Long time no write, and for that I am sorry. I could make up excuses as to why I've neglected this blog but I shan't try to excuse my lazyness though I have to admit I take some pride in that.
Since my last (rather cheerful) update, I've bid India goodbye, and though I had my lows, I left feeling overwhelmingly in love with the country. Almost twelve weeks we spent together, and I wouldn't trade them for anything. The diversity the country posses, the people, the food... I could go on for a long time but I shan't bore you. I will tell you that the state of Kerala is one of th most beautiful places I've ever been to. And that I had goat I mean great Christmas and New Year's on Goa. And yes, I did behave. For the most part.
After virtually no sleep from New Year's shenanigans and early morning flights with layovers, I arrived in Bangkok, Thailand where I ony spent a mere 3 days gorging on delicious street food and sleeping on the loudest beds in the history of the world. I witnessed a Danish elder having a self pleasuring moment on the computer of the hostel's lobby (he was looking at girls photos on FB. WTF?) and was then hit on by a lady boy. Pretty standard.
After the whistlestop visit to the kingdom I jetted off to Vietnam to meet Ofira, a friend whom I'd met 4 years ago in Peru and Argentina when we were volunteering there together. Luckily if one is in possesion of a Finnish passport, one doesn't need to apply for a Vietnamese visa nor does one have to pay for it. After gleefully smiling at all the other folk at Hanoi airport who had to wait in line to have their visa approved and pay for it, I rushed to fetch my bag which has managed to reach mammoth proportions and met Ofira. We finally made into Hanoi City after spending a good hour in a crammed minibus stuck in a traffic jam. We found a cheap hostel with free beer (I was sold the moment I aw the free beer sign, though sadly the beer turned out be watery swill) and a decent dorm, and then left to fil our starving stomachs. And the moment I got that hot, almost bucket sized bowl of pho infront of me, I just sighed and went to heaven for a moment. And omnomnom.
After spending a day exploring what Hanoi offers, we jumped onto a snazzy night bus and headed up to the North of the country, to a small town called Sa Pa with stunning views, ride paddies and terrace farming. Arriving there at 6am was so cold. I was glad I don't have gonads as I don't where they would've been. After showers we rented a motorbike and headed for the hills to see some waterfalls and a high pass. I even taught Ofira how to ride the bike, and it was a success. Well, apart from when she dropped the bike twice. But Sa Pa was absolutely beatiful and breathtaking, and very different to the Vietnam that is advertised. A place well worth visiting if you're planning to go.
From Sa Pa we headed back down to Ha Long bay on another night bus. This bus was less nice than the bus from the night before but we made it to Ha Long none the less in one piece. We booked a boat tour as well as bus ticket for our third consecutive night bus. There really isn't that much to see in Ha Long City itself, most of the happenings are on an island on the bay, but we settled for ambling on the sea front and then headed for the tour. The boat took us around the bay, and even on a misty day the scenery was beautiful. Included in the tour was also a visit to some caves, an the were very stunning with striking stalagtites and stalagmites lit with different coloured lights. We finished our tour with good spirits, and went in search of pho, tea and a bakery. After finding all three, we were mentally preparing for the bus ride ahead, due to take us all the way down to Hue. And no amount of preparedness could have prepared us for what was ahead of us.
Vietnam has sleeper buses for tourists, and then ones for locals. Unfortunately, the idiot in Ha Long charged us a tourist bus ticket, but we were plonked on a local bus. The journey that was supposed to take a reasonable 13 hours ended up lasting 23,5 hours. At least we weren't the only other foreigners on the bus, but unfortunately they were a cretinous, drunk swedish couple and his Mum who didn't speak English. I don't even want to think about what her bus journey was like. Anyhoo, Ofira and I got beds at the very end of the bus on the upper level (luckily the beds were horizontal so I actually slept) and squeezed ourselves and our backpacks up there, cozied into our silk sleeping bags and attempted to drown out the sound of the drunk swedes. At 1am Ofira woke me up and we then discovered that the bus had driven to a petrol statio in Hanoi to fill up and in the process had got caught up in some low-hanging electrical wiring. This had resulted in one of the emergency exits on the roof to be flung off completely, and the other one (which was conviniently directly above me) to open quite a bit. The lost exit was retrieved, the other one shut a bit so that it still remained open for the remainder of the trip, and after some playing around with string the loose door was tied to the interior of the bus so we could continue our journey.
We were told that we should be arriving in Hue at around 10am, and so when I woke up around 9am I was getting prepared to arrive in Hue. Well, that arrival time of 10am was dead wrong as we discovered. We stopped for lunch at around midday and this Vietnamese lady was feeding me all this food that we were given. We were then asking the others if they knew where we were, and we discovered we weren't even halfway between Hanoi and Hue. Oh. My. God. Thus we spent an entire day on that bus, and one point a local guy joined our upper level dwellings, played cards with us and fed us snacks. After a dinner (with the same lady feeding me again) we finally arrived in Hue. At 8.30pm. Boom. Shower and quite lot of beer, and I slept well.
Hue is nothing to go on about, but Hoi An is. More beautiful at night, the town gets covered in colourful lanterns, and has a nice atmosphere. We also took a trip to My Son, some old Hindu temple ruins near Hoi An, which were beautiful nesteled in a msty mountain scenery. Two delightful nights in an actual bed in hotels, and we were back on a bus for the night, this time to Da Lat where we rented motorbikes and rode around taking in the beauty that Vietnam has to offer, and I had my very Long Way Round moments cruising around on the bikes. After a slightly cold and wet day, Ofira and I were gearing up for our last night together, to be spent on, you guessed it, another bus. We were headed for Ho Chi Minch City, or Saigon as it used be known as where I'd stay for a few days to recuperate from our manic travelling and Ofira would be travelling home.
Arriving at any place at 4am with no where to go is the least fun I can think of. But atleast this bus station had a cafe wih comfy sofas so I napped and we felt that at half six we could go and drop our bags off my hostel (18 bed dorm, booyah!) and then headed to the War Remnance museum (via a bakery! Delish custard tarts!). The museum was thorough, and had striking photos of the effects of the Vietnam War (known as the American War in Vietnam) and Agent Orange. Being in Vietnam and now in Camboda, it's made me realize how humand are far too developed for their own good, and we use all this knowledge and ability to create weapons to hurt others and kill each other. Kind of sickening.
After bidding Ofira goodbye, I spent three days in HCMC doing nothing. I ate, I drank, I walked. That's it. I then went to Can Tho, the biggest town in the Mekong Delta for the floating market they had there (lots of pineapple nd watermelon!) and for a foodie tour recommended on Trip Advisor. I tried to do a cooking class in Vietnam, but they were incredibly expensive so I opted to do this tour with Phuoc instead. Phuoc is a 19-year old guy who is studying Can Tho, and also organises food tours in Can Tho for $5 dollars (you also pay for your own food, my grub totalled at around $3,5) in the evenings for willing tourists. I lucked out by being the only person on the tour! Phuoc's level of english is phenomenal, and for the 3 hours we spent together he kept up with my fast jibber jabber and not once did our conversation falter. He was very good about answering all my questions on Vietnamese culture, and is incredibly knowledgeable. Anyway back to the food: first he took me to a place where I had vietnamese spring rolls (you made the rolls yourself!) with pork, herbs, salad, lotus root, carrot, pineabble, cucumber and rice noodles with a thick soya dipping sauce. AND OH MY IT WAS SO GOOOOOOOOOD and then Phuoc complimented me on my chop stick skills! The epic spring rolls were followed by little deep fried mince pork and bean buns at another place, wrapped in herbs and lettuce. OMNOMNOM. Then we had Vietnamese hot dogs, YUM and then a drink at a local cafe. A perfect evening *u*
After Can Tho, I went to Chau Doc also in the Mekong Delta to get a boat to the border of Vietnam and Cmabodia, and then proceeded to Phnom Penh. SO far I am in love with Cambodia, but I'll tel you all about that in the next post because I am sure by this point you can't be arsed to read anymore, and to be frank, I'm too lazy to write more. Toodles, lovelies!
Ps. My Cambodian visa says Maria Charrington (Y)
Pps. Enjoy the muzak I enjoyed whilst typing this:
Since my last (rather cheerful) update, I've bid India goodbye, and though I had my lows, I left feeling overwhelmingly in love with the country. Almost twelve weeks we spent together, and I wouldn't trade them for anything. The diversity the country posses, the people, the food... I could go on for a long time but I shan't bore you. I will tell you that the state of Kerala is one of th most beautiful places I've ever been to. And that I had goat I mean great Christmas and New Year's on Goa. And yes, I did behave. For the most part.
After virtually no sleep from New Year's shenanigans and early morning flights with layovers, I arrived in Bangkok, Thailand where I ony spent a mere 3 days gorging on delicious street food and sleeping on the loudest beds in the history of the world. I witnessed a Danish elder having a self pleasuring moment on the computer of the hostel's lobby (he was looking at girls photos on FB. WTF?) and was then hit on by a lady boy. Pretty standard.
After the whistlestop visit to the kingdom I jetted off to Vietnam to meet Ofira, a friend whom I'd met 4 years ago in Peru and Argentina when we were volunteering there together. Luckily if one is in possesion of a Finnish passport, one doesn't need to apply for a Vietnamese visa nor does one have to pay for it. After gleefully smiling at all the other folk at Hanoi airport who had to wait in line to have their visa approved and pay for it, I rushed to fetch my bag which has managed to reach mammoth proportions and met Ofira. We finally made into Hanoi City after spending a good hour in a crammed minibus stuck in a traffic jam. We found a cheap hostel with free beer (I was sold the moment I aw the free beer sign, though sadly the beer turned out be watery swill) and a decent dorm, and then left to fil our starving stomachs. And the moment I got that hot, almost bucket sized bowl of pho infront of me, I just sighed and went to heaven for a moment. And omnomnom.
After spending a day exploring what Hanoi offers, we jumped onto a snazzy night bus and headed up to the North of the country, to a small town called Sa Pa with stunning views, ride paddies and terrace farming. Arriving there at 6am was so cold. I was glad I don't have gonads as I don't where they would've been. After showers we rented a motorbike and headed for the hills to see some waterfalls and a high pass. I even taught Ofira how to ride the bike, and it was a success. Well, apart from when she dropped the bike twice. But Sa Pa was absolutely beatiful and breathtaking, and very different to the Vietnam that is advertised. A place well worth visiting if you're planning to go.
From Sa Pa we headed back down to Ha Long bay on another night bus. This bus was less nice than the bus from the night before but we made it to Ha Long none the less in one piece. We booked a boat tour as well as bus ticket for our third consecutive night bus. There really isn't that much to see in Ha Long City itself, most of the happenings are on an island on the bay, but we settled for ambling on the sea front and then headed for the tour. The boat took us around the bay, and even on a misty day the scenery was beautiful. Included in the tour was also a visit to some caves, an the were very stunning with striking stalagtites and stalagmites lit with different coloured lights. We finished our tour with good spirits, and went in search of pho, tea and a bakery. After finding all three, we were mentally preparing for the bus ride ahead, due to take us all the way down to Hue. And no amount of preparedness could have prepared us for what was ahead of us.
Vietnam has sleeper buses for tourists, and then ones for locals. Unfortunately, the idiot in Ha Long charged us a tourist bus ticket, but we were plonked on a local bus. The journey that was supposed to take a reasonable 13 hours ended up lasting 23,5 hours. At least we weren't the only other foreigners on the bus, but unfortunately they were a cretinous, drunk swedish couple and his Mum who didn't speak English. I don't even want to think about what her bus journey was like. Anyhoo, Ofira and I got beds at the very end of the bus on the upper level (luckily the beds were horizontal so I actually slept) and squeezed ourselves and our backpacks up there, cozied into our silk sleeping bags and attempted to drown out the sound of the drunk swedes. At 1am Ofira woke me up and we then discovered that the bus had driven to a petrol statio in Hanoi to fill up and in the process had got caught up in some low-hanging electrical wiring. This had resulted in one of the emergency exits on the roof to be flung off completely, and the other one (which was conviniently directly above me) to open quite a bit. The lost exit was retrieved, the other one shut a bit so that it still remained open for the remainder of the trip, and after some playing around with string the loose door was tied to the interior of the bus so we could continue our journey.
We were told that we should be arriving in Hue at around 10am, and so when I woke up around 9am I was getting prepared to arrive in Hue. Well, that arrival time of 10am was dead wrong as we discovered. We stopped for lunch at around midday and this Vietnamese lady was feeding me all this food that we were given. We were then asking the others if they knew where we were, and we discovered we weren't even halfway between Hanoi and Hue. Oh. My. God. Thus we spent an entire day on that bus, and one point a local guy joined our upper level dwellings, played cards with us and fed us snacks. After a dinner (with the same lady feeding me again) we finally arrived in Hue. At 8.30pm. Boom. Shower and quite lot of beer, and I slept well.
Hue is nothing to go on about, but Hoi An is. More beautiful at night, the town gets covered in colourful lanterns, and has a nice atmosphere. We also took a trip to My Son, some old Hindu temple ruins near Hoi An, which were beautiful nesteled in a msty mountain scenery. Two delightful nights in an actual bed in hotels, and we were back on a bus for the night, this time to Da Lat where we rented motorbikes and rode around taking in the beauty that Vietnam has to offer, and I had my very Long Way Round moments cruising around on the bikes. After a slightly cold and wet day, Ofira and I were gearing up for our last night together, to be spent on, you guessed it, another bus. We were headed for Ho Chi Minch City, or Saigon as it used be known as where I'd stay for a few days to recuperate from our manic travelling and Ofira would be travelling home.
Arriving at any place at 4am with no where to go is the least fun I can think of. But atleast this bus station had a cafe wih comfy sofas so I napped and we felt that at half six we could go and drop our bags off my hostel (18 bed dorm, booyah!) and then headed to the War Remnance museum (via a bakery! Delish custard tarts!). The museum was thorough, and had striking photos of the effects of the Vietnam War (known as the American War in Vietnam) and Agent Orange. Being in Vietnam and now in Camboda, it's made me realize how humand are far too developed for their own good, and we use all this knowledge and ability to create weapons to hurt others and kill each other. Kind of sickening.
After bidding Ofira goodbye, I spent three days in HCMC doing nothing. I ate, I drank, I walked. That's it. I then went to Can Tho, the biggest town in the Mekong Delta for the floating market they had there (lots of pineapple nd watermelon!) and for a foodie tour recommended on Trip Advisor. I tried to do a cooking class in Vietnam, but they were incredibly expensive so I opted to do this tour with Phuoc instead. Phuoc is a 19-year old guy who is studying Can Tho, and also organises food tours in Can Tho for $5 dollars (you also pay for your own food, my grub totalled at around $3,5) in the evenings for willing tourists. I lucked out by being the only person on the tour! Phuoc's level of english is phenomenal, and for the 3 hours we spent together he kept up with my fast jibber jabber and not once did our conversation falter. He was very good about answering all my questions on Vietnamese culture, and is incredibly knowledgeable. Anyway back to the food: first he took me to a place where I had vietnamese spring rolls (you made the rolls yourself!) with pork, herbs, salad, lotus root, carrot, pineabble, cucumber and rice noodles with a thick soya dipping sauce. AND OH MY IT WAS SO GOOOOOOOOOD and then Phuoc complimented me on my chop stick skills! The epic spring rolls were followed by little deep fried mince pork and bean buns at another place, wrapped in herbs and lettuce. OMNOMNOM. Then we had Vietnamese hot dogs, YUM and then a drink at a local cafe. A perfect evening *u*
After Can Tho, I went to Chau Doc also in the Mekong Delta to get a boat to the border of Vietnam and Cmabodia, and then proceeded to Phnom Penh. SO far I am in love with Cambodia, but I'll tel you all about that in the next post because I am sure by this point you can't be arsed to read anymore, and to be frank, I'm too lazy to write more. Toodles, lovelies!
Ps. My Cambodian visa says Maria Charrington (Y)
Pps. Enjoy the muzak I enjoyed whilst typing this:
