Hello all. I am in Koh Pang Nang (an island in the south of Thailand) for the full moon party. It is on May 1 and is not to be missed. So I am told. I came a couple of days early so I could get accommodation and it is a good thing as it was hard to find a room, let alone in my price range. I am in a bungalow on the beach that hosts the party. So good and close for the festivities. My hotel has a buffet dinner that night for all the guests. If you have not heard of the full moon party it is an excuse for the Thai’s to party each month and each year tens of thousands of travelers flock to Koh Pang Nang to experience the party on the beach.
It is raining and cloudy here and I am getting lots of reading in looking out onto the ocean. No sunbathing, but good rest and relaxation just the same.
I seem to have gotten over the worst of my bug and am back to eating which is a good thing. I still have a sinus cold though which I hope clears up soon so I can go diving in these lovely waters.
Monday 30 April 2007
Friday 27 April 2007
Thailand -Bangkok
I arrived in Bangkok the other day. It was an interesting ride and I am glad I had Kim with me to help me find where to stay. She has been here before and knew where to go from where the bus dropped us off. The trip from Siem Reap took 13 hours and started off on a rough road with many pot holes and a lot of dust. The road was not paved that we traveled on for the first 6 hours. The busses air conditioning was not working and the windows were open. By the time we made it to the boarder some of the people's white shirts were covered in red dirt. It would remind you of PEI with the red dirt. Once making it to the boarder, the boarder crossing was pretty dirty and nothing like the nice one between Vietnam and Cambodia. We had to walk through the boarder with our bags and then a ways to meet another bus. This bus was something. It was a double decker so you climb up and into the purple interior studded, mirrored ceiling bus, with great air conditioning. It was an interesting looking bus, it was very clean and cool, but reminded me of some cheesy bar or strip club with it's interior.
Day two in Bangkok resulted in me being sick in Bangkok, not sick of Bangkok but sick. I had to go to the Chinese Ambassy to get my VISA for there. I went by bus (old crappy one) and subway. It was a trec and people were so nice trying to help me get there. I finally got there waited and waited and then waited more when they said it could be ready in three hours. So I went to a food court and the smell of the food sent me to the bathroom. I thought I was going to throw up and I had it bad out the other end. So back to the Ambassy to wait in their lobby, I fell asleep and the guy says no sleeping as I was sitting on the stairs. I ended up vomiting all over their toilet and getting my visa. I took the subway back and then a bus. The bus was terrible. It was so hot and full of people and over an hour long in stop and go rush hour traffic. So I was a sight to not be seen. I vomited into a bag a couple of times and out the window a couple more times. I asked the ticket collector on the bus to tell me when to get off. So there is a tap on my shoulder and I stagger out of the bus, through the people to puke again this time on a tree, then another tree down the road. I was in terrible shape. I made it back to the room to see Kim off (she was going to the south on a 15 hour overnight bus) and visited the toilet many more times and called it a night. I did sleep not too bad and took it slow this morning to see where I was at. I ended up going to the Royal Palace which was beautiful with all it's ornate gold. That was all I could handle in the heat and I have not been sick today. Thank god. Anyway happy to not be puking.
Day two in Bangkok resulted in me being sick in Bangkok, not sick of Bangkok but sick. I had to go to the Chinese Ambassy to get my VISA for there. I went by bus (old crappy one) and subway. It was a trec and people were so nice trying to help me get there. I finally got there waited and waited and then waited more when they said it could be ready in three hours. So I went to a food court and the smell of the food sent me to the bathroom. I thought I was going to throw up and I had it bad out the other end. So back to the Ambassy to wait in their lobby, I fell asleep and the guy says no sleeping as I was sitting on the stairs. I ended up vomiting all over their toilet and getting my visa. I took the subway back and then a bus. The bus was terrible. It was so hot and full of people and over an hour long in stop and go rush hour traffic. So I was a sight to not be seen. I vomited into a bag a couple of times and out the window a couple more times. I asked the ticket collector on the bus to tell me when to get off. So there is a tap on my shoulder and I stagger out of the bus, through the people to puke again this time on a tree, then another tree down the road. I was in terrible shape. I made it back to the room to see Kim off (she was going to the south on a 15 hour overnight bus) and visited the toilet many more times and called it a night. I did sleep not too bad and took it slow this morning to see where I was at. I ended up going to the Royal Palace which was beautiful with all it's ornate gold. That was all I could handle in the heat and I have not been sick today. Thank god. Anyway happy to not be puking.
Tuesday 24 April 2007
Angkor - Siem Reap Cambodia, Pictures
I have been visiting the Angkor temples in Siem Reap for the last couple of days. It was magnificent. There are so many temples and each one is different. They were made between 900 – 1100, I believe. Don’t quote me on that, a long time ago. It is hard to believe they could have made such fascinating buildings so long ago and today the country is in poverty. It is said that Cambodia was the center of the globe at that time. They think that the population around the temples was over a million people and London England was only 50 000 people.
They do have the tourist thing down though, when it comes to visiting the temples. The roadways between the temples are paved and tree lined. It is a gorgeous ride between them. The temples were spectacular. It was so relaxing walking around them and through the jungle in parts to get to them. I did not expect to be able to go into them, but you can climb all over them. Kim from South Africa and I visited them together. It was so much fun and we did a lot of climbing.
At one temple I was climbing down the narrow steep steps and ended up missing three steps. You should have heard the gasps from the people sitting below having a drink. It was funny, but not at the time. I landed on my feet thank god, but my heart was racing.
I highly recommend a visit to Siem Reap to visit the temples. They are spectacular. I think in the future you will not be able to tour around inside them, or climb on them. That was really cool. It was so much fun and good exercise and the heat, 40 degrees over here. Needless to say it was a hot, hot couple of days.
The pass to get into the temples was $40 for 2 or 3 days and $20 for one day. We rented a tuc, tuc to take us between the temples as they can be up to 30km’s apart and that cost us $15 each, for two days.
It was awesome visiting the magnificent temples. My favorite was Bayon. It had 56 towers with 216 faces “watching” over the people of Cambodia.
I took tons of pictures; check them out at the following link.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/AngkorSiemReapCambodia
They do have the tourist thing down though, when it comes to visiting the temples. The roadways between the temples are paved and tree lined. It is a gorgeous ride between them. The temples were spectacular. It was so relaxing walking around them and through the jungle in parts to get to them. I did not expect to be able to go into them, but you can climb all over them. Kim from South Africa and I visited them together. It was so much fun and we did a lot of climbing.
At one temple I was climbing down the narrow steep steps and ended up missing three steps. You should have heard the gasps from the people sitting below having a drink. It was funny, but not at the time. I landed on my feet thank god, but my heart was racing.
I highly recommend a visit to Siem Reap to visit the temples. They are spectacular. I think in the future you will not be able to tour around inside them, or climb on them. That was really cool. It was so much fun and good exercise and the heat, 40 degrees over here. Needless to say it was a hot, hot couple of days.
The pass to get into the temples was $40 for 2 or 3 days and $20 for one day. We rented a tuc, tuc to take us between the temples as they can be up to 30km’s apart and that cost us $15 each, for two days.
It was awesome visiting the magnificent temples. My favorite was Bayon. It had 56 towers with 216 faces “watching” over the people of Cambodia.
I took tons of pictures; check them out at the following link.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/AngkorSiemReapCambodia
Saturday 21 April 2007
Link to all pictures
You can look at the photo albums at anytime by going to the following link. You may want to save it to your favorites and then you can look back at any of the photos, instead of searching through the blogs for specific albums. This takes you to them all.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney
Kampot Cambodia - pictures
Well it’s been an adventurous few days. Kim from South Africa and I are still traveling together and we went to Kampot and we are now in Siem Reap, both are places in Cambodia.
We went from Sihanoukville to Kampot via a shared taxi. That is the only way to get there. Busses do not travel there and the train that is suppose to go there, the locals won’t even take. We were told it would pick us up at 9:30 am. It was late and then we went to another guesthouse to pick up three people for the two hour ride. We waited at this guesthouse for over 45 minutes, with the driver telling us, “10 more minutes, 10 more minutes.” Finally I went into the guesthouse and asked what room the people were in. I went to their room and asked what time they had been told, 11 am. I said we were told 9:30 and had been waiting. So about 11:15 and we hit the road. Only to stop at the local market and have the driver attempt to get another person in the taxi. The taxi was a 1980 Toyota Corolla that seats five people at home, but four in the back seat here and three in the front. One straddling the gear shift is no problem. I was in the back and took advantage of the seat beat that was still there and squished in with the other three in the back.
We made it to Kampot, a rural area on the river. It was great. A true Cambodian town, not many tourists and the downtown was very old and dilapidated. The guesthouse we stayed at was awesome. We had a bungalow on the river with three walls ($8 a night). Where the forth wall should have been was open to the river. There were no locks on any of the rooms in the place. It was interesting. It was a very relaxing place. The bungalow was floating in the river on those blue plastic barrels we have at home and also use to make rafts. We had a mosquito net over our beds. It was a great room; we could roll out of bed and jump in the river, which was a salt water river. There were a lot of people hanging out at this place relaxing in the hammocks, reading and swimming. They also had a speed boat and you could go tubing.
You go to Kampot to see Bokor National Park and Bohdi Villa’s where we stayed. We went to town and signed up to go to Bokor National Park with a company that would pick us up at 8 am the next day. We waited again until 8:45 am and a guy came by on his motorbike and asked what company we were waiting for? He said, oh this company is sh**.” Well he was right. They picked us up in a truck full of people. We were in the cab, which turned out to be a good thing as there was something to hang on to and a little cushioning as we climbed the mountain to a deserted village. The village is part of the National Park. With the $5 each person pays to get into the park they could use it to fix the road. It is a terrible road. It is so rough. Picture the worst farm road or cottage road you have been down in Canada and multiple it by ten.
The truck broke down and we tried to walk to the top. Our “English” speaking guide did not speak much English. So we walked up this terrible road for over an hour then stopped and waited for three hours. We were told the truck would be fixed in an hour and a half and that it would meet us. It never came, so we started to walk down. We passed the truck and there was no way that would be fixed anytime soon. You can look at a picture to verify this. So we had to walk down the mountain. It took six hours and no truck came to pick us up. Once making it to the bottom we had to pay to take a taxi back to town. It is also the hottest month of the year in Cambodia with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius. We were dirty, hot, sore and thirsty. So the next scam, 10 of us have to climb into this taxi, again a 1980’s Toyota Corolla and he charges us $1 U.S. each.
Once getting to town and complaining with the company they gave us our money back for the tour, but we had to pay the taxi. The guy said he was sending a car and the guide told him not to come. I am sure the guide was in on the taxi money. As the guide got in a car on the walk down and went to the bottom making us walk. He was to be going to get us a vehicle, but no.
So people discussed our situation with the park and they were going to honour our admission the next day. There is a separate entrance fee on top of the tour to take you to the top.
Day two of trying to make it to Bokor National Park resulted in a different company and another break down.
Three quarters of the way up you could walk part of the trail. Three of us decided we walked enough yesterday and had seen enough of the jungle and we would take the truck up. They stopped to let the people out and shut off the one truck. It would not restart. They attempted to jump start it by rolling it backwards, on the side of the mountain, with us in the back. We yelled stop as it was going over the side of the cliff and we jumped out, when they did not stop. People following us in their car tried to help and the one truck towed the other for a while with black smoke billowing out of the engine on the lead truck. I ended up playing “go fish” with Mija and Katrina from Denmark and Cambodian children that were in the other vehicles while we waited for them to fix the vehicle.
Four hours it took to get up the mountain to the disserted village. It was a happening town in the 60’s but after the war in the 70’s it is in ruins. It is suppose to be haunted. Once making it finally to the top the heavens opened up and it POURED rain. Luckily we were under a sun shelter. It stopped and left a fog around the area, creating a spooky feel. There was a Casino/Hotel, Catholic Church, school and other buildings to check out. It was neat, but seems like a lot of effort to get there and a ton of wear and tear on those vehicles. I would not want to be the guy that has to drive up there every day. The day ended with a boat cruise down the river and a free beer on the boat, as we did not get to go to the waterfall (part of the tour) as it is dry at this time of year.
Kim and I took the bus from Kampot to Siem Reap at 7 am. It had a stop in Phnom Penh for an hour and a half. You could buy a ticket to Phnom Penh and then another to Siem Reap. We bought a ticket straight though to save the hassle once we got to the bus terminal. A good thing as the bus was over sold and we would have had to stay another day in Phnom Penh. So guess what two seats were over sold. Seat five and six, our seats, as they give you assigned seats. They wanted us to get off, but we showed our tickets and we were early and sitting in the seats when the others came. We made it luckily to Siem Reap. We had just said, well it looks like this is working out as we questioned if we would have problems with a ticket from another town. But it worked out and we made it in at 8 pm. A long travel day, 13 hours by bus. My ears were sore as the guy was laying on the horn the whole way. If you watched the road, it looked like we were going to hit every dog, cow, motorcycle or other vehicle in our path. He was insane.
Taking in the walking sites around town today and found a lovely park with nice gardens. We are going to Angkor tomorrow to see the temples. They look beautiful. If you have time search Angkor on the internet.
Click on the following link for pictures, or copy the link and paste it into the browser as clicking on it may not work this time.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/KampotCambodia
We went from Sihanoukville to Kampot via a shared taxi. That is the only way to get there. Busses do not travel there and the train that is suppose to go there, the locals won’t even take. We were told it would pick us up at 9:30 am. It was late and then we went to another guesthouse to pick up three people for the two hour ride. We waited at this guesthouse for over 45 minutes, with the driver telling us, “10 more minutes, 10 more minutes.” Finally I went into the guesthouse and asked what room the people were in. I went to their room and asked what time they had been told, 11 am. I said we were told 9:30 and had been waiting. So about 11:15 and we hit the road. Only to stop at the local market and have the driver attempt to get another person in the taxi. The taxi was a 1980 Toyota Corolla that seats five people at home, but four in the back seat here and three in the front. One straddling the gear shift is no problem. I was in the back and took advantage of the seat beat that was still there and squished in with the other three in the back.
We made it to Kampot, a rural area on the river. It was great. A true Cambodian town, not many tourists and the downtown was very old and dilapidated. The guesthouse we stayed at was awesome. We had a bungalow on the river with three walls ($8 a night). Where the forth wall should have been was open to the river. There were no locks on any of the rooms in the place. It was interesting. It was a very relaxing place. The bungalow was floating in the river on those blue plastic barrels we have at home and also use to make rafts. We had a mosquito net over our beds. It was a great room; we could roll out of bed and jump in the river, which was a salt water river. There were a lot of people hanging out at this place relaxing in the hammocks, reading and swimming. They also had a speed boat and you could go tubing.
You go to Kampot to see Bokor National Park and Bohdi Villa’s where we stayed. We went to town and signed up to go to Bokor National Park with a company that would pick us up at 8 am the next day. We waited again until 8:45 am and a guy came by on his motorbike and asked what company we were waiting for? He said, oh this company is sh**.” Well he was right. They picked us up in a truck full of people. We were in the cab, which turned out to be a good thing as there was something to hang on to and a little cushioning as we climbed the mountain to a deserted village. The village is part of the National Park. With the $5 each person pays to get into the park they could use it to fix the road. It is a terrible road. It is so rough. Picture the worst farm road or cottage road you have been down in Canada and multiple it by ten.
The truck broke down and we tried to walk to the top. Our “English” speaking guide did not speak much English. So we walked up this terrible road for over an hour then stopped and waited for three hours. We were told the truck would be fixed in an hour and a half and that it would meet us. It never came, so we started to walk down. We passed the truck and there was no way that would be fixed anytime soon. You can look at a picture to verify this. So we had to walk down the mountain. It took six hours and no truck came to pick us up. Once making it to the bottom we had to pay to take a taxi back to town. It is also the hottest month of the year in Cambodia with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius. We were dirty, hot, sore and thirsty. So the next scam, 10 of us have to climb into this taxi, again a 1980’s Toyota Corolla and he charges us $1 U.S. each.
Once getting to town and complaining with the company they gave us our money back for the tour, but we had to pay the taxi. The guy said he was sending a car and the guide told him not to come. I am sure the guide was in on the taxi money. As the guide got in a car on the walk down and went to the bottom making us walk. He was to be going to get us a vehicle, but no.
So people discussed our situation with the park and they were going to honour our admission the next day. There is a separate entrance fee on top of the tour to take you to the top.
Day two of trying to make it to Bokor National Park resulted in a different company and another break down.
Three quarters of the way up you could walk part of the trail. Three of us decided we walked enough yesterday and had seen enough of the jungle and we would take the truck up. They stopped to let the people out and shut off the one truck. It would not restart. They attempted to jump start it by rolling it backwards, on the side of the mountain, with us in the back. We yelled stop as it was going over the side of the cliff and we jumped out, when they did not stop. People following us in their car tried to help and the one truck towed the other for a while with black smoke billowing out of the engine on the lead truck. I ended up playing “go fish” with Mija and Katrina from Denmark and Cambodian children that were in the other vehicles while we waited for them to fix the vehicle.
Four hours it took to get up the mountain to the disserted village. It was a happening town in the 60’s but after the war in the 70’s it is in ruins. It is suppose to be haunted. Once making it finally to the top the heavens opened up and it POURED rain. Luckily we were under a sun shelter. It stopped and left a fog around the area, creating a spooky feel. There was a Casino/Hotel, Catholic Church, school and other buildings to check out. It was neat, but seems like a lot of effort to get there and a ton of wear and tear on those vehicles. I would not want to be the guy that has to drive up there every day. The day ended with a boat cruise down the river and a free beer on the boat, as we did not get to go to the waterfall (part of the tour) as it is dry at this time of year.
Kim and I took the bus from Kampot to Siem Reap at 7 am. It had a stop in Phnom Penh for an hour and a half. You could buy a ticket to Phnom Penh and then another to Siem Reap. We bought a ticket straight though to save the hassle once we got to the bus terminal. A good thing as the bus was over sold and we would have had to stay another day in Phnom Penh. So guess what two seats were over sold. Seat five and six, our seats, as they give you assigned seats. They wanted us to get off, but we showed our tickets and we were early and sitting in the seats when the others came. We made it luckily to Siem Reap. We had just said, well it looks like this is working out as we questioned if we would have problems with a ticket from another town. But it worked out and we made it in at 8 pm. A long travel day, 13 hours by bus. My ears were sore as the guy was laying on the horn the whole way. If you watched the road, it looked like we were going to hit every dog, cow, motorcycle or other vehicle in our path. He was insane.
Taking in the walking sites around town today and found a lovely park with nice gardens. We are going to Angkor tomorrow to see the temples. They look beautiful. If you have time search Angkor on the internet.
Click on the following link for pictures, or copy the link and paste it into the browser as clicking on it may not work this time.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/KampotCambodia
Sunday 15 April 2007
Sihanoukville - Cambodia
I am currently in the beach town of Sihanoukville Cambodia. It is not what I expected. There are lots of Westerners settled here and a lot of Cambodians visiting the beach as it is their Khmer New Year. They celebrate for days, so it has been really interesting watching them enjoy the holidays. They celebrate by having continuously large water fights and powder fights, with talcum powder. There are beach areas that are just packed. Close to our accommodation is not packed, which is nice. I am staying with Kim from South Africa and we are a two minute walk from the beach. We are staying in a bungalow for $8 a night. It is up $2 a night because of the New Year, inflation!!
I have been hanging out on the beach reading, taking in the sunshine, waves and people. Tomorrow we are going on a boat trip to three islands and snorkeling for $10. It includes the boat trip, breakfast, lunch, fruit, soft drinks, three islands and snorkeling at each of the islands. Good value.
This town is really interesting, not what I expected. You can even stay here for free. There is a dorm guesthouse across the road that offers free accommodation. It is a room with huge bunk beds. There were 17 mattresses on the bottom and then the same on top. I am sure not much sleeping goes on there, as it is also a happening bar. That coincidently had a free dinner last night. They were passing out flyers saying come for free dinner. We went and it was great, rice, curry, pasta, garlic bread, crazy. I guess they were making their money off the drinks, which were for example $1 for a draft beer.
I have been hanging out on the beach reading, taking in the sunshine, waves and people. Tomorrow we are going on a boat trip to three islands and snorkeling for $10. It includes the boat trip, breakfast, lunch, fruit, soft drinks, three islands and snorkeling at each of the islands. Good value.
This town is really interesting, not what I expected. You can even stay here for free. There is a dorm guesthouse across the road that offers free accommodation. It is a room with huge bunk beds. There were 17 mattresses on the bottom and then the same on top. I am sure not much sleeping goes on there, as it is also a happening bar. That coincidently had a free dinner last night. They were passing out flyers saying come for free dinner. We went and it was great, rice, curry, pasta, garlic bread, crazy. I guess they were making their money off the drinks, which were for example $1 for a draft beer.
Thursday 12 April 2007
Phnom Penh - Children's Center - pictures
I went to the "Hopeful of Children Center" yesterday. It is a center for disadvantaged kids, some are orphans, others parents can not care for them. They may have HIV or work for very little money and can not care for their children. Some of them were also living alone on the street. There was one little boy, who looked three years old but is eight and was living on the street. His parents worked at the market and were going to get the food to sell and were killed in the middle of the night. This little boy was living on the street, begging for money and food, but the bigger kids would steal his money.
The center is run my a crippled Cambodian man, who himself lived in a center. He has started this on his own and depends only on donations to keep it going. He had such a spirit and was so great with the kids. Twelve kids live at the center and around 40 joined us to play from the neighbourhood. They come there so they are not in the street or fields during the day while their parents are working. We celebrated the Khmer New Year with them and played games together from 9am - 3pm.
He provides food, clothing and education to the kids. It cost him around $600 - $700 a month to run the center. If you want more info his email is kimny2005@yahoo.com
Click on the following for pictures of the Khemer New Years celebrations at the Center.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/PhnomPenh
The center is run my a crippled Cambodian man, who himself lived in a center. He has started this on his own and depends only on donations to keep it going. He had such a spirit and was so great with the kids. Twelve kids live at the center and around 40 joined us to play from the neighbourhood. They come there so they are not in the street or fields during the day while their parents are working. We celebrated the Khmer New Year with them and played games together from 9am - 3pm.
He provides food, clothing and education to the kids. It cost him around $600 - $700 a month to run the center. If you want more info his email is kimny2005@yahoo.com
Click on the following for pictures of the Khemer New Years celebrations at the Center.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/PhnomPenh
Wednesday 11 April 2007
Cambodia - Phnom Penh link to pictures too
I am in Phnom Penh Cambodia. I had no trouble at the boarder. The boarder crossing has an impressive building that you cross through with lots of gold turets etc. Then instantly there is poverty. The security guard was trying to make a fast buck by asking people for there immunization cards and if you did not have one, charged you a dollar. They are not required, but I happened to have mine in case I have to go to the hospital I can show what shots I have had.
The Cambodians are lovely, friendly people. I went to a museum about the killing fields today. It is a former high school turned into a torture center and now a museum. All but seven people I believed were killed in the killing fields after being detained here. There were corpses and bones on display and a lot of black white photos capturing the torture. Over two million people were killed during this regime. It made you speachless. It took me back working in a high school and to see this one converted to a detension and torture center. The life these people lived is unbelievable. For example they killed people who wore glasses as it was a sign of intellegence and killed all the educated. They also starved them for years and made them travel all of the country trying to get away. I just finished an interesting book about a girl and her families experience during this time.
I also went to the market. The best market yet. Good shopping deals and cloths. Wish I had more room in my bag.
Tomorrow is the start of their New Year and there will be celebrations for the next few days. I am going to a house for underprivledged children tomorrow. I will help with a games day for the kids to celebrate the New Year. It is from 9 - 3pm and should consist of potato sack races etc. There are a lot of orphans here and lots of places where you can help out.
I was able to easily post pictures today and add captions.
Click on the link for pictures of Dalat, Saigon, Mekong Delta and Cambodia
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/VietnamAndCambodia
The Cambodians are lovely, friendly people. I went to a museum about the killing fields today. It is a former high school turned into a torture center and now a museum. All but seven people I believed were killed in the killing fields after being detained here. There were corpses and bones on display and a lot of black white photos capturing the torture. Over two million people were killed during this regime. It made you speachless. It took me back working in a high school and to see this one converted to a detension and torture center. The life these people lived is unbelievable. For example they killed people who wore glasses as it was a sign of intellegence and killed all the educated. They also starved them for years and made them travel all of the country trying to get away. I just finished an interesting book about a girl and her families experience during this time.
I also went to the market. The best market yet. Good shopping deals and cloths. Wish I had more room in my bag.
Tomorrow is the start of their New Year and there will be celebrations for the next few days. I am going to a house for underprivledged children tomorrow. I will help with a games day for the kids to celebrate the New Year. It is from 9 - 3pm and should consist of potato sack races etc. There are a lot of orphans here and lots of places where you can help out.
I was able to easily post pictures today and add captions.
Click on the link for pictures of Dalat, Saigon, Mekong Delta and Cambodia
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/VietnamAndCambodia
Sunday 8 April 2007
Dalat, Saigon, Mekong Delta - Vietnam
Well hello all.
We have had a great day, not your typical Easter. We began the day by checking out of our hotel ($4) and rushing to the bus down the road at a travel agents. We only took our small backpacks and left the others at the shop. I ran then to this place that has amazing fruit shakes for 30 cents the best yet, similar to smoothies. So that was the Happy Easter treat for the girls. I also bought some marshmallow treats for them too. There is no Easter candy here. They loved the Easter shakes. We went on a trip to the Mekong Delta a river system where we ended up taking a ferry to the other side in the middle of the country. If that makes sense. It is in land, a river system that needs a ferry. Anyway. Malaria area, so using lots of bug spray, though have not seen the bugs yet. Touch wood.
We had a boa constrictor around our necks today as it was an attraction at one stop. We tried a lot of Vietnemese candy today and fruit as it was part of our tour. Great coconut candy. We went on three different boats and two busses today touring the Mekong Delta. It was a lovely ride in the row boat again and we wore traditional cone hats on the boat to shade us from the sun. Tomorrow we will visit the floating markets. Where they sell everything out of wood boats and you buy from a wood boat.
So Easter dinner. Oh actually Natasha's other friend (Erin) who lives in Germany, but is from Ptbo (Rick Fines, niece) is with us and Kim a girl from South Africa. Terry we met Erin at the Pig's Ear around Christmas time, small world and that Ptbo connection again Nora. We ate at one of the street venders as they had fresh spring rolls for 500 dong each (16 000 = $1). We wanted to try the local street food again and these looked amazing and were and were so cheap. We had four spring rolls each a great soy sauce (thick concoction) and then other things the lady brought us. She wanted us to try different things. We had rice porage, and another similar thing. She spoke no English but was so happy we were happy, she was aiming to please. The people in the south are NOTICEABLY nicer and do not rip you off, it is great. So that being said my Easter dinner was less than anything you had. For the four of us to eat our Easter meal it cost 60 cents. Total, for all four, that is not 60 cents each. It was so good and light too. Funny. An Easter dinner to remember. Not that my home ones aren't great :)
I went to church last night for Easter. A little daunting. It was at 9:30pm all in Vietnemese. There were other Westener's there though. It was huge and I had to stand. It was a Notre Dame Cathedral, bigger then our cathedral and it was packed. I walked in and they gave me a candle and I stood at the back. It was pitch black and that was a little freaky as I had no idea what the place looked like inside. But then it started and all the candles were lit and it was beautiful, even though I could not understand a word, oh yes I did, Amen. It was long and hot. You know it is hot when the candle drips on your skin and does not instantly solidify. It is 37 in Saigon. Not overly deadly though, can still move around. I expected to not want to do anything. But it is fine sounds worse than it is. So mass was really long. But cool just the same. No stain glass in the church as it was destroyed in WW II.
Was in Dalat in the central highlands for 2 nights. We met Kim from South Africa there. She is also going to Cambodia, a day after me. I am going on Tuesday. We tried great food in Dalat. We toured the markets and the locals hang outs. We ate lots of street food and shared it between the three of us. Each item was usually 2000 dong, around 12 cents. We had shrimp pancake items, pastries with meat and coconut, ice cream with condensed milk. Lots of cool different fruit I have not heard of or seen before. It was really neat.
We then did a motorcycle tour (moped tour) around the country side. I got my motorcycle tour in as I drove Kim and I around for the day. The scenery was beautiful, the best yet. Gorgeous lakes, forests and farms. A full day on the bikes and then a cooking class in the evening. We went to the market in the morning to buy our supplies and we made spring rolls and chicken curry. It was really fun too and we did a great job. I have the recipes so hopefully it will work at home.
In Saigon we went to the Cu Chi tunnels and the war museum, wow. What distruction and crap those people went through. We went through the tunnels which were 80 cm tall (less than 3 feet, dad) and that was double the size they were so Westener's could fit in better. One of the original access holes was there and I got to "try" to fit through. There was not a centemeter to spare with my hips, trying to get through. It was unbelieveable in there and pitch black. The flash worked on the camera and the picture is cool. I will try to post them later. I hit may head three times in there, really hard. In Korea I was not able to take my camera into the tunnels and you had to wear hard hats and I could walk through theirs. Here another story, crawling through, no hard hat and I wacked my head. A neat experience. I would not want to live down there. They actually lived under ground, had a kitchen under there, schools and babies were born in there. It took them 20 years to make their underground town for protection during the wars.
Going to Cambodia on Tuesday at 8:30 am on an 8 hour bus ride through terrible roads for $6. Hopefully the bus will not have any hassles at the boarder, or me in particular. The roads are not great, so it takes over double the time it would at home to get anywhere. Oh and their driving skills and the amount of vehicles on the road. Our bus did get side swiped the other day. Not enough damage to stop though ... carry on.
We have had a great day, not your typical Easter. We began the day by checking out of our hotel ($4) and rushing to the bus down the road at a travel agents. We only took our small backpacks and left the others at the shop. I ran then to this place that has amazing fruit shakes for 30 cents the best yet, similar to smoothies. So that was the Happy Easter treat for the girls. I also bought some marshmallow treats for them too. There is no Easter candy here. They loved the Easter shakes. We went on a trip to the Mekong Delta a river system where we ended up taking a ferry to the other side in the middle of the country. If that makes sense. It is in land, a river system that needs a ferry. Anyway. Malaria area, so using lots of bug spray, though have not seen the bugs yet. Touch wood.
We had a boa constrictor around our necks today as it was an attraction at one stop. We tried a lot of Vietnemese candy today and fruit as it was part of our tour. Great coconut candy. We went on three different boats and two busses today touring the Mekong Delta. It was a lovely ride in the row boat again and we wore traditional cone hats on the boat to shade us from the sun. Tomorrow we will visit the floating markets. Where they sell everything out of wood boats and you buy from a wood boat.
So Easter dinner. Oh actually Natasha's other friend (Erin) who lives in Germany, but is from Ptbo (Rick Fines, niece) is with us and Kim a girl from South Africa. Terry we met Erin at the Pig's Ear around Christmas time, small world and that Ptbo connection again Nora. We ate at one of the street venders as they had fresh spring rolls for 500 dong each (16 000 = $1). We wanted to try the local street food again and these looked amazing and were and were so cheap. We had four spring rolls each a great soy sauce (thick concoction) and then other things the lady brought us. She wanted us to try different things. We had rice porage, and another similar thing. She spoke no English but was so happy we were happy, she was aiming to please. The people in the south are NOTICEABLY nicer and do not rip you off, it is great. So that being said my Easter dinner was less than anything you had. For the four of us to eat our Easter meal it cost 60 cents. Total, for all four, that is not 60 cents each. It was so good and light too. Funny. An Easter dinner to remember. Not that my home ones aren't great :)
I went to church last night for Easter. A little daunting. It was at 9:30pm all in Vietnemese. There were other Westener's there though. It was huge and I had to stand. It was a Notre Dame Cathedral, bigger then our cathedral and it was packed. I walked in and they gave me a candle and I stood at the back. It was pitch black and that was a little freaky as I had no idea what the place looked like inside. But then it started and all the candles were lit and it was beautiful, even though I could not understand a word, oh yes I did, Amen. It was long and hot. You know it is hot when the candle drips on your skin and does not instantly solidify. It is 37 in Saigon. Not overly deadly though, can still move around. I expected to not want to do anything. But it is fine sounds worse than it is. So mass was really long. But cool just the same. No stain glass in the church as it was destroyed in WW II.
Was in Dalat in the central highlands for 2 nights. We met Kim from South Africa there. She is also going to Cambodia, a day after me. I am going on Tuesday. We tried great food in Dalat. We toured the markets and the locals hang outs. We ate lots of street food and shared it between the three of us. Each item was usually 2000 dong, around 12 cents. We had shrimp pancake items, pastries with meat and coconut, ice cream with condensed milk. Lots of cool different fruit I have not heard of or seen before. It was really neat.
We then did a motorcycle tour (moped tour) around the country side. I got my motorcycle tour in as I drove Kim and I around for the day. The scenery was beautiful, the best yet. Gorgeous lakes, forests and farms. A full day on the bikes and then a cooking class in the evening. We went to the market in the morning to buy our supplies and we made spring rolls and chicken curry. It was really fun too and we did a great job. I have the recipes so hopefully it will work at home.
In Saigon we went to the Cu Chi tunnels and the war museum, wow. What distruction and crap those people went through. We went through the tunnels which were 80 cm tall (less than 3 feet, dad) and that was double the size they were so Westener's could fit in better. One of the original access holes was there and I got to "try" to fit through. There was not a centemeter to spare with my hips, trying to get through. It was unbelieveable in there and pitch black. The flash worked on the camera and the picture is cool. I will try to post them later. I hit may head three times in there, really hard. In Korea I was not able to take my camera into the tunnels and you had to wear hard hats and I could walk through theirs. Here another story, crawling through, no hard hat and I wacked my head. A neat experience. I would not want to live down there. They actually lived under ground, had a kitchen under there, schools and babies were born in there. It took them 20 years to make their underground town for protection during the wars.
Going to Cambodia on Tuesday at 8:30 am on an 8 hour bus ride through terrible roads for $6. Hopefully the bus will not have any hassles at the boarder, or me in particular. The roads are not great, so it takes over double the time it would at home to get anywhere. Oh and their driving skills and the amount of vehicles on the road. Our bus did get side swiped the other day. Not enough damage to stop though ... carry on.
Saturday 7 April 2007
Happy Easter
Hi there
I am still alive. I will update again in a few days. I have done a motorcycle tour, cooking class and visited the Cu Chi tunnels. Have been having an amazing time. Limited internet the past few days.
Happy Easter everyone.
I am still alive. I will update again in a few days. I have done a motorcycle tour, cooking class and visited the Cu Chi tunnels. Have been having an amazing time. Limited internet the past few days.
Happy Easter everyone.
Monday 2 April 2007
Natasha has arrived in Nha Trang
Good morning. Natasha has arrived after a long adventure from Thailand to Vietnam by bus, ferry, raft and motorbike. I think it took three full days traveling day and night to cross from Bangkok to Nha Trang. She is safe and sound with a crazy story to tell about how she made it to Nha Trang.
Yesterday we had an action packed day. We went on the boat at 8am and I did two dives. Natasha snorkeled at the same locations. On my dives I saw a large eel, scorpion fish and lots of large coral. It was great. The visibility was 15 – 18m. They were great dives. In the afternoon we hung out by the pool and relaxed. After a shower we went to the spa and treated ourselves to facials, oh the luxury and so different from the north of Vietnam. I would not dare have that done there. It is much poorer and dirtier in the north. We then went for supper and had an amazing meal. We had a seafood hotpot (similar to a fondue), rice, spring rolls, brushetta, grapefruit shape, coconut juice and regular beverages all for under $3.50 each. I was so full. I love trying the different shakes and food. I have been having fabulous seafood and it is so cheap. The other night I had mussels, scallops, rice a salad and a Heineken for $3. That was at a nice restaurant that actually has starched cloth napkins that they lay across your lap.
I have included a link to some more pictures. Natasha and I on the boat. Milla who I dove with, Rusty with his new students in the open water course. The Beer Hoi (a local establishment) where they serve beer for 75 cents for a 2L pitcher or 15 cents a glass. Notice the size of the chairs. They are children’s chairs at home, but are often found in the local restaurants and shops. They also have smaller stools they sit on that are only six inches off the ground and would be a child’s foot stool at home. They must have great thigh muscles as they squat all the time. Their bum cheeks sit on their heels. This is a common sitting position. A picture of the room that is $7 without air conditioning and $8 with air conditioning a night. Then two silk embroidered pictures that I took a picture of. You can not tell they are embroidered they look like they are painted. The detail in the one of the old man was amazing. The work at this gallery was stunning.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/NhaTrangNatashaBoatTrip
Yesterday we had an action packed day. We went on the boat at 8am and I did two dives. Natasha snorkeled at the same locations. On my dives I saw a large eel, scorpion fish and lots of large coral. It was great. The visibility was 15 – 18m. They were great dives. In the afternoon we hung out by the pool and relaxed. After a shower we went to the spa and treated ourselves to facials, oh the luxury and so different from the north of Vietnam. I would not dare have that done there. It is much poorer and dirtier in the north. We then went for supper and had an amazing meal. We had a seafood hotpot (similar to a fondue), rice, spring rolls, brushetta, grapefruit shape, coconut juice and regular beverages all for under $3.50 each. I was so full. I love trying the different shakes and food. I have been having fabulous seafood and it is so cheap. The other night I had mussels, scallops, rice a salad and a Heineken for $3. That was at a nice restaurant that actually has starched cloth napkins that they lay across your lap.
I have included a link to some more pictures. Natasha and I on the boat. Milla who I dove with, Rusty with his new students in the open water course. The Beer Hoi (a local establishment) where they serve beer for 75 cents for a 2L pitcher or 15 cents a glass. Notice the size of the chairs. They are children’s chairs at home, but are often found in the local restaurants and shops. They also have smaller stools they sit on that are only six inches off the ground and would be a child’s foot stool at home. They must have great thigh muscles as they squat all the time. Their bum cheeks sit on their heels. This is a common sitting position. A picture of the room that is $7 without air conditioning and $8 with air conditioning a night. Then two silk embroidered pictures that I took a picture of. You can not tell they are embroidered they look like they are painted. The detail in the one of the old man was amazing. The work at this gallery was stunning.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sarahemoloney/NhaTrangNatashaBoatTrip
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