This is the message you see hanging around everywhere, especially tonight! it means happy new year, spring of the buffalo 2009. Tonight is Tet in vietnam, or chinese new year!
I have to admit though, i haven't done all that much sight-seeing in vietnam, but it doesn't really bother me, as i feel i've still gotten to know a lot about the country!
I didn't stay in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City (they all call it Saigon here...) for very long, but from what i saw it's a very western city! Basically, vietnam has been divided in two for a very long time (even though they divided it into 3 when it was part of indochina but the 2 were tonkin top and cochin china bottom) and the south is very westernized because that's where france concentrated most of their investments. But even so, i thought and think that vietnam is a lot more modern in that there are a lot of SHOPS instead of stalls lining some streets... though some have disagreed with me!
Then i went up to coast to Nha Trang on a normal bus... BIG mistake! they were blairing out vietnamese movies (i.e. SHIT) at a ridiculously load volume till like 3am! Basically i got no sleep and was pretty aggitated (only 1 of my headphones worked at this time!) In nha trang i didn't do much apart from relax on the beach and go diving! The visibility wasn't that great underwater because it's only recently stopped raining and so the silt run-off from the rivers is gradually getting less, but what i saw was cool - some lionfish, STONEFISH! and this COOL fish called a seamoth - it had wings! i love diving.
Though we had to rescue some fish from a net in the first dive which was pretty upsetting, luckily they all lived. And it was pretty cold underwater too - too cold for jsut a wetsuit in my opinion.
Then i got a sleeper bus to Hoi An, another 12 hours up the coast. Sleeper buses are pretty cool, they should have them in Australia as well, and i loved the lack of Vietnamese karaoke.
Hoi An is pretty. It has quite narrow streets and it's rpetty old (the central bit is a unesco world heritage site) and that's probably the most sight-seeing i've done! I also got some stuff tailor-made, and as a result my bag is far too big now! but it's so cheap! i even got 2 pairs of shoes (1 pair of trainers and 1 pair of boots) tailor made!! 50 dollars both cost me! But it was also quite annoying always getting harrased to 'look in my shop', and i wasn't entirely sure at first i liked the clothes when they were still being made, so i was in a bad mood and stayed in watching movies all of the 2nd day, but luckily the clothes are to my liking and so is my mood!
Another sleeper bus got me to Hanoi, where i am at the moment. it's really nice, not as congested as some others, though i still feel that crossing the street is risking my life every time. I'll just never get used to all the honking and the mopeds. On the bus to hanoi, though, i'd decided to stop getting stressed out and made the resolution (i guess it could be a new years one, as today is new years here, and i hadn't made one yet) to do something new every day of my travels! It's pretty bold, and the new thing doesn't have to be big as long as it's genuinely new.
My first day in hanoi i went to see a waterpuppet show - it wsa so cool! I'll put some videos up that i took soon. It's hard to describe, but it was nice that there wasn't much dialogue, and some bits were really funny. And then i got a cyclo back, a form of transport i hadn't tried before because i'm stingy, which made me feel a bit like a princess :)
I was going to go see uncle Ho in his mausoleum today but i'd heard that it was closed for tet (turns out it's not!) so i have actually NOT been to ANY museums. Though i feel i've gotten more in touch with vietnamese culture than most today - i had a 2 hour lesson on the dan bau, a typically vietnamese instrument! I learned to play jingle bells and happy birthday :) i'll put a video up of that soon too.
Tomorrow i'm off to see halong bay for 3 days, another unesco site and is supposed to be stunning, and then the day i get back i'm off to Laos, where i fly to Luang Prabang. Till then...
Sunday 25 January 2009
Saturday 17 January 2009
Cambodia
I'm just about finished in Cambodia and off to Vietnam tomorrow.
In Bangkok (seems so long ago!)i pretty much was waiting it out for the visa. I did go to a floating market just outside in a village called Damnoen Saduak, and i got there the night before - there were no other westerners there, which was a nice change! But it was very tourist-ified at times, but i still enjoyed it! The next day (my last) i visited some more temples that i'd missed out before.
In Cambodia i'd decided to go straight to Siem Reap with 5 others i'd met on the bus, with whom (excluding one who wasn't feeling well) i rented a bike the next day to go see some temples in Angkor! There are so many there, but despite the whole hype, angkor wat is pretty much all they say it is - it is breathtaking! We also visited Bayon, built slightly later, and wat phrom, where tomb raider was filmed. It was pretty busy but apparently it wasn't as busy as last year! A good day, lots of exercise!
The next day i wanted to go see some more temples further away so i went by myself on the back of a moto (mopeds, they pretty much run this country - crossing the street is risking your life every single time!) to see Bantaey Srei, probably the best conserved but i prefered Bantaey Samrei as it was so much quieter! I also visited Preah Khan but it was pretty much a lot of ruins. It's really sad because i can only imagine how majestic it must have looked when they were in full glory but looting and the unstable political situation have left very few intact!
I left the others and took a boat to Battambang the next day, a journey which was supposed to take 3-8 hours. It took 10. And we had to get off 2/3rds of the way through because the boat was taking up too much water, as there were too many passengers and we were almost tipping over! Dry season meant the water level was very low so lots of bends in the river... It was really interesting to see all these floating villages though where kids rows boats at the same age i was just learning to walk! And many of them are so poor, i wonder where they get their basic resources from...
In Battambang i took a cooking class and learned to make Amok, a national dish like a thai curry but richer in spices, Lok lak, a beef dish, and a soup (lots of Khmer - cambodian - food is based around soups). It was really cool!! In the afternoon i went to see these killing caved and went for a ride on the bamboo train. Since being here i've learnt the horror of the cambodian genocide from 1975-1979 by pol pot, which is worse even than hitler's in the burtality and murder against its own people, and so few people know about it!! people will have heard the name pol pot before, but seriously, read the book i mentioned before by luong ung - first they killed my father - and only then will anyone begin to realize what stuff has gone on under the khmer rouge regime only too recently! i can't believe they didn't teach this stuff in school...
I got to Phnom Penh (which is pretty cool, much less congested than bangkok!) by bus and went to see the killing fields (where over 80000 people were killed by the khmer rouge) and to the s-21 prison, where tons were tortured. It was a pretty depressing day, but in the process i met up with 2 guys i'd seen siem reap with.
Tomorrow i'm off to ho chi minh city (Saigon) by bus but am planning to go straight through to a place called nha trang and maybe get some diving in! Can't wait to get back in the water.
Cambodia's been really nice to see. It shows such a contradiction in rich history and the recent unstabilities it's really interesting to see how if unfurls in the future, especially with the tourist boom it's experiencing. There's only really a few specific areas that most people go to - siem reap, battambang, phnom penh and sihanoukville, but if i'd have more time i'd go up to the northeast - scenery is supposed to be stunning and all a lot less touristy! Oh well, next time :)
In Bangkok (seems so long ago!)i pretty much was waiting it out for the visa. I did go to a floating market just outside in a village called Damnoen Saduak, and i got there the night before - there were no other westerners there, which was a nice change! But it was very tourist-ified at times, but i still enjoyed it! The next day (my last) i visited some more temples that i'd missed out before.
In Cambodia i'd decided to go straight to Siem Reap with 5 others i'd met on the bus, with whom (excluding one who wasn't feeling well) i rented a bike the next day to go see some temples in Angkor! There are so many there, but despite the whole hype, angkor wat is pretty much all they say it is - it is breathtaking! We also visited Bayon, built slightly later, and wat phrom, where tomb raider was filmed. It was pretty busy but apparently it wasn't as busy as last year! A good day, lots of exercise!
The next day i wanted to go see some more temples further away so i went by myself on the back of a moto (mopeds, they pretty much run this country - crossing the street is risking your life every single time!) to see Bantaey Srei, probably the best conserved but i prefered Bantaey Samrei as it was so much quieter! I also visited Preah Khan but it was pretty much a lot of ruins. It's really sad because i can only imagine how majestic it must have looked when they were in full glory but looting and the unstable political situation have left very few intact!
I left the others and took a boat to Battambang the next day, a journey which was supposed to take 3-8 hours. It took 10. And we had to get off 2/3rds of the way through because the boat was taking up too much water, as there were too many passengers and we were almost tipping over! Dry season meant the water level was very low so lots of bends in the river... It was really interesting to see all these floating villages though where kids rows boats at the same age i was just learning to walk! And many of them are so poor, i wonder where they get their basic resources from...
In Battambang i took a cooking class and learned to make Amok, a national dish like a thai curry but richer in spices, Lok lak, a beef dish, and a soup (lots of Khmer - cambodian - food is based around soups). It was really cool!! In the afternoon i went to see these killing caved and went for a ride on the bamboo train. Since being here i've learnt the horror of the cambodian genocide from 1975-1979 by pol pot, which is worse even than hitler's in the burtality and murder against its own people, and so few people know about it!! people will have heard the name pol pot before, but seriously, read the book i mentioned before by luong ung - first they killed my father - and only then will anyone begin to realize what stuff has gone on under the khmer rouge regime only too recently! i can't believe they didn't teach this stuff in school...
I got to Phnom Penh (which is pretty cool, much less congested than bangkok!) by bus and went to see the killing fields (where over 80000 people were killed by the khmer rouge) and to the s-21 prison, where tons were tortured. It was a pretty depressing day, but in the process i met up with 2 guys i'd seen siem reap with.
Tomorrow i'm off to ho chi minh city (Saigon) by bus but am planning to go straight through to a place called nha trang and maybe get some diving in! Can't wait to get back in the water.
Cambodia's been really nice to see. It shows such a contradiction in rich history and the recent unstabilities it's really interesting to see how if unfurls in the future, especially with the tourist boom it's experiencing. There's only really a few specific areas that most people go to - siem reap, battambang, phnom penh and sihanoukville, but if i'd have more time i'd go up to the northeast - scenery is supposed to be stunning and all a lot less touristy! Oh well, next time :)
Friday 9 January 2009
Photos!
Most photos are FINALLY up, also see australia - i've updated the album (look at the end).
Off to Siem Reap tomorrow
Off to Siem Reap tomorrow
Wednesday 7 January 2009
Bangkok
Before jetting back off to Sydney i did a quick day trip of the great ocean road - it's very pretty! and some of the smaller towns on there are nice too. However, you see similar scenery when driving along the coast of New Zealand, so as nice as it was, i wasn't dazzled by it. The 12 apostles, or the 9 that are left, are, well, rocks sticking out, but it's still pretty impressive to see nature working away.
I arrived after another long bus journey back to sydney to meet up with some more familiar faces - Marek, cas' friend, and his mom was there too! It is nice seeing people i have longer ties with than a few hours, plus it is different seeing what Australia is like if you lived there. I do really like it, despite some previous complaints, and as beautiful as new zealand is, it's much more isolated than Australia, strangely enough, as geography doesn't entirely back that claim up.
New Years is WAY better warm, so if you could only get a snowy christmas and a hot new years that would be ideal. who knows... climate change may get very extreme?
It was odd being at the beach the same day as celebrating New Years. But nice as we didn't do the extremely crowded Coogee or Bondi beach, but slightly furhter south at Maroubra beach. After having some thai food and then rocking up at marek's friend's friend's house party (as you do!) we went into the center with Marek's friend and 2 other people (1 german and 1 chinese) we met at the party. In Sydney it was obviously pretty busy and alcohol restrictions on what you could take in so we spent the 40mins before new years drinking what we'd brought.
I didn't see the main fireworks though, we were at darling harbour which was considerably less crowded! And still pretty impressive fireworks. Was crazy that you saw that ther were fireworks at 3 differnt places at the same time around the harbour! Eventually we returned to the house party.
The next day was a relatively hangover-free one! And pretty lazy. On the 2nd i ventured back into Sydney center and went to get my Vietnam visa (ther's an option to egt it in 30 minutes!), went to widlife photographer of the year exhibition (always a good one!!) and to the sydney aquarium (dugongs and crazy shark and crazy fish yay!).
The following day i eventually headed over to the blue mountains - where on my way i met this german girl who i ended up doing 2 hikes with that day and the next.
We did a short walk to the three sisters (some more rocks) - but the view is pretty stunning! And it's all so big!! The hostel i stayed at (flyingfox) was really cool, i'd recommend it to anyone going there!
The next day we did a long and tiring walk (4.5 hours) to wentworth falls and into the rainforest... it was pretty beautiful and however painful it was sometimes (so many stairs!) it felt good, as if i was letting out energy that had been locked up for a long time! A Very enjoyable and rewarding last full day in Australia! Will put photos up tomorrow, to continue to make you very jealous (sorry!).
Before going off to Bangkok i met up with Jamie, the canadian girl i'd met in Cairns , went diving, and travelled down to Airlie beach with. The journey back to the northern hemisphere was relatively pain-free apart from that my tv screen wasn't working, the plane was full, and there were lots of good movies on!!! Was very annoyed, but luckily i a lot of reading material and i took some slight advantage of the free alcohol!
Midnight in bangkok i'm glad i got the hotel i'd wanted, it's close to khao san road without being on it, has clean rooms for 6 euros a night and a rooftop swimming pool! I was pretty scared to venture out the next day (surprising!) as i didn't want to be hassled etc. but i was expecting something close to what i'd experienced in e.g. malawi from what people'd told me! And it really wasn't so bad! the nicest thing is that you get really nice cheap stuff and you can look around the stalls without being hassled! The time differnce is also better - 6 hours with belgium instead of 10.
I got a very badly needed massage for 5 euros and did the obvious shopping. A trip by boat to the temple of the emerald buddha (the most-visited buddha statue!) got me into an asian cutlural mood and finihsed the day off with some 50 eurocent phat thai dinner! It's such a crazy culture here, last night i was out on the street of my hotel (rambuttri) having a shisha pipe with trance-like music booming in the background... it's hard to describe, but i like that it's so vibrant at night. I guess i like cities.
Today was spent getting my Myanmar visa (and on the way i was stupid enough to walk into a moped, i'm fine though, jsut a scratch), and visited Siam square, a horrible hub of shopping malls and western food chains, i really hated it and was desperate to get out! Not what i came to asia for.
So once i get my visa for myanmar (2 days) i'll be off on a bus to cambodia and will probably be staying in the north, going to Siem Reap, Battambang and east to Preah Vinhear. A really good book i finihsed today on the cambodian attack by the Khmer Rouges is called 'first they killed my father' by Loung Ung.
I arrived after another long bus journey back to sydney to meet up with some more familiar faces - Marek, cas' friend, and his mom was there too! It is nice seeing people i have longer ties with than a few hours, plus it is different seeing what Australia is like if you lived there. I do really like it, despite some previous complaints, and as beautiful as new zealand is, it's much more isolated than Australia, strangely enough, as geography doesn't entirely back that claim up.
New Years is WAY better warm, so if you could only get a snowy christmas and a hot new years that would be ideal. who knows... climate change may get very extreme?
It was odd being at the beach the same day as celebrating New Years. But nice as we didn't do the extremely crowded Coogee or Bondi beach, but slightly furhter south at Maroubra beach. After having some thai food and then rocking up at marek's friend's friend's house party (as you do!) we went into the center with Marek's friend and 2 other people (1 german and 1 chinese) we met at the party. In Sydney it was obviously pretty busy and alcohol restrictions on what you could take in so we spent the 40mins before new years drinking what we'd brought.
I didn't see the main fireworks though, we were at darling harbour which was considerably less crowded! And still pretty impressive fireworks. Was crazy that you saw that ther were fireworks at 3 differnt places at the same time around the harbour! Eventually we returned to the house party.
The next day was a relatively hangover-free one! And pretty lazy. On the 2nd i ventured back into Sydney center and went to get my Vietnam visa (ther's an option to egt it in 30 minutes!), went to widlife photographer of the year exhibition (always a good one!!) and to the sydney aquarium (dugongs and crazy shark and crazy fish yay!).
The following day i eventually headed over to the blue mountains - where on my way i met this german girl who i ended up doing 2 hikes with that day and the next.
We did a short walk to the three sisters (some more rocks) - but the view is pretty stunning! And it's all so big!! The hostel i stayed at (flyingfox) was really cool, i'd recommend it to anyone going there!
The next day we did a long and tiring walk (4.5 hours) to wentworth falls and into the rainforest... it was pretty beautiful and however painful it was sometimes (so many stairs!) it felt good, as if i was letting out energy that had been locked up for a long time! A Very enjoyable and rewarding last full day in Australia! Will put photos up tomorrow, to continue to make you very jealous (sorry!).
Before going off to Bangkok i met up with Jamie, the canadian girl i'd met in Cairns , went diving, and travelled down to Airlie beach with. The journey back to the northern hemisphere was relatively pain-free apart from that my tv screen wasn't working, the plane was full, and there were lots of good movies on!!! Was very annoyed, but luckily i a lot of reading material and i took some slight advantage of the free alcohol!
Midnight in bangkok i'm glad i got the hotel i'd wanted, it's close to khao san road without being on it, has clean rooms for 6 euros a night and a rooftop swimming pool! I was pretty scared to venture out the next day (surprising!) as i didn't want to be hassled etc. but i was expecting something close to what i'd experienced in e.g. malawi from what people'd told me! And it really wasn't so bad! the nicest thing is that you get really nice cheap stuff and you can look around the stalls without being hassled! The time differnce is also better - 6 hours with belgium instead of 10.
I got a very badly needed massage for 5 euros and did the obvious shopping. A trip by boat to the temple of the emerald buddha (the most-visited buddha statue!) got me into an asian cutlural mood and finihsed the day off with some 50 eurocent phat thai dinner! It's such a crazy culture here, last night i was out on the street of my hotel (rambuttri) having a shisha pipe with trance-like music booming in the background... it's hard to describe, but i like that it's so vibrant at night. I guess i like cities.
Today was spent getting my Myanmar visa (and on the way i was stupid enough to walk into a moped, i'm fine though, jsut a scratch), and visited Siam square, a horrible hub of shopping malls and western food chains, i really hated it and was desperate to get out! Not what i came to asia for.
So once i get my visa for myanmar (2 days) i'll be off on a bus to cambodia and will probably be staying in the north, going to Siem Reap, Battambang and east to Preah Vinhear. A really good book i finihsed today on the cambodian attack by the Khmer Rouges is called 'first they killed my father' by Loung Ung.
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