Kristen's travels

day 32

2007-02-03T18:04:00.000-08:00

Definitely the last day

We went to the cafe to wait for the bus and waited for ages, it didn't come until about 5.25 or so, but we still got to the airport at about 6.10am so that was ok. The line for the flight was soooo long and people kept trying to push in. But Nicole wouldn't let them, yay... Unfortunately we saw the same people later had pushed in front of an old guy which was annoying.

We got some breakfast with out last few hundred baht. I had a ham and cheese focaccia thingy.

The plane was ok, there were lots of movies to watch but i was tired so i kept falling asleep. Apparently the flight was overbooked as well so we couldn't sit together and both had window seats.

I was very glad to get back to Australia by the end of the flight, just because I was sick of the plane and I knew Tim would be waiting at the airport. yay! But i had to get through customs and stuff first, and we had to do some last minute shopping. We went to the duty free shop and i bought 1 litre of 50%alcohol Vodka and 1 litre of Cointreau for less than $50. I also bought a 100ml bottle of my favourite perfume J'Adore. Very nice

So we got to customs and quarantine and I had my lovely Thai pillow. It was very nice. I was sure Tim would like it. But the guys took one look at it and said... Oh dear, you have a thai cushion. That is about to cost you a lot of money.

Apparently is it full of seeds (der I am a Biologist I really should have thought of this) so it has to be destroyed or gamma irradiated. And it takes 4 weeks, and costs $60 (incl postage). so after much thought i have decided to get it irradiated even though it only cost $20 because its special and from Thailand and I can't get one the same (i.e. that's from Thailand).

So Tim can look at the lovely picture. His one is quite similar.

At the airport I was very happy to see Tim after all this annoyance and he seemed pretty happy to see me. He even had earl grey tea waiting for me in the car, and mint choc ice cream. He is the bestest :)

The next morning i went to work. And was very tired. and now i week later i have finally recovered.

day 30

2007-02-03T17:43:00.000-08:00

Ok! the last day! (sort of)

We decided to save money on our last day and check out of our hotel because our plane left on the Monday morning (the next day) at 8am, so we had to be at the airport at 6am and had to leave Bangkok at 5am. So we decided to just stay up all night.

I got up at about 9am so i had 3 hours sleep by the time i got to bed. We packed all our stuff and you can see the pictures of us carrying my huge and ridiculously heavy bag.

We found a place to leave our bags and book our bus ticket, then we did some shopping for Nicole. (ok i did some more as well). I think we had breakfast or lunch at some point but I was so tired i can't really remember too clearly. umm... We had manicures... that was nice. We met some people on the street and had a huge bowl of ice cream, like it was 7 scoops between us. And after we had finished the ice cream guy was still trying to sell us more ice cream.

We walked down the the river to check out some restaurants that were supposed to be good, but one was packed and the other was closed, so we just went to a touristy one instead. I was so tired I nearly fell asleep. um... these events are not in order.

I bought Tim a Thai cushion and boy would that cause some problems later on... :)

We went to a restaurant for dinner and had rice soup as well as a main meal which was waaayyy too much, but it was our last meal so we thought it was ok to splurge. We were walking down an alley thing, and i saw a man who sells bags and i bought a handmade purple leather one for 800B it is gorgeous, i can't wait to use it.

Then we decided we needed massages, we were going to get neck and shoulder massages, but we got Thai ones instead after they talked us into it. It was quite good, but a little odd. They get up on the bed with you and move your legs and arms around and push their feet into you and stuff. So that wasted another hour.

After that we found Diow again he was packing up his paintings (he is an artist as well as a busker) and said we'd meet his to sing later.

I wanted to get a facial, as they had them for 200B. It was really good, i had my face steamed and exfoliated and all these other things, cucumber and orange (that what it smelt like) and a masque and a massage (another one) for about 45 minutes.

It was about 12.30 by then so we found Diow again and sang with him for a while. Then he made us fried rice which we ate with an English guy who came out hang out for a while. Diow made me a ring out of a straw so i said he must want to marry me (he made one for Nicole too). Diow asked me to help him fill out some forms because he was going to the embassy the next morning to try to move to Germany for a year, so we did that, then Diow and his friend took us to play pool for a while, until about 4.30, then we figured we better go catch our bus to the airport. So we said goodbye, and diow said its ok we are married now, and i said you have to come visit in Australia some time. I think the day ended around there somewhere.

Day 29

2007-02-03T17:12:00.000-08:00

The next morning i decided to go shopping by myself because Nicole and i weren't really talking, we had gotten a bit sick of each other by then i think. So i went on the Internet and found that i could catch a ferry down the river to the skytrain. Before i left though i had fish and chips at an English restaurant, and they were surprisingly good. Then I went to the HUGE weekend market. http://www.asiatraveltips.com/PicturesofChatuchakMarket.shtml

I bought a few presents for Bridey and Bonnie (my sisters) and just had a nice time wandering around.

I caught the sky train back to the main part of Bangkok where the 5 star hotels and stuff are and noticed a Hard Rock Cafe. So i decided to do something really cheesy and touristy and go there for dinner. I had a pulled pork burger and it was really tasty, although being an American serving size i couldn't finish it. the staff were really friendly after I had my meal one waiter asked if he could get me anything else so i said yes a date, so he sat down with me and had a chat for a while.

After dinner I went back to PatPong market cause I knew there was good shopping there. Not necessarily cheap, but had everything you want in the way of presents and souvenirs. I really wanted to buy a bunch of DVD's but i decided they were overpriced and not worth it, because they cost 100Baht each which is nearly $4 and if you buy a box set, like say Gilmore girls, that 8 discs, so 800B which is about $32 and i can get in Australia a real copy that will definitely work for only about $35-$40.

So instead i bought a watch, a couple of handbags, some t-shirts, and heaps of other stuff. I was soooo tired when i was finished so i caught a tuk-tuk back to Koh sahn rd and planned to go straight to bed. But as i was walking down the main road i ran into Diow my busking friend. He bought me a coconut juice and we sat and had a chat for a while. Then I promised him I would put my stuff in the hotel room and meet him on the street for a bit of a sing. I went back down a while later and we stayed for a little while, then a bunch of his friends came and we sang and drank on the street out the front of a 7-eleven. Then Diow asked if he could take me to show me something and he must have seen the look on my face cause he said "no!! not like my room or anything, just a place i like that i haven't been for a really long time". So i was slightly apprehensive but he had been really nice for 2 nights so i said yes. He took me for a long walk through a park full of homeless people sleeping on the grass (and i mean full, there were hundreds of people there) and past the grand palace etc. then we went down and alley, and down another alley and past some women cooking something i think. Then we were on a jetty on the riverbank. And we could see a HUGE temple called Wat Arun across the river all lit up. It was definitely the most awesome and beautiful thing i saw the entire time i was away. Unfortunately I only took video of it, i didn't have the camera. Diow and i sat there at chatted for a while, until i got tired again, so we walked back. I went to bed at about 5.30am. i just found some pictures, neither are as spectacular as my actual view, but the night one gives you an idea of how gorgeous it was.

Day 28

2007-02-03T17:02:00.000-08:00

Australia Day!

We decided to just bum around on Australia day and in the form of true Aussies we started drinking by the pool at around 12pm. We had a few swims and read our books and drank. and then i got a bit sleepy after getting to bed so late so i went and had a snooze. We went back about at about 5 or 6 and had street food for tea. We ran into Kate the girl we had met earlier in Luang Prabang. She just wanted to have one drink because she was going to India the next day, but we ended up meeting a group of Aussies and drank a lot. We sang on the street, at one point there was am impromptu Australian nation anthem and out of about 30 Aussie's i was the only one who knew all the words. But strangely enough we managed to sing Waltzing Matilda without my trouble.

The rest of the night was just lots of drinking and singing etc.

then bed.

day 27

2007-02-03T16:53:00.000-08:00

We woke up in our hotel which was fairly crappy, and decided to have a look at one that's a bit nicer. We found one with a pool that was really nice looking, so we checked in there.

We went to MBK a big shopping centre to do some shopping, I bought 3 pairs of shoes, yay!

We came back to Koh San Road to have dinner, i had a corn on the cob and some meat kebab things. mm tasty. then i got a pedicure and Nicole got her eyebrows waxed. I have always wanted to get a pedicure and i wasn't disappointed. I think i will get them sometimes at home now, but I am sure I'll have to pay more than $6 Australian for them.

We went to a bar and had a bucket and made friends with a French guy and a hmm... I've forgotten... maybe dutch guy? we went to another bar and had another bucket, so i was a bit tipsy by then, then Nicole went home and I went with the guys around the corner and found a Thai guy busking. I asked him if he knew a couple of songs, and we ended up singing together for ages. Then a french guy came along and the 3 of us listened to songs on my ipod, because the police came and Diow (the busker) had had his guitar confiscated a few nights before so he didn't want to have to pay the fine again to get it back. At about 3am he made us fried rice with his friends' food stall. i went home to bed after that.

Day 26

2007-02-03T16:22:00.000-08:00

We woke up to the usual Hanoi loudness at about 7 or 8 this morning. We were planning to go to the Ho Chi Minh museum after we booked tickets to the water puppets. we booked our tickets but she gave them to us for the wrong time which was quite ammoying so we had to line up and book them again, so we were a bit late. We caught a cab to the ho Chi Minh Museum and the guy tried to charge us twice what the meter had said only a few seconds before, he had obviosuly pushed a button or somethig so he could change the price. I stayed in the cab and Nicole went to get Huy who was waiting at the corner, and he noticed that the sign on the side of the cab said the name of a cab company, but there was no phone number. Huy asked the guy what is the number of yoru company, and he said there is no number. Huy decided that his was obviously a "fake" cab so he told the guy unless he gave us a reasonable price he would call the police. the price promptly halved. sooo dodgy.

We went into the Ho Chi Minh Museum and they took our bags and cameras and stuff, and we watched a video about Ho chi Minh's life. The Vietnamese really love him and the video said that he was a pretty cool guy who just wanted to help people and lived his life pretty simply without a lot of money or anything. He travelled a lot even in the US and England, and govered Vietnam from 1946 til 1969 when he died. He got independence from France for Vietnam. You can read more about him here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho_Chi_Minh and see a photo, he looks basically the same now but the box he is in is bigger. His obituary in the New York Times is quite interesting http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0519.html

We went into a large stone building to see his embalmed body there were guards everywhere telling you to take your hands out of your pockets, take off your hat etc etc. It was quite weird but kind of sad to see him. His actaul wish was to be cremated, but the leader after him decided to have him embalmed instead. Apparently for 4 months a year the exhibit is closed as they have to work on preserving his body. Also you aren't allowed to take photos, or speak, it is really like a funeral, even though he died 37 years ago.

We also saw his house and his two cars, but we had to be relatively quick as the place closes at 11am, it is only open for 3 hours a day.

After we left we went to a cafe nearby that sold weasel coffee. So finally Nicole could partake in something a little weird (i had it as well). It is coffee beans that have been eaten by a weasel and digested and then excreted, and you then drink the coffee. We were (very maturely) calling it poo coffee. It actaully tasted quite good. Huy had to leave soon after as he had a family lunch to go to. Nicole and i walked to a czech Bar and she had a beer, but my cold had well and truly kicked in and i was feeling crap, so i just had some soup. I had to blow my nose a few times while we were there, and i ran out of tissues to i used 4 or 5 serviettes and they charged us extra for them. Ahh the service is wonderful. hahaha.

We then walked to the lake and i was feeling crap still so we had a coffee at the lake, (well i had a honey and lemon tea) and relaxed for a bit. It was then getting towards when we were going to see the water puppet show, so we went on the internet for 20 mins and then went to the puppet show. It was surprisingly good and enetertaining, even though it was entirely in Vietnmese. we don't have any photos as Nicole's battery went flat, this guys website is pretty cool and the show is exactly as we saw it. http://www.dsturgeon.net/vietnam/puppets-e.html

After the show we went to a restaruant Nicole wanted to try called little hanoi, she really liked the food she had so that was good. I can't remember what i had, i think it was another fried meat thing cause that had been so good everywhere else.

We got a cab to the airport and caught the plane to bangkok. We had originally been planning to go to Koh Samet, but it would have taken us about 5 hours the next day and we were really tired from the plane that got in at 11.00pm and then the taxi etc. (We had the only slow taxi driver in Bangkok as well). So we decided to spend a bit of extra money on the hotel and get one with a pool and just stay around Bangkok.

Day 25

2007-02-03T15:20:00.000-08:00

We caught the train back from Sapa and got into Hanoi at about 5am. We decided to walk back to the old quarter where we had stayed previously and find a room. On the was we saw people around the lake doing aerobics. it was still dark and about 6am by then. Gee they were enthusiastic. I was still basically asleep. We found a room for $6USD a night and had a sleep. Then we tried to call Huy a few times and eventually got in contact with him. We wanted to do some more shopping so he took us to a nice big shopping mall, but we didn't end up buying anything, we did however find a Gloria Jeans and have a really nice coffee. It had only opened 4 days earlier and it was an aussie guy who was training all the new staff. The coffee was really good and Huy was so enthused he had 3 coffees in half an hour or so.

We went to the sofitel metrolpole after coffee because they had a chocolate buffet. It was great, it had heaps of little chocolate and different chocolate cakes, chocolate fondue fountains, make your own hot chocolate and a banana and chocolate pudding with raspberry coulis. Very nice. It was 10USD but we decided it was worth it.

We went shoe shopping for a couple of hours after that and Nicole bought some shoes, I found some I liked but they fit kinda weird so I didn't get them.

Huy had talked us into catching motorbikes this day too which was very fun and a bit scary, you just go to the corner and ask basically anyone to take you wherever you want to go and it costs about 15,000 Dong.

we met Huys girlfriend Tu for dinner she was really nice, and they talked me into eating snails. They were actually really really tasty i quite liked them, they were flavoured with chilli and ginger. the place was really cheap too. Yay!

we caught their motorbikes to a bar near where we were staying and i had a whiskey and coke. It was nice but I was feeling a bit weird in the head as i had taken some cold and flu tablets earlier, so we went home to bed after the drink.

day 23 and 24

2007-02-03T15:09:00.000-08:00

Our days in Sapa we relatively uneventful as it was freezing and foggy every day so we couldn't really see or do much, we went to the local market on the Sunday and (look closely at the picture) saw bats and blue chickens for sale amongst other things. I bought Tim a bracelet and myself a crappier version. I also bought myself a top which seems to have shrunk since i washed it which is a bit annoying.

We spent the Sunday hanging out for a few hours in the Nature bar which has all different kinds of meat, i talked to a lot of the staff who of course instead of working were hanging around the fire. We had brunch there and stayed for ages because it was warm, but we wanted to check out the local shops so we walked around them for an hour, then went to the mountain view hotel and had some milo. For some reason they seemed to think we were staying there, so i went on the internet for free for 2 hours or so. We went back to nature bar for tea because i wanted to try wild boar. It was excellent, cooked similarly to the deer i had the night before, so crispy and tasty. mmm...

We met some people from Victoria and ate with them, they were really friendly, a couple called Nat and Jeremy. Nat was studying medicine and Melbourne Uni and started talking about a new teaching methodology called PBL which was pretty funny, because my school also teaches using PBL, so we had a bit of chat about that. We also had some cocktails and mulled wine. I spent heaps on drinks that night like 265,000 dong or something i think. Then we went home because our curfew was 11.00pm.

the next day we spent a lot of the day in Baguette and chocolate, there is a photo of Nicole on the lounge there near the fire. We met some people that were also catching the train to Sapa and it turned out one of them was a trainer for Koto the restaurant that employs street kids. We chatted to them for ages, and ended up catching the bus with them back to the train to Sapa and having dinner with them at a cafe near the train station.

On the train there was a guy in our cabin who was about our age, he was nice and wanted to practice his english so he talked to us a lot. He asked us why if we are sisters Nicole is so small and i am so large which was nery nice of him. hahahaha. we couldn't belive he asked that and we couldn't stop laughing. We went to sleep after a while and woke up the next morning in Hanoi.

dayy 22

2007-02-03T14:48:00.000-08:00

This morning i woke up on the train to Sapa. The train conductor lady was banging on our door and we were almost at the station. We got out of the train and went to find a bus to Sapa, when we got on the bus i asked if we would have time to go to the toilet and the bus driver said yes we would. It made sense when we got on as we realised we were the only people on the bus and they were obvisouly waiting for the second train an hour and a half later to arrive before we left. Yay.

So we waited. And the bus drove us to Sapa, we didn't really know where to get off, but we decided to wait a while til we came to something kinda towny. We found a few rooms, there was one that had been recommended called Pinocchio's their cheapest room was $6USD and you had to walk up heaps of stairs, they said that was fine because there was a great view when the fog cleared. We also checked out the queen hotel next door, they had a similar room for $4USD so we took that. (and it was only up one flight of stairs). We were really tired so we had a sleep for a couple of hours, then decided to go exploring. When we got outside (it was FREEZING btw we were wearing tshirts, singlets, jeans, two jumpers coats and scarves) it was still really foggy. And i mean really. Like you couldn't see across the street. We went for a walk around and found a market and a cute church, but at one point you could see the church, then some extra fog rolled in and you couldn't see it anymore. At all. It just totally disappeared. We also found a lake but you couldn't really see it either, so we walked back to the town part (Sapa is very small) and went up the hill to Baguette and Chocolate. I had vegetable soup. It was nice and warm in the freezing weather.

We walked back down the hill to the market to look around, but we didn't buy much. There were ladies from the hill tribe villages saying "hello, buy from me" constantly. To the extent that Nicole and i got a little silly and started singing to them, basically any song that had the word hello in it, e.g. "hello, it is me you're loolking for, Hello, i love you", "You say goodbye, and i say hello". they thought it was funny which is good, cause sometimes it is really difficult to get to them to leave you alone.

We went to a restaurant for tea i can't remember what it was called but i had deer, and it was really tasty. It came out on a metal plate and it was sizzling.

We had heard about a free cultural show at the bamboo bar so we went to that at about 9. It was pretty funny, mostly kids dancing around in costumes, some of them looked like they had little idea of what was going on, but it was still good, There was one guy who look about 17 who was totally into it. Nicole even got up and joined in one of their dances. After the show there was dance music and the 17 year old guy got really into that as well. I think I have some video. :)

We found a bar after we left there (yes it was technically a bar but all the kids were still there dancing around so the atmosphere was a bit weird) where there were pool tables and stuff. The bartender tried to sell us a tour for the next day up in the hills, but he was going to charge us $60usd for it, then he came down to $50 but we still thought that was a lot given that we had seen tours for one day for $7. So we said we'd come back the next day if we wanted to do it.

After that we went to bed.

day 21

2007-02-03T14:07:00.000-08:00

This morning we woke up with the lovely drilling and hammering sounds again, but that wasn't so bad because we had to get up to go and book our train ticket to Sapa anyway.

WE walked to the train station after having our free banana and baguette with a cup of tea breakfast. Mmmm tasty. But free is good.

When we got to the train station we asked about tickets to Sapa and a woman took as into an office. This was the first time is became very apparent to us how overstaffed everywhere in Vietnam seems to be. There were 4 other people in the office and none of them were doing anything other than drinking tea and chatting. Oh well it amused us, but the lady booking the tickets took forever, and by the time she had finished we realised we were going to be late to meet Huy at the Temple of Literature. So we hurried there and Huy wasn't out the front when we got there, so Nicole decided to call him and see where he was. She called him but he didn't answer his mobile, so we just went into the temple anyway. It is the oldest university in the world, where before the French took over they used to study Confucianism. They have these big stone tablets where the names of everyone who graduated are engraved. Pretty cool.

when we were finished looking around i went to the bathroom (where i had to pay 500 Kip) and the lady in charge sent me into the mens bathroom because the women's was full, it was pretty funny though when I came out and two men were coming in and looked twice to make sure it was the right bathroom. the toilet lady found it very amusing. I came out to tell Nicole my amusing story and she was sitting there with Huy, it turns out his friend got appendicitis in the middle of the night and her family were away so Huy was the only one that could go to the hospital with her. So he had come straight from the hospital when her parents had arrived, so he was later to meet us than we were to meet him, but we figured that was ok, he kinda had an excuse. He took us to a really nice restaurant called KoTo for lunch, it is run by disadvantaged and street kids, and they concept was started by a Vietnamese guy who lived in Australia for a long time and then went back. The food was great, and the service was the best we have seen, it did not even seem overstaffed! :)

In the afternoon we went shopping for hours, but it was fun, i bought a really nice black coat.

After shopping we went to a nice restaurant on the lake, it looked out over the lake and i had a toasted sandwich. Mmm tasty. I feel like a toasted sandwich now. :)
We also bought some shoes from a shoe shop for 65,000 dong which was less than any of the markets had them for anyway. And they are really comfortable.

Our train was leaving at 8.30 but we had to get there at 8 so we left at 7.30. the train wasn't so bad it was fairly hard to sleep, but not terrible, just kinda noisy. we had two Vietnamese girls in our room but they didn't talk they just went to sleep.

Day 20

2007-01-18T17:59:00.000-08:00

This morning I woke up to the sound of drilling, hammering and horns honking. So the $8 us a night became clear to me. Hanoi is so insanely busy. There are just horns going all the time and motorbikes, cars, tuk-tuks etc everywhere!! And people trying to sell you stuff. Or sometimes not selling you stuff which is weird. We went to a market and people would not sell us stuff, they wer just like no you are not trying it on you can't buy it. How stupid.

so we went to St Jospeh cathedral which is really nice, and the lake which has a temple and an embalmed giant tortoise in it. And we found shops that would sell to us so i bought a woolen jumper and jeans (levis) for $45 and Nicole bought a skirt and some shoes.

We also had ice cream at a place called fanny's which is expensive but apparently the best ice cream in Hanoi. (It was good, i had choc mint).

We met Nicole's friend Huy at about 6.30 at our hotel and wandered around, he was going to help us buy shoes, but the shoe people were rude to him as well. So we felt better then.

We wandered around a lot, and went a shopping mall that had stuff for basically the same prices we paid at the market which was kinda funny.

Then we had dinner, i had chicken and ginger and huy had lemongrass and chilli beef and we shared. It was very cheap and fairly good. They have great spring rolls here too, they are like cold rolls but they are just deep fried.

Then we went home to bed cause there were no bars open. Damn it.

Rest of day 19

2007-01-18T17:41:00.000-08:00

Edit: I forgot to mention that we took photos of the lovely bathroom and room that we stayed in. This is the bathroom i fell over in and hurt my elbow (it still hurts btw).
we were very glad to get to the airport and through customs.

The flight was ok, Laos airlines are not exactly high tech, they had no tv's (at all) no radio, no magazines, but it was only a 1 hour flight so it wasn't too bad.

When we got to Vietnam we stepped off the place on the tarmac and it was bloody freezing. (well i think it was about 15 degrees, but i was wearing a skirt and a t-shirt).

We noticed James and Merrin who we had been a couple of other bus trips with and decided to get a cab with them. We went out the cabs and about 8 drivers were all yelling to us $10 $8 taxi!

We found one that said $8 and got in with him. It was quite a way to the part of Hanoi we are staying in (the old quarter). When we got out of the taxi he said $10. We said no $8 and he said no $10. Over and over and over, and then 4 or 5 people came out of the hotel we were stopped in front of and said no way he did not say $8 he said $10 it is always $10. and they said they would call the police. So we said ffs have the money. ( we didn't have change anyway).

then about 5 people all came up to us crowding around us yelling in our faces that their rooms were really good and we should go with them. we really didn't want to go with any of them but we were looking at a map trying to decide where to go and they were all still yelling putting their hands in the way. So eventually we went with one of them, and came to here where we are staying, it is really good, for $8USD a night you get basically a hotel room with a tv, minibar, big clean western bathroom, free internet and breakfast. So we have just stayed here. We then went for a walk around the streets and found an atm to get some money, its so funny i am a millionaire here, I got out 1,000,000 Dong and then we went shopping yesterday and i got out 2,000,000. hee hee

We went back to the hotel and had dinner with Merrin and James (the ones from the taxi) at a supposedly Vietnamese place but the food was kinda bland. Then we were sleepy so we just went to bed.

Day 18 Continued and morning of 19.

2007-01-18T17:09:00.000-08:00

Edit: i have photos now!

So when I got off the internet we caught a tuk tuk for an hour to the waterfalls. (An hour on a tuk-tuk is too long). The waterfalls were even nicer than the ones the day before, they were similar, but had a lot more levels and and were a lot higher. I don't have the camera again, so here is someone else's pic.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sgtowns.com/photos/images/laos/laonamtok.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sgtowns.com/photos/laos/luang_prabang/001632.html&amp;amp;h=400&w=300&sz=25&hl=en&start=13&tbnid=gUCEJkhPRbgLkM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=93&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dluang%2Bprabang%2Bwaterfall%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26sa%3DG

I went swimming in one of the lower levels even though it was pretty cold, it was worth it. They also have a tiger and some Asiatic black bears there, they are in a cage, but they are really huge enclosures that are just like the jungle with a fence around the outside. The tiger was rescued when it was only 4 days old and the picture of it it looks almost dead and today it is gorgeous and huge! So they obviously take very good care of them.

We could only stay a couple of hours because our friends (Nic and Dean) had to leave to go to Vientiane at 6.15pm. We got back about 4.30 and did a bit of shopping. And the guest house person told us that the travel agent i had got money from the day before (cash advance on my credit card) had been to the guest house, i had had to see her because she stuffed up the transaction and got out 212 American dollars when i only wanted 106. So when she cancelled the transaction it had already gone though and then my account was almost empty. So since she had taken all my money she gave me $100 and she wanted it back. Stupid woman. Of course i didn't want to give it back when my money was still not in my account.

We went to a place that was meant to have really good tea, it had 60 varieties, so surprise surprise i had earl grey. It was good, but they have have this weird milk here, sometime they say fresh milk and give you UHT milk, sometimes they give you condensed milk, but this time don't know what it was but it tasted weird and slightly sour. Erg.

Then we decided we were hungry and poor, so we wanted a cheap place, so we went to a westernish place that had great pizza's and hamburgers. The food was so good Nicole took photos. While we were there Will and his friend came in and sat with us, but we had to go back to the travel agent so we had to leave. I went and checked my account balance and the money was still not in my account, but i went back to the travel agent anyway and it was closed. Bloody hell. Will and his friend (it is so bad i have forgotten his name) wanted to go to a bar, but we were tired so we went home. We really wished we would have gone to a bar later on.

Now i have already told this long and complicated story to D in Chat, so i am just going to paste it here.
when we got to our hotel at about 10pm she came knocking on our door saying you must give me back my $100. so we said no we are not giving you the money well check our account in the morning and give it to you if we have our money back, and she said no no you have to give it to me. But we said no a few more times and she went away. She came back 10 mins later and asked us again. We said no again (let me just paint a picture here it is 10.30 at night and we are in bed and she keeps banging on our bedroom door and we have to keep getting out of bed getting dressed etc). Then she came again and we said we will call our bank in the morning. She said no use my phone. So i tried to and it ran out of credit. Then she said go to my friends Internet shop. So we did but they wouldn't let us use the phone and they yelled at us for a while, there were 3 Laos guy all standing around us. Then the guy finally understood, and said OK you call your bank in the morning, so left. She came back again (!) with the tourist police and they made us came out and tried to get us to give them our passports and we said no way
(the next day we were leaving) and they tried to get us to come to their office (it was nearly 12am by then). we kept refusing. Nicole gave them a photocopy of our passport and they left but said we had to go to their office at 8am . So we did. And the made us write a report of what happened and took about half an hour or so to read it, then they yelled at us for a couple of hours. So we cried and yelled at them because we had clearly done nothing wrong, and eventually they worked out what we were actually saying which was that we would give the girl the money if the money was back in our account so we needed to call our bank o they let us finally. The bank said no the money is not in your bank and it does not look like it is coming back
But they said you are not leaving the country (our flight was in a couple of hours from then), so we paid her anyway and they told us off for not doing what they said the night before (they were drunk and not in uniform so we asked for ID to prove they were the tourist police). Then they finally gave back our passports. and we left and had a coffee and a croissant.
so i am $212 USD down. Yay. I 'll report it to credit card fraud and i think I'll get the money back because they don't have the receipts with my signature on them. (Nicole took the customer and merchant copy, and i hadn't signed them anyway). And westpac are so good, they worked it our from when i called them and have already cancelled my credit card i just have to figure out how to call them reverse charges.

Day 18 (so far)

2007-01-15T20:11:00.000-08:00

This morning despite my efforts at bowling last night and lack of sleep, we got up early (before sunrise) to watch the alms giving to the monks. All the monks come out of their Wat's and are given food by the locals and tourists. It was quite cool seeing dozens of monks all lined up with baskets to collect their food. We were really tired so went to bed for a while after that.

then i woke up and got on the Internet. We are planning to go swimming in a waterfall this afternoon.

Day 17 Kayaking

2007-01-15T19:55:00.000-08:00

Ahh... many people who know Nicole and i, i think will be quite shocked that we went on a full day kayak. we were shocked ourselves. We were kind of standing on the river bank looking at each other with our life jackets, helmets and the two person kayak thinking "are we insane??" i guess the answer is yes. We kayaked for about an hour (on a very still river) to a waterfall and then got out and went for a paddle (it was a bit cold to swim) in the waterfall, it was a great waterfall. but I'll have to wait til i have Nicole's camera to put on pictures cause words are too lame to describe it. We had lunch at the waterfall, then had to prepare for a 2.5 to 3 hour kayak down the river with some rapids. after about 1 hour we were getting pretty sick of paddling and were thinking of giving up but we wanted to get to the rapids and have some fun so we started singing very lame songs, (including nursery rhymes and children's songs) to make ourselves keep paddling in rhythm. The guide was completely convinced we were going to fall out of the kayak when we get to the rapids, to the extent that he said "when you go upside down" at least 10 times. So when we just kayaked through with Nicoles instructions from the back and didn't even fall out, let alone "go upside down" we were pretty pleased with ourselves. It was so much fun i might even like to do it back in Aus some time. I wonder if i could drag Tim? hmmm...

After kayaking we were soooo tired and saturated so we had a shower and a nap, and went shopping (I bought a really pretty gold and purple skirt) then went to dinner with Nate and Nic (Dean was sick). After dinner we really wanted ice cream so we went to a restaurant and ordered it, and then noticed the waitress running out of the shop, getting on her motorbike and riding off and coming back a few minutes later with a tub of ice cream. It was very amusing.

We went to Lao Lao bar after ice cream and i had a wild turkey and coke and played I have never with some girls we met tubing in Vang Vieng. I was kinda drunk by the end of it so despite my tiredness, we went to a 24 hour bowling alley to drink some more. Unfortunately all they sold was beer, yuck, but i managed to get through one. I got my lowest score ever in bowling.
i got (wait for it) 6. I only hit down any pins at all once. but i blame it on alcohol. After that i went home to bed.

day 16

2007-01-15T19:46:00.000-08:00

We woke up kinda late and Nate came to get us to go for breakfast (Dean and Nic's friend) we had good breakfast at a cafe, bacon, eggs, a baguette and earl grey tea. (but they have bloody UHT milk here most of the time blergh). Then we walked up to the top of a hill in the middle of Luang Prabang where there is a temple and you can look out over the whole town. It was hard work climbing the 358 stairs but the view is amazing, and there is a temple at the top of the hill. We decided with the boys that we wanted to go on a trek/kayaking thing or something, so we went to a travel agent to find out about it. We weren't sure if we wanted to go Monday or Tuesday so we didn't book ours, also the guys wanted to go mountain biking and there was no way we were going to do that ) i haven't ridden a bike since I was about 10 (except for last year on Great Keppel Island when I crashed one into a bush when I was drunk)). We wanted to go see the water falls or the museum but we ended up running out of time and just bumming around, and got some food, then we went to a nice bar that had 2 for 1 drinks. I was sleepy to a went home about 11pm. I missed Tim so i wanted to go on the Internet but all the places were closed even though they say they close at 11.30. dammit. Nicole came home the next morning.

Day 15

2007-01-15T19:42:00.000-08:00

Bus to Luang Prabang. Very boring. We made friends with Dean and Nic from Sydney on the tuk-tuk into town. They invited us to dinner and Dean and i ended up just going by ourselves because wanted meat and everyone else had a veggie buffet. We spent their entire time talking about our girlfriend\boyfriend and how much we missed them. We went back to the guys room and then realised we were locked into the guesthouse, but figured out (after quite a while) how to climb the fence to get out. hee hee

Day 14

2007-01-15T19:16:00.000-08:00

When we woke up i was still drunk. We were supposed to meet our tubing friends to go for a walk to some caves but it seemed to take us forever to do anything. We eventually (at 1.30 instead of 10.30) went to the caves and they were very beautiful.The Laotians hid in them when they were being bombed by someone I've forgotten who maybe the Chinese? they were very beautiful. Underneath (at ground level) there is a cool spring that is like a cave with water in it, so we swam inside and it was fantastic, it goes inside the mountain bout 80 metres, but i only went in about 50m, cause it was a bit scary. It was soo beautiful the water was really clear and looked blue and it was kind of an adrenalin rush swimming in a cave. On the way back to town we found a woman selling honey obviously just fresh from a hive, as it was lumps of honeycomb with bees still stuck in it. We bought some and it was really tasty. We were playing cards waiting for some of the tubing people across the road from the restaurant we had pie at and i was still hungry cause my dinner earlier was crap (i ordered satay chicken and got roast duck, but it was bits of duck on the bones all chopped up), so i decided to see if i could order just mashed potato to the table across the road, and they were fine with it, so i ate mashed potato while we played spades. We went to Jai Dee bar for a while but i was sleepy so i went home. Nicole stayed out and got drunk.

day 13 Tubing!!!

2007-01-15T19:07:00.000-08:00

Today we went tubing which was excellent fun. You get in the river on an inner tube and float down. It is very good and the water is warmish. There are are bars all down the river you can stop at, that have flying foxes, swings and diving boards into the river. We stopped at one and ended up playing volleyball and bocce for about 2 hours. We made friends with some people while we were doing that, and told them about a party we had heard about the night before from some locals. I got very drunk on buckets after tubing because Nicole and i decided to start drinking at 7.00pm as the buckets are cheap (a bucket is a one or two litre small bucket with ice a crap load of alcohol and a mixer with several straws in it). Drinks in SE Asia are very strong. At Jeska (the bar with the party) we kept drinking and i don't remember too many details apart from playing table tennis with a thong as a bat and sitting in the fountain. We then went to an after party which was very fun it was at a bar that looked like it was closed but was actually open (apparently a lawyer owns it so he gets away with breaking curfew laws) I met a Mexican guy called Diego who was very nice, and Nicole pashed and 18 year old guy from Melbourne called Max.

day 12

2007-01-15T18:54:00.000-08:00

We woke up at about 8am to have breakfast with the Americans and then has to say goodbye when they went to work. We caught the 9.30am bus to Vang Vieng, it was a local bus, so pretty run down but not too bad. It took 4 hours instead of 3 but we kind of expected that for 25,000 kip. Um... we walked around and found the riverside bungalows and decided to stay in them as they were quite nice and i wanted to stay in a bungalow. We just wandered the town after that, and watched friends while we ate lunch. (for some reason it plays in a lot of places). Later we watched the sun set at a bar but the river (i mean literally on the river; i had my feet in the water). We met some New Zealanders and an Israeli girl who invited us to have dinner with them. Dinner was a totally western meal and sooo tasty, i had steak and ale pie and mashed potato and it was fantastic. After dinner we wanted to go to a bar but they have an 11.30 curfew in Laos so everything closed.

Rest of day 11

2007-01-15T18:44:00.000-08:00

We ended up staying by the pool all day, drinking, playing cards and eating pizza with the Americans They were very nice and basically wouldn't let us pay for anything. We went out for dinner on that night to the riverboat restaurant which is stranded in the Mekong as it is so shallow at the moment because of the dry season so we didn't actually go anywhere. Also the food wasn't very good, mine was ok but there were bugs (like thrip) all over the table and Nate, one of the Americans got sick. we introduced them to banana pancakes which they loved. then we ran into Dan who took us to a "rock 'n' Roll" bar as he called it. It had an entirely Lao band playing very soft pop music for example i remember them playing the Ronan Keating song "when you say nothing at all". It was pretty lame so we didn't stay too long. we were pretty tired after our huge night the night before so we just went to bed. (of course they let us sleep at their hotel again) Yay!!

day 11 (so far)

2007-01-08T23:24:00.000-08:00

Today we woke up at 9 or so and bludged around the hotel room. Then the Americans had to go to work so i played on the computer for a while. After only an hour, the Americans came back because they got sent home from work because they were to drunk/hungover.

so we went outside and have been sitting by the pool and going for periodic swims. Its very nice, and now i think I'll go back out there. Later i think we will go to Vang Vieng (or maybe tomorrow). Some lunch would probably b good too... :)

Day 10

2007-01-08T23:12:00.000-08:00

Today i had the cheapest breakfast of all time, i had these little donut things for 1000Kip. 7200Kip is one dollar. So it was pretty cheap. they were tasty.

We caught the local bus to Buddha Park today which is a park near the river that has statues of buddhas and ganesh's and mixtures between the two. (e.g. buddha's with 6 arms etc). I'll put pics up another day when i have Nicole's camera. There was a huge pot sort of shaped thing that you could climb inside and it had all carvings inside it and lots of levels. It was very cool but is kind of hard to describe.

The local bus was interesting, the roads here are very poor; some of them are bichamen but ts like they were made in 1940 and no-on has done any work to them since so they have huuuuge pot holes and are very bumpy. The people on the bus were also funny, there are ladies that brought huge boxes and bags onto the bus and filled the whole aisle with them, and then got mad at us when they wouldn't fit under our seat where our legs go.

We had baguettes for lunch again, they were good today i had a chicken one, then we were going to have a donut, but the Americans from the other night found us and we went to the pub with them. Then we had to go and get our Vietnam visa's and met them at their hotel later. We had a few drinks with them and stayed up talking and ended up sleeping at their hotel. We were supposed to go and get food but we never got around to it, so we ordered room service at about 2am. Then we got to sleep in nice hotel beds. Lovely.

day 9

2007-01-07T03:22:00.000-08:00

Today we have been wandering around Laos a bit. We were supposed to go swimming with Mike one of the americans we mae friends with last night, but we went to his hotel and he didnt't show up, so i guess he stood us up.

We went to a buddist temple (at Wat) that was really old and has graves all around the edges, it is very weird seeing monks all around the place, i was pretty surpsied to see one that was smoking!

Them we walked to the Victory Monument which is a replica of the Arc De Trimphe in France. Its pretty impressive.

The gold thing in the picture is a oh dear i can't remember what is was now. There were monks at it and it was big and gold. But i've forgotten what it was called. I'll bring the guidebook next time and say what its called.

We caught a Tuk-tuk back to around where we're staying and had a baguette for lunch which was quite nice and cheap (8000 kip). Then we just wandered around, and i have been at this internet cafe for 2 hours or so.

I wanted to go get a manicure but the place closes at 7pm and its 6.30 now. (4 houts behind Oz if you're wondering).

And that's my day up until now.

Day 8

2007-01-07T02:46:00.000-08:00

When we got to Udon Thani we caught 2 more buses and got into Vientiane the capital of Laos at about 12 noon. We wandered around a found a room for 50,000 kip a night (about $5 US) with a hot shower so that's pretty good.

Laos is very cool, its sort of similar to Thailand, but its a bit cleaner and quieter, and the french influence is interesting. There are still street stalls selling rice and noodles and fish and bugs, chicken, everything really, but there are cute cafes selling coffee and croissants and baguettes too.

We had a baguette for lunch and went to the morning market (which goes until 5pm) and i bought a t-shirt that says queen cause i wanted something that covered my shoulders and it amused me.

We were kinda sleepy after that so went back to our room and fell asleep. I felt a bit dodgy and Nicole was starving so we decided to try to find a vegetarian buffet she had read about but we couldn't find it. We walked along the Mekong river (see picture above) then we just got normal food, then we decided to go to a pub since it was Saturday.

A girl came over and invited us to hang with her friends, it turns out they are working here for the American Consulate. They were very fun. Some of them had some deep fried crickets whihc they somehow onviced me to try. It wasn't so bad. Very crunchy. So we went to a couple of clubs with them which seemed to mostly be places for western guys to pick up Laotian girls. At the second club some black South African guys came over to us and tried to hit on us for a while, but that seemed dodgy to me, so eventually we went home to bed.

Day 7

2007-01-07T02:24:00.000-08:00

Elephant day!!

This morning we got up early and i was (luckily) feeling better. We packed our stuff and the minibus picked us up at 8.30am. When we got to the Elephant Nature Park they gave us heaps of information on them, they have all been rescued from logging in Burma, off the streets in Bangkok (people beg with them there) or

from elephant riding camps.

We got to feed them, and i got a baby which was fretty fun. they Wrap their trunk around you hang as they take the food (watermelon and banana) from you. You can also throw it in their mouths if they raise their trunk.

After feeding them we had lunch which was a huge variety of Thai and watern food, it was very nice even though i was still feeling a bit dodgy.

In the afternoon we took them down to the river and washed them with buckets and scrubbing brushes it was very fun. They have one white elephant (really more pink than white) and she looked magnificent when she was washed. Unfortunately they just walk out of the water and throw dirt all over themselves as a sunscreen anyway. :) We walked around and Michelle our (Aussie) guide told us heaps about them, like the one who has lost half a foot from a land mine, Lily who was made to take amphetamines because she had to work day and night, another one who is blind in both eyes because she was punished for not working hard enough but being hit with a slingshot in the eye, due to this she lost her baby (literally, her baby elephant fell down a mountain and died because she couldn't see it well enough) when this happened she refused to work and became depressed, then they punished her by hitting her other eye with an arrow. So she is now blind in both eyes. There is another one was a terrible limp, who had her leg broken by logs falling down a hill into her, then after that healed she was locked up with a male elephant in "musth" where their testoserone levels rise and they become very dangerous. Her owner wanted her to become pregnant so he chained her up for 2 days with the bull elephant instead of getting her pregnant he repeatedly hit her on the back with his head untril she broke her back. It was very very sad, and there are other stories like this as well.

In the afternoon we watched a documentary from National Geographic on the elephant park and then got to take them down to the river again. That's when the photo was taken, in the late afternoon.

It was an awesome day, and I'd love to go back there for a week or a month.

We got the bus back to Chaing Mai, then hung around th bus station for a while, to get the 12 hour overnight VIP bus to Udon Thani. It was a great bus with heaps of legroom we slept really easily. We were even given drinks and snacks.

day 6

2007-01-07T02:19:00.000-08:00

Ok today was relatively non-eventful.

We slept until about 10amm then got out of our tee pee and went and read our books until Sang and Sarah woke up.

They didn't get up til about 1pm and we wanted to catch the 4pm bus back to chaing mai (the last one), so Sang called up when he woke up and booked the bus for us.

Then he drove us into town (again) to rop off our scooter and we wandered aroudn for a while said goodbye and got the bus home. I unfortunatley got bus sick (which is weird cause i am never motion sick) and threw up all over myself. It was not fun but Nicole was very helpful and helped me change and stuff.

When we got back to chiang mai i was still sick so i pretty much just went to bed.

Very exciting eh?

Day 5

2007-01-07T01:55:00.000-08:00

We slept in a bit the next morning and Nicole was better so we got the 8.30an bus to Pai. When we got here Sang (Sarah;s Boyfriend) and Dua (his friend) picked us up. We rode on the back of motorbikes with backpacks on which was a bit scary. When we got to "Birds Eye View" which is really beautiful up on a hill with all hand built accommodation (made of bamboo and stuff).

I decided to rent a scooter because its pretty far to walk back into town. So Sang and Dua drove us back to town and the scooter hire place we hired a scooter for 180Baht. Dua hopped on the back with me to show me what to do and within about 5 seconds i smashed us both into a wall. So i hopped on the back. They then decided i was too dangerous to drive so Nicole had a go but she didn't really like it either, so then they just drive us around for the rest of the day.

WE went to a furniture shop cause the guys needed stuff and bought a broom and a rolled up straw mat and Nicole and I held onto those while we were riding. (with no helmets hahah Asia so safe).

WE came back to the accomm and bummed around they cooked us lunch and then ate with us which was very lovely. Mao another person staying there did a lot of the cooking and on closer inspection we discovered she (he) is a "lady boy".

Sarah came back from Chaing Mai at about 7pm and we hung around drinking and then they made us dinner, which we all ate together again. Then they drove us into town to a bar and drank (well they drank Nicole and I didn't really) until 1.30am. We came back here and they lit a fire in our tee pee and we went to sleep.

I just put on a pic of our tee pee and unfortunately it is sideways. But you get the idea.

Day 4

2007-01-07T01:22:00.000-08:00

On Day 4 we did a Thai cooking course. It was excellent, we cooked 5 dishes and went to the local market to buy our ingredients. You can see photos of us at

www.cookinthia.com

Go to the web photo page on the 2nd of Jan.

The things we cooked were Thai noodle salad, Chicken with Cashews, cocnut chicken soup (yum!!) and wemade red curry paste and used it to make red chicken curry which was awesome. The curry paste lasts for 4 months so even though it's hard work to make it you have it for ages.

For red curry you use dried red chilllis that you soak in water overnight, with green you use fresh green chillis.

Our teacher was very funny she told us which vegetables and fruits were good for "our business" she also joked around a lot e.g. saying that the brocolli was young cauliflower (some people belived her). And when we cook ground chicken she said cook it until there is no more bird flu.

After the cooking course we went to try to book the elephant nature park day but it was booked for 2 days so we decided to go to Pai for 2 days. Pai is a hippyish town in the mountains North East of Thailand. We weren't really that hungry after eating all the cooking from the course so we had banana pancake with chocolate and condensed milk which is extremely tasty.

We went to bed soon after that because we had to catch the 7am bus to Pai.

We met a girl called Sarah who lives in Pai. She and her boyfriend have just started a business where they have bungalows and tee pees for accommodation. We decided to stay there, so she organised for her boyfriend to pick us up from the bus station.

WE went to bed until i heard Nicole making weird noises in the bathroom and she was sik (both ends) for 2-3 hours. That was yuck but not too bad as she recovered quickly.

Day 2 and 3 (and 4 I guess too)

2007-01-01T00:25:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!

um.... after the pool on day 1 we went to pat pong market. It was just like all the other markets, but it is surrounded by "naughty" bars. Thai men wander over to you and say "sex show, sex show! Darlink!" Some of them also say "ping Pong show!" One man said sex show for you! come in! I love youuu!! . Very dodgy but funny.

you can see through the doors of some of them and there are women standing on stages in Bikinis looking quite bored.

There are also heaps of lady boys who are often more attractive than the women. and its very hard to tell the difference a lot of the time too.
http://maciekda.smugmug.com/keyword/pat%20pong

So after wandering for a while we went back to the hotel.

Yesterday we came to Chiang Mai which is much more cruisey. We were worried that we couldn't get accommodation. Dad did not organise accom for us here after all. So when we went into the 7th or 8th guest house that was full we were a little worried, but we saw a blank box on room A8 of one of the places and said hey you're not full what about A8? and they said they're not renting it out cause its got a huge hole in the roof. So we said, oh we don't care, we'll stay here anyway. So they said ok you can have it for 150baht a night which is $6. (sooo cheap)
WE went and looked that the hole and its not that big and its above the shower. So now we're really happy we're here, cause normally the room would be 350B.

We decided we better go out for new year so we went for a walk around to find some bars and they were all pretty empty. We found a big party with concerts and stuff in the middle of town which I'll put photos of on here when I get around to it (they're on Nicole's camera).

We were walking along the street and Nicole was checking out a guy and then she fell down the gutter, which was pretty funny (she didn't hurt herself too badly). then later on we saw them again and ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the night. We went to a few bars, most of them reggae which was good although when i was (relatively) drunk i noticed that they were singing the wrong words to "born to be wild" so i said right that;s it. I want to sing. So i went up and just walked onto the stage and started singing and everyone laughed and cheered. It was very fun. (There were at least 100 people there).

Soon after that we decided to go home. We pretty much passed out as soon as we got home we were soooo tired (and smashed).

Today we are just bumming around. We are probably going to do cooking school tomorrow and go to the elephant nature park the next day. And maybe we'll go to Pai one day as well cause it sounds nice.

Hope everyone had a lovely New Year!

:)

Oh i forgot. And we caught a tuk-tuk as well. It was pretty fun.

Day 1 (transcribed from my diary) 30/12

2007-01-01T00:07:00.000-08:00

aaah... sitting by the lovely pool at the Holiday Inn Bangkok. This is the only "holiday" part of our time in Asia i.e. place with pool and room service etc. The weather is about 28 degrees. I think we are considering charging cocktails to our room. They are 250 baht which you basically divide by 25 to get dollars so they are $10, so they're not cheap. Today at a market we saw local beer for 25 baht and here the same beer is 200.

Ok its decided we're having a lycheee colada and a melon mint. I love Pina colada so hopefully I'll love Lychee Colada too.

Funny/surprising things that i have seen/have happened today. (or yesterday)

1. When driving in the Mercedes Benz that picked us up from the airport last night I noticed a speed limit sign that said 60 km/hr, but the driver was doing 120. Oh well. At least he didn't speed up when the speed limit increased to 80.

2. Just before we got to the hotel (at about 1am) we saw a ute type thing drive past with about 5 children in it with blankets around them.

3. Funny things that i saw at the market.

a) a wooden carved object that seemed phallic that on closer inspection appeared to be a doubled ended dildo. ow splinters.

b) McRice burger Ad's everywhere. Hee hee. They appear to be McDonalds burger with a bun made of rice.

c) A line of ridiculously bright coloured taxi's. e.g. bright pink, purple, lime green, yellow etc.

d) Oh, there was a Japanese girl on the train with a T-shirt that said "I am playgirl"

There were many funny t-shirts i might buy some for presents, so i don't want to ruin the surprise.

The flight was great, possibly the best long(ish) flight I've ever been on. There were on-demand films, about 15 tv shows, music, games , etc. on a good quality screen. There were kids right near us but they weren't annoying at all (much better than the ones next to me on the way home from the US who were elbowing me and got airsick.

The Lychee colada just got here and its very tasty. Missy Higgins just started playing which is kind of odd.

Woo! the kids just left so i can have a swim.

Yay for Dad!!

2006-12-21T18:20:00.000-08:00

I just spoke to Nicole (my sister), and our lack of bookings issue has been solved.

We have been asking Dad to get his friend in Thailand to book the train for us from Bangkok to Chiang Mai (you can't book it unless you're in the country apparently). He finally went there himself (Dad that is) to find that its the Kings birthday in Thailand that weekend and all the Thai's go to Chiang Mai, so all the trains are booked out.

Soo... Dad being the lovely dad he is figured he better book us flights instead. He also booked resort accommodation for the first two nights in Bangkok and airport pickup. He paid for all of this as well. Then he sold one of his oxygen systems to a resort in Chiang Mai and talked them into giving us free accommadation there as well. So yay!!! We will definitely have good accomm for the first few nights. Goody.

I'm excited.

Now i'm going shopping to buy ingredients for a Toblerone Christmas Tree.

Pre travel

2006-12-19T17:19:00.000-08:00

I made this so i can post stuff about my January trip. I keep saying I'm going to Thailand, cause that's the only bit we (my sister Nicole and I) have actually booked, but the plan is to go to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia as well.

Hmm... We really should book accom for the first night i guess, since we get to Bangkok at 10.40pm. And Khao San Road is an hour from the airport i think. And there's the whole customs thing.

We're going on the 29th of Dec (next Friday), til the 29th of Jan. Hope i don't miss Tim too much (i am sooo lame, i know) :)

Oh well we'll see. We have this great plan that if we meet boys we can sleep in their beds and save money. hee hee hee... (I think we're joking)

I have had all my needles. Typhoid, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Hep A and B, Tetanus, Whooping Cough, Diptheria, and I've got tablets for Malaria that i am bound to forget to take.

And i am too cheap to get the Rabies needles they are $300. Can't afford that, i'll just have to not annoy animals i guess.

anyway i have to go and continue this not working business by have lunch at the local pokies venue (classy classt Corio, its the only "restaurant" within 10kms) with my friends.