Bridge D
Brigitte Dorge Joined: September 7th 2006
Logged in: October 22nd 2011
Logged in: October 22nd 2011
Travel Blog Posts
HoiAn
It was time to hit the tourist trail, sometimes it's nice, it's good to be able to order a different meal because you have a english translation:) It's always a little overwhelming at first, specially in a place like HoiAn. It's know for it's silk and custom made clothing. Now Jenny, Tyler and I have been really good on the shopping thus far and maybe that's why we let ourselves get carried away!! It's amazing how you can always justify spending money if you really want something. First we were just gonna get one thing for the wedding in July, seeing as none of us have wedding appropriate attire....and as you sit there, flipping the pages of a magazine where they can duplicate anything, suddenly the mind wonders off and you walk away with 3 dresses ... read more
Caoi Dai
We arrived in Vietnam with a mission, a dare almost....It had been said that the local, local buses in Vietnam was near impossible to find, to the point of questioning it's existence. With cheap open ended comfy air-con buses for tourists, trying to get information for the older, over crowded,no air-con bus system could prove to be difficult for many....and so the challenge was on!!! Sounds a bit silly, I'm sure but where better to experience the culture and meet the real people of a country? As the case in most situations you just got to find one bus station and get on the first local bus to know where the bus station is in the next town, domino effect. So we get off at the border town and we walk in search of the bus.....Success!!! ... read more
Bamboo School
Pnom Phen proved to shed light on a different side of Cambodia, one that too often we don't get to experience as tourists. Word of mouth in the backpacker circuit can be a powerful tool, on the adviced of two french girls we met in Laos we decided that the capital city was the place we would look into volunteering. Over the course of the past few weeks we were already starting to learn more about the countries history. I think it's important to inform you what we've learnt as we were unaware of the genocide that occured here but only some 35years ago. Unfortunately Cambodia got caught in the middle of the Vietnam war, some seeking refuge, others coming from northern Vietnam to attack the south and America. Essentially destaballizing the country and the Cambodian ... read more
Ban Lung
Thailand is the land of beautiful beaches... Laos is all about easy living, relaxing and taken it easy... Cambodia seems to be big on smiles with something to do everyday!!! We quickly sorted everything out at the border town of Stung Treng and putting the unfortunate robbing behind us, we set out east to the hills and remote town of Ban Lung. A 14 passenger mini van packed with 20people we set off for the 4 hour journey through the dusty, red dirt road!! What a trip. Most people making the journey here use it as a gateway to explore the hills and do some trekking however we decided to explore the surrounding area by push bike!! It was brilliant over the following 2 days we packed our baskets with a pic-nic and happy to report ... read more
:Plaines of Jars
We Finally made it to Phonsavan after a few more curves in the road...so far we’ve yet to see a straight stretch of road, but none of us got sick....a few locals jump on with supplies of empty plastic bags, eeeee!!! Finally recovering from my food poisoning, we booked a tour for the following day to see the very mysterious Plaines of Jars. In many parts of Laos there are unfortunate areas that during the Indochina wars got bombed. Within these areas they’ve found lots of unexploded ordinates (UXO). While trying to clear the area they excavated and discovered what appear to be massive Jars. Unable of course to explain for certain why they’re there, so yet again another mystery as to how and why approximately 3 different sites in the area. One can only imagine ... read more
beerlao!
Crossing the border into Laos proved to be easier than expected which is always a welcomed surprise, litterally a 3 min long tail boat ride accross the river and we were there!! Now it was the rest of the journey to our destination of Vang Vieng that would be interresting....Chris and I jumped on our local bus and started the very windy, bumpy, thai pop music blaring, and honking of the horn with every turn we took; smiling laughing and crying about it over the next 22hours,oh what an adventure!! Arriving in Vang Vieng at 6am, dropped on the side of the highway, not even sure which way was town we head toward the river which seemed like a good place to start. After walking around with a confused look, tired hungry and longing for a ... read more
Buddha
Arriving in Chang Mai, Jenny, Tyler and I headed to the hostel in hopes of finding the other girls. What a great relaxing hostel in the middle of a bustling city, as the girls seemed to be out, we head straight for the night market in search for the little old lady that would have dinner ready for us!!! Little big city of course....by the time we had our noodle soup and pad thai we bumped into the girls....and shopping bags a plenty, souvenirs they claim cheap cheap!!! Despite it only beeing one night it was great to see Chris, Mel and Milaine again. We went to bed that night deciding we'd have a temple day and orientation day...and so we did! As we quickly discovered, Chang Mai is a city you can stay 300 days ... read more
Grand Palace
Finally arriving in Bangkok the excitement and anticipation of finally seeing Christel (my sister) after two and a half years was met with impatience....!! Finally her plane lands and i see her and Milaine and Melanie, friends who we will also be travelling with!! It's late at night when we arrive at our hostel on the backpacker famous Kho San Road, we could not imagine nor can i really explain how amazing it is to watch the Road addapt throughout the day to the needs of travellers. I suppose in an interresting mix we decide to go with safety in numbers and meet up with Jenny and Tyler a canadian couple that i met in Scotland that will also be in Asia through my travels!!! The next couple of days in Thailand's capital was spent exploring ... read more
from arthur's seat
I guess somewhere over the past 2 years I got lost in my travels as I stopped feeling like a tourist and immersed myself in everyday life in other countries working when neede and travelling every oppertunity I could. I've decided, as i start the last chapter of this journey to promise to keep in better touch and to share with everyone what I'mlooking forward to experiencing. A quick catch up summery of where I'm starting this stage and how I got here might be in order to paint a better picture.... I spent the last of my UK work visa living in Scottlands beautiful capital city, Edinburgh! Got a quiet little admin job in hopes of saving money....Was involved in a community softball team, and what a fabulous team it was...really made me feel like ... read more
Munich
So now that I was in London for a bit I thought Why not give this Big city a go......I mean sure I'm from a citiy of 700 000 so what if London has 8 million i can handle it right?? I found a job doing what love....taking a lot of bull, i can't help it if i have the gift of the gab!!! The best part is they were flexible with me going to Oktoberfest which leads me to my next adventure!!! Simon and I parted after my three weeks in Malta and we planned on meeting up again for a bash in Munich and the 2007 Oktoberfest, their's some things you just can't miss when you come to Europe!!! So it was time and i met Simon in Zurich Switzerland as it was central ... read more
