OK, I cant spell it. I just arrived, it was a horrible journey that took an hour longer than it was supposed to. I have free accommodation in a pretty dirty dorm room but it is free so I cant complain!
It is sunny for now at least but rainy season has officially arrived now and so it rains every day at some point.
The Killing Fields and S21 yesterday were very humbling, it is horrible what happened in Cambodia and I cant believe I have been blissfully ignorant of it for my whole life! It has been 30 years and still only 5 people have been jailed. The most disturbing thing for me I think is that the executioners at the Killing Fields had so many prisoners delivered each day that there was not enough time in the day to kill them all. So they had to build prisons for them untill they found the time!
I will see how the next fews days here go and then decide on my flights to HK and home.
Friday, 29 May 2009
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Into Cambodia
I stayed in Nha Trang for 5 days in the end. The highlight was easily Vinpearl Land which is an island just off the mainland. You get to it over the longest over-sea cable car in the world. It is a privatly owned island complete with a 5 star hotel resort, theme park, amusment arcade, aquarium and waterpark! It costs just 300,000VND [12GBP] for the whole day and everything is free once you are there. Admittedly the theme park was pretty shocking but the arcades were really cool, the aquarium was the best I have ever been to. It was a huge huge tank with a conveyer belt going through a tunnel so you are basically in the tank with the turles/sharks/random fish with pointy noses/ etc. The waterpark is really cool too, way bigger than the one I went to in Greece last summer, we spent the whole afternoon there. Basically everyone I met turned up at the same time in Nha Trang so there were about 20+ of us all there, it was wicked.
Saigon was OK, the Chu Chi tunnels were very interesting although I decided to opt out of firing a gun. It was tempting but they were all attached to the fence so there was no real aiming, just mindless shooting which I didn't really want to pay $5 a bullet for.
I got totally ripped off on my Me Kong Delta tour. It was $33 for 2 days and a night and the boat to Cambodia. I thought I would see alot of the delta but we only went to 4 different places and all of them were just the usual tour stop-offs with a few groups in front and behind us it was not the experiance I was looking for. The rest of the time was either on the bus or the boat! It was OK, I got a few snaps but it definaly was not what I was expecting. They kept trying to rip us off by getting us to pay more for fast boats. No-one paid appart from a foolish couple who paid $10 for a boat instead of a bus on the first day and then everyone got on the boat at no extra cost and they didnt get thier money back. Then they paid another $10 for the fast boat today which never appeared!! Noone could believe they kept getting thier cash out for these obvious scammers.
I read a book, ''Enders Game" straight through today. It took 9 hours and was definatly better than "Empire of the Sun'' which I also finished today but was much more of a challenge [I have been carrying it since Chang Mai"]. I tried to find a bookshop this evening but felt uncomfortable wandering around in the dark so I will wait for tomorrow.
So my first impressions of Cambodia...Well, it is certianly not as nice as Vietnam, the roads are bad, the place is dirty and I dont feel very comfortable here in Phnom Pen. Going into Saigon was fine and I got the run of the place really quickly but here just feels different. Maybe because I loked myself in my room for 2 hours as soon as I arrived to finish my book and my vision is still blurry.
I am going to S21 tomorrow morning, I wont bother setting my alarm, I need a good nights sleep. Hopefully if I go to bed early enough I wont sleep in till 2 like I did in Saigon one night. Then in the afternoon I will do the killing fields. Get all the depressing stuff over with before heading to the beach place whos name I still dont remember, to chill out and party for a week or so. I will go there the day after tomorrow and get a job in one of the bars if I can. Apparently there is quite alot of free accomadation down there if you buy drinks/meals from the guesthouses but if I find a job I should get accomodation anyway. I have heard that suncreen is a bit of a rare find in Cambodia which hopefully isn't true because I have run out and will need more for the beach!!
I checked my account balances yesterday and they are looking surpringly healthy!! I should have twice as much when I return home than I first thought!! I also met some people from HK on the Me Kong Delta tour who told me it is considerably cheaper to fly to Macau and get a boat to HK so I will look that up after I have finished this entry. Which I have.
Saigon was OK, the Chu Chi tunnels were very interesting although I decided to opt out of firing a gun. It was tempting but they were all attached to the fence so there was no real aiming, just mindless shooting which I didn't really want to pay $5 a bullet for.
I got totally ripped off on my Me Kong Delta tour. It was $33 for 2 days and a night and the boat to Cambodia. I thought I would see alot of the delta but we only went to 4 different places and all of them were just the usual tour stop-offs with a few groups in front and behind us it was not the experiance I was looking for. The rest of the time was either on the bus or the boat! It was OK, I got a few snaps but it definaly was not what I was expecting. They kept trying to rip us off by getting us to pay more for fast boats. No-one paid appart from a foolish couple who paid $10 for a boat instead of a bus on the first day and then everyone got on the boat at no extra cost and they didnt get thier money back. Then they paid another $10 for the fast boat today which never appeared!! Noone could believe they kept getting thier cash out for these obvious scammers.
I read a book, ''Enders Game" straight through today. It took 9 hours and was definatly better than "Empire of the Sun'' which I also finished today but was much more of a challenge [I have been carrying it since Chang Mai"]. I tried to find a bookshop this evening but felt uncomfortable wandering around in the dark so I will wait for tomorrow.
So my first impressions of Cambodia...Well, it is certianly not as nice as Vietnam, the roads are bad, the place is dirty and I dont feel very comfortable here in Phnom Pen. Going into Saigon was fine and I got the run of the place really quickly but here just feels different. Maybe because I loked myself in my room for 2 hours as soon as I arrived to finish my book and my vision is still blurry.
I am going to S21 tomorrow morning, I wont bother setting my alarm, I need a good nights sleep. Hopefully if I go to bed early enough I wont sleep in till 2 like I did in Saigon one night. Then in the afternoon I will do the killing fields. Get all the depressing stuff over with before heading to the beach place whos name I still dont remember, to chill out and party for a week or so. I will go there the day after tomorrow and get a job in one of the bars if I can. Apparently there is quite alot of free accomadation down there if you buy drinks/meals from the guesthouses but if I find a job I should get accomodation anyway. I have heard that suncreen is a bit of a rare find in Cambodia which hopefully isn't true because I have run out and will need more for the beach!!
I checked my account balances yesterday and they are looking surpringly healthy!! I should have twice as much when I return home than I first thought!! I also met some people from HK on the Me Kong Delta tour who told me it is considerably cheaper to fly to Macau and get a boat to HK so I will look that up after I have finished this entry. Which I have.
Friday, 22 May 2009
Hoi An and Nha Trang
I stayed in Hoi An for 5 days, just chilling out on the beach really. I had some nice chelsea boots made and tried to get a jacket done but it didn't turn out well so I didn't. I regret not getting a suit made but life goes on...
Now I am in Nha Trang, I leave tomorrow morning for Ho Chi Min City. I was going to see Dalat and/or Mui Ne but I have heard bad things about both and cant really be bothered to see them. I will just do one night in HCMC, see the Chu Chi tunnels, fire an AK, then hit the Me Kong Delta which Sam Robinson said is really great. Then it is into Cambodia untill the 10th June [maybe more if it is really good] before hitting Hong Kong to see Johnny for a few days, then back to Bangkok for the flight home.
Nha Trang has been quite cool. I met up with some Sherborne guys, James and James and the girls they are with atm, Charlotte [who I met in Vang Vieng], Stephanie and Lila. We just sat on the, very dirty, beach most of the time. We went to Vinpearl Land a few days ago. It is a big privatly owned island with a small theme park, an amusement arcade and a waterpark all for just 12 pounds!! There is a cable car to get on the island and then everything is free apart form food. It was a really cool day, I spent alot of time on the FZeroX arcade game and the waterpark was just intense!!
I didn't go to the beach today it is just too dirty, there was actually a poo floating in the see yesterday it was horrible! I will be happy to leave I think, I am just going to have a night in tonight as well as the bus tomorrow leaves at 7:30.
I have started feeling a bit homesick recently. I am just a bit tired of being dirty all the time and everywhere I go is starting to look the same. Maybe it will be different in Cambodia but I have heard you get so much hassle from people trying to sell you stuff I don't know if I can cope. It is bad enough here and I havn't made it to HCMC yet.
Now I am in Nha Trang, I leave tomorrow morning for Ho Chi Min City. I was going to see Dalat and/or Mui Ne but I have heard bad things about both and cant really be bothered to see them. I will just do one night in HCMC, see the Chu Chi tunnels, fire an AK, then hit the Me Kong Delta which Sam Robinson said is really great. Then it is into Cambodia untill the 10th June [maybe more if it is really good] before hitting Hong Kong to see Johnny for a few days, then back to Bangkok for the flight home.
Nha Trang has been quite cool. I met up with some Sherborne guys, James and James and the girls they are with atm, Charlotte [who I met in Vang Vieng], Stephanie and Lila. We just sat on the, very dirty, beach most of the time. We went to Vinpearl Land a few days ago. It is a big privatly owned island with a small theme park, an amusement arcade and a waterpark all for just 12 pounds!! There is a cable car to get on the island and then everything is free apart form food. It was a really cool day, I spent alot of time on the FZeroX arcade game and the waterpark was just intense!!
I didn't go to the beach today it is just too dirty, there was actually a poo floating in the see yesterday it was horrible! I will be happy to leave I think, I am just going to have a night in tonight as well as the bus tomorrow leaves at 7:30.
I have started feeling a bit homesick recently. I am just a bit tired of being dirty all the time and everywhere I go is starting to look the same. Maybe it will be different in Cambodia but I have heard you get so much hassle from people trying to sell you stuff I don't know if I can cope. It is bad enough here and I havn't made it to HCMC yet.
Friday, 15 May 2009
Hue and Hoi An
The night bus to Hue was awesome, I slept the whole way. It was my best and longest night sleep for weeks.
Hue was not so great. It was an eventful 24 hours but only midly fun. I figured I could see all the citys sights in 1 day if I just hired a bike and cruised round. I started off about 11 and rode around the citadel for a while. A Vietnamese couple rode next to me on their moped and we had a little chat. They invited me for a beer which sounded very pleasant and I thought they were just really nice people. We had lunch and they tried to get me to buy a suit from their tailor which was for more expensive than here in Hoi An even though they tried to tell me Hoi An was $300 for a suit!! We ended up having lunch which they made me pay for [275,00 VND/11 GBP]!! They tried to get me to ring them up later for more beer and talking but I decided getting screwed over once was enough for the day.
The citadel was suitably boring and I couldn't bear the pain of the bike seat to ride to the other sights I had planned. So I ended up playing football with the local school kids for about an hour which was great, if very sweaty and tiring.
The next morning at 8am I headed for Hoi An. It is a 3.5 hour bus ride and I checked into a small hostel in a 2 man dorm. That day I just chilled out and went to the beach. There is a beach party every night here and I went to that on my first night. It was cool but the next day I woke up at 2pm. So I basically did nothing for the whole day. Watched a few films and met up with Ross and Paul from the Ha Long Bay tour.
Today I met them again and we hired bikes to ride to the ruins that are 40km out of the city. I got some cool photos and the ride was nice. I think I may have to do my CBT this summer when I get home.
Well, the power cut out as I was typing that yesterday so I can't remember what else I was going to say.
Hue was not so great. It was an eventful 24 hours but only midly fun. I figured I could see all the citys sights in 1 day if I just hired a bike and cruised round. I started off about 11 and rode around the citadel for a while. A Vietnamese couple rode next to me on their moped and we had a little chat. They invited me for a beer which sounded very pleasant and I thought they were just really nice people. We had lunch and they tried to get me to buy a suit from their tailor which was for more expensive than here in Hoi An even though they tried to tell me Hoi An was $300 for a suit!! We ended up having lunch which they made me pay for [275,00 VND/11 GBP]!! They tried to get me to ring them up later for more beer and talking but I decided getting screwed over once was enough for the day.
The citadel was suitably boring and I couldn't bear the pain of the bike seat to ride to the other sights I had planned. So I ended up playing football with the local school kids for about an hour which was great, if very sweaty and tiring.
The next morning at 8am I headed for Hoi An. It is a 3.5 hour bus ride and I checked into a small hostel in a 2 man dorm. That day I just chilled out and went to the beach. There is a beach party every night here and I went to that on my first night. It was cool but the next day I woke up at 2pm. So I basically did nothing for the whole day. Watched a few films and met up with Ross and Paul from the Ha Long Bay tour.
Today I met them again and we hired bikes to ride to the ruins that are 40km out of the city. I got some cool photos and the ride was nice. I think I may have to do my CBT this summer when I get home.
Well, the power cut out as I was typing that yesterday so I can't remember what else I was going to say.
Monday, 11 May 2009
Zune is gone
Someone nicked it from the storage while I was at Ha Long Bay. I am so pissed!! I wouldn't really care that much but alot of the music on it hadn't made it onto my computer yet so I have lost that too =[.
I guess I will try to replace it with the Zune 2 but you can only get them in america....
RAGE!!!!
I guess I will try to replace it with the Zune 2 but you can only get them in america....
RAGE!!!!
Sunday, 10 May 2009
Alive
I have noticed that certian people think I have died because I havn't written in my blog for 4 days :O. I do feel like I have died but unfortunatly I am still very much alive.
The bus to Hanoi was actually surprisingly good, there was a great group of people so it went by quickly. We only had one break down where we had to change a wheel.
My first night in Hanoi we [Toby, Char, India and Anna from the bus and Louis who was in our dorm] went to the Irish bar and got some great western food before hitting the sack.
Me Anna and India walked around the lake the next day and met up with Louis for lunch at the place Jermy Clarkson ordered sparrows. The food was....interesting. I decided to sample some swan and bamboo soup. The swan was like an ever fattier version of duck and the whole dish was caked in lemon grass and corriander so it was horrible. I couldn't eat it! We did the snake village at 2pm which was awesome!! It was India, Anna and me from our group because Char is scared of snakes and Toby stayed behind with her. Alexander and an American couple were also there.
We held a non-poisenous snake first then the snake master got out a cobra and went all Steve Iwrin on us! It was wicked. Then we sat down for 'lunch', they got out a bag of snakes and took one out. Then they held it between 2 of them and one guy cut it open [still alive]. He popped out the heart and dropped it in a shot glass, then he drained the blood into a cup and the bile into another. 3 of us had a shot of blood/heart/rice wine which was really amazing! It tasted baaad but you could basically feel the heart beating as it went down your throat into the stomach. Next was a shot of bile and a shot of blood followed by a meal of the snakes cooked in various ways. It all tasted pretty foul but was definatly an experiance!
We all went on a tour to Ha Long bay the next morning at 8am. This hostel promotes early mornings which I think is a good thing although maybe not when I am waking up! It was so good!
It started with a bus ride to the bay where we all hopped onto a huge and very luxurious boat. We had lunch tehn went kayaking which was defiantly an adventure. Someones kayak sunk so we had to try and navigate our way back in the dark!! I was paired with a retarded guy from Israil so we zig zagged the whole way and paddled about 3 times farther than any other boat! I missed the rudder.
There was a sweet party on the boat that night with lots of beer and jumping off the top deck to the water. Everyone on the boat was a legend, it was fantastic.
Yesterday half the group left for home and the 2 nighters went to Cat Ba island. It was really good fun climbing to the rusty viewing tower, more rock climbing than hiking! The tower was dodgey because it was so rusty but provided a superb view of the island.
Today we just went for a quick swim and came back to the hostel. It was a really good trip and definatly worth the money!
I will stay here again tonight, see the final few sights tomorrow and get the night bus/train to Hue.
So yeah, I am alive and Vietnam is the best!
The bus to Hanoi was actually surprisingly good, there was a great group of people so it went by quickly. We only had one break down where we had to change a wheel.
My first night in Hanoi we [Toby, Char, India and Anna from the bus and Louis who was in our dorm] went to the Irish bar and got some great western food before hitting the sack.
Me Anna and India walked around the lake the next day and met up with Louis for lunch at the place Jermy Clarkson ordered sparrows. The food was....interesting. I decided to sample some swan and bamboo soup. The swan was like an ever fattier version of duck and the whole dish was caked in lemon grass and corriander so it was horrible. I couldn't eat it! We did the snake village at 2pm which was awesome!! It was India, Anna and me from our group because Char is scared of snakes and Toby stayed behind with her. Alexander and an American couple were also there.
We held a non-poisenous snake first then the snake master got out a cobra and went all Steve Iwrin on us! It was wicked. Then we sat down for 'lunch', they got out a bag of snakes and took one out. Then they held it between 2 of them and one guy cut it open [still alive]. He popped out the heart and dropped it in a shot glass, then he drained the blood into a cup and the bile into another. 3 of us had a shot of blood/heart/rice wine which was really amazing! It tasted baaad but you could basically feel the heart beating as it went down your throat into the stomach. Next was a shot of bile and a shot of blood followed by a meal of the snakes cooked in various ways. It all tasted pretty foul but was definatly an experiance!
We all went on a tour to Ha Long bay the next morning at 8am. This hostel promotes early mornings which I think is a good thing although maybe not when I am waking up! It was so good!
It started with a bus ride to the bay where we all hopped onto a huge and very luxurious boat. We had lunch tehn went kayaking which was defiantly an adventure. Someones kayak sunk so we had to try and navigate our way back in the dark!! I was paired with a retarded guy from Israil so we zig zagged the whole way and paddled about 3 times farther than any other boat! I missed the rudder.
There was a sweet party on the boat that night with lots of beer and jumping off the top deck to the water. Everyone on the boat was a legend, it was fantastic.
Yesterday half the group left for home and the 2 nighters went to Cat Ba island. It was really good fun climbing to the rusty viewing tower, more rock climbing than hiking! The tower was dodgey because it was so rusty but provided a superb view of the island.
Today we just went for a quick swim and came back to the hostel. It was a really good trip and definatly worth the money!
I will stay here again tonight, see the final few sights tomorrow and get the night bus/train to Hue.
So yeah, I am alive and Vietnam is the best!
Monday, 4 May 2009
Out of touch.
I havn't posted here for a while, mostly because I have been having too much fun in Vang Vieng! I tubed for 3 days in the end. It was wicked I met so many people and alot of them are going to Hanoi around the same time as me.
I came all the way up to Luang Prabang again thinking I could get the bus from here to Hanoi. I cant. I have to go all the way back down to Vientiene which is a pain but it is my fault and there is nothing I can do unless I wait here for a week and get a flight which I definatly cant be bothered with, as nice as this town is.
So that is basically the deal now. I leave this evening to Vientiene and am there for a day, then it is off to Hanoi tomorrow night. The bus to Vientine is 9 hours and the bus from there to Hanoi is 24. Needless to say it is going to be horrible!
Yesterday I went to the waterfalls here in Luang Prabang, they are beautiful!! I heard about and [eventually] found a really great natural infinity pool overlooking the valley. Noone really knows about it so I was there on my own untill another group came down. The way there is pretty treterous [spelling], I almost died. Twice. I ran into Sophie and her friend whos name escapes me, who I had met tubing. They also thought you could get a bus from here to Hanoi but they left Vang Vieng a day before me so they left last night to Vientine and got a flight instead.
I met Chris again last night, he had just got off the slowboat. I met him in Pai first, then Chang Mai and now here. We decided we wont meet again because he is going north in Laos now and he is not going to Vietnam. We went bowling [the thing to do in the evenings here] and are meeting up for breakfast this morning in half an hour [I am killing time in the internet cafe] with some other people we met last night but whos names escape me as usual.
Oh yeah I almost forgot I ran into Julian yesterday!! It was awesome but we didn't get a long chat because I was mid tuktuk ride and the driver wasn't too keen on stopping for long. He left last night so I didn't get to see him again which is a shame.
So I think that is all that has been going on in a crazy non-chronological order. I guess I will fill you in on the details of my sure to be exciting bus ride to Hanoi in a few days.
I came all the way up to Luang Prabang again thinking I could get the bus from here to Hanoi. I cant. I have to go all the way back down to Vientiene which is a pain but it is my fault and there is nothing I can do unless I wait here for a week and get a flight which I definatly cant be bothered with, as nice as this town is.
So that is basically the deal now. I leave this evening to Vientiene and am there for a day, then it is off to Hanoi tomorrow night. The bus to Vientine is 9 hours and the bus from there to Hanoi is 24. Needless to say it is going to be horrible!
Yesterday I went to the waterfalls here in Luang Prabang, they are beautiful!! I heard about and [eventually] found a really great natural infinity pool overlooking the valley. Noone really knows about it so I was there on my own untill another group came down. The way there is pretty treterous [spelling], I almost died. Twice. I ran into Sophie and her friend whos name escapes me, who I had met tubing. They also thought you could get a bus from here to Hanoi but they left Vang Vieng a day before me so they left last night to Vientine and got a flight instead.
I met Chris again last night, he had just got off the slowboat. I met him in Pai first, then Chang Mai and now here. We decided we wont meet again because he is going north in Laos now and he is not going to Vietnam. We went bowling [the thing to do in the evenings here] and are meeting up for breakfast this morning in half an hour [I am killing time in the internet cafe] with some other people we met last night but whos names escape me as usual.
Oh yeah I almost forgot I ran into Julian yesterday!! It was awesome but we didn't get a long chat because I was mid tuktuk ride and the driver wasn't too keen on stopping for long. He left last night so I didn't get to see him again which is a shame.
So I think that is all that has been going on in a crazy non-chronological order. I guess I will fill you in on the details of my sure to be exciting bus ride to Hanoi in a few days.
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