The wonderous adventures of Steph & Tim

how do we get to Toledo?

2009-08-23T02:34:00.000-07:00

5TH AUGUST

THIS was a day of high stress although it started out laid back. We caught a bus to madird but as we are fairly lazy travellers and don’t do a lot of thinking we could only get the bus at 1pm. Which meant we didn’t get into Madrid until about 8pm. This would have been fine if we had accommodation in Madird but we had a hotel booked in Toledo which is a 35 minute train ride away. We assumed because it was so there would be plenty of trains going there at night. Long story short- we wenrt to the wrong train station then raced to the right one only to miss the train by about 60 seconds. We asked if there were alternative ways to get there but the guy at information was useless. We called the hotel in Toledo (and this is where I got very excited- by this stage it was 10pm) and the lady didn’t speak any English at all. So I spoke to her (I was nervous because I doubted my Spanish ability a lot) but she understood everything I said and I understood her. Basically the only way to get there was by taxi which she thought would cost about 80 euro. She also told me the hotel reception closed at 11. I assumed we wouoldn’t make it and told her to cancel our booking. After this we did some quick cal we did thatucaltaions and realied we were going to lose 200 euro between the 4 of us and so we decided to race to a taxi and negotiate the taxi driver was more than happy for such a fare to come his way and told us he could get us there in an hour so we should call the hotel and say we might be ten minutes late (he also spoke no English). We were in the taxi and away and ready to cal the hotel when we realised one phone was dead and the other creditless. Long story short we got credit on the phone and called the woman again who said she would wait for us.

We arrived and she was there. She quickly gave us our keys and answered some questions. Its funny how when you are trying to speak another language quickly your mind goes for most circuitous route to get what you want. We needed food and instead of just asking if restaraunts were open (the word for restaurant in Spanish is essentially restararunt) I asked if they were shops with food. Such an idiot. Anyway we traipsed up to our rooms and Emily opened her door then quickly shut it again with a horrified look on her face. Apparently there was a naked couple asleep on the bed in the room. Hysterical with laughter we raced down to inform the lady who was clearly horrified that she gave us the wrong key and sorted it out.

We found a bar with food and we were happy.

Spain, BArcelona

2009-08-23T02:33:00.000-07:00

It was a relief to be finished with Italy to be honest. A very disappointing country on the whole. Polluted, not very friendly locals and too hot. Arriving in Barcelona was like a breath of fresh air. It was cooler, cleaner, the people were way more interesting and friendly. When you attempt speaking Spainish they will have a conversation with you etc. First thing we noticed was the buildings were cleaner, fresher looking and the streets were wider and more open. The claustrophobia lifted and we all felt quite elated. We spent the afternoon napping and chilling out. We had an apartment so it felt great to be able to cook pour own dinner. At about9pm we ventured out to Las Ramblas which is the famous walking street in Barcelona. It was beautiful to walk down, full of life and some really great buskers. We watched a group of young guys doing the most incredible acrobatic/gymnastic stunts which climaxed with one of the guys leaping across 5 adults who were about 6 foot tall. So he jumped higher than 6 foot and longer than the length of 5 people standing in a row. Amazing. I liked Spain already.

4th august

We basically spent the day wandering Barcelona. On Las Ramblas during the day is the most incredible fresh produce market. They had the most beautiful Summer fruits arranged like something from Disney land. Seafood was eq1ually amazing and the meat selections were somewhat disturbing even for me as an omnivore. They sold whoel animals, like rabbits with their heads and eyes in, skinned. Pigs etc. Massive cows tongues, pigs trotters anything you could name they sold it dead and skinned. Made my stomach turn a bit.
The only thing that was a b it disappointing was the tapas. We had been told that tapas in Spain was a cheap kind of bar disht that you had with drinks and was often free. Nope they have cottoned on and are charging 5 euros for a plate with 3 deep fried prawns on it. Luckily you can buy fresh prawns for 10 euro a kilo at the market and we made an amazing homemade paella complete with nearly a kilo of prawns and a bottle of wine for 14 euro in total. Great feast. We wandered along the beach and the marina etc.

I was excited to be trying out some of my Spanish. Even though they speak Catilan in Barcelona they still understand Spanish. Just from reading signs etc it was easy to see that catilan is actually very different from Spanish.

5th AUGUST

First thing was another trip to the market to indulge in some amazing fresh juice. They sold pure raspberry juice for 2 thing I have ever tasted I think. So good. Then we made our way to the Gaudi Cathedral. Finally a Catholic Church in Europe that doesn’t look like all the rest (can anyone tell I am over old buildings yet especially the religious ones???). But this Cathedral was an exception. Where crucifixes would have been on other churches this cathedral had colourful bowls of fruit. Above the main entrance was a massive green tree with white doves in it. Its still under construction and so we didn’t bother going in. The outside colours look like they have faded a lot though. It was an awesome building nonetheless.

Next we made it to Barcelona beach. I was particularly delighted to find that it looked like some kind of fairy troupe had dropped mountains of glitter into the sea. Literally you could cup your hands in the water and come out covered in massive flecks of gold glitter. It was really beautiful. Despite the beauty the water was freezing cold. Considering it was in the mid 30s outside I didn’t expect to be shivering in the water.

We worked up a massive appetite and went for a 3 course meal on Las Ramblas. The choices were fairly basic but tasted great- I had meat balls with rice and potatos but they spiced everything up so it worked really well. Garlic and cheese soup and fruit for dessert. Not bad way to end the day.

Sorrento and Rome

2009-08-23T02:32:00.000-07:00

28th – Sorrento
Glad to be out of Naples we spent 2 days never leaving the camp site. There was a cooking room, a beach and a pool and plenty of cheap beer to keep us occupied for a couple of days and it was nice to take a break from old churches. The beach wasn’t particularly a beach but a cove, that you had to walk down a cliff face to get to and there was no sand just rocks but the water was very salty and boyant and lovely to swim in.

29th Sorrento

30th – Rome
31st – rome – Vatican City St Peter’s Basilica
So the Vatican was disappointing- not in the sense that I’m a red hot Catholic on a pilgrimage and I missed seeing the Pope because he was on Summer holiday but just in the sense that I was hoping to see a lot more security guys with machine guns. I suppose because the big guy was elsewhere no one cared.

1st – Rome Colosseum

2nd – Roman Forum, Pantheon

Napoli, POmpeii etc

2009-08-23T02:31:00.002-07:00

25th – heading to Napoli.

When we got out of the tube station near where we were staying in Napoli I thought we had magically arrived in the Bronx. There were children running around swearing at each other and threatening to kill each other. People piled on scooters not wearing helmets and driving on the pavement. Really didn’t feel safe. A little girl pointed us in the right direction and we were glad to get moving- even though it seemed as though we were getting deeper and deeper in the heart of the true seediness that turned out to be the whole of Naples. In a nut shell- a total shithole- but it did have the best pizza we experienced in the whole of Italy (but more about that later). It was getting darker and darker and we didn’t know anything about where we were except that there were on average 100 mafia related deaths per year in Naples. Eventually we reached our hostel which turned out to be a room in a fat guys apartment. Seediness exceeded.

26th – Pompeii
Hottest day ever and we decide to walk around some dusty ruins. Good choice. I don’t know where my memories of studying this at school went because I was shocked by its size. I thought there would be a few ruins and that would be it but it was 60 hectares of town uncovered. Pretty amazing. But we lost Jonno after about half an hour which meant a lot of wandering around discovering just how big the place was.

27th – Napoli
Spent the day in Napoli- went to a pizza place recommended by the fat guy who owned the apartment- and it was worth it. Huge pizzas for about 5 euro and with fab toppings. It was so popular that we had to line up outside to get a seat. The res of Naples isn’t really worth mentioning. Terribly polluted and ugly.

Florence

2009-08-23T02:31:00.001-07:00

22nd July Florence

We made it to Florence eventually – our camp site was out of town and we had a bit of a pain finding the bus to get there but after the calamity fo camping Verona we were pleasantly surprised to find our twin cabins had a private clean shower and air con. We were done. And there was a pohaol.

23rd – we spent the morning fart assing about swimming in the pool- reading Stephanie Myer’s books and having a great time discussing her poor ability to write dialogue. Eventually we decided to head to PISA- at about 3pm. After a hot train ride we made it. I actually was surprised to see the tower was in fact on a big lean – I kind of imagined they might have been exaggerating it to draw tourists in. Other than the tower there’s not a lot to Pisa. Their gelato was the worst.

24th – Florence

We wandered about Florence- eating overprice pasta and trying to find whatever it is that people rave about Florence for. There was a big fairly impressive church- but at the risk of sounding like a philistine I just wish Europe had a bit more to offer than old churches. I’ve seen enough. We thought we would go see David- there was a cue that wrapped around Florence so after hearing some people say it wasn’t that impressive we went and found an imitation David in a piazza and had photos with him instead. The sun was incredibly hot- had to be in the 40s.

Venice and beyond- first few days in Italia

2009-08-16T05:43:00.000-07:00

18TH JULY

It may take only 2 hours of flying to get from England to Italy but it takes about 2 hours of train travel to get from Gravesend to Stansted airport and then Treviso airport was similarly in the middle of nowhere- so it makes for a day of travelling nonetheless. Our flight seemed to be made up of school leavers and other such party annoyances – basically a large group of morons who liked to shriek and scream about anything and seeing as they were at the front of the plane and we were literally at the very back sometimes it made for a nervous journey when you can’t tell if the screams are warranted or not. A Ryan air threw us to the ground in what they like to consider a blaze of on timeness triumph- we even got treated to their little trumpet ditty that plays when you arrive on time. Didn’t matter that the landing was less than spectacular- we were on time. Just.

Due to my minor control issues I had taken a lot of planning in hand and together with my folder of booking and directions we jumped on board a bus headed for Venice. It took about 30 minutes then we were supposed to get on board another bus which would take us to our camp site. The camp site had claimed to be less than 20 minutes away- turned out that was a conservative estimate. We jumped on the bus loaded up with our bags. The bus sat there for about 20 minutes and allowed more and more people to clamber aboard until it was Thailand 3rd class conditions. It was a fairly frenetic trip but we eventually made it to be greeted by a 150 year old man who only spoke Italian who took us to our cabins.

19th July – Venice

Venice certainly lives up to the fantasy image- absolutely stunning! I had been told by countless people that it had a distinctly bad odour- but we were lucky and didn’t seem to encounter this problem. We spent the day moving between pizza slices, gelato stores, coffee bars, bars, fresh fruit stands and beautiful scenery.

Along the way we decided we would purchase a fairly hefty flagon of wine to consume back at the camp site. It went down a treat and was swiftly followed by a third bottle. Somewhere between the third and the fourth bottle (that Johnno ran to the shop to get before closing) we were joined by a dude called Trevor. He was an American studying for 3 months in France. Couldn’t speak a word of French after that time. Enough said.

20th July

Hangover city. More wandering. More fruit and more gelato. Venice is gorgeous.

21st July

Leaving Venice for Verona. Following the form we had developed over the last few days of spending about 3 hours deliberating over coffee it was after midday by the time we got to the train station. On arrival in Verona it was relatively easy to make our way to our campsite. This campsite claims to be the only campsite in Verona, and perched on the top of a hill near a castle overlooking the town we dared to assume it would be rather spectacular. View was. Accommodation wasn’t. We had booked a 4 person cabin- what we got was a one person 7-0 year old stationary caravan. It looked like some kind of Disney creation and seriously wasn’t built for four. We bunked down pretty much all on top of each other re-creating some kind of teenage slumber party gone terribly wrong. Em and Jonno ended up sleeping outside in the early hours because it was so hot. Not good. We were quite relieved to get out of there. Verona itself was quite beautiful- whole streets made of marble and lots of high end fashion stores. Not great for finding cost friendly food but nice for a day trip.

Croatia

2009-06-21T01:30:00.001-07:00

23^rd May

Since our last Europe adventure started out so horrifically we decided to be up early, sober and ready for anything – passports on board! Subsequently we arrived at Stansted Airport about 3 hours early. Really duty free shopping is incredibaly boring.

Our flight to Zadar was quite alright, flying over the alps and having quite a good view.

I think our arrival at the airport indicated a fair bit about what this part of croatia is all about. After a smooth landing it wasn’t the size of the airport that struck us as unusual (its about as big as DUBBO aiport) but the fact that the plane actually crosses a road of traffic. We watched out the window as a man in a yellow jacket held up the stop signal for the oncoming cars and ushered the plane across the thoroughfare. Very strange.

By this stage it was nearly 9pm and considering we weren’t exactly sure how to get to our accommodation (which we knew was in a little town called Zaton 16km out of town) we thought we had better get a move on. We jumped on a bus we hoped went into Zadar. Luckily it did. Then very smoothly we arrived at the main bus stop to find that a bus to Zaton was coming in another ten minutes. It all seemed very fortunate considering our lack of planning.

The bus arrived and we were fairly sure from the Croatian non English speaking bus driver we were on the right one. We anxiously watched out the window for any signs that indicated we were going in the right direction. On occasion we saw a sign to Zaton and felt that was a good sign. It was pitch dark by the time we decided we should get off the bus. Basically we were in the middle of nowhere (so it seems when arriving in a foreign country and jumping off the bus on a road with about 3 houses on it). We asked one other person who got off the bus if we were in the right place and managed to make out from some English and gesturing that we had the wrong bus and would need to wait for another one. (I think this was some bad advice the place we were staying (Zaton holiday Village) is sort in between nin and zaton, but it is about a 2km squared (it has its own radio station and doctor) so the zaton bus stop is about 1 and a half kms from one end and the nin stop is about 1km from the other end. Either way you’re in for a walk and once you reach the gates your still only half way home) Naturally my panic buttons started to sound and Tim’s calmness kicked in. We found a sign with a map and on the other side of the town was our accommodation, so we decided to walk. This seems like an ok idea in the middle of the day when you know the way. These were streets with the occasional street light, very reminiscent of the areas near my parents house in Dubbo but with even less houses and more space in between. Actually it felt very familiar and reminded me of walking around the streets of Dubbo on Christmas eve- except for the lack of Christmas lights. Most of the time I felt really ok about wandering somewhat aimlessly in the dark and then I would remember we were in Croatia and had never been there before and were being a bit risky. Nonetheless we safely arrived at Zaton holiday apartments and excitedly fell asleep.

24^th

Our aim for this trip was to do as close to nothing as we could bear before getting bored. So we slept in, cooked up a breakfast and then wandered to the beach for a swim. Essentially the beach was a bit disappointing in the following regards:

The sand was not yellow/white and fine to tread on but more a grey colour with fairly large shards of rock strewn throughout. (the beach can either be described as having the most uncomfortable sand possible or the most comfortable gravel)
There were no waves

However there was a quite nice view of the islands in the distance and the water was nice and warm.

So we spent some time swimming and relaxing on the beach reading etc.

Pretty relaxed day in all. Nice to see some warm weather but after the long dark English winter the 30 degree heat is a bit of a shock to the system and warranted a mid afternoon nap followed by some Croatian beers.

25^th May

We wanted to take a day trip to Zadar and had to walk the 1km or so back into Zaton town to get the bus. It was stinking hot but really nice to see the streets we had wandered in the dark in the daylight. Beautiful Mediteranean style houses dot the landscape, complete with their own mini vineyards and collections of various farm animals. The wild flowers are in full bloom it would seem and wandering along roads with waist high stone fences it seems a bit like a fairytale. It took us ages to walk to the bus stop because we kept stopping to take photos of little lizards that dart out of the undergrowth all the time. They are bright nearly fluro green on the head and top half of the body and then brown on the lower half- kind of like a choco mint treat or something. Very cute. They are about 10-20 cm long at most. The peeling of church bells and an old woman sitting on the road side, peering out from her scarved head at us completed the scene. (church bells and the twittering of songbirds are common sounds in croatia, but by far the prevailing soundscape is the thumping of distant techno)

When we eventually made it to the bus stop we were pretty sweaty and thus fairly miserable to see the bus fly past us. We had a good twenty minute wait for the next one. Not to mention that there was extremely limited shade on this fairly barren stretch of road. We got an icecream from a randomly placed corner store and I thought it was a good sign that within the wrapper of my heart shaped icecream I found an owl temporary tattoo. Considering the family connection with owls I felt pretty happy and didn’t mind standing in the sun. icecream (the on-a-stick sort) have weird branding in Europe, my icecream was called “macho” and contained liqueur others have cars on the wrapper, in the Czech republic we had Harley Davidson icecream.

Zadar itself is quite lovely. The centre is an ancient Roman walled city, with narrow winding cobblestone streets and a thousand year old Church. Quite picturesque. We wandered along the waterfront and eventually found a restaurant we wouldn’t have to sell our right arm to eat at. It would seem by browsing that Croatian cuisine is fairly similar to Italian- perhaps with a greater focus on seafood.

In the afternoon we found what lonely planet describes as a ‘must see sight’- the Sea organ. This is essentially a series of steps leading into the water which has pipes etc. underneath, so when the water moves up and down it pushes air through the pipes producing different sounds- almost like the sounds of blowing across bottles. It would have been really atmospheric except that an International cruise liner was stationed right next to it and running its motor. So the sea organ wasn’t so easy to listen to.

We grabbed some pretty delicious fresh fruit from the famed Zadar market and by this stage realised the day had reached the point where most people are either swimming in the harbour or shut up having their afternoon nap so we decided to go home.

26^th May

Starting the day with pretty fabulous Tim made pancakes and fruit we again had a lazy rest around Zaton. Beaching, reading, getting slightly sunburnt (I figure its ok- we need to store up our vitamin D supplies before heading back to the miserable island).

One excitement of the day was the discovery of Zadar’s finest- Cherry Brandy. Apparently made with a cherry that is renowned for its taste this brandy was simply stunning. Not being really a brandy or a cherry person I had my doubts- but we just couldn’t get enough of this stuff. Really really tops.

27^th May

Today we did a bit of exploring and checked out Nin. The town is an island or islet, I think it depends on the tide. On our way there we stopped at a stone jetty and watched little iridescent fish darting around the rocks. The town is full of roman ruins, cathedrals, wall stone houses and wildflowers. We visited the world’s smallest cathedral, there is also a statue of dumbledore’s younger brother grgurninski renown for his magically prowess and lucky toes. At the edge of Nin there is a huge sandbar and as we approached to we hear a bus load of kids mucking about in the water, so we decided to do likewise and stopped for a swim, the sand was nicer than at the resort and there were some waves, but at all of the beaches here you need to walk out about 100 metres from the shoreline to find water that reaches above your knees. All over the place and especially on the beach there are snails sleeping the day away at the top of grasses and plant stems, they seem to be doing the opposite of hiding. After having a dip we decided to walk along the sandbar and we soon meet some of the kids wandering in the other direction covered head to toe in black mud. We read in one of the brochures about a medicinal peoloid (the spellcheck confirms our suspicions that this is not a real word) near Nin so we formed a theory that it was some sort of healing mud bath. We soon found the source of the mud, the sandbar is only about ten metres wide but somehow there was a 3 metre wide bog in the middle of it complete with its own ecosystem of crabs and some weird sand coloured jelly-fish like thing. I took two steps into it and was up to my knees, Steph preferred to scoop up some mud and smear it on her face, making her look like someone pretending to be a black-a-moor in some racist play. We took a look at our map and realised we were nowhere near the area marked as peloid but after washing the mud off Steph was still convinced her skin had improved. Next we wandered back into town for a late lunch, gelato and some freshly picked mulberries before we headed back to the apartment. Once there we realised we had both forgot to put sunscreen on our legs and had burnt the backs of our legs and the tops of our feet.

28^th May

Today we set off in search for the REAL peloid

Berlin day two

2009-04-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

We had a fairly shittxy nights sleep owing to a very echoey hostel where every footstep and door opening etc echoes to about three times its usual volume.

We headed into Alexandraplatz assumign that might be a place to buy a tourist map and start out. We havenät done much research this trip and really had no idea where to go or what to do. With tourist map in hand we walked the two kms to Checkpoint Charlie- which with fake American soldior re enactments etc was fairly lame. The museum was incredibly interesting but not laid out well. Lots of writing and photos etc crammed into a small space and it didnät unfold in a very logical way. Hard to get a chronological idea of the Berlin and its wall and would be particularlz confusing if yzou had no previous knowledge about it. I suppose most people know a bit about it all though. We spent a good 2 hours wandering around it though- lots of incredible stories of escape.

From there we walked to Potsdamer Platz and to the Holocaust memorial. The Memorial is a colloection of probablz 100 or more cement rectangular pillars of varying height. The ground they are on is not even but waving hills and burrows so when you look at the memorical from the outside you donät realise how tall some of the pillars actually are and you can#t see all the people wandering through them.

From there we walked to the Brandenburg Gate- the only surviving gate of 4 to berlin built in the 1700s.

We are now at the internet in a big mall across from where the German Premiere of Star Trek the movie is happening. Lots of excitement earlier on but we couldnät be bothered waiting to see a couple of famous people walk by.

Berlin

2009-04-16T10:37:00.000-07:00

Spent the morning bumming around Dresden before getting the train to Berlin. One thing we have realised about Eruope travel is that booking trains ahead etc is kind of pointless and excessive- but that the internet does not help zou at all. Get buses not trains. We booked a train in advance because we have limited time and didnät want to get stuck. We then realised that we booked the super slow train that we had to change at some random German village. But not a complete loss the views were gorgeous. Spring trulz has sprung in Europe. When we arrived in Prague the trees were all still basicallz bare from Winter and over the first week we saw them starting to bloom and now at the end fo two weeks things are reallz green. Its amayzing.

Arrived at Berlin central station- which is quite incredible in itself. I know this is going to sound incredibly dodgy but Berlin is the kind of place that can reallz take advantage of the fact that it was destroyed by war and build some super cool new stuff and not be bogged down by old buildings forever. Ok yes old buildings are amazing and wonderful etc but seriouslz some of Europe has got to go people! Ok old building rant aside - we checked into our hostel which is about 15 minutes train trip out (everywhere central is ridiculouslz expensive). Then we went back into town. We wandered along a street headed towards Alexandraplatz where the huge tv ariel thingy is (created by the Soviets to make the East look impressive). Along this street we came to this old derelict looking archway and building but there appeared to be some life within. So we walked through to find an area covered in sand with outdoor lounges, benches etc. Not classy pretentious fake beach stuff but just like someone dragged an old couch off the street. Tehre were some art studios with people working in them and stuff to look at. So we had a look around and then sat back amongst the sand etc to ahve a beer and listen to some cool music. The place had a really great vibe and I can now see whz everzone is wanting to move to Berlin and become an artist. There were a couple of rat sightings however but I suppose that just added to the crazyness of it all.

Along this road were some other curiosities. Many many prostitutes. All wearing bum bags. Very strange. I don#t know whether its legal along this particular strip or what but there thez were plain as day with their pimps wandering around behind them. At first I thought the first two were just a couple of slappers out for the night until we kept walking adn the same theme continued.

Dresden

2009-04-14T12:59:00.000-07:00

Spent the day exploring Dresden by foot.

Very nice city.

Went to an art exhibition bz this modern German artist called Martin Eder- running out of net credit so not much time to write about it. Google Martin Eder to have a look at his stuff. Some of it is quite interesting, perhaps a little pretentious. Will write more later.

Found a cool part of Dresden that reminded me of Newtown or Enmore, lots of similar shops etc.

Sat in the sun on the River Elbe watching people and whatnot.

Tomorrow to Berlin.

Goodbye Prague Hello Dresden (plus third tragedy)

2009-04-14T12:48:00.000-07:00

So we spent the morning wandering about saying our goodbyes to Prague and spending the last few Czeck krones we had. Tim wanted to trz a langos- these depp fried pastry bases that they paint with garlic oil, tomato sauve and then pile with cheese- which he did and enjoyed until I decided to get into this incredible looking chicken kebab on a stick stuck in a baguette. I lined up and got one (the line was huge so I assumed it would taste good) reallz I have no idea how good it was because I basicallz accidentallz swallowed the first piece too earlz and spent the next twentz minutes half choking half trzing to digest this piece of meat. It had no idea whether it wanted to go down or come back up and I suspect it maz have been in the wrong tube altogether, so I was coughing, spewing up stomach bile etc in the middle of the old Centre of Prague before eventuallz vomiting, coughing up this piece of chicken. I probablz didn#t reallz need to describe this in such detail but it was trulz a horrific experience and I (being a drama Queen) thought I was going to die in a verz embarrassing way in a foreign countrz without travel insurance. For about 2 hours I thought it was revenge of the chickens and I decided to go vego once and for all- then when we arrived in Dresden I had a chicke burger at Hungrz Jacks and that was the end of it all. I suppose once yzou fall off that horse zou jsut need to get back on there!

Ok so we made it to Dresden- after what nearlz could have been an Asia stzle bus trip. It was onlz 2 and a half hours but after about an hour thez stopped the bus, started running around as though something was wrong and then declared a ten minute break. We all waited around until whatever was the problem was fixed and were off again. Phew- nightmare flashbacks to 15 hour trips in Vietnam with numerous bus problems! The views were lovely especially as we went through some mountains and along a river passing little Czeck villages and a prettz cool castle on the edge of a cliff overlooking the river below.

Arrived in Dresden about 5pm and spent the evening wandering through the town centre. Its interesting as so much of it was destrozed in WW2 that there is a lot of new development and as such the roads are much wider etc and it feels more like and Aussie citz than anz other we have zet been to.

Botanical Gardens etc

2009-04-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the Botanical Gardens in Prague which was quite cool because its on top of a hill on the edge of town. Very nice to get out of the way of buildings buildings and more old buildings... do I sound a little sick of old buildings? well I am. I am starting to realise that makes up a large portion of what europe has to offer- I am now understanding why people can go on a 3 week 7 country Euro drinking spree and feel thez have seen it all. I think (even though reallz enjoyed Prague) we stazed a little too long. Anywaz I will let Tim elaborate on botanical garden escapades as he was very excited bz the green house vegetation.

Kutna Hora escapades

2009-04-11T12:40:00.000-07:00

So today we decided to get out of Prague and jumped on the train to Kutna Hora- about an hour and a half away. Basically used to have a silver mine there, lots of churches etc but we were going for the 'Ossuary'- and we got much more than that!

Ok so first of all the ossuary- back in about 990 some dude did a pilgramige to Jerusalem and got some dirt from Galgotha and brought i back dumped it near the monastry and Kutna Hora and then a bunch of wealthy guys decided they wanted to b burieed there and it started out as a burial site for the rich and famous. Then in about 1300 there was a massive plague, followed by a big war (Husseit wars- not exactly sure who with... I think the Turks? Anyway a ton of people got corpsed and laid to rest at the Ossuary. Then in the 1500's his half blind monk thought it would be really cool to get all their bones (some 40 000 dead bodies worth) and turn them into decorative art - which he did and it is in fact cool. There was a big coat of arms made out of every single bone in the human body, a chandelier and oher stuff that photos will depict better than me describing it whilst half asleep.

The Ossuary didn't have as much atmosphere as the catacombs in Paris but the designs were pretty impressive.

Ok so the other unexpected delight was the fact that they were having some kind of Easter fair. It was almost exactly like the Dubbo show or equivalent except for a few differences:

* You could buy beer and walk around with it (not confined to a no kids alcohol area)
* Every second stand wanted to sell either colour co ordinated pegs (yes clothes pegs sorted into olours) or dodgy (used looking) underwear!
*

We had decided to bring our own lunch to save money and found a nice spot on the other side of the cemetary to eat our bread and cheese and it was quite lovely.

Tim succumed to the call of the waffle and experienced the waffle on the stick- whih Tim approved of completely. I will let him review in his own time.

It was kind of cool to be in a random Czeck town that had minimal tourist traps- and to see that not all f Europe is quaint cobblestone alleys and colourful castles... there are shitty carnie shows here too!

Czeck adventures continued

2009-04-10T07:30:00.001-07:00

So we spent the rest of our time in eating our way around Cesky Kumlov. WE took a walk up to the top of this hill called 'Krizak' and amazingly it was so hot we had to be bare armed! Very enjoyable. The views from the top were pretty cool and our camera is drying out slowly but surely.

After saying goodbye to the bears and taking a walk through the park and castle gardens we were bound for a bus back to Prague.
When we arrived at the hotel we had booked the woman looked at our reservation email wth puzzlement- which is unnerving when you arrive in a city that everyone is leaving because its booked out for Easter long weekend. BAsically Wotif or the hotel had screwed up and double booked so the receptionist rang around and then told us someone was comign to take us to an apartment- kind of strange and considering I have seen one too many 'Hostel' films a bit unnerving. I pictured our corpses being tortured in some dngy apartment in Prague. But it all turned out ok and we were given an apartment to stay in for the night- it had a very 'Bohemian' feel and so we got ourselves some absinthe and tucked in. One shot and I was done- that stuff burns- I suppose 70 % alcohol will do that to you.
So this morning they came and picked us up and took us back to the original hotel and we checked in for the rest of our stay in Prague.

The weather is soooooo beautiful here- must be mid twenties and sunshine everywhere! good outdoor beer weather and we are making the most of it. Today we wandered from our hotel to the Castle and had a wander about. Bit over castles really and so didn't bother paying to go inside- the views from the top of the hill were free and pretty fantastic. Also watching middle aged European tourist couples who dress alike is equally enjoyable.

Just figuring out how to avoid a tour and get ourselves to this bone ossury about an hour from twn by public transport... then we are back out into the square for some sunshine and again more FOOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Unfortunately because of Easter weekend we could either get to Germany yesterday or not until Monday- we opted for Monday because its cheaper here - but it means we only get about 5 full days in Germany- so the highlights of Berlin is all we will manage and a day in Dresden. I suppose if we like it we can come back.

2009-04-08T04:48:00.000-07:00

Another day of Cesky Krumlov eating and adventure

2009-04-08T04:43:00.000-07:00

So we are taking today easy- more food more drink- I plan to be a size bigger when we return to England- like a camel I am saving my food so I don't have to eat for a month when we return. no more jacket potatos full of beans for me!

So we are headed to Prague again tomorrow and we might do a day trip to Vienna Austria if our budget allows. As it turned out that we couldn't get a train to Dresdent until Monday so we have longer in Czeck Republic thahn germany and thought a day trip might be good. If not there is still plenty in Prague we want to Czeck out! Yes the puns are a plenty!

Second Disaster of what must be a slightly doomed but fun trip

2009-04-08T04:22:00.000-07:00

So we slept in and woke up to a delicious breakfast that would rival our odl favourite Martinis in Newtown and the good thing about Czeck Republic is that without the Euro it rivals Aussie prices too! I kinow I keep blogging about food but truly we are having a good time stuffing our faces with things that actually have flavour after surviving for 4 months in the land that flavour forgot. I had almost forgotten I have tastebuds.

We then climbed the main tower that overlooks the town. it resembles a wedding cake in my opinion- each tier being a different colour and painted with a different design. Ceszky Krumlov is a bit like Disneyland really which might explain my love for it. There were some great views overlooking the town. We wandered about the castle and watched the bears who live in the moat playing in their pond and eating honey. Well not really honey but that would have been funny. They were eating apples and carrots and chocolate croissants instead. Yes there are 3 real bears living in the moat! Pretty cool. Although we are not really sure how ethical their environment is - btu they have a fair bit of space- more than most zoos.

Then came the part of the day that spelled our doom. We decided to take a canoe trip aroudn the river which we had seen others doing the day before. The river has a system of little rapids that you need to go down because the river is on a mountain- anyway they looked tame enough to us. The sky was overcast and we heard a few cracks of thunder just to add ot the atmosphere. The guy drove us and a German couple out of town where we were to start our boat trip. We had been given a quick briefing on the rapids by some dude who gave us a map and told us which rapids to go down and which ones to avoid. Naturally Tim was excited and I was slightly concerned. But not concerned enough to really think anythign could go wrong. I mean they didn't even offer us helmets!

So we started sailing and I couldn't particularly enjoy it as I suddenly realised I was busting to go to the toilet- the kind of thing that happens when you are surrounded by the sound of rushing water. Tim looked on our little map and said- 'Oh there is a camp site up ehre we will stop and you can go to the toilet'- so we pulled over and I popped up the hill in search of what looked like a campsite but was really some industrial place with a fence all the way around. Such is the life of someone whose bladder is made small to leave room for a uterus I couldn't contian it and decided to hide behind a wall and do a quick wee! Ashamed I came back to boat and swore never to blog of this incident.

We continued on our way to find that the campsite was in fact just around the bend!

After this we went down one rapid and had a pretty enjoyable time- I didn't die and even managed to get a quick photo of Tim's triumphant paddling. Put at ease by our first rapid encounter I relaxed and started to enjoy my newly emptied bladder and the scenery.

Second rapid came and went with no more than a 'woot' of excitement and a subtle splash.

Then came the third rapid- I think I sensed impending danger and panicked- basically when I panic my brains shuts down and I start flailing- in the case I was flailing with an oar and trying to do who knows what to avoid the rapid. But we went down the rapid regardless and just as we thought we had conquered it our boat got turned around and I saw Tim's end flip and next thing we were under. I think the greatest shock was the freezing nature of the water. It hit my chest and I (again panicked) and started screaming for help. I couldn't touch the bottom and luckily Tim grabbed me and I realsied (briefly) it wasn't too scary and we swam for the shore. Freezing cold and not a happy camper started cursing the world and swearing never to get back into any boat again! Then we turned and saw that the Germans had caught up with us- we watched them go down the rapid much as we had fairly calmly only to be sucked under at the last minute as well. So Tim jumpled back in to help them as the german girl looked to be getting carried away. All freezing cold and a bit shocked (the German girl had lost her shoes) we stood around wondeirng where the nearest bar was. The only solution was to get back in and keep going. Naturally my fear had turned me into the most annoying person alive and I panicked the whole way back- even getting out before the last rapid and walking teh rest of the way dripping wet. Along the way we did manage to find the girls shoes which we thought was pretty impressive. Oh but later I realised the pair of sunglasses I ahd bought that morning were long gone! The other concern was 9and still is ) that our camera may never work again. We have salvaged the memory card and the photos we ahd taken are ok but we haven't had the guts to try the camera yet! Still drying it out! Fingers crossed- I think we are doomed with cameras!

Anyway we then spent a couple fo hours blowdrying our shoes (we only brought one pair with us not thinking we would end up submerged in a river) before heading back to our favourite vego restaraunt for a well earned meal and beer.

Cesky Krumlov- yahoo

2009-04-08T04:11:00.000-07:00

So we awoke early and wandered down to the bus stop (which we had spent a fair bit of time the night before looking for only to realise we had been walking past it every time!) and caught the bus to Cesky Krumlov in the South of the country. It took nearly 3 hours drive and mostly the views weren't that exciting. The landscape is fairly non descript- green grass, leafless trees etc. A few towns here and there that look mostly like anywhere else apart from the Czek writing on the signs.

Cesky Krumlov is absolutely beautiful! Tim and I both agreed that we were feeling a little aprehensive about Europe after our Paris trip. Basically Paris was interesting but neither of us absolutely loved it and it cost a fortune and we were both worried that maybe the rest of Europe would be a bit ho hum as well- yes some of you reading will think we are complete philistines for not loving Paris but there you have it we didn't and we don't and the truth is finally out there!

Cesky Krumlov is an old town- with the River Vlatva running through it. The centre of the town (you could say is touristy) but charmingly so. Every building is a different colour- theya re all cement buildings but with amazing designs all over them. Some are just basic so it looks like they have been made out of brick work or whatever but its all painted- so it gives a 3d effect. And again gorgeous cobblestone alleys that twist and turn around each other over bridges etc. and what Tim and I really enjoy the most fabulous places to eat and drink! We had lunch at a vegetarian restaraunt that was amazing- the waiter was so funny he reminded me of Gerard Deparduie- always smiling and laughing and seemingly simple but obviously not. The food here is very hearty- served on big thick earthenware plates and big portions that warm you up. It all feels very medieval. We sat eating along the river and for the first time since being in Europe basked in the SUN! Yes the sun! I could feel the vitamin D soaking in and taking all my sadness away. I never want to go back to stupid England! The weather here is fabulous- its been about 19 degrees which after the UK winter feels so nice!.
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the alleyways and exploring. That night we went to a restaraunt serving traditional Czeck food- and drank hot mead- Tim had South Bohemian Mead and I had Maravian- who really knows what was in either but it was yummy and sitting right next to a beautiful castle and colourful tower it was very atmospheric.

Prague - some thoughts

2009-04-05T05:22:00.000-07:00

So we have spent the morning walking about taking in the sights. We are now only at an internet cafe to book our bus to Czesky Krumlov tomorrow.

A few strange things first

* Men here love to double denim- don't know who told them this was ok.
* The toilets have a weird extra shelf in the bowl so you do your business and it sits on this shelf (maybe so you can inspect it?) before you flush it away!
* There are a lot of Police wandering around- I mean a lot! Makes you feel safe though
*When we were on the train headed to our hotel there was a family all wearing blue jumpers that said LUBE

A few delightful things
* The people are very friendly
* The buildings are colourful
*The food is cheap
* The food is good!

Anyway we went to a Jewish Synagogue this morning- just wandering past and were so captivatd by its beautiful colourful, detailed front that we wandered in. It is one of the mot beutiful interiors I have ever seen. Amazing details and colours and amazingly it survived German occupation. Apparently they used it as a storage space which is why it wasn't destroyed.

Sat in a lovely cafe and drank coffee and ate 'little czeck cakes' - gorgeous.
Tonight we are oing on a dinner cruise along the river as an anniversary celebrations. Tim and I have been together for 3 years.

Anyway will update when we have the time.

Ok so after we finally figured out how to book a bus to Cesky Krumlov we wandered down (pretty much by accident) into the old Town Centre- which was abuzz with much excitement. We were later to find out that there was a big volleyball tournament on in Prague! Which also explained the family wearing the LUBE T Shirts- perhaps the name of their team?

The Old Town Centre is rather amazing. All the buildings are brightly coloured and painted with either scenery or fake decorations that would usually take the form of sculpted gargoyles and the like. Really lovely. There was some sort of fair happening with singing and revelry and msot excitingly lots of food and beer options. So We stood at a tall table and tucked into some Czeck goods- a couple of massive (and cheap!) beers and Tim had these potato pancakes that were pretty much leaking lard (they like oil and fat in this country) with a side of cabbage and I had what was labelled 'Old Prague ham' and should better have been described as nearly a whole baby pig. They just carve off a hunk from the spit and give it to you on a plate with two bits of bread. It feels incredibly medievel and it tasted pretty bloody good.

After this we both felt a bit ridiculously full and slightly drunk so we just wandered about the old centre which is an amazing maze of little cobblestone streets, lovely shops and cafes etc. There is no time to try and head anywhere specific because you get so easily distracted by one alley or another and again you are off track. We checked out the 'astronomical clock' which is one of the meeting points for a billion tours.

We ended up in a coffee shop which specialised in hot chocolates- you could get hot chocolate with pretty much anything your heat desired- so Tim had hot chocolat4e and coconut milk and I had hot chocolate with ginger. It was a traditional sludgy cup of liquid chocolate with your additional flavours in a little dish next to it! Neither of us could finish and felt slightly ill after. But we just rolled on out and around the streets again until we realised we had been wandering for about 12 hours and our feet hurt and we wanted to go home to bed.

We nearly didn't make it!

2009-04-05T05:14:00.000-07:00

Ok -so we just made the most embarrassing mistake a traveler could possibly make. We went out on Friday night for drinks with workmates- got a bit tipsy and came home all orried because we had no clean clothes. So we thrwe stuff in the wash and wnt to sleep- woke up o wet clothes and spent the morning tryng to dry them with the hair dryer! In such a state of confusion and last minute packing we rushed out the door headed to the train station and felt very proud of ourselves tha we had made it. Settled onto the train and read the newspaper. On arrival at London Bridge for no apparent reason I suddenly remembered we had left our passports at home! Of course I burst into panic accompanied by tears, tantrums, foot stamping and nearly throwing myself in front of the next train all while Tim remained perfectly calm. We racked our brains- if Tim went back would we still get to the airport in time? Answer no. Could we get a taxi- not enough time to get there and back! Long story short we rang our mate Martin (another school teache from South Africa) and asked if he would be so kind as to jump in a taxi and bring us our passports! And thank God he is an awesome guy and did simply that. Our housemate let him in grabbed the passports and a 70 pound taxi fare later he met us at heathrow with only minutes to spare and we got checked in! Amazing! Then I started to panic thinking that maybe there was a supernatural reason we forgot our passports and started imagining the plane crashing etc. But thankfully we made it to Prague and got to our hotel at abou midnight last night!

London again

2009-03-15T10:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we headed to London to see a play called '3 days of Rain'. We headed in and met Greg on Portobello Road, had some all day breakfast washed down by some tall cold pints in a Tapas bar. Greg couldn't quite reconcile the idea of having beer with breakfast. Wandered along Portobello road to check out the markets. The houses along here are all painted different colours and the effect is like a big colourful lolly. I have no idea why the rest of England doesn't get on board with the colour scheme and brighten up this dreary country. We happened to see the home of George Orwell- had no idea he lived in Notting Hill.
The highlight of Tim's day was another chance at some waffles- but alas they did not live up to his past waffle experiences and he finished his strawberry chocolate waffle feeling unsatisfied. The search for the best waffle continues.
'3 days of rain' was an interesting play. In all honest we just booked tickets because it had James McAvoy in it and we didn't really know what it was about. Basically (like all tried and tested plays) its a story about family and secrets etc. The first half was set in the current day after the death of the characters father- basically trying to unravel the mysteries of the childhood - why their parents were so eccentric why their mother was mentally ill. Not as depressing as you might think from the overview. Very well written and fairly humorous. The set was really cool- old run down loft apartment in NEw York. The second act the actors became different characters- their parents during the time they met '3 days of rain'. I liked the second half better and Tim liked the first half. Neither of us are sure exactly why.
I felt a lot better just being in London for the day. So much more happening, way less pregnant teenagers and racist drunks. I think I am getting a very negative view of England from living in Gravesend and after a bit of soul searching and some tough decisions we are deciding to move to London at the end of Summer. Going to stay here because it is cheap and we can save up for big summer holiday- then come back and Tim will look for work in London and when he gets something we will move up. I will keep working at the school until such time as Tim gets something. We will move up and I will do supply teaching. I can't handle the stress of permanant position when my intentions of being in England are not to further a teaching career. So now we have made that decision I feel ten times better. Who knows if we really have enough we might move sooner. But at the moment its good to benefit from cheap living and school holidays! Also Tim has a teaching assistant job at my school.

Last day in Paris

2009-03-10T13:52:00.000-07:00

We were pretty buggered by Friday as we had been partying with Bron all week and checking out the sights. So we took a slow wander around the Pompidou centre before deciding none of the exhibitions interested us that much and then we wandered over to the Louvre and wandered around in there. It was cool to see all the famous artworks we had only ever seen in books but by the end it all got a bit too much to take in. Lots of tourists going mental again kind of destroy the atmosphere.

The next day our train left at 8 in the morning. This time we were in Leisure select which emant we got more space and a meal but really all we cared about was snoozing.

EURODISNEY

2009-03-10T13:42:00.001-07:00

What can I say? Disneyland truly is the happiest place on earth. I had a smile from ear to ear all day (except for about 2 minutes when I was relegated to a small horse on the carousel because all the children beat me to the big ones!). Even cynical anti-disney Tim was won over by the charm of the place. What is most striking about Disney land is that its not just a trashy theme park with dodgy rides, but its this masterpiece of planning. There is so much attention to detail. the gardens are all beautifully sculpted. There is not a blank wall in the place. its not all tacky bright colours- Main street is like a beautiful New Orleans style street with Victorian tea houses and ice cream parlours, shops etc. Gorgeous.

Because we only had a day we didn't get to see everything properly but we made a pretty good effort.

hilarious occurance that I don't want to forget: when we were on Thunder Mountain roller coaster (which is fairly tame) there was this kid behind us who just screamed at the top of her lungs the whole time. even when we were travelling on zero incline or decline. At the very end of the ride she called out 'Get in there!' in this hilarious way- Tim and I pissed our pants laughing. probably had to be there but I still get the giggles thinking about it.

Best part of the day: about ten minutes before the park closed Mickey and Minnie appeared on the top of Sleeping Beauty's castle to say goodnight. The whole castle lit up with fairy lights and Tinkerbelle shot glitter out of the top turret. It was a magical glitter overload of excitement and given my fondness for glittery tackiness I was in ecstasy. I think Tim secretly enjoyed the silliness of it all too.

Montmartre

2009-03-10T13:29:00.000-07:00

We headed to Montmartre today and I have to say I felt like I had finally found an area of Paris that lived up to my expectations. On the top of the hill is a beautiful white Church called Sacre Cour (not sure if spelled like that). Perched alone on the hill it is stunning. From the top you can look out over Paris. It but fairly smoggy/foggy but still a good view.

We wandered around the little streets surrounding. Montmartre is the area where all the artists hang out do portraits etc surrounded by lovely little shops, cafes, bars etc. We wandered into an art gallery focusing on Dali and had a look. I think most of the work were reproductions but still cool to see.

One thing that I was shocked by in Paris was the food. People rave about food in France but most things and not that fresh- all sandwiches are pre made and sitting there etc. They even premake hotdogs with melted cheese on. Gross. Also- how lazy can you be to not make a hot dog fresh?
Everywhere you go you can buy crepes with Nutella- they really love nutella in Paris!

After this we wandered around looking for the Moulin Rouge. By this stage of the day though the camera battery had died. The Moulin Rouge was fairly disappointing- the windmill was tiny and just plonked on top of an ordinary building on the street. Lame. Not to mention we had to wander through the sex district to find it.

So we wandered onto the Montmartre cemetary which is the final resting place of many famous people. Most of which we had never heard of. Nonetheless the cemetary was incredible. Each plot is a mausoleum- so the cemetary is divided into streets you walk down and you are surrounded by these miniature stone buildings complete with stained glass windows, turrets and gargoyles. Spookily on one fairly impressive tomb sat a black cat which just stared at us intently as we walked past.

Tim and I ended up hanging out in a bar in Montmartre during happy hour to end the day.

17th Feb

2009-03-10T13:16:00.000-07:00

After a big night out we slept in and were feeling a bit seedy. We eventually made it out of the house and headed for The Catacombs. When we got there we were confronted with a line that was about 100 people long. Anyway we stood in the cold and much to our indignant Australian anger watched as a girl about to push into the line just behind us. Unfortunately she was successful and we couldn't believe how sly she was.

Anyway that aside the Catacombs were underground tunnel mine things that got turned into tombs in the 1700 when there was a massive plague. A whole bunch of people died and were tossed into mass graves- but because there wasn't much room it was very unhygenic and they decided to take them down into the tunnels. The bones and skulls are all arranged in patterns, love hearts and different shapes. Its quite beautiful. You have to walk down about 130 steps and walk through very winding tunnels to get to the bone section. There are so many bones- thousands of people in there. I thought it might be creepy in there but it wasn't- just interesting. No strange vibe. Just peaceful.

We did see some hilarious things in the Catacombs that I don't want my ageing brain to forget.

1. this little kid was walking around with his legs wide apart like a cowboy. Hilarious.
2. There was this girl who was being photographed in the tunnels by these two others- and she was acting like a model even though she didn't really look like one and it was fairly funny. Probably had to be there.
3. Not that we saw this but Bron and I were making spooky noises to scare these kids but ended up scaring ourselves.

After the catacombs we headed back to the Latin Quarter where we saw a 15 Euro 3 course meal advertised. Not a bad price in Paris.

Bron ordered snails (Tim and I were a bit hesitant to order a whole plate and just tasted Brons). Basically tasted like garlic butter chewy gobs. Not unpleasant- quite nice but nothing to rave about really.

16th Feb

2009-03-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

We wandered about some little streets in the centre of Paris. The little cobblestone streets are lovely and there were some charming shops - most hilariously was a posh looking kebab shop. We went up to the Latin Quarter because we read there was a pub there that had live jazz which we thought would be cool. Turned out it had a TV playing top of the pops and full of Poms. Not very charming at all. But we saw some cool things wandering about.

We had a beer and headed off to see the Eiffel Tower. It costs a fortune to climb and none of us were that interested. We saw it so I feel we conquered it.

Best part was we got ourselves in some Japanese Wedding photos.

That night we headed out to a bar with Bron's friend Freddy and had a few beers. I was very proud of myself for ordering in French. So now I now how to ask for 4 Leffe beers in French. Thats about it. Was a good night.

15th Feb- Paris Day 2

2009-03-10T12:54:00.000-07:00

On Day 2 we got up excited and ready to see Paris in the daylight. So we headed to the River Seine for a stroll and to see where the day would take us.

Basically we got off at Pont Neuf because for some reason I thought I had heard of that and thought if I had heard of it something about it must be interesting. Turned out it was a bridge with a bunch of carved heads underneath. The Seine has about a kazillion bridges running across it. Quite pretty.

We wandered along until we ended up at the Louvre and took a look around the outside.
From here we wandered through what I expect is a a fairly notable Parisian park full of statues and ponds. I am sure in the Spring it must be stunning but in the bleak Winter it wasn't that exciting and the ice on the ponds made it look a bit scummy. At the end of the Park was the Obelisk and from there the Champs Elysses.

From this point we spied our first sighting of the Eiffel Tower in the distance. But more excitingly for Tim he ran into a waffle van. Tim can't pass a waffle van without stopping for a snack and amazingly enough waffles were super popular in Thailand which is where Tim's waffle obsession took full flight.

We then wandered back in the direction we came to find Notre Dame Cathedral.
Its a very impressive building. The stained glass windows are incredibly beautiful- the colours are not your typical churchy glass windows but have bright pinks, torquoise etc. The colours don't show up well on the photos. There isn't much atmosphere in the Cathedral though as its so jam packed with tourists wandering around with cameras etc.

After this we headed back to the apartment to meet Bron who was travelling up from Renne to stay with us.
It was great to see Bron and almost quite weird to be in Paris with her. But like all good girls from Dubbo we spent our first evening gossiping about people we haven't seen in ages and drinking beers from a can. Poor Tim!

Paris- in retrospect

2009-03-10T12:44:00.000-07:00

Ok so I am writing this 2 weeks after we returned but thought I should update before my memories get even foggier.

Tim and I travelled on the Eurostar to Paris on Valentines day. I was feeling a little bit nervous about travelling through the Channel Tunnel but in the end we were only in the tunnel for about 20 minutes and then we were up and out in France. Very strange. The scenery looked surprisingly like Kent scenery. Green (ish because its Winter) fields. Little villages spattering the country side etc. It did seem less populated than Kent though with the emphasis on little villages rather than sprawling towns that merge into each other like in Kent. The villages could be identified by a town church tower and mostly the houses looked to be fairly old and reddish in colour.

We arrived in Paris at about 7 at night and decided to head straight for our apartment in the tenth district. But as usual we kind of ran out of the house unorganised and didn't bring the instructions on how best to get there. So we bought a map and navigated our way through the metro system. Stupidly we ended up on the wrong end of a very long street and had to make our way back again until eventually we found our place opposite a very large and easily accessibly metro station. One that we did not travel to.

Nonetheless I need to remark on how brilliant European subways are. You can get basically anywhere from anywhere and rarely have to wait more than 5 minutes. Truly brilliant!

Our apartment was quite cute and I was very excited to finally have access to a shower instead of a bath (which is all we have at our place). I really miss standing up to wash. Its the little things.

We went to a Japanese restaraunt for dinner and had a few wines to celebrate Valentines day. I suppose a lot of people dream about being in Paris for Valentines day. Tim and I never take it too seriously but I realised that we were pretty lucky.

a day of culture and stuff

2009-02-01T02:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we decided to head into London and actually see some exciting things instead of the inside of a bunch of public houses. So we caught the tube to Leicester square and then stood around confused as to which 'official half price ticket stand' was the real 'official half price ticket stand' so that we could buy some theatre tickets. In the end we chose the one with the shortest line- probably not the smartest idea really as a short line generally indicates something. W wanted to see 'Wicked' but it was sold out so we got tickets for Les Miserables. With tickets in hand we decided to warm our hearts with a coffee. It was at this stage of our day that I began to really understand that there are 3 times as many people in England as Australia- In London there was a massive line up for everything- including a simple cup of coffee.

After our coffee we followed a sign saying China town and the sound of banging drums etc. There are still Chinese New Year celebrations happening so we had the opportunity to follow the dancing dragon around China Town as it went to each shop front to retrieve the hanging piece of lettuce from the front door. Again there were masses of people. Here we found a couple of Asian grocers and in true ex Aussie uni student fashion we went on a search and rescue mission for Mi Goreng noodles. Success- we packed our bags full of the little suckers! yay!

We found a chinese restauraunt that did £3.55 lunch meals and seeing as we are totally sick of pub food (which seems to be the only option in most places) we went in and shoved our faces full.

We wandered up to Trafalgar square and popped into The NAtional Portrait Gallery- it was fairly disappointing in all truth. Momentarily it was cool to see all the old Tudor portraits that I;ve seen a million times in books but this wore off as it took forever to get through the throngs of people out and about. The contemporary collection was fairly bland and neither Tim or I could figure out all the fuss over a photo of a few celebrities. We didn't bother with the Annie Leibovitz exhibtion because you had to pay for that and we are stingy.

So off to South Kensington to the NAtural History Museum where we met Greg. This building is absolutely breathtaking - its massive with ancient creature gargoyles and blue tiles everywhere. Inside the rooves are really tall andthere are beautiful stained glass windows. It was worth the trip for the building alone. Anyway we wandered around the free exhibitions- we wanted to go ot this Darwin exhibition but it was sold out. But Tim particularly had a good time looking at weird insects etc. They had a room full of old stuffed birds from the 1800s when this was fashionable- there were dodos etc. There were some crazy things there. We saw big dinosaurs and all the things you would expect at such a museum.

Then it was off for a beer before the show- but apparently thats fairly impossible in the West End on a Saturday night- we wandered for nearly half an hour before finding a pub with a table left. The atmosphere was really cool though- considering there is an economic crisis people were out liviing it up and the theatres were packed. I really like the fact that in England a Saturday night at the theatre is so popular and normal- our show was full of people our age - which is a rare sight in Sydney productions. Its very exciting to be in an area totall dedicated to theatre.

I have been listening to the recording of 'Les Miserables' for the last decade and have always wanted to see a production-which I think was to my detriment because it meant I left feeling a little disappointed. Apparently my imagination dreams too large for the actuality. It was still great and I am glad we went (I dont think it was Tim's cup of tea). I loved the chorus parts because the music is so beautiful and I enjoyed the girl who played Eponine. But every time the show really built up and I thougt finally here's some spirit it returned to a really slow pace. Considering all its grand themes of revolution, love, revenge etc. I left the theatre feeling fairly placid. I was only momentarily stirred to jump out of my seat and start a revolution against my bourgois oppressors- to me this isn't really good enough. But oh well- I've seen it now and I can safely say the music is still great!

LONDON WEEKEND

2009-01-25T03:35:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went into London meet up with a friend I went to University with. We were originally going to see a play but Amanda's boyfriend wanted to see some sights- principally 'The London Bridge'- so we agreed to meet them on London Bridge. As soon as I heard that Brad wanted to see London Bridge I thought he surely must mean 'Tower Bridge'- because London Bridge is nothing special. But stupidly I didn't say anything just continued on our merry way to London Bridge. Tim and I arrived and phoned Amanda- she said she could see London Bridge in the distance and were walking along the THames towards it- would only be about 10 minutes. SO we stayed on London Bridge (it was extremely windy and cold) looking out for a girl in a green jumper to come towards us. Eventually we got another call from Amanda saying that it was a longer walk than she expected and they were nearly there- I asked her which side of the bridge she was on- and she said the side with the glass building- I looked around and saw at least 2 glass buildings on every side of the bridge. So we just said ok we will meet you in the middle. Another 5 mintues past and we thought they should have been on the brdge by now. So I called Amanda and said, 'hey are you on Tower bridge or London bridge?'- she said I think London Bridge- I said, 'is there a tower on your bridge? and as I expected there was. So we walked donw and met them on Tower Bridge. It seemed a lot funnier than it does in this post. So by this stage everyone was over the idea of sightseeing and in need of some lunch. So we went to the place we go every time we go to London- Camden and had some food and checked out the markets. We found this awesome bar in the middle of the markets called 'The Cuban' which had a really great atmosphere. We had a beer there and then went to Euston to meet Amanda and Brads mate. He took us to this Australian pub called the 'walkabout'- apparently its a chain and its full of bad Aussie gimics like kangaroon burgers and stuff. We drank (what is apparently an Australian favourite?) snakebites- cider, beer and cranberry mixed in- it was an ok flavour but a bit too sweet for me. And really Australians are too tough for the that kind of girly drink. We ended up staying there the rest of the night. It was a good night because of the company but I wouldn't bother going back to the Walkabout pub- I didn't think it had much charm really and truly had no Australian feel to it aside from all the Aussies working behind the bar.

Some UK stuff

2009-01-25T03:25:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went to Rochester which is a very old town close to Gravesend. It is famous for being a point where a lot of invasions occured I think. It was quite quaint- little cobblestone alley ways everywhere etc. There was a massive cathedral which we explored - it was like most big cathedrals here- really beautfiful stained glass windows- some sort of crypt underneath etc.

There was also a massive castle on the hill overlooking the Medway River. We wandered around it but were too stingy to pay 5 pounds to go in. I mean we've both seen castles before- Im sure we didn't miss much.

Best part of the day we went to a pub that had 1 pound lasagne and chips and 2.50 fish and chips! Bloody Brilliant! Obvioulsy like all food in this dreary country it had minimal flavour but you can't complain for that price!

London arrival

2008-12-29T17:13:00.000-08:00

We arrived in London at about 6am London time. We were fairly tired and not in the mood for the dickhead Kiwi customs officer who berrated us at customs. He basically insulted us by saying that Australians were a drain on British society, we contribute nothing, get a British passport and then go home. THen to top it off he banged on about how apparently there were a lot of problems with foreign teachers not being at the same standard as British teachers. What a nobwanker. I'm still not over it. The strangest part was that he himself came over on an Ancestory Visa!

Once I put on my pair of jeans and one lame jacket I had I was mustering some excitement. This quickly dissipated when we got outside at Kensington Tube station and walked to our hotel in the freezing minus 2 degrees temp of 7am London. After 2 months of tropical weather this was a shock to the system. I was so cold I thought my butt was wet! Anyway we spent the day trying to stay awake.

We have now been in England for 3 weeks and are starting to settle in. We moved into the first place we found- boarding at a house owned by a woman in her 30s. She is lovely but hardly ever home so we have free reign which is great.

My first week of school was extremely interesting and I will write more details when my brain is functioning better. Its 1.30 am right now.

We had a lovely Christmas with Tim's Grandparents although we both felt a bit homesick throughout the day missing everyone.

Belated updates. Leaving South East asia

2008-12-29T16:54:00.000-08:00

So on the 5th of December finally we were to say goodbye to Cambodia. So the night before we decided a goodbye night at the Angkor What? Bar was in order. We thought a couple of beers and back to our hostel for a good nights sleep before our early bus trip the next day. It didn't quite work out that way. As we were onto our second and what we thought would be our last beer we were joined by a Welsh guy and an Aussie girl with a bucket of redbull and vodka and a bucket of scotch and coke complete with sharing straws. We thought it would be impolite to decline their offer. So long story short we got fairly wasted, at some point Tim helped the Welsh guy climb up to the cieling to write their names and then we stumbled home at about 2.30 or so in the morning leaving our new friends behind. Gareth the Welsh guy was going to Bangkok on the bus the next morning as well. Upon waking up early the next morning feeling like complete shite we vowed never to drink from a bucket again. We were picked up from our hotel and taken to the bus. The bus was tiny, and there were only 2 seats left- so TIm and I were split up for the journey. Bags were in the aisles and there was no air con so all windows were left open for breeze. It was stinking hot and Cambodian roads are all dirt and incredibly dusty. With a hangover I tried to sleep but kept waking to find my mouth full of dirt and my neck sore from the potholy road. It took us about 6 hours or so to get to the Poipet border crossing. By this stage we were buggered and cursing the Welsh guy's buckets and wondering where he was because he wasn't on the bus. We lined up at the border to cross into Ayathua Prathet on the Thailand side. It was hot and smelly and we were all dirty. Crossing the border was fairly simple and quick except for the bus drivers strange systems. We were all given different coloured stickers and not told why but that we had to wear them on our shirts. Once on the other side we were all congregated together (still no understanding of coloured stickers) and told to wait. After about 30 mins we saw our old mate Gary wander over with a coloured sticker on. He then told us that he had actaully partied until 5.30am and slept for an hour then got up and got on another bus that was travelling behind us. So we hung at the border with him commiserating on our shared hungover miseries. after another hour we were led to a bus and then given more coloured stickers with numbers. By the time Tim and I got to the bag are it was full and so the guys said "Just leave it on the ground"- we weren't so sure what would happen to them but were so hot we didn't care and boarded the bus. this bus was much nicer than the last but had been sitting in the sun and was excruciatingly hot. We sat here another 20 mins before actually leaving and no one could figure out why. Things were becoming quite tense as no one knew what was happening. When we did finally leave there was a communal sigh of relief- but we hadn't gotten further than about ten mins down the road when the bus stopped for a half hour break! They make money off commissions so it was no great surprise. So we all sat around eating icecreams and looking more like we were eating frozen poo from Coogee bay hotel we were all so sour at our long journey. while we were there the driver got a call saying someone had been left back at the border so they had to go back and get him. It never ended. Then it took us about 5 hours to drive to Bangkok. When we did get there we realised it was the King's birthday and it took us about 2 hours to get through the traffic to Khao Shan Road where we were being dropped off. The lights of the city for the King were incredibly beautiful- I've never seen anything like it but we were so tired it was hard to care. We eventually found a hostel and ran into old Gary again. So we went and had a great Indian meal with him but this time decided not to involve any buckets!

It was sometime the next day while we were hanging around Kha San Road that we think we must have lost our camera! Damn it!

Anyway we got on our flight to London at about 1am Bangkok time.

Banteay Srei

2008-12-04T00:49:00.000-08:00

These shots where taken with the video camera.

In these carvings there are always nagas vomiting some creature or another, often out of all five of their mouths.

Lots of the ancient temples have the logo for chang beer on them

Banteay Srei & Kbal Spean

2008-12-04T00:36:00.000-08:00

Kbal Spean plus gecko

2008-12-04T00:14:00.000-08:00

The lingas at Kbal Spean

One of the geckos hanging out in our room

I think this is some sort of locally made bio-diesel, you see kids selling it on the side of the highway.

Nature shots

2008-12-03T03:43:00.000-08:00

Cock River and other less phallic adventures

2008-12-03T03:42:00.001-08:00

So again we started out fairly late. We secured a tuk tuk driver as we wanted to check out this weird temple river bed and another temple that are 50km from Siem Reip but still covered by our three day temple pass. It took about an hour and a half to drive to Kbal Spean or in translation "River of a thousand doodles". Actually the term traditionally used is "linga"which is basically a carved phallic shape symbolising fertility. The trip there was really dusty partly along a dry dirt road. But we observed some interesting country life along the way. Its weird here there are some petrol stations but you can also buy fuel for your motorbike basically anywhere along the road in old pepsi and jack daniels red labels bottles. We watched as this little boy no older than 4 ran out with the bottle and started to fill up the tank. Weird. But I digress again- back to the penis river. We had to walk 1.5 km's through the jungle and up a bit of a mountain to get to the river. The river bed is carved with 1000 of these phallic linga shapes. There are also some carvings of different deities both under the water and on rocks around.It was pretty cool and the jungle walk was beautiful. Tim got to check out some more fungus and interesting insects along the way and used all our camera battery photographing tree trunks.

After this we drove back towards Siem Riep and stopped at a temple called Banteay Srei or the "citadel of Women"". This is a temple dedicated to Shiva and although the temple itself is much smaller than most we have seen the carvings are by far the best. They are incredibly detailed and beautiful.

Now we have one day left in Siem Riep and we intend to chill out. Maybe some beers at a pub followed by fish foot massage! Then off to Bangkok on Friday and hopefully London here we come!

Angkor Wat photos pt3

2008-12-02T06:33:00.000-08:00

Angkor Wat photos pt2

2008-12-02T06:19:00.000-08:00

The naga statues had a very 'little shop of horrors' look to them

One of the best of the 300 or so monkey photos we have taken

Angkor Wat photos pt1

2008-12-02T05:43:00.000-08:00

The Bayon at sunset

The ruins are a sacred site, the 'eighth wonder of the world' and has lots of sign prohibiting flower picking, yelling and wearing sleeveless tops but they also have people wandering around letting their cattle graze, burning rubbish on the side of the road and playing R'nB pop songs at full volume.

Personally I(Tim) found the some trees growing amongst the temples even more fascinating than the ruins. This tree looked so eerily like a Zdzislaw Beksinski painting. I'm pretty sure it was a strangler fig that had been chopped down, had fallen on a pile of stone blocks and then had re-established itself.

We didn't ride any of the elephant/cow/naga statues or take photos of the beheaded budhas with our heads in place, so I think we can get away with this one.

Dead Fish Tower

2008-12-02T05:14:00.000-08:00

A bad photo of the Dead fish tower, it is hard to tell form this photo but the place has about 7 levels, with ladders all over the place.

Warning signs near the crocs

We watched someone fork up the 50c to feed them. They were so please with the spectacle that they payed for another 2 lots of fish. The crocs were clambering over each other to get the fish.

The place had a lot of FAQs on the walls, one of them read:
snakehead fish bite?
yes, the biggest one bited us three times.
I'm pretty sure this is the one they were talking about

The temples of Angkor Wat again plus some other ruminations

2008-12-02T05:07:00.000-08:00

Today Tim and I have been chasing Thai airlines to see if we can indeed leave next saturday night for London. After calling about 4 different Thai numbers, the Cambodian number and the Australian number for the airline we have been told we have to keep trying this one number for Thailand (that we never get through on) and there is no other way of rescheduling our flight. So we have been in and out of next cafes making calls and getting nowhere! Its getting a little frustrating. If we have to spend Christmas in Phuket that's not so bad but I would like to know about it soon seeing as I'm due to start my new job in a week and a half. Because we have been doing this its made us think more about our arrival in London. I think we are expecting to be shocked by the cold after tropical heat but I think we will also suffer a little culture shock. Its weird how easily we have become accustomed to these very different places. For one ridinng bikes through the crazy traffic of all three countries we've visited is no longer traumatic and I have stopped thinking in road rules and now follow the way of South East Asian roads which appears to be keep riding no matter what, don't give way, don't stop, just keep inching through the hordes of motorbikes, trucks, cars and buses and don't even worry if you're on the wrong side of the road- you are allowed to make your own personal lanes here going in any direction. Going back to the structured control of a road system like that in the UK will trouble us greatly. As will the blandness of bangers, mash and baked beans! Oh well its all an adventure!

So today we took the morning easy (which we have been doing rather stupidly as when we do start the 6km ride to the temples its very hot!). Then we headed out to see the Angkhor Thom temples. Again amazing and there is no point describing them- we will just post some pics.

We rode nearly 30km again and have returned to Siem Riep very sweaty and dirty. Feeling less than clean has become second nature as well. In both Vietnam and Cambodia we haven't been able to get our clothes washed in a machine but instead have been hand washed. There's something a bit weird about letting perfect strangers handwash your undergarments and its even weirder that they will do it for US$1 per kilo! But there isn't mkuch choice- today we got some clothes back that smelt like old tea. I suppose its better for the environment than washing powder but it doesn't make you feel that fresh!

Tarantulas and crickets.

2008-12-02T04:51:00.000-08:00

Closest to the camera: fried spiders, on the ground: fried crickets, in the bucket live spiders.

me unable to keep my eyes open in any photo as usual.

You can see one of the street peddlers coming in with another tarantula in this one.

Steph samples a cricket

Angkor Wat

2008-12-01T03:39:00.000-08:00

Last night we were tuk tuked out to one of the temples near Angkor Wat to climb up and watch the sunset. Unfortunately it was fairly cloudy and the sunset was less than spectacular. Even worse was the look on our drivers face when we told him we wouldn't need him to drive us the next day as we wanted to hire bikes instead. Oh well can't please them all.

So today we eventually (after a leisurely breakfast and coffee at a bakery that would impress my Dad) set out on our rather dodgy bikes to the entrance to the temple complex. Its about 6 km to the starting point and then about 3 km to Angkor Wat after that. We went the wrong way around the route and approached Angkor Wat from behind which made it seem less impressive but it was also cool because there were less tourists and a whole heap of monkeys. We got some good footage of a couple of monkeys grooming each other.

Angkor Wat was pretty cool- the carved images along all the walls were pretty amazing. After this we biked around (about another 3 or 4 km) to the next temple called (insert name here when I have map with me and can remember). It was more ruins and in many ways more interesting- full of jungle vines and little kids playing amongst the old stones. A little girl tried to sell Tim and bag and when he said no she quickly moved onto her next mission which was to extract lollies in any form from us. We remembered that we had some weird coconut lollies in our bag we bought somewhere in Vietnam and so we emtied a pile into her hands and then attracted a few more kids like bees to the honey pot (is that the right expression?). With handfulls of sugar to rot their teeth even quicker they thought it was Christmas. By this stage of the day the sun was getting low and we wanted to bike back into town before it got really dark. We have a three day pass to the temples so we are taking it fairly slowly and just biking around as we feel like it.

We have tried called Thai airways but no answer. We heard that some planes were leaving the airport and heading to other airports to mvoe poeple out. We aren't sure what that means exactly and will wait until tomorrow to try calling again. Hopefully we will know if we are stuck here or not very soon. At the very least I probably have to inform my new employers that I might not make the start date!

cricket consumption and spider loving!

2008-11-29T06:42:00.000-08:00

So today we headed to Siem Reap by bus. The most exciting part of the day came when we pulled in a roadside food selling stop- kind of like a truck stop but way more fun. As soon as we were off the bus we were surrounded by cute little girls trying to sell us pineapple. We couldn't help but notice one little girl had a giant tarantula crawling all over her shirt- we thought it was a pet until she dragged us over to a woman with a giant bucket ful of live tarantulas and a big pan full of deep fried tarantula's for your culinary pleasure. Before we could argue one of the women had thrown a live tarantula in Tim's direction- next he had one on his shirt and another in his beard. The women thought it was truly hilarious! Before I could join in the laughter i had one thrust upon my bosom. It wasn't nearly as horrible as one might imagine. Although I was quietly thankful it wasn't a frog. NExt we bought a couple of deep fried crickets and had a taste. As soon as i had popped it in my mouth the children said "no don't eat that bit!"I hope they were having a lend of me. The Khmer people have a fairly Australian sense of humour and Tim and i are really enjoying meeting these people who (not sure if I should make the call so early) are the best we've met so far. great fun genuine and warm people.
While we chomped on fairly average grasshoppers we were surrounded by the little pineapple sellers who were equally fascinated by both Tim's beard and my fair skin. They kept saying "White skin you very beautiful lady"- wow imagine if they met someone who actually had really beautiful skin. They were fairly deligthed when we said they were all very beautiful and chatted to them about how old they are etc.

When we eventually arrived in Siem Reap we were picked up by Martins cousin and taken to his brothers guest house. WE went to this crazy palce for dinner called the "dead fish Tower". It used to be a crocodile farm and now the crocs swim about beneath the dining areas. Dumb waiters lift food to the many open split level dining areas and Traditional dancers entertain.

next we wandered through the night market- the classiest we've ever seen. The fish massage tanks were hilarious- you stick your feet in and let the fish eat your dead skin. We're yet to try!

Phnom Penh - crazy mixture of emotions

2008-11-28T02:32:00.000-08:00

So we set out this morning with the friendly tuk tuk driver Martin who helped us find a hotel last night and insisted he take us around the city today- he had such a big smile we couldn't say no. In fact most of the people here are all smiles- which has surprised me I don't know why.

We went straight to the Tul Sleng Museum to satisfy my appetite for modern history. This was a highschool that was converted into a prison in 1975 under Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge- they drove the people out of the city and into the country side to work while taking all the educated people from both city and country and locking them here where they were tortured in the cruelest of ways and eventually taken to the killing fields and executed (if they didn't die in prison first). I can't reall express in writing what this place felt like- but as soon as we faced the entrance I knew why Martin had chosen to park his tuk tuk and himself around the corner and away. The atmosphere and energy were unlike anything I have ever felt before and I very nearly couldn't get past the ticket booth. I felt nauseated and headachey before we even got inside. But something inside me pressed me on- I think its important to understant this history so we don't let it happen again (even though it is happening in various places around the world- sadly!). The buidlings were as they were and you could tell it had been a school at one point which only added to the eerieness- a place of education and innocence usually. We wandered through the classrooms turned cells which were dirty and not really sanitised for "tourist consumption". But the worst part was the photo exhibition. Every prisoner to come to this place was photographed - even the children and babies. Women were not excluded from the prison either. These photographs lined the walls and the vacant stares of the people was haunting. I can't really write much more because it overwhelmed me in such a way that I think I have already blocked some of it from my mind. I found it extremely hard to breathe and got quite teary. It was not a pleasant experience but I don' t regret going- it has enlightened me so much about Cambodian history and given me a new insight into the contemporary people.
When we returned to Martin he opened up and told us about his experiences as a child under Pol Pot. His emotions were still extremely raw and I still can't beleive he told us so much. His father was killed by the Khmer Rouge soldiors and Martin witnessed it. He had his hands bound, blindfolded adn while music played to cover the sounds of murder he was pushed down a well to drown. Martin also lost other members of his extended family. His father was killed when his mother was 7 months pregnant. His little sister is now 31 and her birth marks the year of their fathers death. MArtin was about7 or 8 and he was also forced to work- all the children had to collect both the animal and human shit to use as fertilizer on the rice fields. They were woken up at 6am and worked til 12- have an hour to eat rice soup (about 10 spoons each which was mostly water) and then back to work until 6. Then more rice soup and meetings of indoctrination- then sleep at 9- wake at 6 again. They weren't allowed to talk at niht- they would be killed. Basically the Khmer Rouge aimed to break up family groups, destroy connections, remove educated people so there was no risk of an uprising.

After this Martin took us to the killing fields which are slightly out of town. Neither of us were sure we really wanted to go after this but we didn't say anything. TheKilling fields were where people were taken to be killed and thrown into mass graves. These graves were dug up in the 1980s and now the skulls of the dead are displayed in this massive monument. Its quite weird but I didn't feel as off at the fields as I did at the prison even though such horrible things happened here. The energy here was more peaceful and calm- I suppose once your dead nothing can hurt you anymore.

After this we had had enough of depressing history and Martin took us for lunch at a local (very local) eating house. There were no other tourists and no english menus so Martin ordered some dishes for us- which turned out to be very tasty. I was surprised considering we were sitting at tables with rubbish all on the ground. Not really bad rubbish just paper but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that i don't get sick. Martin was such a cool genuine guy he just chatted on about Cambodian history, culture and his own life and family. He is dedicated to giving his 3 daughters a good education and is paying for the eldest to attend public school as well as English and Chinese schools. he also helps his community as he was involved in setting up water wells for country villages etc. He hates the political party here which is completely corrupt and is saddened by the fact that many of his peers spend all their money gambling and drinking and complain when he has a house and his daughters are at school. But he only earns about 80 US dollars per week. We gave him 20 bucks for the day (he asked for 15) and we shouted him lunch and a drink etc. through the day adn still felt like we were ripping him off.

After lunch he took us to a small orphanage. Before we went we stopped off to buy some rice to give to the kids- we got about 25 kilos - wish we could have coughed up the 50 bucks for 60 kilos but I suppose something is better than nothing. When we arrived the 6 kids that were at the Orphanage (the other 17 were at school) rushed out immediately and threw their arms around us- I wasn't expecting such a warm welcome. They tugged at our hands and led us around to show us their beds and one little imp had a great time jumping all over Tim. One of the little boys also was an expert on our camera and had a great time taking shots and videos. I felt sad to have to take it off him when we left. They were so full of excitement it was a nice change to the feelings of the prison. It was weird to have these random kids hugging you and not letting go when in australia you could get arrested for that kind of thing!

Next we went to a temple on a hill in the middle of the city. IT was pretty cool- but coolest of all were the many monkeys on the hill! Monkey Town part 2- oh how I love monkeys! We have many more photos now!

This marked the end of our day. Tomorrow we head to Siem Reip by bus- there are heaps of things to see in that area so we thought we would get there asap. It was sad to say goodbye to Martin who was such a cool guy. When we paid him he was so genuinely grateful that we had employed him for the day and said we were helping his daughters be educated- which was nice to know as an educator and just as a Stephie and a Tim. I have felt so weird that we have been touring around these poor countries and now I feel that we have at least made a very small contribution to someone. I would love to come back here and do some volunteer work at that orphanage. The kids could speak a little English and I'm sure would benefit from help with reading and writing and speaking and just generally some attention- whcih is what they seem to crave the most.

Two days of travel

2008-11-27T06:31:00.000-08:00

So yesterday we bussed it from saigon to Chau Doc a Cham town near the border of Cambodia. Basically the bus trip was fairly heinous as it was a mini van not really intended for backpackers but just locals with no luggage and it was a 7 hour trip over raod that barely exists. Probably the bumpiest so far and being wedged in between Tim and two Vietnamese men with limite air con was less than fun. But we arrived in one piece and quickly found our way to the dodgiest hotel we've stayed in so far but I suppose at 8 US dollars per night you can't complain too much. Chau Doc is sort of in the Mekong Delta and so very much about fishing and other watery revenue. We didn't get much of a chance to look around but I don't think we missed out on a lot.

Today we woke up at 5.30 am as we had to be on a boat at 7am to look around the waterways before heading up the Mekong to the cross the border into Cambodia. This proved to be a very entertaining little journey. Tim and I were alone in a long boat steered and rowed by a very fit odler lady. We were guided through the floating villages where children laughed and waved from their floating shacks. Eventually we came to a Cham village. Cham people used to occupy a larger portion of Vietnam but now live mainly in the Delta - they are Muslim but seemingly a slightly different more laid back version of the religion. When we wandered through the village we had about ten kids trying to sell us waffles "Madam, madam 6 waffles, 3 coconut and 3 banana for one dollar, you buy from me, you buy from me please!"

Steph: No thankyou

Tim (silent and skillfully storms ahead)

Children: Maybe later, maybe later, not now for you madam maybe later you buy from me, you have to buy from me.

This chorus continued the length of the street up the the Muslim mosque. Then started again when we reemerged

Children: Madam Madam maybe later 6 waffles! Maybe later maybe later

ME: no thankyou

Children" You make me cry Madam, madam maybe later. You make me cry!

I can't express how funny this actually was and I wish I could have secretly video taped it!

Anyway we then left on a slightly larger (only slightly) boat up the Mekong River taking about 3 hours to get to the border. Aside from the uncomfy board seats we had a good time- there is a lot of life along the Mekong- its too much to describe here and we have some good video.

Crossing the border was kind of weird. We surrendered our passports to this guy who went an got our visas for us along with those of many other people crossing over. But eventually we got across not mcuh stress. Then it was another 2-3 hours on the boat and another 2 hours on bus to get to Pnom Penh where we are now. Very tired.
We had dinner at this great restaraunt called "Friends whihc is a charity restaraunt with all profits going to help orphaned children and street children with education and development of skills etc. Reall great stuff. Anyway too tired for more detail. tomorrow the killing fields, orphanages and torture museums- as Tim would sarcastically put it "uplifting stuff"!

2008-11-25T01:18:00.000-08:00

Steph and Tim in the hills around Dalat- central highlands of Vietnam

No one can imagine the joy of finding a handcrafted connect four in the "Before and Now" Bar in Hoi An after 3 days of consecutive rain!

The river in Hoi An floods every evening

Tim challenging the dragon at temple in Dalat

Tim with our motorbike guides Hun and Nam (right to left) in Dalat

2008-11-25T01:06:00.000-08:00

Nha Trang. On the beach there were little crabs everywhere and a couple of kids were eager to catch one for us.

Temple in Hue

Crazily happy Buddha at Temple in Dalat

Some ruins of My Son

View from temple in Hue

The Cu Chi Tunnels

2008-11-25T00:52:00.000-08:00

This morning we headed about 30km out of Siagon to Cu Chi where parts of the imfamous tunnel network of the Viet Cong are situated. This particular system stretched from Saigon all the way to the Cambodian border- crazy! It was quite strange to meander through the forest/jungle where not so long ago soldiors trampled through and the Viet Cong sprung up from underneath to ambush them. The effect was only amplified the by shooting range on sight where you could pay 2 bucks to shoot a gun- we opted out of that option.

I wasn't really sure what to expect but after seeing a small man descend and ascend from the tiny trapdoors hidden by leaves and other forest rubbish I can totally understand why the Vietnam Vets have issues. I can't imagine how terrifying it must have been to not know where the enemy was coming from at any time. Also we got to see some of the Viet Cong traps that were set- trapdoors that the soldiors would fall through onto carefully arranged spears etc. Not nice.

There was an option to move through a small stretch of tunnel (about 30 metres or so) - and I bravely decided I would attempt this scary feat. I did descend into the tunnel and got about 3 steps in- the tunnely was about one metre high and about 40 cm wide and extremely dark- it also twisted and turned so you could never see the light at the end of the tunnel. So after my very brave 3 steps in I fled in the other direction (as I must admit did some other grown men!). But Tim soldiored on and was able to come back out into the light and tell me the tales.

We also watched a weird little video made by the Vietnamese about the tunnels. They kept telling us about Viet Cong soldiors who killed hundreds of american soldiors and were awarded "American soldior killer hero medals". We're not sure if the orginal euphamism was lost in translation or whether they Vietnamese don't bother with such politically correct medal titles and just tell it like it was.

They fed us some sweet potato type things tat were served cooked but room temperature as that was what the people in Cu Chi lived on during the war- not ahving access to rice. It was surprisingly ok- well we hadn't had breakfast and were close to eating each other by this stage anyway.

At the very end of the tour Tim and I got to taste some more rice wine- but this time with a twist- and no not a twist of lime but a twist of venemous cobra snake. There was a whole cobra snake (dead) inside the bottle of rice wine. I didn't think too much about it but knew I would regret not giving it a go when offered the chance- I will admit though that it wasn't particularly great....

We are now taking it easy in Saigon. tomorrow we are up early to travel to Chau Doc- where we will hop on a boat and float up the Mekong River to get to Pnom Penh in Cambodia.... sad to say goodbye to Vietnam. I have had a love hate relationship with this country- but do crave a little more! Next time Gadget, next time!

Saigon day two

2008-11-24T04:21:00.000-08:00

So we had the first reasonably relaxed day in ages- we slept in and had a long breakfast over ridiculously expensive cappuccinos. You don't see them here much and it was worth it- the Vietnamese drink drip coffee over condensed milk. We have developed a bit of a taste for it but I have been craving something more close to home.

Then we walked to the reunification Palace. This is so named after a long and bloody history. If was called the presidential palace until after the Geneva Convention decided that the french should piss off out of Vietnam in the mid 50's and was then renamed the Independence Palace. Here the "puppet" government of the South hung out during the war or "American aggression" as it is called here. In 1975 the tanks from the North stormed the gates and the prime minister of the South signed an unconditional surrender. Without the Americans for back up they were left with little choice. Then the Palace became the Reunification Palace, signifying the unification of the North and South as the Socialist REpublic of Vietnam. This was fairly interesting and we wandered about for a couple of hours taking in a short documentary. i would love to get hold of the doco and watch it and sort through the word choice propoganda- it showed a lot of American news footage but without the sound, and had a Vietnamese narrative (in English)- there were many times that the narrative would describe the country of vietnam as great and unbeatable when it suited the topic and then change to say that Vietnam was a small and poor nation when discussing the atrocities of american invasion. Interesting to say the least.

After this we walked to the War Remnants museum which is basically a series of photographs depicting the heinous nature of war crimes (mostly those inflicted by the Americans). It was a very moving, frustrating and infuriating experience and has got me "over thinking" life as I am prone to do even on a good day. We saw some hideous photographs of the effects of agent orange on people. They showed a photo of a baby born in 1996 who had no legs and another child born in 1992 whose forehead was swollen and disfigured from parental exposure. Further inflaming my anger was the fact that the American government paid out 200 000 000 dollars to American, Australian and Korean troups affected by the chemical but has yet paid any compensation to the civilians of Vietnam. Seeing the effects on children born in the 1990s made me think of my own family- if we were Vietnamese myself, my brothers and sisters could all be significantly deformed due to something we weren't even alive to be a part of. Disgusting.

I am further confused by things visitors had written in the guest book- many claiming to love the Vietnamese and hate all Americans (mostly European people not connected to the war) and while I consider myself to be somewhat anti-american and extremely cynical I can't help feeling that its this kind of absolutism that leads to war in the first place. It is very difficult to claim that either side was completely right or completely wrong- I don't agree with american involvement in the war (I think I don't anyway- after my discussions with Nam I am left a little confused and think maybe thats a good place to be- to question and reconsider is probably the safest way to discovering the truth)- but I don't agree with a blanket hatred of all Americans (even if they do make for annoying tourists). I also read a very heart moving comment from an Australian Vietnam vet who said that he couldn't stay in the museum for long because it was too emotional for him, he went on to say a heartfelt apology for his involvement in the war, saying that as a 20 year old he believed everything he was told and now knows that he was wrong. I felt such sadness for him- I thought about how at age 20 I had many convictions that I have since had the freedom to reassess due to experience and maturity- some of whihc I may feel embarrassed by but at the very least had limited impact on others. It must be excruciating to live with that kind of regret and feelings of guilt.

being at this museum also made me angry and frustrated in other ways. The war in Vietnam is such recent history and yet we seem to be making the same mistakes still. War in Iraq and Afghanistan - killing civilians using democracy to mask a mroe sinister and greed fueled aim and yet few people stand up and protest. We seem to make movies about and reminisce about how romantic and passionate the moratorium rallies of the 60s and 70s were yet when Tim and I attended rallies in Sydney protesting australian war involvement and affiliation with America there were shamefully few people there. Why are we so apathetic and willing to make the same mistakes again and again? As we have been travelling it has really impacted upon me how similar people are regardless of language and culture barriers and yet we don't identify with these people who are being killed and robbed of the opportunities that we take for granted because they have a different language and religion. I am rambling now, but I can't get my feelings or ideas straight- I feel like I want to know where I stand- but feel very on the fence in many ways. After today I feel confused but extremely extremely lucky to be born in Parkes in NSW in Australia.

Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City

2008-11-24T04:17:00.000-08:00

We travelled 7 hours by bus yesterday to arrive in Saigon. Alas we are coming to the end of our Vietnam adventures and just when I feel we are really getting inside the culture and the country. Disturbingly on the bus journey and just on the outskirts of Saigon I looked up from my book because there were massess of people crowding the opposite side of the highway and traffic was stopped. It was one of those moments where you see something and can't quite reconcile with it so you keep staring until you regret it. A man had been hit by a car on his motorbike and was lying dead under a bamboo covering, his helmeted head out the end and blood everywhere. I have never seen such a sight and it really shocked me actually. Tim was also fairly unnerved and it took me a while to get it out of my system. I have to admit I was waiting to see soemthing like it though- the traffic here is waaaaayyyy crazier than Thailand!

We arrived in the centre of the backpacker area, grabbed a hotel and went for a wander. The Reunification palace was closed for the day so we wandered through the markets.

Dalat Easy Rider Adventures!

2008-11-24T03:34:00.000-08:00

So we were convinced by a man called Nam to go on a motorbike tour with him for the day (he thought we should book in for a week!) around Dalat and the central highlands. We were exceptionally glad that we did as it was such a great day. Nam brought along his touring buddy Hun and Tim rode with Hun and I with Nam. Nam explained that he sued to work for the Easy Rider tour groups, which are people who take you on motorbike tours but that he found that they ripped off tourists and the tour guides equally so branched out on his own, recruiting customers from hotels and the street. This sounds dodgy (maybe it is?) but Hun and Nam were such great guides and really nice guys that we didn't care.

After taking us for breakfast at his mates cafe 'The Peace Cafe", we learnt that Nam (I suppose he would be about 50 or so- Hun was 30) fought on the South side in the Vietnam war. He didn't actually participate in armed combat but flew helicopters to spy on the movements of the Viet Cong. He was adamant that he didn't want Communism then and still does not. I learnt a lot from Nam throughout the day and feel exceptionally lucky to be offered his personal perspective on the war and Vietnam today (although he spoke in hushed tones and cryptic messages for concern that communist Party members should hear him and report his negative ideas). Nam told us that he wanted to be a teacher or a doctor (and as we got to know him over the day his high level of intellect became apparent) but because of the war he said he was about 20 when we joined the army his dream could never come true. In 1975 when the South surrendered to the North all soldiors from the South were taken to the North for one year to live in "re-education camps". Basically these camps indoctrinated them on the merits of communism- Nam didn't go into much more detail so I am not sure how well the pupils were treated during camp time.

So after breakfast we rode to this magnificent Buddhist Temple where Nam explained the various Buddhist ideologies that were reflected in the architecture, the dragon statues etc. Nam was actually Catholic but told us that every night he does more research on various things to tell people on his tours. A very well read man. This temple was extremely colourful and was influenced by the Indian Buddhist principles. The whole front felt like a strange quasi-religious theme park with this massive, rainbow coloured dragon snaking around the whole front area. There were colourful pheonix statues as well. Nam told us that the dragon represents the beginning of the Vietnamese people. A dragon marries a pheonix and has 100 children- then they seperate and the mother takes 50 children into the hills. These children become the current hill tribe people and their last names are taken from their mothers line. The dragon (father) takees the other 50 children into the midlands of Vietnam and these become the current populations of Vietnam and they take their fathers last name.

At the back of this temple was the largest happiest Buddha statue ever. It was white and laughing so hard if he was alive the whole town would rumble. Very beautiful and hilarious at the same time.

Next Nam and Hun drove us out of Dalat and through the mountainous country side, stopping frequently to tell us about the beautiful country side and various farms etc we could see. We stopped at one hillside where they directed us to go for a short hike to the top to check out the view of Dalat in the valley. We wandered up (wuite steep) and indeed the view was spectacular. Tim stopped a lot to take photos of various bugs, fungus and flowers. We were supposed to walk down the other side and meet the guys but got a little confused and wandered down the wrong side- luckily Nam found us!

So off to a coffee farm- where we checked out some plants etc. It was hilarious to see the coffee berries lying in mounds to dry out- complete with pig and chicken sitting amonsgt it. Vietnam is the second highest exporter of coffee next to Brazil. Recently the farmers have been recieving a higher price per kilo for their coffee which has resulted in some new fabulous houses being built around the area that Hun calls the "coffee houses". I have to say watching the farmers and their families slave away proves they deserve more than the 10 000 dong they were getting per kilo before. Always buy free trafe coffee! These people deserve something for their backbreaking work!

Next we rode to this magnificent waterfall called "Elephant Waterfall". Hun took us down a very steep and slippery (it was raining and a little dangerous but very fun) walk to get right down to the bottom of the waterfall, even then walking through a small cavern to go behind the waterfall itself. I was slightly hopeless and ended up getting mud all over me after deliberately sliding down a rock to get to the waterfall. I think the dirtier you get the more fun you end up having in these situations. Needless to say I need new shoes when I get to London as I stepped through mud so sludgy it went nearly to my ankle.

After this Hun and Nam took us to a place to eat lunch where they ordered us traditional Thai Pho- and proudly explained how to eat it. It is basically a noodle soup which is served wqith a range of spices and flavours to add according to your taste- eg: garlic water, chilli, lettuce, lime, mint. It was really delicious. We also hooked into a Saigon beer on Hun's recommendation and it was pretty great too. The whole meal cost 40 000 dong for both tim and I (beer included) which is less than 4 dollars. Unbelievable. I felt like I was robbing them. Here Nam also got us to try a shot of rice wine as we hadn't tried any yet- it tasted similar to vodka but ten times more drinkable. Im sure it gives a nasty hangover though.
But the best part about lunch was that I got Nam talking about Vietnam and I learnt a lot. I asked him about the popularity of Ho Chi Minh in the South- to which he said he could not give a direct answer for fear of who might be listening. Basically the walls have ears in Vietnam and you don't know who is or isn't a loyal Communist Party Member. I think Nam really wanted to communicate his distaste for the regime and we ended up chatting about it for a fair while. He told us that Ho Chi Minh has become a God in Vietnam- which he doesn't agree with because clearly how can any human be a God. He also told us about how the history taught in schools in distorted and every student has to learn the COmmunist Manifesto and study Karl Marx etc. but they don't learn anything about Vietnam before the Revolution. He told us that you cannot ciriticise the government or you will be imprisoned- yet people in the Government can't even operate computers properly. he knows this because his son is in IT and installed computers for the Communist Party in Dalat and yet they ended up not using them and selling them back to him because they couldn't figure them out. these people are not educated and only aquire power thorugh birth and other corrupt means. Vietnam holds elections but the counting of votes isn't made transparent to the people and their is no way to scrutinise the results. Basically the elections are a sham. The same people get into power and won't be removed because to criticise the way they operate would mean imprisonment. These same politicians may hold official positions fpor only 4 years before retiring and living on an infalted pension. The common people of Vietnam do not recieve a pension- when they can't work anymore (and only then) do their chidlren look after them. The homeless and other disadvantaged people recieve no financila assistance from the government. Although Hun said that poor students have free university- but I don't know how poor you need to be and I am supposing that the homeless don't count! It seems very much to be in opposition to the ideologies of Ho Chi Minh we have been reading about on our travels. I do beleive Ho Chi Minh had a great vision for his country but it has been severely distorted and corrupted by greedy and stupid power mongers. Nam also told us that the internet here is censored so it is difficult for people to get real news stories. The only people who can easily travel outside Vietnam are the government officials. He tried to go to America for his nieces wedding (who was going to pay for eveyrthing as the Dong is worthless) bvut America wouldn't let Nam in for fear he would stay. It is the same for many Vietnamese trying to holiday or visit family in america as well as Australia. Very sad. I can't see how the system will change if the people can't get access to the real world to make life comparisions. They are trapped.

After lunch we went to a silk worm factory and a rice wine farm.

Finally we made our way back into Dalat where we went to this place called 'Crazy House"- and it lived up to its nickname and then some. Designed and built by the dauighter of the Secretary of the COmmunist Party and official for Propoganda ( I love it how they openly admit to having an official for propoganda- in a democracy we would call it Public relations!)- the house is built to be like a giant tree. It is massive and each bedroom has a different animal inside it - basically its a kids cubby house dream and Tim and I ahd an excellent time wandering around, climbing up the drum like stairs and crossing the rickety bridges. I can't explain what it was like in words- so if your interested google "crazy house Dalat"- Im sure there will be pictures.

This marked the end of the day and it was sad to say goodbye to Hun and Nam who were so wodnerful. If we had met them at the beginning of our trip we would have definitely signed up for a week long adventure with them- if you go to Vietnam we will give your their email- amazing!

Hoi an and rain

2008-11-19T01:50:00.000-08:00

So today is the 20th? I don't know just guessing. But we are leaving tonight on the overnight bus (groan!) to Nha Thrang where apparently it will be raining also- so much for lounging on the beach cocktail in hand. We might go to Dalat in the highlands instead. But today we spent the afternoon sitting in the pub drinking irish coffee playing foozball and pool. Nice to unwind after constant sightseeing. Even though its all incredible- it gets a bit relentless and you don' appreciate it if you don't take a break. So in a way weather is welcome- but not now we want Beach!

Hoi An again!

2008-11-18T03:03:00.001-08:00

We wanted to get the overnight us today to Nha Trang but missed out on seats- so we thought we would spend a lazy day on the beach- unfortunately we woke to find that it was pissing down with rain again! So we slowly made our way t a cafe for lunch/breakast and playe some pool. Not much else to tell really.

Hoi An and My Son

2008-11-18T02:54:00.000-08:00

This morning we travelled by bus to My Son which is aout 35km out of Hoi An and translates to mean Beautiful Mountain. Built between the 4th and 14th Centuries these temples combine Cham culture and Hindu religious symbols. It is an extremely interesting place and is listed as a world heritage site as well. Unfortunately the atmosphere as spoiled by the masses of tourists- but Tim and I seperated from the group and managed to get soem good shots minus all the tourists. Many of the sites have been destroyed from age and the war- but what was left was beautiful. We spent a couple of hours here wandering through the jungle and looking at these temples. Tim and I wandered off the official path and made our way through a muddy hidden path to find a small ruin others didn't see. Nice to be naughty!

We then came home and spent the afternoon relaxing over lunch, dinner and then some drinks at the Before and Now bar- this place mixed revolutionary images with pop culture- Che Guevara in a Coke adertisement for example. There was an art work that had portraits of Che, Kafka, Ho Chi, Stalin, Lennin, Marx, Maralyn Monroe, Jennifer, Garner, Mao, Nelson Mandela. This guy told us that art exhibits in Vietnam have to be authorised by the government and that images of Stalin and Lennin couldn't be placed beneath other images of poeple. It was a good place with the end of happy hour marked by a great bronze gong!

Hoi An - officially in the South!

2008-11-18T02:39:00.000-08:00

So we jumped on a bus early this morning headed to hoi An. Its like 200km but again was a 4 hour journey due to dodgy roads and a infestation of crazy motorbike drivers.

Hoi An is a lovely spot- the centre of the town is like a French village with narrow streets and French style buildings along the river. Beautiful Vietnamese lanterns line the streets. We hired some bikes and decided we would ride the 5km out of town to the Beach (it is called Cau Dai- but runs in the famous China Beach down to Danang- American soldiors used this beach on their r and r). We had a very limited map and thought we were headed in the right direction- after about 10 kms we kind of thought we would have seen some trails of sand or something! But it wasnt all a loss- we cycled through some great country side and stumbled into a little handicraft village that specialises in pottery. Here we stopped because Jenny rang and while tim was chatting on the phone I chatted to three mischevious boys of about 4! Well I hope we chatted- they talked in Viet and I spoke in English and they seemed to think it was hilarious- they kept singing this song to me and laughing and running around excitedly- they could have been singing "ugly white tourist" for all I know - but I thought they were pretty funny and cute. No video games to ocupy these guys- sticks, dirt and song! good times!

So when we eventually realised we were headed to Danang and not ot the beach we turned around. Eventually we made it t the beach and sat down to chill out- it was about4pm- cold by this time and no good for swimming. We were seated for about 2 mins when a woman came and joined us trying to sell us some cheap wallets and other crappy items- I swear these people need to get an idiots guide to marketing- if they were selling drinks and icecreams we would have bought up big- no point buying purses you can get in Clints Crazy Bargains back home. She tried every trick in the book- flattery, guilt, blackmail and bribery- but we didn't give in! We were forced to move and went for a walk along the beach, padding our feet along the way.

We went to this hilarious restaraunt on the river for dinner. It is run by this guy called Mr Kim. There is no set menu- you just choose vegetarian, meat or seafood and he serves you a 5 course meal of whatever he fancies cooking that night. He has had food exhibitions in Europe and is very proud of the little book that tourists write in praising his food! As soon as you go inside he asks where you're from and presents you with the countless testimonies from your national commrades. The food was great and we are now getting into the Vietnamese food with gusto. Its a nice change from Thai as the flavours are a little more subtle.

When we left the restauraunt we foudn that the King tide had swelled the river up to lap at the steps of the restaraunt. No one seemed t care- waking through it up to their ankles.

Hue- the town beore being officially in the South!

2008-11-18T02:20:00.000-08:00

So we spent the next day in Hue aboard a boat going down the Hoan something river (I forget- but it translates to the Perfume River - as seemingly do a lot of places!). Again we were with a bunch of super sour European tourists- they all look like they'd been intellectually raped by very boring Mr Sheen lool alike university lecturers. You couldn't get a smile out of these people if you threatened them with a shot gun. So I am going to assume they are all Polish- I've heard the polish are very displeased with life. The weather decided to keep the morose Polish tourists company by raiing drearily the whole day. But it was ok- I got to buy a huge purple rain coat and make Tim wear it! So that made everything fun again!

We cruised the river first stopping at this temple that was also a monastry. It was first built in the 12th Century and was incredibly beautiful. The grey rain seemed to heighten the atmosphere. The temple with three buddha statues inside was surrounded by very structured gardens with many bonzais etc. You can really see the difference between the Thai temples and the Vietnamese temples in the architecture- the Vietnamese are more influenced y China and use a lot of red and gold- the Thai are more white and gold and have different rooves. Tim and I never end up sticking with the tour group at these places a.) because the tourists are such mouldy companions and b.) bcause the tour guid is so hard to understand it doen't really enlighten us any.
In the temple complex was a school- we assume it was a it of Sunday school type thing as it was full of boys with really awesome monk haircuts (and it was Sunday). But I found it a bit weird to see all the tourists sticking their cameras inside the windows and photographng the boys- maybe its the educator inside me but I can't imagin they could concentrate very well- also they didn't ask their permission which I think is a human rights violation however small and insignificant.

After this we sailed to the Tu Doc Tomb- which is a big complex pretocted by world heritage that has the tombs of some Emporer from 1840 and his wife and adopted son. Again I have no idea why he was adopted- we didn't stick with the guide. But it was a sprawling complex with beautiful gardens and amazing old ruins. Much had been bombed by the Americans and some was under reconstruction. We were lucky to see much of it as it would have been though.

We then continued to the Ming Manh tomb- which Lonely Planet claimed was the most magnifient- well Lonely Planet I would like to refute that! Tu Doc was far more exciting.

After this we sailed back into Hue and Tim and I made our way to the DMZ (demilitarised zone)bar- which is basically a backpacker hot spot- but has a lot of personality with graffiti over the walls and cieling, great music and great cocktails and beers. We spent the evening drining the local brew (Hue beer and Huda Beer) which is by far the best beer we've had- super tasty and super potent apparently as after 3 I was pissed as a parrot. It was a really great evenign though- drinking and chatting and planning. But it made me a little homesick for the good times at the Union on King street.

Tim is super popular in Vietnam!

2008-11-14T02:34:00.000-08:00

I will just start this blog (which will be very long covering about 5 days worth of exciting adventures) by saying that Tim is the new poster boy in Vietnam! Women love him and men want to be him. Everywhere we go we get stopped so that people can have photos with Tim- seriously at Ho chi Minh's house on stilts there was a longer line of people wanting to have photos with Tim than to see the house! Its the beard. Its quite Ho Chi Minh reminiscent and they can't get enough of it- the men give him thumbs up and rub their beardless faces in self pity and the women blush and giggle when they stand near him. Its hilarious! If we had charged per photo we could have financed at least another month of travel!

Ok so we got roped into this tour to Halong Bay. Having arrived in Hanoi and been completely shocked by the chaos we couldn't get our bearings to figure out how to get there on our own and because it was a good price we thought it would be nice and relaxed and easy. Wrong. We have learnt a seriously big lesson- NEVER even think about, consider briefly, contemplate, day dream about or actually take an organised tour! EVER! The tour itself was fairly bland but was not the worst aspect at all. Tim and I have enjoyed the independent nature of our trip, making our way to places as we want to and just exploring them at our own pace in our own way, wandering, biking etc. Obviously on this tour everything is structured- they pick you up, tell you when to eat, when to relieve yourself, when to sleep. Our tour guide (one of about 6 as we were constantly shuffled between different groups for some reason) on the boat was very nice. He spoke enough English to communicate and had a good sense of humour. But seemed insistent upon organising people to eat with their own kind- Aussies with Aussies etc. But Tim and I got rejected by this Australian group of two middle aged couples claiming "We don't want to sit with other australians" like we were the scum of the earth or something. But thank god because as it turned out- they were the scum of the earth. Maybe I exaggerate slightly for dramatic affect- but they were pretty bad. We had to travel 4 hours by mini bus to Halong City which is where we boarded an old junk to cruise to and around Halong Bay and also to sleep on that night. It was pretty fun getting to just soak up the sun and let the giant limestone rocks and floating fishing villages pass us by. But during this 3-4 hours the Australian females got loaded up on a cheap bottle of scotch and then the embarrassment began. I had quite nastily labeled them as bogans even before this and was quite impressed with my own instincts when their actions continued to prove correct to my estimations. During the meal times one of the women very loudly and rudely made comments about how disgusting the food was and about how she didn't like rice and then continued to make rude comments about how the Vietnamese people couldn't speak English. I wasn't game enough to ask her how fluently she spoke Vietnamese. Anyway it proved to be quite entertaining to watch her husband trying to keep her in line and also the next morning to see her thrown out of her cabin with a hangover! Justice comes to all that wait.

We went into a massive cave called "The surprising cave" and we were surprised to see that there was no running water in it... very odd! Also it was decked out in garish disco light decor. Not that great. Bit touristy.

Anyway onto more exciting and less nasty blogging. We were fortunate enough to meet a lovely Father daughter traveling duo from Singapore. We also met a family from Singapore earlier that were incredibly friendly. Good people so far! The daughter had spent time in Melbourne at university and they had both traveled around Australia a bit and were keen for a chat and sharing information about life in Singapore which was great. But we were only traveling with them for one night (as I mentioned before we were shuffled around a lot- which probably made the tour less fun- couldn't bond with anyone for long and make new friends).

Anyway our little cabin was rather romantic- slightly dodgy but that made it all the more exciting. For example the sink wasn't attached to the wall and the water ran straight down the sink and onto the floor. but I digress again....

After a night on the boat we woke up to the singing of the cabin crew preparing breakfast in the kitchen next door. Then we went kayaking. This was the part we were both looking forward to and have been told would be lengthy and involve exploring caverns in the bay etc. So we were disappointed when our guide told us we had 25 minutes and should just lap the boat 5 times. Lap the boat? Bullshit! We decided to take our time exploring and ended up rowing around the rocks and little fishing villages for more like 40 minutes (still too short) before being called back in. we were able to see goats waking up the steep rock faces which was pretty cool- from a distance we thought they were monkeys! Idiots!

After this we continued on the junk to Cat Ba island. We were again sent to another group to do a 2,.5 hour trek up the tallest peak on the island. It would have been great if there weren't 40 other people walking in a line. It was very steep and involved clambering over a lot fo big rocks- I felt extremely adventurous! Tim less so as he is more of a trekker than I. The top of the mountain had a big metal ladder thingy on it you couldn't continue up- Tim made it to the top but I stopped 2 thirds of the way up- little bit of vertigo! Views were pretty cool. On the way back down we got chatting to another Australian couple who relieved us of the cultural shame we were suffering from the boat bogans. Really nice people- shame we again got split up before going to the hotel. The girl was an english teacher and Tim thinks teachers just seek each other out- maybe true.

anyway that afternoon we were given free time (or so we think!). Tim and I were dropped at one hotel on our own with limited explanation. Also the people at the hotel spoke no english and we weren';t sure whether we were supposed to get picked up again or not. We decided to just go for a wander ourselves and made our way to the beach for a swim and relax. It was kind of cold but fun. No waves but very deep.

The next day we were picked up again and cruised the Bay again. We eventually got back to Halong city and were dropped off and shoved into yet another group for lunch. We sat with a couple of French Canadians and a Vietnamese tourist. We had only been there about 20 minutes- not even finished our lunch when we were ushered onto another bus to go. another reason tours are no fun. we had been having a good time eating and chatting only to be moved on because some other tourists were in a bad mood and wanted to go. We got into the bus where an extremely rude and abusive American woman and an even ruder French couple were abusing the Vietnamese tour guys - they were so over the top I got instantly angry and made some rude comments about them myself - then I went over the top and TIm had to calm me down. But the French guy got right into the Vietnamese guys face and spoke so patronisingly to him about wanting to leave that I just felt sympathy for him and couldn't help but be bitchy to the asshole. We had to spend 4 hours with these dickwads who kept whinging about it being slow because they ahd planes to catch that night. The tour said we weren't due back in Hanoi until 5 so I don't know why they felt the right to complain. Anyway we made it back by 5 and Tim and I went to our hotel again.

The next day (i think 12th?) we were due to go on the overnight bus to Hue- so we had the whole day in Hanoi again. Which turned out to be great. We caught a cyclo to Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum. unfortunately his body in in Russia at the moment where it goes every year for maintenance. I suppose they get all the dead Socialist Revolutionary's together for a bit of a repair and funfare! It was a shame because as far as dead revolutionary's go Ho Chi Minh is at the top of my list. I have a growing crush. He has a very cheeky smile and after going to the museum and learning more about him he was a very amazing leader.

We went to his stilt house where he lived while he was president. It was minimalist and represented the fact that he didn't want to be above the people. Comparing this residence to the nearby Presidential Palace of the turn of the 19th century really exemplified this fact. we also saw the house where he lived during the resistance to the French in the 1950s. it was only slightly more luxurious. Nearby was the bunker he and others hid in during bombing raids by the Americans.

Next to all of this was a man made lake thing full of massive koi. Here we saw one of the weirdest things. A woman threw food into the lake and suddenly out of nowhere hundreds of koi were literally jumping out of the water to get the food- they were so frantic they were moving on top of each other above the surface of the water. So weird I can't properly explain it- but we have good video!

Anyway we moved onto the Ho Chi Minh museum- which was incredible. Amongst detailing the Socialist movement in Vietnam and aspacts of the american aggression, memorabilia, letters etc of Ho Chi Minh were these aamazing symbolic art works. They were put together to show a variety of things, including the rise of Facism around the world and how it impacted on the Socialist movement etc.

Most inspiring to me were the words of Ho Chi Minh- which were all about creating a socially responsible country where all people are educated, respected and about progressing the nation towards increased wealth and participation in the world. I can't explain his work really- but he was very focused on education and would bring the top students to the Presidential palace every year to encourage them and the nation to learn and work. He also visited remote farming villages and particiapted in every aspect of the nation. i think he really was a man of the people and you can tell by all the photos that he was genuine unlike many other world leaders and revolutionary's.

By this stage of the day we had to make our way back to our hotel and go to the bus.

Wow the overnight bus was an experience. Each person is given a bed to lie on- it is half raised and half flat- and about 5 feet long. Really weird! The journey was supposed to take 12 hours- al night. Huy is only about 500 km's from Hanoi but the roads and traffic are so bad that it takes this long. we were driving over half build roads and in the middle of the night the tire blew. My bed was directly over the tire area and I awoke thinking we were having an accident. SO ultimately our trip took more like 15 hours! We arrived in Hue at about 9am.

We booked into a hotel and set about hiring some bikes and taking a look around the city. The city has a population of about 260 000- so a bit smaller and more accessible for exploration. We rode up to the Forbidden Purple City- which is an ancient walled section of Hue that the Emporer used to live in. Much of this was destroyed by bombs in the war but what does remain is quite magnificent. We wandered (tiredly) around this for a few hours- there was a lot of explore. Then we rode around the city some more - in the area known as the Citadel- basically the city centre. We managed to ride off the beaten track into a residential area- which was really interesting- as we were able to see some of the houses (even perving inside as a lot were open) and see how they live.

Tomorrow we hope to cruise the Perfume River and see the tombs of the Emperors.

2008-11-09T05:24:00.000-08:00

Steph at Ngoc Son temple

We are Hanoi capital of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam!

2008-11-09T03:33:00.000-08:00

So we arrived on our delayed flight from Bangkok to Hanoi last nhight. I feel weird getting into a new place in the dark- it feels covert and suspicious. Plus its hard to get a feel for where in the hell you are sleeping! Our motel is in the Old Quarter which is a rabbit warren of little alleyways divided up by old french style apartments and shops. I have decided that Hanoi is the weirdest place we have been to so far. The streets are about 2 metres wide and you can't walk on the pavement because they are cluttered with parked motorbikes and people sitting outside their shops. So you have to walk in the gutter or along the middle of the road which is buzzing with motorbikes, bicylcles and the occasional car not to mention people. There seems to be absolutely no order- there are some pedestrian crossings on the larger roads- but cars and motorbikes only slow down if you are crossing in front of them- so you have to just cross and hope for the best because the stream of traffic is constant and if you wait you will be there until the day you die. Sometimes we are pros and other times not so pro. I have found my hat obscures my vision and is a road crossing hazard! We woke up this morning to the incessent sound of horns honking! They never stop- a horn is supposed to warn you that there is a car or motorbike approaching you- but considering in Hanoi you are basically drowning in a sea of traffic it seems a little redundant.

I am not sure what I expected from Hanoi- but already we feel that Vietnam is completely different to thailand- which is nice. New culture, new landscape, new food, new language to devour.

Anyway we walked from one side of the Old Quarter to the other today. We stopped at the Ngoc Son temple whihc is on a little man made island in the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake. Apparently in the 1800's the emporer of the time was given a magic sword by this giant toroise that lived in the lake which gave him the power to rule. Anyway they say these tortoises still live in the lake- but we didn't see any!

We wandered around the lake- which is quite scenic amidst all the chaos- some awesome sculptures surround ( we suspect made of marble).

We walked across the Old Quarter to the Hoa Lo Prision Museum or "Hanoi Hilton" as nicknmaed by US prisoners of war held there in the 70s. It was pretty interesting and brought back many memories of studying the Indochina conflict for the HSC. The museum focused primarily on the conditions that revolutionary Vietnames prisoners lived in in the museum under french colonial rule. They showed photographs of the american prisoners who were kept there during the war- but they all looked tlike they were having a great time- eating Christmas Turkey and getting medical examinations... maybe a little bit of propoganda? can't be sure. But I can't blame the poor old Vietnamese... John McCain was one of the prisoners- hope they gave him a hard time! Not much else to be said that you can't find in a history book- except that seeing an original French guilotine was fairly chilling....

We topped the afternoon off with an icecream at "Fanny's" - I can't resist blogging about an icecream parlour with such a great/unfortunate name! I am lame and childish it can't be disputed. But the icecreams were pretty good- at 50 000 dong they would want to be. No thats actually onyl about 5 bucks. I can't quite get over the currency. 10 000 dong is about 1 dollar Australian.

Tomorrow we are going to Halong Bay- we turned lame and decided to take a tour- its super cheap and covers everything we want to do so we thought we would remove some of the hassle of independent travel. So we are up early to bus it to Halong city then we cruise the Bay- sleeping on the boat- then next day to Cat ba island, kayaking, swimming, rare monkey sighting etc.

So will keep all informed!

mundane stuff

2008-11-07T21:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick overview of what we have been up to since last post. We left Kanchanaburi by bus the next day- we had to be back in Bangkok by 5 to pick up our passports. So the trip by bus only took about 2 hours- but getting from the bus station to Siam square was another arduous journey. We had it all worked out how we would get a city bus from the Northern terminal and it would be super easy- but what we didn't realise until it was too late was that this bus was taking us to the Southern bus terminal in Bangkok. Again we though oh well we will just catch a bus from there- thinking we are so awesome at public transport we will be able to do it. All in all it took us a KFC lunch and nearly 3 more hours to make it back to Siam Centre to get our passports. But we did it! We kept saying we wanted to go to "Mo Chit" which was the start of the sky train- and they kept sending us to Mo Chit Mai- which we were worried was a completely different place. So it took us a hiwl to have faith that we were actually going to Mo chit- we ended up back at the Northern bus station which was called Mo Chit Mai and then we were able to make our way to the skytrain. Pretty boring to blog about- but a proud moment in the Tim Steph communicating with Thai speaking taxi drivers and bus personell adventures.

So we then had a day and a half to kill before heading to Hanoi. We are a bit over Bangkok and its expensiveness and hurriedness- so we decided to head to an "art house" cinema- which means a cinema that has English speaking American blockbusters. We watched this movie called "The Fall"- which if you want to see a movie I highly recommend- can't be bothered explaining plot but will jsut say one of the best movies I've seen in a while. Most interstingly was that before the film they play the National Anthem and put up images of the King. Youa re required to stand during this. I ensured I was the last to sit lest I be shot like that guy who was the first to stop clapping one of Stalin's speeches in Communist Russia. you can't be too careful! Anyway no one was shot and I got to thinking maybe loving the King isn't quite as oppressive as loving Stalin was! ( I hope that tone can be communicated through blog speak!).

Anyway we spent the rest of the evening eating pizza and reading books. I have read so many fabulous books while on trains and buses- I have totally rediscovered my love of reading. I am again in need of a second hand book shop- there was this excellent one in Chiang Mai that we both could have spent our fortunes in. It had a better selection of novels than any angus and Robertson in Sydney. Titles I had always wanted to read but could never remember when it came time to go buy a book or go to a library. But I am digressing from anything very important.
This brings me to now- our flight is at 6.30 tonight. So we are killing time at the internet place. its too hot to lug our packs around endlessly.

So while I have time to kill I thought I would record a few things I have been thinking while travelling. Its very interesting to watch children in a foreign country (I say that at the risk of sounding dodgy). But it really illuminates how similar people are the world over. Children behave exactly the same no matter where they live, what language they speak- they all play the same funny little chasey games, and tug on their parents shirts and get overly excited by things. Its quite amazing. Well it is to me- it just makes things feel less different and scary. I can;t really express ecactly what I mean- but am really just writing it so I don't forget what I was thinking about.

Kanchanoburi, temple caving and more scary bridge crossing!

2008-11-05T05:41:00.000-08:00

Due to our usual lack of planning we were forced to dump our idea of heading to Kai something National park and instead grabbed a bus to Kanchanoburi. We have to be back in Bangkok on thursday to pick up our Visas- so we can only have one night away. Kanchanoburi is situated on the famous River Kwai- where many Australian soldiors were prisoners of war in World War II and were foreced to build the Thai-Burma railway (or death rail). So after a three hour bus ride we arrived, grabbed a couple of bikes and rode a couple of kms to the Bride over River Kwai. It was not that exciting really - but now we have been. It is single lane and still used by trains but the trains have to go very slowly to avoid all the crazy tourists wandering along it.

After this quick trip we headed in the opposite direction towards temple caves. The caves were about 5km from town and the ride there was quite scenic- lovely forest lined roads and corn fields etc. On seeing a sign saying "Monkey School" we couldn't help ourselves but turn down a narrow track. It was very disappointing (yet not unexpected) to see monkeys caged and tied up only to be released for shows they put on whenever a tourist would pay money. Extremely sad. worst of all was a nocturnal monkey in a small cage his eyes wide open and looking tired and scared- unable to sleep in this well lit environment. After asking the workers if the monkeys always lived in the cages, and getting a vague response we decided to leave. They told us we could take a short cut over the railway track behind monkey school to get to the cave. So we wandered through this great canyon of rock divided by the train line (here we had to cross another incredibly scary bridge- I'd say the worst so far!) and up to the top of a hill complete with massive fat, jolly gold Bhuddha and magnificent views of the river Kwai and surrounding landscape. We then followed another path around to the temple caves. These caves are home to both Buddhist and Hindu religious statues and symbols. I felt extremely brave walking into and through the caves as I can be very claustrophobic and had to be coaxed by Tim most of the way. The initial part of the cave was massive with a huge reclinng buddha statue and other religious paraphenalia but the you continue around through narrow twists and turns, head bowed to get through to another deeper level. It was well worth it even though my heart never stopped pounding and I kept panicking that i couldn't breathe. Another scary aspect of the caves was that in 1995 a drug addicted monk who lived there murdered a British backpacker inside the cave. Luckily I forgot about that until safely out in the open again. it was extremely atmospheric and beautiful- however we didn't get a lot of photos- it was a bit dark and I was freaking out too much to care.

It was hilarious though- just as we were coming out of the cave temple we got a call from jenny telling us about the US election. its crazy to think that even though we are in the middle of Thailand and in a cave modern communication is such that it can reach us.

By this stage we were very sweaty and tired. So we rode back to our guesthouse which is along the river and went for a swim in their pool.

2008-11-05T05:34:00.000-08:00

this is scary bridge number 4 for those keeping count.

Back in Bangkok

2008-11-05T05:26:00.000-08:00

So we had to come back to this crazy city to apply for a Visa to Vietnam. Fingers crossed the Embassy knows what they're doing and doesn't lose our passports! Anyway this time we are staying in Siam Square which is the business/shopping centre of Bangkok. Its the most Western place we have been in Thailand so far and its a little weird actually. I am afraid to admit it but we were forced to eat at Macdonalds- starvation and lack of imagination are to blame- they call it McThai and have some weird shit on the menu. The shrimp burger that Tim ate was particularly questionable- but worse than that was the sweet corn ice cream sundae! We went to this mall that was 9 stories tall and the biggest shopping complex I have ever experienced. Very overwhelming- people everywhere. A new side to Bangkok to experience.

Other than marvelling at the imperialism of the Western world we mastered the public transport system- no more pushy tuk tuk drivers and lying lost taxi drivers for us! Well when i say mastered we caught the sky train and the ferry! The sky train is basically a monorail and after the rickety trains we have been catching it felt very futuristic- reminded me of the film "Bladeunner" as there are tv's everywhere just playing various advertisements. Fairly entertaining actually. So the point of catching the sky train was to head to the Museum of Forensic science. This is part of Bangkok hospital. When we arrived it absolutely bucketed down with rain and we had to sit in the waiting room of the hospital and listen to an old lady singing along to a grand piano- weird to have live entertainment in a hospital.

Anyway the forensic science museum was fairly stomach churning and even tough old Tim was a little overwhelmed by the gruesome pictures of mutilated bodies, mummified corpses of rape murderers put to death and the blood stained T-shirt of a murder victim who was stabbed to death with a dildo. my only regret was they didn't actually show the offending weapon - I dred to think why a woman would be interested in using a sex toy that can also stab! If anyone can fill me in I am interested in finding out. Damn it Tim jsut told me it was there- and I missed it. Apparently it looked like an ordinary dildo.

Anyway I tried to be brave and look at the 2 headed babies in jars etc. But Tim kept "worrying that I didn't like it" and ushered me out. Personally I think he got a bit sooky and I was a good manly excuse for leaving.

So we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering about Siam Square and eating icecream.

Elephant Nature Park part2

2008-11-03T04:36:00.000-08:00

The mothers and aunties are always getting spooked by something and crowding round the baby elephants, which only seems to freak them out more, shortly after this the little one tripped over, funny stuff.

Max, the tallest elephant on record in thailand, and at 62, the park's stately gentleman.

Check out the grass mohawk!

Max, jokia and mae poong

Elephant Nature Park part1

2008-11-03T04:24:00.000-08:00

The view from our lodge.

A crowd pleasing baby elephant shot

One of the elephants waiting to be washed

At the park they wash the elephants twice a day, which seems excessive but keeps the visitor busy.

I wanted to get a close up of the curl of the trunk but I wasn't quick enough

Pai hot springs! (plus bunnie)

2008-11-03T04:01:00.000-08:00

Elephant loving... the ethical kind!

2008-11-03T03:55:00.000-08:00

So after finally getting our stomachs in gear we headed off for this elephant sanctuary about an hour and half to the north of Chiang Mai. it is run by this woman nicknamed Lek- which means small in Thai. And she is incredibly tiny. We were very lucky to meet her briefly as she is an incredible woman. She grew up in a hill tribe where her father was a shaman and spent a lot of her time with elephants. She created the park as a safe haven for retired working elephants. We learnt a lot about how elephants in Thailand have been mistreated. Its so bizairre considering that elephants are such a strong symbol of Thai culture. They are very revered creatures that helped to build the nation and yet are abused in appauling ways. I feel so ashamed that I wasn't aware of the torture that all working elephants go through. When they are babies they are placed inside a tiny wooden box where they are beaten and jabbed into submission for days on end. Sometimes weeks. The mahouts use little picks to keep them in line. Many of the elephants in the camp were personally rescued by Lek who found them in terrible conditions. There was an elephant that had its pelvis broken in a logging accident, then was kept to have babies. They tied her up while a male elephant was on heat (during this time the male elephant's testosterone rises to high levels and they are quite crazy). But elephants are very picky when it comes to choosing a lover and in the wild won't just let any big elephant shlong near their pink bits. So this elephant continually refused the male elephant until he got so frustrated that he attacked her and broke her back legs. Lek rescued this elephant and brought her to the park where she now lives. It was beautiful to see that this elephant was eventually befriended by another elephant who is mostly blind and they protext each other from the more rambuctious elephants in the park. The elephants are based in family and friendship groups and breaking these up so that elephants can become workers, all alone and moving wherever their owners decree is another sad part of a working elephants life. In the wild the male elephants are usually kicked out of the family group when they are old enough to mate and they live solitary lives or move around with other males. But the females all stick together and look after the babies. Elephant babies are fussed over not only by their mother but a group of aunties as well. In the park we were so fortunate to observe a 5 month old and a 1 year old with their mothers and aunties. I can't really explain what it was like but we have some good videos.

Lek is hoping that through her park she can transform the life of elephants throughout Thailand.
Because logging was banned in 1989 many elephants lsot their jobs- which meant they were too expensive for their owners to feed. So many elephants walk the streets of big cities with a mahout begging. There mahouts make a lot of money out of getting tourists to pay to feed the elephant. But it is a horrible life for an elephant and many are involved in car accidents etc. Other elephtants have been forced into the tourist trade where they have to perform and take tourists for rides. (We ensured that we rode an elephant bareback which is much more comfortable and chose an elephant camp where the elephants were loved- as far as we could tell). Elephant tourism is not a bad thing in Lek's opinion- but she wants to change it. She wants elephants to live as they would in the wild, without being tamed through torture, but only through words and love. She has two elephants at the camp that were orphaned and came straight to the camp, so they have never been tortured or "tamed"- but they are beautiful and happy creatures- much more fun to watch playing as elephants would. Lek is not interested in making a profit- however ensures that the park does (with all profit going straight into further elephant care and a program called Jumbo express where she provides free medical treatment for elephants, people and other creatures in remote areas). She needs to prove that this kind of elephant tourism (where elephants live natural lives)_ will make money so that other elephant camps will follow suit.

At the park we were able to feed the elephants, watch them move freely throughout the 130 acres of the park (they have more space in a place called elephant heaven in the mountains as well). We were able to bath the elephants and walk amongst them. It was much more exhilirating to be with elephants who were free (and slightly dangerous: if we ever heard the word"run"we had to jsut run-a s these elephants are allowed to do as they please and can runa t 25 km per hour and can be very playful with each other and with humans) than to watch elephants forced to pain pictures and stand on their heads. Even though i do admit I enjoyued the elephant show I saw in Ayatthyua- I now know its nothing compared to what we have just experienced.

We stayed the night at the park and were treated to a fabulous dinner where we sat on the floor and ate with our hands, balling up sticky rice and dipping it in the various different dishes. Tim enjoyed it the most (I was still a tad queasy). We sat with a couple of uni students from America. I wasn't sure what to make of them- they were studying comparitive religion and travelling around as part of their course. We discussed politics in America and Australia and various other things but generally I think the Americans weren't that interested in interacting with us. So we got chatting with one of the guys who works at the camp. He was born in a hill tribe and explained to su what that was all about. His parents still live in the hill tribe and he was sent to be a monk at age 7- so he could learn Thai and go to school. He was a monk until he was about 15 and eventually he got a loan and went to uni to study tourism and now works in the camp. He was pretty drunk and friendly and it was nice to get to talk to someone with such different life experiences to us.

The little bamboo hut we stayed in was right in amongst all the elephants which were freely wandering about- and we were able to sit on our verandah and watch them. the park is also home to a bunch of cows, water buffalo, cats and dogs. We woke to the sounds of elephants trumpeting- pretty crazy. On the second day we again were able to participate in feeding the elephants, bathing them, went on a walk around the park with a guide who told us stories about all the elephants. They are such complicated creatures, who form intricate relationships with each other and the people who work in the park know every elephant by site, know everything about their history and the current family and friendship groups they move in. It was a very amazing and enlightening experience. Tim wants to come back in the future and spend some time at the camp as a volunteer. I think it would be great if we could get a group of us together and all go- any takers?

Pai canyon, hot springs, food poisoning and more!

2008-10-31T03:09:00.000-07:00

So we have neglected the old blog for a few days now- we left Pai on the 27th (i think- we never know what day it is) and the next day in Chiang Mai got food poisioning and have been deathly (I liek to dramatize) ill for a couple of days. Nothing like sleeping on top of a toilet bowl whilst dry wretching to make you homesick thats for sure.

Anyway now we are recovered I shall recap our adventures.

On our second last day in the wonderful village of Pai we took off on our motorbike again to see some more surrounding sights. We drove South (? perhaps) ntowards Chiang Mai and stopped off at Pai Canyon. We had tio do a mini trek (maybe 300 m) up a hill to come across a grand gully. A very thin (and scary in my opinion if not in Tim's) outcrop of red earth connected our side3 of the canyon to the other. I decided to forbid Tim from crossing it lest he "be slip down". He was less than impressed by my lack of adventure. but I did promise his mum and Dad I would look after him. I don't think "be slip down" into Pai canyon would make them very happy.

It was magnificent though.

After this we continued on to the Thai Pai Hot springs. This was fairly hilarious. The hotsprings get up to 80 degrees celcius in some parts and in the cooler pools we were able to walk through and sit for a bit. We sat with a school group who had come replete with eggs to boil in the spring- the school girls were hilarious to watch as they cooked their eggs then ate them straight from the shells with soy sauce! Further upstream where temperatures were probably more effective for boiling eggs there was
another great sign that said "No Boil egg". We are loving these signs. Nothing beats "be slip down" but other highlights include "your drive on left remember"!

Anyway it was getting time to take the trusty old motorbike back to Pai and say goodbye. But it started raining down in torrents and we only got as far as a coffee hosue on the road. we sat here and waited for the rain to stop.

I don't think we did anythign else very exciting on this day except for soaking up the Painess of the place before having to elave.

The next day we got onbaord a bus bound for Chiang MIa- and again wound though the mountains. There were signs everywhere in Pai saying, "Pai- Chiang Mai, 136km 752 curves" and I don't think they underestimated. Icnredibly curvy and not great on the stomach.

So we decided to have a relxed dayv in Chiang Mai and then the next day go to the elephant Sanctuary where we are going to learn how to love elephants properly. I already ahve the spirit jsut not the skills. Hopefully I get some elephant loving accreditation out of this I can put on my CV. Professional elephant lover would look fabulous on my tax return.

But alas we fell ill from a dodgy pad thai and were confined to our bed- lucky we had upgraded to a room with a decent bathroom and a TV- we stayed tuned into the Australia network amidst our wretching. Hopefully I have painted a cleasr enough picture of our abject misery- I eman real;ly reruns of Home and Away whilst vomiting?

So we postponed our elephant loving and are now goi9ng tomorrow. We will have two days at elephant camp then headed back to Bangkok as we need to go to the Vietnames embassy to organise our visas.

2008-10-26T07:11:00.000-07:00

2008-10-26T06:48:00.000-07:00

Insect Museum

2008-10-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

Oh I forgot to write about our day in chaing Mai! we went for a bit of a walk inside the old part of the city which is surrounded by a moat and wall. We saw a couple of wats, one of which housed one fo the oldest Buddha statues - made in India (or sri Lanka- can't remember) about 2500 years ago. I would have been more amazed had it not been hidden behind a bigger golder newer Buddha statue.

Tim really wanted to go to this insect museum and I am glad he insisted - it was pretty hilarious. This guy has been collecting various insects for 50 years and the museum is his lifes work. He is a taxonomist who identified about 300 different types of mosquitos. But thats the boring part- the msot fascinating things were the stories of his childhood - where he got malaria and his experiences living in Thailand during WWII. He also now paints and has filled the museum with paintings of Buddhist godesses flying on the backs of giant mosquitos. He also has amzing (broken english) quotes about life- how nature works and how humans need to respect and love nature, because nature is God. He was such an enthusiastic man.

Museum of World Insects and Natural Wonders Chiang Mai

2008-10-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

Link to youTube(I haven't watch it but this is where we went)

Tim can ride a motorbike but he can't drive a car

2008-10-26T06:29:00.000-07:00

This morning we decided to rent a motorbike and travel around the surrounding parts of Pai. It was assumed that I would drive seeing as I have a license and Tim doesn't. However it turns out I don't have the greatest skills when it comes to motor bikes so Tim took over and proved to be a natural. We rode just out of town to this funny little place called "Coffee in love" which is essentially a really nice coffee shop with amazing views of fields and hills. Deciding to be truly decadent we ate cheesecake and drank iced coffees for breakfast! It was great.

Then we rode a few km's towards Chaing Mai to see a waterfall called Pam Bok waterfall. We drove up into the mountains and again saw some beautiful scenery. he waterfall was fairly isolated and we had to walk up a bit of an incline to get a really good view- but it was worth it. We had to cross (what I will describe as) a very rickety old bridge like those you see in horror movies and I felt very brave crossing it. I didn't want to but I did.

After this we headed to some outlying villages. We came across a house that had art showing. We stopped and the artist insisted on giving us shots of tequila- which I had to drink because Tim was driving- and it was fairly potent stuff. He was a great guy who had studied philosophy and then used this in his art. His work was pencil and pen and he made this tiny little swirls that came together to make very detailed images - and the colours were luminous. It was almost pointilist in approach but using swirls instead of dots.

After this we kept going to a small village called Santichon which is very close to the border of Myanamur (Burma). It was originally settled by Chinese people and thus is referred to as the Chinese village and still maintains a very Chinese feel. We had some great Chinese style soups for lunch and continued onto another waterfall called mo Poeng. Again stunning. Only the photos will describe it.

By this stage it had started to look rainy and the temperature had dropped dramatically- but we wanted to see this Lisu tribe village that supposedly wasn't far. But as our map was fairly vague we got a little lost and by the time we were back on track it was pouring with rain. So we headed back into Pai. By the time we arrived at our hostel we were practically drenched. So we spent the rest of the afternoon lazing in cafes and wandering the shops of Pai.

Tomorrow we will ride out to the hot springs and have a soak and then again try to find that mysterious Lisu village.

elephants, bamboo rafting etc.

2008-10-26T06:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we woke up and had breakfast at this awesome little cafe/art gallery which is in an old tradtional teak thai house. Pai is extremely laid back and reminds me of Bellingen or some places in the Blue Mountains.

We followed breakfast with an elephant ride through the jungle. At first I thought "through the jungle" was a bit of an exaggerated term for walking on a bitumen road that had trees alongside- but the elephant stayed true to his word and quickly went off road through the wilds of the hills. It was at times extremely frightening as we were riding bareback with Tim up on the elephants neck and our elephant happened to be fairly strong willed and whenever he saw a particular breed of bamboo that he enjoyed he would bound off into the depths of the jungle to pull it out. The small path we were on through the forest was only about half a meter wide (at most) and we climbed up very steep parts- the descent was more frightening than the ascent. But elephants are extremely sure footed creatues- and Tim kept assuring me that the elephant wouldn't want to fall over either. it was such an incredible feeling to feel the strength of his spine beneath us. I have to say my favourite part of the ride was when the elephant let rip with some thunderous farts. A fart never fails to make me laugh- and it appeared that the manhout (the guy leading the elphant) and I shared a similar base sense of humour.

We got some great footage on our video camera- which hopefully we will upload at some point.

The ride lasted about an hour and we saw some spectacular views of Pai and the surrounding country side as we climbed up into the mountains. We also some the greatest arrangement of coloured butterflies- the most beautiful of which had bright tourquoise wings.

After this we went for a more relaxed ride on a bamboo raft. Its amazing tht something that looks so flimsy is so boyant. We cruised around the Pai river for about an hour.

It was a really great day.

2008-10-26T06:11:00.000-07:00

our elephant was always stopping for a bit to eat.

A Chinese hillside village

There are lots of postcards with photos of this bridge on them.

whether your crossing a scary bridge or riding an elephant,

CAUTION: be slip down!

(this sign wasn't a one off, they were all around the falls)

Steph crosses a scary bridge

2008-10-26T05:57:00.000-07:00

Pai and beyond!

2008-10-24T05:36:00.001-07:00

Tim and I rose extra early this morning to ensure we got tickets on the bus to Pai. We ended up on this minivan with about ten seats. The journey to Pai was semi disturbing (as most of our journeys thus far have been- the Thais don't seem too fond of road rules). We drove through the mountains and it was incredibly steep and windy. Pai is only about 135km from Chaing Mai but it took 3 hours to drive because of the mountain bends. Our driver (who was very skilled) had a habit that made me uneasy: like overtaking around bends. Anyway we got there in one piece and also without losing our breakfast. The views through the mountains were spectular- little groups of houses nestled into random pockets of flat ground. The descent into Pai was breathtaking- we could see the lush green of the jungle against the blue of the mountains. The poverty in this area is less overt and the standards of living generally appear to be higher. The houses are all quite beautiful. Pai is fairly touristy but still really fun and laid back. It is described as a hippie village and we went to this really great little art gallery. We fell in love with these pop art style paintings that blended Western culture (eg: spiderman) with traditional Thai and Buddhist images. The artist used the most vibrant colours- wish we could have bought one. Instead we bought these hilarious hand made figurines of two lovers with owl heads- sounds lame but actually really fantastic.

also I got offered a job today- after over an hour on the phone to a Uk principal discussing my trip with a few random pieces of educational philosophy thrown in he offered me a permant position at his school. It is teaching English but when I get settled they want to use my drama skills in extra curricular stuff (which I may get paid extra for- unlike in Aus!). So I said yes (well I didn't actually think i just said, "sure Ok" then got off the phone and panicked cause the school is all boys and in some place called Gravesend. I mean really Gravesend? So tim and I looked it up on the net and found that the grave of Pocahontas is in Gravesend- so we were relieved to see we would have somewhere to go on the weekends.

Well we are all geared up for an elephant (bear back) ride through the jungle tomorrow followed by some bamboo rafting. tim is trying to convince me to go white water rafting- but I feel it is too early in our adventures to drown. I'd at least lie to see a few more countries.

Leaving Phitsanaluk

2008-10-24T05:20:00.000-07:00

We learnt our lesson about the trains and got up super early so we could go to the train station and buy a ticket for the 2nd class train to Chaing Mai. We caught the Special Express but I don't know what was so express about it- it took 7 hours and went slightly faster than my walking pace. Anyway the views were beautiful. The sky's in the North are much clearer and bluer than in Central thailand and the landscape is lush and fertile. The train wound its way through the mountains which was quite an incredible sight. We arrived in Chaing Mai at about 8.30 at night and by the time we found somewhere to sleep it was pouring with rain and so we just went to bed. Another fairly dull day.

Phitsanaluk

2008-10-24T05:18:00.000-07:00

Phitsanaluk is not a very entertaining stop- really just a transit point for people to go out to Sukhothai and up to Chaing Mai. By this stage we were pretty buggered and Tim was a bit sick so we wandered about the city at a slow pace and sat in every coffee shop along the way. Then had an afternoon nap- lazy days.

2008-10-23T06:10:00.000-07:00

Some photos:

Carzy train trips, monkeys and other catastrophes

2008-10-21T07:15:00.000-07:00

We woke up super early today and headed to the train station headed dor Lopburi (or as I prefer to call it Monkey town). We had to get the express train as the ordinary train was ages away- and we were a bit miffed at the price (around ten bucks each compared to the fifty cents it had cost us to get from Bangkok to Ayatthya- a longer journey).

We planned to spend a couple of hours in Lopburi just to catch sight of some monkeys. Enthusiastically we ventured into the town- not caring to look at the map until we were well and truly lost and hadn't found any monkeys. The Lonely planet had asssured us that the monkeys were litarlly hanging from the train carriages! When I had just about given up hope of a monkey sighting we saw some monkey turds dotting the road! Yahoo my childish excitment meter was turned up. Across the road from the non-innocent poos were a band of cheeky monkeys sitting atop a car and a couple of motor bikes. We crossed the road and watched monkeys pulling people's belongings out of their car and sprawling them everywhere. A few monkeys seemed convinced they could ride motor bikes and were trying on the helmets for size. It was at this point that some mysterious fluid rained down from above onto Tim's dreaded head- looking up we discovered he ahd been unceremoniously been pissed on by a monkey! hA! Tim didn't seem his usualy jovial self after this point for quite a while.

Anyway we moved onto the old ruins that the monkeys call home to see that there were aproximately 100 monkeys living there. It was incredible to walk amongst these monkeys - and kind of scary as they probably have a thousand diseases.

We eventually ventured back to the station to catch the ordinary train to Phitsanoluk - the next major stop on our way North to Chaing Mai. We thought we were being very clever by catching the ordinary train which only cost around 2 dollars each rather than the touristy express train that was coming 20 minutes later. We thought we were so clever that we convinced a couple of German tourists to do the same. We thought that catching the train with the Thai people would be a more realistic experience of Thailand. It was. We also learnt not to assume anything. We had assumed that if we were sold tickets for a journey lasting 6 hours that there would be seats enough for all. Silly pampered Australian assumption.

Tim and I clambered aboard the train in the stinking heat of the middle of the day- with our packs on our backs to find there was barely standing room and the standing room we aquired was up against the toilet door. To make matters increasingly hilarious (read torturous) every 5 minutes a person selling hot soups, dried fishes, beer or some other interesting concoction would squesze past us. I counted 11 people in a space I estimated to be 1 square meter. Most of those people were standing. I successfully managed to avoid the eyes of the German tourists we had convinced to take this train. I also then assumed that most people would be getting off at the nex couple of stops and we wouldn't be standing for long. Again silly assumption. In all Tim and I stoof dor 3 of the 6 hours of the journey. And the 2 or the next three hours I sat with one bum cheek on a hard wooden plank seat. It was truly an unforgettable experience and I actually wouldn't trade it for an airconditioned carriage with padded seats.

We eventually arrived in Phitsanaluk and found some accomodation. We went for a walk to the night bizairre where we had some dinner. I was unimpressed to see that stir fried chilli frog was an option. Naturally I went for the shrimp instead.

Ayatthuya again.

2008-10-19T03:36:00.000-07:00

Today was filled with even more excitment than yesterday. We jumped aboard our bikes again and headed back to the Ancient Palace. We took a different route this time and managed to see more of the island.

We rode past the elephants just in time to see them putting on the most hilarious show I have ever seen. I think the elephants have been watching the Ellen Degeneres show as they spent half the time just dancing- which made my day! They were grooving to a Thai version of 'the final countdown'. They did many tricks but most excitingly they hoolahed some hoops on their trunks and best yet- this man put his legs around the tusks of an elephant and hung upside down, then he put his head inside the elephants mouth and the elephant stood up on his hind legs! it was incredible. We were so blown away that we forgot to get the video recorder out and so we came back later and wtached the show again. I could have wtached those elephants for hours.

Off to the Ancient Palace - these ruins were pretty amazing- dating back like 1000 years (I guess we couldn't read much info). We also saw this huge bronze Buddha that was 12.6 metres tall- it was quite breathtaking.

Afterwards we headed back to the elephants - gave them a feed and decided to ride elephants up North as we want to go on a ride through jungle area on bareback if possible. I can't wait to love elephants at the camp!

We are now exploring a more Western part of the island that has a KFC etc. Tim ate a square donut and seemed to really enjoy himself!

Oh and when riding our bikes we saw this huge lizard that looked like a goanna- I nearly fell off my bike in fright. But pretty cool! Also seen some super cute little gecko things.

anyway running out of net credit. tomorrow we leave and head to Lopburi- Monkey town! YAY!

leaving Bangkok! Huzzah!

2008-10-19T03:21:00.000-07:00

So we decided Bangkok was giving us the shits- I couldn't handle saying no to all these people trying to take us for rides in their tuk tuk's etc. So we got up early and went to Bangkok train station (i think called humphalong? ). we jumped on a train to the Ancient Capital of Ayatthuya. it was about an hour and half journey and I found it to be pretty exciting and interesting. Tim read a newspaper most of the way. it was so bizairre to watch out the window and see all these shack houses that line the railway and people living amongst what is essentially a lot of rubbish. We saw some nice sites as well, like some watery farm land etc.

On arrival in Ayatthuya I immediately felt a sense of relief. It is a much smaller place and the people don't hassle you. We walked from the tain to the ferry and crossed the river. The town is broken up by a river which runs in a kind of circle around the part of town called 'the island'. We headed to a hostel recommended to us by Rochelle which was on the island facing the river. It is an old teak traditional thai house. Very beautiful. The food at the restaraunt is absolutely the best we've had yet. We had hot and spicy prawn soup- there were at least 6 prawns in the soup the size of a fist! more excitingly we watched these funny little squirrel creatures which were either white or brown and had tails that looked like old used bottle brushes. They ran around the tree and roof of the hostel and actually kind of flew from one to the other, launching themselves across.

After lunch we borrowed some bikes from the hostel and decided to explore the town. I'm really glad Tim convinced me to ride as it was the best fun we've had yet. We rode about 4 km's to the Historic park and centre of the island. We decided we wanted to see the Old Palace ruins and followed the map as far as it said to and for the life of us couldn't find the bloody ruins. we rode up and down this one street in the park under a torrential downpour to no avail. Eventually we sucked up our pride and asked a lady - she pointed and we looked across to see we had been cycling past it the whole time. I don't know how we could miss such inredible ruins. By this stage it was getting dark and we decided to come back tomorrow. We cycled around the see some elephants nearby that were giving rides to people. I have never touched an elephant before and I was so excited I nearly pissed my pants. There skin is kind of prickly and the elephant slobbered all over my hand.

Anyway we headed back to our hostel and parked our bikes. Lonely planet convinced us we should eat at the night markets and so we went for another trek trying to find them. We found markets eventually that were operating at night- but Lonely Planet led us astray- they were pretty average and we headed back to the hostel for more fist sized prawns.

We ended the day by sitting on the balcony overlooking the water and having a read. Such a wonderful day- Iw as filled with happiness.

2ns day Bangkok

2008-10-19T03:18:00.000-07:00

So this day was a bit of a shambles. We had many plans and pretty much failed to follow through on any of them. We moved hostels and went to the Shanti lodge which is in Thewet (they say its a 15 minute walk from khao San road but they must be Olympic walkers or something). It was an awesome hostel, with the nicest family running it and making beautiful vegetarian food. we had amazing meals there. All in all we managed to check out khao san Road, which is fairly hectic and touristy so we decided to forget our troubles with a couple of fairly potent and amzingly coloured cocktails at some bar on the street.

Day One in Bangkok

2008-10-16T05:27:00.000-07:00

Tim and Steph started the day with a wonderous breakfast of Indian food. At first we thought it was a bit weird considering we were in Thailand- but it was free so we gave it a go. Then we found that they actually had eggs and toast.

Anyway more excitingly we set out not knowing where we were going or what we were going to do. We made our way to the Central Pier on Chao Phraya River which is close to our hotel. We arrived just in time to jump on board an overly crowded boat which took us up (or down I have no sense of direction) the river to the Grand Palace. The river bank is an amazing juxtaposition of rundown and even falling down old tin and wooden houses and brand new apartments and other types of buildings. It was so starnge to see houses that were literally falling into the river but still lived in as the occupants washing was hung over the river.

When we got off the boat we wound through a crowded and overwhelming market place where we were linched by eager tuk tuk drivers offering to take us here there and everywhere for a very small fee (and what we later discovered was the expectation that we would buy a suit at some suit making place!). The tuk tuk drive was pretty fun- the driving here is so crazy- there seem to be no rules and people and cars, buses, trucks everything just move into any available space! This tuk tuk driving is a real art. Actually just walking in Bangkok is a skill- at fist we were hesitant to even cross the road its so crazy.

The tu k tuk took us to this incredible golden standing buddha and temple area. The temple was full of temple cats which we found amusing. We sat inside a temple that had the most incredibly detailed wall murals.

After this the tuk tuk driver just tried to get us to go to shops and buy things because he makes a commission... needless to say we ended up at the grand palace and left our tuk tuk driver. We couldn't get into the palace as Steph was wearing short... bloody hell. Anyway we used our boat passes to go up and down the river and chased these flower markets - we saw some incredible seed pods and flower arrangements. But more interestingly was watching the interactions of the people in these markets- we were slightly off the tourist trail and the people were fasciated by Tim's ability to grow a beard. Most of the stall owners were snoozing or looking kind of over it.

Anyway the day wore on and after one of the msot delicious pad thais we've ever had and paying 3 baht for a toilet we were stuffed and heat exhautsted and came home for a snooze.