and it like bitesize pieces of food wrapped together in something tastey. It was so nice apart from the seafood one which was just kind of nice. The best was BBQ pork wrapped in a delicious sweet bread that was bright white in colour, really soft and a little chewy.
After that we quickly went to Mong Kok again because we wanted to go to the Lady market one more time. Johnny wanted some sunglasses and I was looking for a 2x2 rubix cube, having seen them in the Toys'r'Us at the base of the tower in Macau, and one of those leather wallet to jean attachment things. Johnny found his sun glasses first then I bartered my 'revenge cube' from $39 to $25. I didn't find my leather wallet thing but it could have been for the best because I already dont like them anymore.
Naturally I got out the cube on the tube and had the top half completed [the top colour full and the first row full] but could not at all work out the bottom! Johnny was annoyed by the time we got home and looked up how to do it on the internet. I didn't watch the whole video but I saw one of the 'algorithums' which is up, left, down, left, up, left, left, down. It is suposed to complete the bottom and leave just one more step for completion but for some random reason it filled in the whole puzzle! My first completion of a rubix cube just 2 hours after buying it!
We went for supper at the airport with Johnny, his gran, his mum and brother. I had to rush to catch my flight because I left from terminal 1 but we were in terminal 2 for food, so after a quick goodbye and a few minutes I was boarding the plane.
On the plane I did the rubix cube in the same way 4 or 5 more times, much to the amazment of the guy next to me. On the bus to Khoasan road I mixed it up thinking I could easily complete it again and found that it didn't work. No matter what I did I couldn't get it complete, there were always 3 sides that had just 1 block out. I still can't do it!
I checked into New Joes again as I had stayed there before my flight to Hong Kong. I have to pay for a double room because all the singles are full but it is only 50Baht extra and I can cope with that for 2 nights.
I have decided to go to Phi Phi tomorrow, I have only heard good thing about it and although it is touristy it is suposed to be very beautiful so I will check it out.
This entry has actually taken me an hour over 2 days to write :O
Johnny met me at the airport and took me for dinner at a Chinese resturant in the airport. It was just a noodle soup and was pretty good. Then we got the very short bus ride [10 minutes] back to his house straight from the terminal.
He lives on the same island as the airport, not on HK island itself. The building is massive and part of a very nice complex with a club house [complete with 2 swimming pools, table tennis, normal tennis, sauna, steam room, anything else...] and everything! I met his mum and his brother who are both really nice. They live on floor 20 so they have a lovely view out to sea. We went over to his aunties flat in the same complex but the next building over, she is on the 43rd floor [ish] and can see right over the building in front into the airport which is really cool. Johnny has a trundle bed in his room so I got his bed and he was on the trundle.
Day 1:
We woke up quite late and went for breakfast with Johnnys mum, brother and gran. It was really nice, they do it nearly every weekend because I dont think they get to see much of each other during the week with both his parents working and getting home late and his brother being a weekly boarder at a local boarding school. His dad just got back from Bejing that morning and I met him just before we left for Mong Kok, the main fashionable shopping area where all the teenagers go.
I picked up a 2GB SD card for 4GBP which was the top priorety and we looked around some of the shops. A very famous market called Ladys Market is in the area too so we walked down there. It is really cool and alot even cheaper than Bangkok. I got an I love HK t-shirt for $30, which is under 3GBP.
We went home in time for tea that night but still managed to stay up till 2ish faffing around.
Day 2:
We got up fairly early and went to breakfast again, this time to a place that did 'English breakfast', it was actually delicious and one of the nicest I have had while out here!
Then we set off on the walk up the mountian to the giant Budda on top of the hill. Johnnys mum said it would take 3 hours but we were rapid and it only took us 1! On the way we got overtaken by a man riding a bike up the hill and carrying it up the steps [there were ALOT of steps]!!! Then we saw an evil lizard trying to be camoflauged on a rock.
At the top we went to a place with huge tree trucks that had been cut in half and a poem carved out of them to tell a story about life or something. Obviously I couldn't read the symbols and Johnny said they didn't really make sense and couldn't be translated but I think it was something about living your life and being a cool dude at the same time.
As soon as we got to the giant Budda it started raining heavily! The Budda is so high its top half was covered by cloud already and we just ran up the steps and took shelter in the shop underneath the Budda. We waited for age for the rain to stop and decided to make a move when it died down quite alot.
Next was a bus to another island, the name escapes me. It was a small market sort of village by the sea. Lots of fish was on sail and after walking around a bit we paid $20 [under 2GBP] to go on a 20 minute dolphin spotting cruise. They are a rare species of dolphin which is whitey/pinky in colour. I was very surprised to see any because the man selling tickets wasn't very convincing but we saw quite alot and had a nice motor round in a powerboat.
We went back to Johnnys for a swim, sauna and food before heading back out into town [Kowloon this time] to meet Johnnys friend Alex and play some Pool.
As soon as we met Alex it started raining, we sheltered in the 7/11 and got some beers. After about half an hour we got impatiant and made a run for the arcade across the road. It is so strange for me, the place to go for teens, girls and boys, is the arcade. Everyone hangs out there playing 'Midnight Club 3', 'Guitar Hero' and 'Dance Dance Revolution'. Admittedly it is very fun and so so cheap I can't blame them, it is just hard to imagine having grown up in the UK.
When the rain stopped we went to the billiards club and stayed there untill 02:30. We played a sort of round robin affair at the pool table [I won overall =D] and a 3 way game of snooker [I lost =D]. We had to wait till 03:35 for the night bus so we grabbed some noodle food from a small resturant. I mentioned earlier that Johnny lives a ways outside of town...we got home at 05:30 after the most round-about bus journey ever that drove past Johnnys house to the airport and then came back via every building even remotely connected to the airport before dropping us off. I got some cool photos of the sunrise from Johnnys window though.
Day 3:
We woke up really late and only had time to go to the peak, so we did. The peak is on the top of a mountian on Hong Kong island that overlooks the city. You have to get a stupidly steep tram up there which was quite exciting. There was an amazing view but it was cloudy so I couldn't get many good photos. On the plus side I bought a Hagen Das from the shop at the top and it was really really good.
I got to look around the financial area of town too, it was interesting to see. The buildings definatly have a fair few more floors than London.
Back in Central [the main area of Hong Kong city where the peak is] we visited a few shops, I bought 2 Nike t-shirts for 9GBP each which was a great deal. Then we went for a beer in a bar but it was quite expensive so only stayed for one. I had heard of a bar where you can go into a freezer room that is at -20 C and have a drink. It is a russian bar with the largest vodka selection I have ever seen and all the different bottles stacked up in the freezer room. So naturally we had a shot of vodka, we didn't think we could stay in there for a long drink! I got Vanilla and Johnny got Strawberry, both were disgusting and tasted nothing like the flavours suggested. Then we got a tram and wandered around Causway Bay, another funky youthful area, for a while before agreeing our legs hurt after the day befores walk and coming home.
Day4:
We went straight to the IFC tower 2 [the main financial tower in HK] because they have a visitors information portal on the 55th floor. The view was incredible and we learnt all about fake bank notes. We met Johnnys friend Billy at the mall [there is a mall at every tube station!] too so he came along. Then we went to a very posh cinema to see Angels and Demons which was great! The cinema had specially imported German leather chairs it was so comfy and only a fiver to get in!! Then we caught the ferry to Kowloon to go to the space museum but it is closed on Tuesdays! We walked down Nathan road instead, which is the longest road in Hong Kong, or one of them. When we had walked all the way to Mong Kok again we caught the tube home and watched Roles Models which was very funny.
Day 5:
To be honest I cant really remember what we did in the morning but we met up with Alex again, somewhere, and headed to the beach in the afternoon. It was 33 C and the only lovely day I had! I spent most of the time swimming and I think I got a tiny bit burnt but it wasn't visible to anyone but myself. We tried out my shuttlecock that I bought in Siem Reap that the locals do keepie ups with, we sucked big time and gave up to play frisbee instead. That was so much fun and we even had some small local kids join in as well haha! Then we went for supper near Times Square, apparently there is one in Hong Kong too which I was totally ignorant of.
Day 6:
Macau. I woke up at 5:45 because we had to leave at 6:30 and I wanted to shower and eat some Corn Flakes before we left. We met Alex at an out-of-the-way tube station that doubled up as the port for ferries to Macau and the mainland . Oh yeah thats what we did before the beach! Bought our tour to Macau! The ferry left at 08:00 so we got a Japanese breakfast. It was OK but tasted alot like I was eating the sea. The ferry took an hour and we met the tour after going through customs and passport control.
Unfortunatly for me the whole tour was in Cantonese so I didn't understand a single word that was said. First stop was a shop that sold dried ham and almond cookies, neither were great and Alex was the only person to make a purchase of cookies.
There are 2 sights in Macau and they are right next to each other. So next we drove to the fort/ wall of burnt down church. Then we walked through town a bit in 'free time'. I couldn't resist an awesome pair of grey jeans and Johnny actually bought some shorts because he was so hot in jeans!
Then we went over to the tower, it is something like 213m high and you can bungie jump off and do other extreme activities. I dont think anyone on our tour did but there was a viewing platform at the top which everyone dissappeared up. I was so tempted to do a bungie jump but it was 100GBP and although it is a 3rd the price of doing it in New Zealand [apparently] I decided I probably couldn't afford it or have the courage to jump off.
A buffet lunch at a nearby hotel was quite delicious, I even ate the head of an octopus after Johnny refused to tell me what it was and I had a nibble. It did not taste nice but Johnny claims that the sauce was not great.
Then we got dropped off at a very big casino with a ferry ticket back and left to our own devices. Naturally we went straight into the casino, the gambling floor was the size of 3 football pitches! Alex played a few games of a random dice game and came out $200 in the green which was quite impressive. Johnny and I opted not to play but enjoyed watching the tables where large crowds had gathered.
We heard that there was a free show across the road so headed over there. We had to wait 1.5 hours before we could get a viewing so checked out that casino and chilled out a bit. Incase you didn't realise, casinos are the main event in Macau. A few of the big Vegas casinos also have ones in Macau, such as the MGM Grand. It is pretty much Las Vegas for Asia. The show was pretty cool, just 15 minutes but it was inside a huge sphere and the whole wall/roof were used as a giant screen. It was something about underwater dragons, it looked more like a technological trailer than a proper show but was cool none the less. They also had a huge water feature in the middle that dropped water down and changed the colour of the light shining through it, there were steam blowers in the walls for when the dragons roared. Very nifty.
We checked out the uni because it was where Alexs dad graduated from, it was just like any other uni to be honest but only $3 for a can of coke which is like 25p.
We wandered around for ages and finally found somewhere for supper, it was a Portugese resturant and was very delicious. Then we went to the nearest pub and had a few cheap beers and played some pool. We got the 10pm ferry back to Hong Kong and went straight to bed, everyone was so tired after waking up so early and walking for so much of the day.
Day 7:
My flight left at 9pm so we still had the whole day to do stuff. We went to a mall we hadn't visited yet and went ice skating for 45minutes - 1 hour, it was so fun, the time went really quickly. The ring is used for the team to train as well so there were random people doing spins and jumps while everyone was falling over around them it was so cool.
Afterwards we headed for a chinese resturant to have Dim Sum for lunch. It is traditionally a breakfast food and it like bitesize pieces of food wrapped together in something tastey. It was so nice apart from the seafood one which was just kind of nice. The best was BBQ pork wrapped in a delicious sweet bread that was bright white in colour, really soft and a little chewy.
After that we quickly went to Mong Kok again because we wanted to go to the Lady market one more time. Johnny wanted some sunglasses and I was looking for a 2x2 rubix cube, having seen them in the Toys'r'Us at the base of the tower in Macau, and one of those leather wallet to jean attachment things. Johnny found his sun glasses first then I bartered my 'revenge cube' from $39 to $25. I didn't find my leather wallet thing but it could have been for the best because I already dont like them anymore.
Naturally I got out the cube on the tube and had the top half completed [the top colour full and the first row full] but could not at all work out the bottom! Johnny was annoyed by the time we got home and looked up how to do it on the internet. I didn't watch the whole video but I saw one of the 'algorithums' which is up, left, down, left, up, left, left, down. It is suposed to complete the bottom and leave just one more step for completion but for some random reason it filled in the whole puzzle! My first completion of a rubix cube just 2 hours after buying it!
We went for supper at the airport with Johnny, his gran, his mum and brother. I had to rush to catch my flight because I left from terminal 1 but we were in terminal 2 for food, so after a quick goodbye and a few minutes I was boarding the plane.
On the plane I did the rubix cube in the same way 4 or 5 more times, much to the amazment of the guy next to me. On the bus to Khoasan road I mixed it up thinking I could easily complete it again and found that it didn't work. No matter what I did I couldn't get it complete, there were always 3 sides that had just 1 block out. I still can't do it!
I checked into New Joes again as I had stayed there before my flight to Hong Kong. I have to pay for a double room because all the singles are full but it is only 50Baht extra and I can cope with that for 2 nights.
I have decided to go to Phi Phi tomorrow, I have only heard good thing about it and although it is touristy it is suposed to be very beautiful so I will check it out.
This entry has actually taken me an hour over 2 days to write :O
Long time no updates
Angkor Wat [for real]:
I woke up very early to get there for sunrise. I had arranged to meet the tuktuk driver who took me to the hotel at 5am, he was early and I was a few minutes late but he seemed not to mind. I suggested a price of $15 for the day would be reasonable and he agreed and we set off. It took about half an hour to get to Angkor Wat, the first stop. The sun was just starting to rise and I went a bit crazy with the photos. All the other tourists had opted to sit on small plastic chairs to watch the sun rise fully but I saw most of it as I was walking towards the Wat, down the HUGE granite walkway from the moat all the way up to the front door. I was the 4th [or so] person inside the actual temple so I basically had it to myself. I was a little faster than everyone else so I soon overtook and was all alone. A guard offered to take me 'up' through the no entry sign, for a small fee of $10, to watch the sunrise. I decided not to because the sun had risen by then and I didn't want to spend the money. It was about that time that my camera announced after 2 month that the memory was full. I deleted a few crappy photos quickly and just took a few sparingly for the final section of the Wat.
I have to say that I was very impressed by Angkor Wat, people said it was big but had poor carvings and this and that but I thought they were pretty impressive and it's size was astonishing!
Before I go on I will warn you that I don't know the names for most of the temples I visited.
On the way to the next place [The walled city] I went through my camera deleting all the bad shots to try and squeeze in as many photos of the rest of the complex as I could. I managed to make enough space for the whole day which was good.
The second stop was the North Library of Bayon, the most amazing building I visited. It looked like it shouldn't be standing up, it was just so cool and too hard to describe. Unfortunatly I was so worried about my memory I only took one photo of it which does it no justice what so ever. It was part of the walled city complex [name something to do with Thom] and next I walked to the giant Budda. The lady there gave me some incense and I waved it in front of the Budda for luck. You always wave 3 sticks of incense, one for you, one for god and one for the Budda [I think]. Then I found out that [of course] this 'luck' came at a price of 1 dollar, luckily I didn't have any small money apart from 300 Riel [approx 3p] so it wasn't such a great cost. Finally I walked to another temple that is under renovation because its sand walls have collapsed the whole structure numerous times and the Frech government has finally decided to renovate it properly so it doesn't fall down again. It was just a building site so I couldn't actually go in. I just read signs about the work being done.
Then we drove to some small temples. One had been renovated by the French and the other by the Chinese. The French had tried to make it like before but the Chinese had opted to give the temple a Chinese theme which was amusing.
Next up was the one I had really been looking forward to, 'The Tomb Raider One', apparently it was the setting for the Tomb Raider movie. The fasinating thing about this temples was not that it was mostly collapsed but there were actually giant trees growing out of the walls and on top of the temple itself. It was a huge structure and like a maze inside with all the collapsed roofs. Very cool but still didn't beat the library!
The last stop was a kind of reddy temple which was heavily barrred to stop peices falling off. It was large another one of my favorites. Across the road was a big lake which only the immediate royal family is allowed to swim in, noone else. I don't know how often they take a dip but I imagine the water is very clean.
By the time we returned to Siem Reap it was only 12:30 so I had some lunch and paid the tuktuk driver $8 more to take me to the Solous group. It is 3 very very old temples, hundreds of years older than Angkor Wat and the others! They were made ina very different way, from very small red bricks. They were all falling down and in bad shape but they had incredible details and there was noone there. I really liked these 3.
Not much happened for the other day in Siem Reap before I caught the bus to Bangkok and my flight to HK...
I woke up very early to get there for sunrise. I had arranged to meet the tuktuk driver who took me to the hotel at 5am, he was early and I was a few minutes late but he seemed not to mind. I suggested a price of $15 for the day would be reasonable and he agreed and we set off. It took about half an hour to get to Angkor Wat, the first stop. The sun was just starting to rise and I went a bit crazy with the photos. All the other tourists had opted to sit on small plastic chairs to watch the sun rise fully but I saw most of it as I was walking towards the Wat, down the HUGE granite walkway from the moat all the way up to the front door. I was the 4th [or so] person inside the actual temple so I basically had it to myself. I was a little faster than everyone else so I soon overtook and was all alone. A guard offered to take me 'up' through the no entry sign, for a small fee of $10, to watch the sunrise. I decided not to because the sun had risen by then and I didn't want to spend the money. It was about that time that my camera announced after 2 month that the memory was full. I deleted a few crappy photos quickly and just took a few sparingly for the final section of the Wat.
I have to say that I was very impressed by Angkor Wat, people said it was big but had poor carvings and this and that but I thought they were pretty impressive and it's size was astonishing!
Before I go on I will warn you that I don't know the names for most of the temples I visited.
On the way to the next place [The walled city] I went through my camera deleting all the bad shots to try and squeeze in as many photos of the rest of the complex as I could. I managed to make enough space for the whole day which was good.
The second stop was the North Library of Bayon, the most amazing building I visited. It looked like it shouldn't be standing up, it was just so cool and too hard to describe. Unfortunatly I was so worried about my memory I only took one photo of it which does it no justice what so ever. It was part of the walled city complex [name something to do with Thom] and next I walked to the giant Budda. The lady there gave me some incense and I waved it in front of the Budda for luck. You always wave 3 sticks of incense, one for you, one for god and one for the Budda [I think]. Then I found out that [of course] this 'luck' came at a price of 1 dollar, luckily I didn't have any small money apart from 300 Riel [approx 3p] so it wasn't such a great cost. Finally I walked to another temple that is under renovation because its sand walls have collapsed the whole structure numerous times and the Frech government has finally decided to renovate it properly so it doesn't fall down again. It was just a building site so I couldn't actually go in. I just read signs about the work being done.
Then we drove to some small temples. One had been renovated by the French and the other by the Chinese. The French had tried to make it like before but the Chinese had opted to give the temple a Chinese theme which was amusing.
Next up was the one I had really been looking forward to, 'The Tomb Raider One', apparently it was the setting for the Tomb Raider movie. The fasinating thing about this temples was not that it was mostly collapsed but there were actually giant trees growing out of the walls and on top of the temple itself. It was a huge structure and like a maze inside with all the collapsed roofs. Very cool but still didn't beat the library!
The last stop was a kind of reddy temple which was heavily barrred to stop peices falling off. It was large another one of my favorites. Across the road was a big lake which only the immediate royal family is allowed to swim in, noone else. I don't know how often they take a dip but I imagine the water is very clean.
By the time we returned to Siem Reap it was only 12:30 so I had some lunch and paid the tuktuk driver $8 more to take me to the Solous group. It is 3 very very old temples, hundreds of years older than Angkor Wat and the others! They were made ina very different way, from very small red bricks. They were all falling down and in bad shape but they had incredible details and there was noone there. I really liked these 3.
Not much happened for the other day in Siem Reap before I caught the bus to Bangkok and my flight to HK...
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Temples of Angkor
Yesterday something amazing happened to me, it was such an honour to experience it first hand after all I had heard about it. I have to recommend it to anyone who gets the chance to see it. It was just such a fantastic feeling, like nothing I had ever felt before. I had a fish massage on my feet. It was incredible, they don't have teeth, they just have a sucker and eat all your dead skin and dry skin right off. It tickles loads to start with but when you get used to it it just feels really cool. I stayed there for 2 hours at a grand total of $2.40, it is suposed to be $3 but I didn't have that much so gave him everything in my pocket. My weary travellers feet still have loads of caluses and dead skin but alot of it has been eaten off by these strange 'doctol fish'. Someone who was there had a mosquito bite that he had itched to bleeding and had a scab. The kind fish ate the scab and completly cleaned out the wound untill it was just a little pink circle in the top of his foot! It was really cool.
Oh yeah, I went to the Angkor temples as well, they were alright.
Oh yeah, I went to the Angkor temples as well, they were alright.
Monday, 8 June 2009
Enter Siem Reap
The bus to Siem Reap was OK, I had a sick lady sitting next to me from Phong Peng. I hope I ddin't catch anything. I arrived last night quite late and just checked into the hotel the tuktuk dropped me off at. It is easily the nicest place I have stayed but it is fairly expensive at $8 a night. I feel a little guilty about splashing out so much on accomadation but I cant be bothered to move now and my tuktuk driver is meeting me outside here tomorrow at 5am. I am just chilling out today, slept in. Did some shopping, bought some Khmer trousers but I am not sure why because I cant work out how to do them up properly so they look a little twisted. Even though the man showed me how all of 30 minutes ago!!
The town here is stupidly touristy, it is good in the evening but there is so much hassle from tuktuk drivers and children selling you stuff. Even a random kid who just wanted to beat me up!
Angkor Wat tomorrow, I am going to do some research now to choose which temples I am going to visit. It is going to be an expensive day, a ticket for the temples is $20 and then a tuktuk for the day is going to be about the same, hopefully a bit less, like $15 but it depends which temples I choose to see.
I am a bit worried about the money situation. Here and Bangkok and HK are all very expensive, I hope I still have enough left for my last 2 weeks! The bus to Bangkok is $10 and takes 12 hours[ish]. I will leave here on the 11th, have that night on Khaosan road then fly the next day to HK.
Oh that is cool, I just saw on facebook that Kris Sullings is possibly flying out to Bangkok on the 20th so I can hook up with him for my last 2 weeks, that would be awesome!!
The town here is stupidly touristy, it is good in the evening but there is so much hassle from tuktuk drivers and children selling you stuff. Even a random kid who just wanted to beat me up!
Angkor Wat tomorrow, I am going to do some research now to choose which temples I am going to visit. It is going to be an expensive day, a ticket for the temples is $20 and then a tuktuk for the day is going to be about the same, hopefully a bit less, like $15 but it depends which temples I choose to see.
I am a bit worried about the money situation. Here and Bangkok and HK are all very expensive, I hope I still have enough left for my last 2 weeks! The bus to Bangkok is $10 and takes 12 hours[ish]. I will leave here on the 11th, have that night on Khaosan road then fly the next day to HK.
Oh that is cool, I just saw on facebook that Kris Sullings is possibly flying out to Bangkok on the 20th so I can hook up with him for my last 2 weeks, that would be awesome!!
Saturday, 6 June 2009
Not so homesick
Having booked my flight for the 21st I realized I don't actually want to go home yet. I paid a bit more to extend it to the 2nd so I get another 2 weeks. I will probably try to see more of Laos, I missed the south before. However I think that is the most expensive option because of all the transport and visas and I may need to a buy a Thailand visa coming back in because it will be my 4th reentry in 3 months. So maybe staying in Thailand will be a better option. I didn't get to see the west coast at all before.
Friday, 5 June 2009
Goodbye Sihanoukville
I am about to book my bus to Siem Reap for tomorrow. I have been here for a week or so now. Nothing actually happens here which is why I havn't updated my blog. It is a great place first thing in the morning [which is technically early afternoon] because there are great places for English breakfast and it is nice to sit with delicious Vietnamesse coffe with sweet milk and read a bit of my book while listening to the Hostels chilled out music. I have been staying at Utopia which has a free dorm, free pool, free water and if you go flyering on the beach, free beer. I have still managed to spend about $15-$20 a day because food is quite expensive and I have been buying a book every other day.
After the breakfast reading session it gets a little boring for a few hours because it is rainy season so the beach isn't really an option. It is usually during this time that I look forward to leaving but then in the evening/morning wish I could stay longer. I have stayed here the longest of all places though and I do want to have a good few days in Siem Reap before I fly to HK on the 12th.
While I have been here in Sihanoukville [which I can now finally spell after all this time] I have read 2 books. Wow, I thought it was more, maybe I am forgetting one. Black Hawk Down, which was awesome; The Game, which was stupid but I still read in one sitting, and I am now reading The Killing Zone, which is a first person acount of infantry combat in the Vietnam war by a US soldier.
I have drunk alot of beer and slept in alot. Perfect.
I am looking forward to Siem Reap now, I met someone who arrived yesterday from Siem Reap who said it was a really cool town even for days you are not seeing Angkor Wat. I still dont know if I will do the 1 day or 3 days for Angkor Wat. Everyone my age has said 1 day is more than enough but older people seem to suggest 3 days and 1 nutter said I would definatly want a week. I will probably just do one day to be honest, a Wat is a Wat and a big Wat is still a Wat, which is a Wat. Most likly 1 day will be fine for me.
While I have been here I have also been trying to book flights. WHAT a pain. The translation on the airasia sight means that I had no idea which number goes in which box. I just did trial and error which seemed to work out OK after a few trys. I will be in HK for a week which I am really looking forward to now. I fly from Bangkok on the 12th and leave on the 19th. Then a few short days in Bangkok before flying out at 01:20 on the 21st. Hopefully.
Trying to rebook the date for my flight home has been a nightmare and is still not sorted. When I booked my flights with STA I was told it would cost 35GBP to change the date. Now it is crunch time they are charging me 110GBP to change it and ignoring my messages telling them I was quoted 35. I guess I dont really have a choice, it is just irritating for them to screw me over so badly. I tried to use my STA travelcard to pay for it but they wont acept thier own card so I will have to get mum to do it from home.
I did buy Skype credit [a bit pointless now that I think about it, just 2 weeks before I go home] so I can call home for very small amount of money. I tested it out at my dads office yesterday which was cool, I didn't get through to him though so just had a quick chat with his secretary. I will call mum after updating this to give it another go, it is quite exciting!
I was quite looking forward to going home but now my flights are booked and it is a reality 2 weeks seems like a very short amount of time left...
After the breakfast reading session it gets a little boring for a few hours because it is rainy season so the beach isn't really an option. It is usually during this time that I look forward to leaving but then in the evening/morning wish I could stay longer. I have stayed here the longest of all places though and I do want to have a good few days in Siem Reap before I fly to HK on the 12th.
While I have been here in Sihanoukville [which I can now finally spell after all this time] I have read 2 books. Wow, I thought it was more, maybe I am forgetting one. Black Hawk Down, which was awesome; The Game, which was stupid but I still read in one sitting, and I am now reading The Killing Zone, which is a first person acount of infantry combat in the Vietnam war by a US soldier.
I have drunk alot of beer and slept in alot. Perfect.
I am looking forward to Siem Reap now, I met someone who arrived yesterday from Siem Reap who said it was a really cool town even for days you are not seeing Angkor Wat. I still dont know if I will do the 1 day or 3 days for Angkor Wat. Everyone my age has said 1 day is more than enough but older people seem to suggest 3 days and 1 nutter said I would definatly want a week. I will probably just do one day to be honest, a Wat is a Wat and a big Wat is still a Wat, which is a Wat. Most likly 1 day will be fine for me.
While I have been here I have also been trying to book flights. WHAT a pain. The translation on the airasia sight means that I had no idea which number goes in which box. I just did trial and error which seemed to work out OK after a few trys. I will be in HK for a week which I am really looking forward to now. I fly from Bangkok on the 12th and leave on the 19th. Then a few short days in Bangkok before flying out at 01:20 on the 21st. Hopefully.
Trying to rebook the date for my flight home has been a nightmare and is still not sorted. When I booked my flights with STA I was told it would cost 35GBP to change the date. Now it is crunch time they are charging me 110GBP to change it and ignoring my messages telling them I was quoted 35. I guess I dont really have a choice, it is just irritating for them to screw me over so badly. I tried to use my STA travelcard to pay for it but they wont acept thier own card so I will have to get mum to do it from home.
I did buy Skype credit [a bit pointless now that I think about it, just 2 weeks before I go home] so I can call home for very small amount of money. I tested it out at my dads office yesterday which was cool, I didn't get through to him though so just had a quick chat with his secretary. I will call mum after updating this to give it another go, it is quite exciting!
I was quite looking forward to going home but now my flights are booked and it is a reality 2 weeks seems like a very short amount of time left...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)