Asia

Asia » Vietnam
November 11th 2009

Published: November 11th 2009

I am in the library in melbourne city with free internet so here's a belated update of my travels so far

I will start with Vietnam because i think thats where i left off...we flew in from HK to Hanoi then we travelled all the way down the coast to Saigon (HCMC) stopping off at Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Delat, then Saigon. We met loads of people and continued from Hue to travel down the coast with many of them. Vietnam is an awesome place, some of the places we stopped at were quiet with not much going on at all (Delat/HoiAn) Nha Trang was big with beach, and Saigon was another great capital city. You may find I'm slightly vague with info as I can't remember unless I look in my book! total time in Vietnam approx 16 days.

We then caught an overnight bus to Cambodia - very very easy, you just go to the travel agency (and it is like this throughout asia) and they have all the info you need with a whole variety of ways you can do things and places you can go to. In Cambodia we met back up with some cockney guys from Vietnam and stayed with them for the whole of our stay in Cambodia which was pretty cool in hindsight cause they planned everything and I just went with the flow. We visited Phomn Phen with tourist highlights such as The Killing Fields, S21 Prison and a Shooting Range (for the boys to shoot some bullets!) We saw most of PP on a tuk tuk whilst on-route to the places just mentioned. The Killing fields and Prison were the creation of Pol Pot, and would you believe this all happened in 1979! Shocking! After PP we travelled on to Battambang which is on the way to Siem Reap. We stayed for 2 nights and experienced the Bamboo train which is a box room size bamboo platrom on rails with no sides which goes very very fast...it was quite fun in the rain. We travelled along the track to visit a family who made bricks...the children - all 10 of them - willingly showed us around their yard and showed us how the clay was pugged and then shaped into bricks and then fired in a god almighty HUGE natural kiln. I was quite fascinated really, then we realised why the kids were so accommodating - they wanted money! All for a good cause though. Ok so after 2 nights we moved on to Siem Reap (6-7 hours via coach) We arrived to sheer floods, knee high! It was quite a novelty at first, then when we remembered our bags were beneath and may be getting soaked the driver hauled them all inside the coach - nice man! So yeah the floods were fun and we spent many days wading through them to get to the main areas...after 5 days we'd had enough - flip flops were ruined/lost, electric cuts were frequent and our feet were in a sorry state. In Siem Reap we visited Anchor Wat. This is a vast area of temples made from stone - it is bloody huge, they have 1,3,5 day passes there is that much to see. We decided to go for the sunrise, so we got up at 4am and heading out to see the sunrise at 5 ish. When we got there 60 billion other people had the same idea so it really wasn't that picturesque with so many tourists around, but a good experience all the same. So we waited, and waited and waited for the sunrise in all its glory...but it was far too cloudy and when it had risen it was too high to be classed as sunrise! We had a good few nights out in Siem Reap, then after 5 days we booked our flights to Laos, which is just above Cambodia. Approx 10 days in Cambodia.

We decided to go to Laos because of all the stories we'd heard about 'Tubing' in Vang Vieng - a small area above Vientienne (capital). This journey was supposed to be quick and easy as we were forking money out for a flight , but turned out to be a nightmare because it took ages to get there, for such a short amount of time 😞 We finally arrived in Vang Vieng after a 3 hour mini bus journey through the winding roads - sleeping wasn't an option! As soon as we got up the next day we were off tubing...it was brilliant I loved it. It consists of you arriving at the shop to get your 'tube' which is a large inner tube for a vehicle, then you sign your life away and say that if you die from drowning or get swept away or fall off the rope swings - its not their fault! ha ha...we were slightly apprehensive but excited too. We got dropped off at the first bar, off loaded our tubes and heading into the first bar for some free shots. There are about 7 bars all located on the edge of the river, they all have a 'swing' and you choose whether or not to go onto the swings (which are really really high and pretty scary!) so you stay in the bar for a bit, have a few drinks/shots (i only had shots as i had no money!) you go on the swing then you head off to the next bar via the river in your tube...it was such a good laugh I really enjoyed it, except when i fell out of my tube and gashed my shins - so attractive! Laos 3 nights - not long enough but hey.

Next we travelled for 12 hours approx to North Thailand - Chaing Mai where we stayed fro around 5 nights. We came here to do the trekking tour in the jungle for 2 days and 1 night - this was super amazing. We trekked for 5 hours on the first day, it was pretty hardcore really, 2 girls had to stop and get on a moto to our destination it was fairly extreme. We stopped off at a village to see a tribe and have drinks and fruit. Our leader Richard then led us onto where we would sleep, we got there and there was a freshwater stream so I jumped in, it was lush. Richard cooked for us which was delicious, although out of the 5 options i could only have one because I was vegetarian at this point - the vegie option was very nice though 😊 During the night we were rudely awoken by one of the guys on our tour squealing like he was being attacked by a bear or something, he sounded like a big baby. My whole life flashed before me it was a scary moment. It was very funny when his boyfriend piped up and said 'oh don't worry he's just having a nightmare!' PHEW!!! Day 2 we rode elephants, went on a bamboo raft, had lunch, did some white water rafting, visited a long kneck tribe, then swam in a fresh waterfall. It was an amazing experience and I loved every minute of it. Our friends were arriving from the UK on the 16th October so we left Chiang Mai and headed down to Bangkok. We visited the lying down buddha and also another gold buddha, went out on the Koa San Road and moved on pretty quickly after 2 days/1 night to the first island in the south of Thailand - Ko Tao. We spent 4 days here, which were pretty much spent sunbathing and relaxing. It is divers paradise in Ko Tao, and a good spot for couples (errrr not my cup of tea then!) Whilst in Ko tao we had to do a 'visa run' which involves going to the nearest border to extend our 15 day thai visa. It was a bit of a trek - taxi, ferry, minibus, border, boat to Burma, minibus, coach, catagmaran, taxi...yeah actually it was pants, but had to be done to enable us to stay, took 25 hours. We headed to the next island Ko Pha Ngan which is only 2 hours away via boat. This is where the half moon and full moon party is at...had so much fun here really loved the party scene as you can imagine, I made heaps of pals here, some south africans, english but mainly thai's. After 4 nights the others went on to Ko Samui but i decided to stay in Ko pha ngan where i had already made friends so i thought that this was best. The thai guys were so good to me, they pretty much looked after me for the 10 days that i was there solo, they fed me, helped me look for accommodation (i stayed in about 4 different places), they took me out on their motos when i needed stuff. They had 2 tattoo shops so they'd phone me everyday and i found myself there for most of my time, helping out with ideas, talking to customers, running errands. It was an awesome experience, i'm so glad I stayed. Full moon party was good, but the half moon was amazing. The island was packed out at full moon - too busy for me which is why i preffered the half moon party. Good social scene with these guys, they knew everyone and introduced me to loads of people - loved it. Although the language barrier did become a bit of a pain, it was difficult at times to communicate with a group of 20 thai people who for some of them speak very little english, most of them it was easy but it did make me a bit paranoid in those situations, i don't know why but it did 😞 the time came for me to move on when my visa ran out - bastard bloody money making visas! argh...so i had 2 options, do another freaking visa run OR move on to Singapore, so i decided the latter, I stayed over my visa for 2 days but it was well worth it - I only had a fine at the airport, and at the time i'd rather that than have to face the visa run. So I caught the baot from Ko Pha Ngan to Ko Samui (where the airport is) and jumped on a flight to Singapore - only just though, i nearly missed it! Thailand 30 days approx.

Singapore, Singapore, Singapore...wow this city was lush, I can't express why i liked it so much, i think it was a mixture of being able to do my own thing, find my own way around and see whatever i wanted to see. I spent 2 night/2 days here and saw so much of the city and its tourist attractions including the SMA singapore museum of art, clarke quay, singapore flyer, merilion park, raffles landing site, the art house, city hall, china town, orchard road and little india. i loved it because i would be walking to get somewhere and i would just come across something i didnt expect to see or thought id never find - my map reading skills have improved no end (well they had to really i had no choice) i was very chuffed i saw so much in such a short amount of time. Singapore 2 days/2 nights

So after changing flights here there and everywhere and spending an absolute fortune doing so I have finally made it to australia - 2 days after original plan, 3 weeks BEFORE 2nd plan...but thats another story not worth telling.
I arrived in Melbourne yesterday 10th November at 6.30am precisely - these qantas folk dont mess around i tell you now! From the airport i headed straight to st kilda which is a suburb 20 mins south of the centre of melbourne. its lovely i really like it here, and i'm staying in a hostel so there's loads of people to mingle with. cooking facilities there too so where i am forking out for accomodation (in comparison to asia) i am saving by cooking myself. well thats the theory anyway. The rest is the future and im loving everyday of it, it is a challenge that i am loving...😊 😊 😊 😊 😊

Thats all folks

Lots of love Charles

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