My travels

Rainbow Beach - Brisbane

aoife_duffy — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:57:00 GMT

After my stay in the Town of 1770 I headed south to Rainbow Beach to join a tour to Fraser Island. Had to wait a few days to get on one so had to spend a few days at Rainbow Beach. By chance people that I had met at the Whitsundays were staying at the same hostel so had great craic meeting up with them.

Next day went up the Carlo Sandblow which was so difficult as you have to walk uphill on sand - the sand is so soft that you take a step and your foot goes right back again... eventually we managed to get to the top and it was beautiful. We brought a bodyboard with us so sandsurfed! Rainbow Beach got its name because of its multi-coloured sand but to be honest I didn't see that many. There is black, white and different shades of golden and yellow but that's about it that I could see...

Had another day to spend at Rainbow Beach so painted a boomerang with local aboriginal artists. It took hours but was so much fun! That night had my briefing for the trip :) As I had signed up to a self-drive tour they had to go through safety etc. It made driving on the sand look very easy on the DVDs they showed us but it turned out to be a bit more difficult! The first few hours of the tour I wished I had signed up to a guided tour purely for the fact that they would have drivers experienced to driving on the sand! We got stuck in the sand and had to get out and push so often that we were nicknamed Team Push by another tour group! After a bit of trial and error we finally found a good driver in the team :) The camping was fantastic. The first night we stayed at a campsite and the second on the beach. The beach was fantastic - the night sky was amazing. We just lay on the beach for about an hour and looked at it. I'd never seen anything like it before in my life! The sights that we saw were so nice. Lake Mckenzie was beautiful and Lake Wabby was the nicest water I've ever swam in. On one side was a huge sand-dune and on the other was forest. It was so picturesque. We also saw a shipwreck that has been there for decades. The island is named after the couple that sailed the boat. The husband died but the wife survived and was looked after by Aboriginals.

After that I had booked to go straight to Brisbane but I was convinced to stop off at Noosa on the way. THere wasn't much to do there but it was nice to just chill out for a few days. I spent three days swimming and reading my book. They also had free canoe hire so spent one afternoon with a few people kayaking round the lakes. It was lovely as something different to do!

Landed in Brisbane on Sunday and decided to stay put for a while. A lot of people that I had met didn't like Brisbane but I'm not quite sure why. I might have had a different impression if I was staying at a hostel but I'm couch surfing here so I've met some really nice people and have been able to take things easy and I don't even really feel like a tourist here. Stayed for a four nights in the best house I've ever seen. It was a complete hippy house - one wall had handprints of all the couchsurfers that had ever stayed in the house. The sleeping area was just the living room which had a couple of big beanbags and that's the bed! There were 6 other couchsurfers staying there, one of whom I had met in Scotland three years ago! I'm now staying at another house on the other side of town. I have done a bit of sightseeing but I'm leaving on Tuesday so I reckon I need to get a move on and see the rest of the city before I leave! I went to visit my great-aunt who emigrated to Australia in 1950. It was so nice meeting up with family on the other side of the world and I think she enjoyed getting to see some family too because she's too elderly now to travel so she doesn't get a chance to see her family back home very often. Anyway that's about all from here. Hallowe'en tomorrow so have to get to work on my costume. Have been invited to a party so should be good :)

Finally checking in from Oz!

aoife_duffy — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:26:00 GMT

If I remember correctly last I left off was the last few days of Vietnam. We went up into Sapa mountains for three days and it was fantastic. The land is tierred to help with irrigation and rice growing - the result is the most unusual and beautiful landscape ever. We did quite a lot of walking with a local guide and along the way we were joined by women from the local hill tribes. They still wear the traditional clothes made out of hemp. Their clothes were dark navy, surprisingly heavy for the weather and with beautiful embroidery on them. Earrings are a sign of beauty and the more you were the more loyal a wife you are so the majority wore several pairs of very heavy, silver hoop earrings through the same piercing. The women walked with us for about four or five hours before they took the jewellry, bags etc. out to try and sell us so they definitely had their business plan mastered! After that it was a quick turnabout to get a night train back to the city and onto the islands. We went out on a junk ship for two days, one night. Unfortunately the sky was quite cloudy so it wasn't as beautiful as other pictures I've seen but nevertheless still fantastic - thousands of islands in the sea with floating villages in between. That night our Vietnamese guide gave us a show of traditional music before getting up to teach us a few dances and songs! We also went out kayaking round the islands for an hour which was a lovely and peaceful way of getting closer to the islands but hard work.. When we landed that was our time in Vietnam over :( We flew back to Bangkok and two days later onto Australia. I had a fantastic time in Asia though the last few days I was getting tired and things were starting to grate on me - having to barter all the time, people trying to sell you stuff etc. so after previously being a bit concerned about how the transition from East to West was going to go I found myself looking forward to arriving in Australia.

Arrived in Sydney and was met by my uncle's parents. It was great going to a house with people you knew, home cooking and a setee! My second day we were having a barbeque and I was really cold compared to other people. We had also opened up a nice bottle of wine but the only thing I wanted was water.. turned out that was the start of a fever starting and two days later I would find myself in hospital!! The doctors thought that I had typhoid but at the end it was diagnosed as a strong strain of salmonella. Due to bad use of antibiotics in Vietnam the salmonella was very resilient. A few days in the hospital on a drip got me rehydrated and back in shape. When I got out I was fine but very tired. I cancelled my trip to Cairns and just had to give myself time to pick up properly. My uncle's parents were fantastic and I still got to do plenty with them so my time when I should have been in Cairns wasn't wasn't wasted. I went to Huskisen and Duruss to stay in cabins by the sea - went on a whale watching cruise and also saw loads of kangaroos, wallabees, possums and parrots in the area. Around the area I got to see loads of locals towns, beaches, bushwalks etc so I had a brilliant time.

Sydney - had the good fortune to stay with family of family so free accomodation! On the first day we got the ferry over to Manly which was is a lovely district. There were a group of full blooded aboriginals on the boat so that was interesting to see as I may not get to see more full-blooded indigineous people on the East coast. I was surprised how distinctive they looked. I have become very interested in their culture and have done quite a bit of reading on them since. After that I was dropped off where I was going to be stayin and that was the start of my adventures on my own.. eeeeekkk!!!

The rest of the week I was out sight-seeing everyday. Did the cliff walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach (which is an overrated beach!), went to loads of museums, street festivals - saw an Aboriginal smoking cermony, Darling Harbour Fiesta and street dancers outside the opera house, botannical gardens (beautiful), Taronga zoo, aquarium, the Rocks, surfing etc. It is a lovely city and I really enjoyed myself. The weather wasn't the best so I decided to leave the Harbour Bridge climb to the end of my trip because I think at that height the view would be spectacular and didn't want them ruined by clouds! Highlights were the Rocks, the zoo, Police and Justice Museum, Maritime Museum and the ferry trips which look back on the bridge and opera house.

After that I flew to Hamilton island to go to Airlie Beach. There's not an awful lot to Airlie Beach itself but the boat trips are fantastic. I went on a boat called the British Defender which was a maxi yauht so actually did some real sailing! We were all surprised at the size of the boat to fit 30 people but it was fine once we all got used to it. We sailed the first day to where we were going to stay so all were involved in lifting the masts etc. The next morning was an early start and we got dropped at Whitsunday Island National Park. It's on an island and home to the most beautiful beach I have ever seen in my whole life - it's apparently in the Top 10 beaches in the world and I'm not surprised. We chilled out there for a while and then we were back on the boat for a bit more sailing. The next stop was for snorkelling which was really good fun but I have to say I was disappointed in the coral! A lot of it was dead and it didn't live up to what I saw in Vietnam. I'll hopefully get a chance to see more at some point but a lot of good snorkelling and scuba is done further north round Cairns so I may have missed that (all these thigns I have missed just give me an excuse to come back again someday!). The craic on the boat was mighty and I met such nice people. Travelling alone isn't as scary as it initially seemed! It's so easy to meet people and generally most people are very nice so so far so good. When we all got off the boat on the Saturday the crew booked a table for us a local bar so we all met up and had a good night out together before all saying our farewells.

The next day I had decided to try out couch surfing. I stayed with somebody who initially might seem like an unusual choice - a 58 year old man. However, he was an aboriginal elder and I just couldn't miss the opportunity to meet him. We went on a bushwalk together and he was such an interesting person to talk to. He had worked on a native title claim, had gone and lived in the bush for 9 months a few years ago and had his four bottom teeth missing - knocked out as part of the ritual to show that he had been initiated. After that we went to the next town to see some local wildlife and then back to Airlie Beach. It was lovely seeing that side of the area as well. Ten minutes drive and you're away from all the tourists and commercialisation so it was lovely!

Picked up the Oz Experience bus and we were then on our way to Kroombit cattle station, which is a compulsory stop with the company because it is such a long journey to Rainbow beach which is most people's next destination. The cattle station was in the middle of nowhere and, as random a place as it was to stay, was fantastic. We were taught how to lasoo, crack a whip, we were electrocuted with the cattle prod (all in the name of team building!), had a limbo competition, talent competition (I won :)), drinking games and then the next morning it was out on the horses to muster up the goats before heading on on our journey! I had originally booked to go straight to Rainbow beach but I was so tired I decided to get off at the Town of 1770 to relax for a day or two. According to the Lonely Planet, it's a small beach town with not much to do. They are correct in that it is one street town with a beach but there is plenty to offer tourists. It has such a chilled out vibe to it and the hostel has sofas and a TV so it's perfect to relax for a while. The first day I did nothing but read and watch TV. The next day I signed up for Scooteroo - you can go motorbiking and you don't need a licence! It was amazing. We rode for over 60km all around the area before stopping off at the beach to watch the sun set. If we had the climate at home I would definitely look into buying a motorbike. The ones we had weren't proper in that there were no gears (although you could travel up to 100km/hr or so on them - the fastest I got was about 65km/hr) but the feeling of the wind on your face is amazing and it was such a good experience. The next day I signed up to go on an acrobatic place. An English girl and I went up with the pilot on a four seater plance and the pilot pulled some maneovures - upside down, round and round.. it was like a rollercoaster. It was like nothing else I've ever experienced before although after I was feeling a bit ill. We stopped off at a beach on an island for about 45minutes which was good to settle the stomach and then we were off again. This time I was in the front :) I may have had the chance to fly but ssssh because it may be illegal to allow passengers to fly a plane... Today I signed up to surfing lessons - 3 hours for $17 so I couldn't say no. I still can't surf to save my life but I still enjoyed it!

Anyway that's me finally up to date. Still missing you all xxx

Over a thousand kilometres in four days...

aoife_duffy — Wed, 2 Sep 2009 01:37:00 GMT

The last few days have been brilliant. The Mekong Delta tour was a bit of a disappointment as it rained heavily and for a boat trip we seemed to spend a lot of it on buses! It was still enjoyable though. We finished up in Saigon which was brilliant. It was a flying visit but we had time to visit the Cu Chi tunnels where the people lived/hid during the American bombing in the Vietnam war. The holes that the people climbed down were tinchy - the width was the size of my foot and the length wasn't much bigger. One of the tunnels has been widened up and out for tourists and it was still too claustropobic for me to go through. We also went to the War Remenants museum which was horrific. There were photo exhibitions of people born deformed as a result of agent orange. They also had reconstructed jails and old fighter jets. Really interesting albeit a bit morbid.

After Saigon we got a night train to Nha Trang where we went snorkelling for day. I ended up quite burnt despite reapplying my sun cream three times in a space of about five hours but it was amazing. The visibility was really good and we saw some brilliant coral.

That night another train, this time to Hoi An, which a lovely city with quite a French influence but also quite a strong Chinese influence. It was a pity we couldn't stay more than a day/night here as it was lovely and the surrounding highlands are meant to be amazing. The city is quite famous for its tailors - I got a bit carried away and got a coat, dress and sandals made. The next morning we hired motor bikes (with drivers obviously! - "Easy Riders") and went through the mountain, stopping off at Marble Mountain and American base lookouts. We then drove to the next city where we were catching our next bus. We had time to see the citadel (where the Emporer used to live). We weren't allowed to take photographs inside but it was amazing. After that it was straight to the bus station to get the night bus to Hanoi so we finally made it to the north of Vietnam. It took three out of four nights travelling throughout the night but we did lol.

Plan for the next few days is tomorrow see Hanoi a bit. We had planned to move on tomorrow but it is nationalist day to celebrate the anniversary of the introduction of Communism so we are going to stay in the city to see what happens. On Thursday we are heading to Halong Bay for two days, one night (sleeping on the boat) then straight to Sapa Mountains for three days, two nights to do a bit of hiking and see some hill tribes.

the end of the project and into Vietnam

aoife_duffy — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:20:00 GMT

Tuesday we were on our way to breakfast when we were told the director's grandfather (not actual grandfather but the man who looked after him when he was orphaned as a child) had died. He had died at 5am and at 7am all the kids from the orphanage and us were on the way to the funeral. The men and women separate - we joined all the women in the village to make food. We just chopped veg (attempted to... we couldn't really do it at their speed so we were relegated to peeling garlic!) and cleaned dishes to feed about 300 people while the men MADE THE COFFIN on the other side of the garden and drink rice wine. We had our first experience of eating with our hands! We were given bowls of noodles for breakfast and everyone just tucked in from the same bowl eating with their hands lol. That continued all day while monks sat in the house and chanted with the body and a funeral director sang which is projected on a loudspeaker. The next morning we got up at 4.30am for the ceremony to start at 5. The kids walked in front with flowers and incense and we pulled the coffin which was on open hurst-like thing. By the time we were near the pagoda it was daylight. We stopped and people got down and prayed then we turned off the road to make our way to the pagoda. It was up a slight hill so we had to RUN to get enough momentum to get the coffin up it. When we got there, the body was soon put in the crematorium and people who weren't family were free to go. That afternoon we were asked if we wanted to make an offering. We went over to the grandfather's house where the monks were still praying. We sat with the women and they gave us scarves to wear diagonally across the chest (they wear them like that when praying). We were then given a bowl of rice and money. We went up and put a handful of rice in each of the monk's bowls and put the money on a plate. We then went and sat down again and a man brought over a candle. It was passed round in a circle and we had to take it with our left hand, pass our right hand upside down over it and pass the candle on. This was repeated several times before holy water was splashed on us. After that, it was time to go back to the orphanage.

The next day was class as normal except that one of the girls had been brought to hospital while we were at the funeral and diagnosed with Dengue fever. The team leader went with them which left just three of us so we had to teach all day.

Friday was our last day and two of us woke up with what we assume was food poisining so missed our last day of school :( I thought I had seen someone in the room a few days earlier but thought it was probably a dream. I was asked was that dream before or during we fell sick. I said before and was then told that it may have been a ghost as ghosts predict illness! I'm not sure what has happened since we left but I think the family we were renting the house of were probably going to get the house blessed!

Left on Saturday and spent two days in Phnom Penh before leaving. Went to the S21 Genocide Musuem and the Killing Fields. It was horrendous - similar to concentration camps except here they were more interested in kiling. Women and children were brought to S21, photographed, documented then taken straight to the killing fields. Men were normally held in s21 for a few weeks/months, tortured then brought to the killing fields.

Now in Vietnam. Have sailed along the Mekong Delta. It is part of a tour - we thought we were meant to be doing things all day today but we have been dumped in a town where there is bugger all to do hence time for a long and, if i may say so myself, pretty impressive update!

el martes ibamos a desayunar cuando uno de los profesores nos dijo que el abuelo del directo habia muerto y tuvimos que ir al funeral enseguida. cuando llegamos a la casa del abuelo todas las mujeres estaban cocinado. tuvimos que ayudar ya que estabamos preparando comida para todo el pueblo. Los hombres estaban al otro lado de la jardin construyendo el ataud. los monjes salmodiaba todo el dia. el dia siguiente nos llevamos a las 4 de la manana para traer el ataud al templo para la cremacion. despues dimos una ofrenda a los monjes. les dimos dinero y arroz.

el dia siguiente una de las voluntarias cogio fiebre del dengue y yo y otra chica intoxicacion por alimiento. habia tenido un sueno la noche anterior y habia pensado que habia un hombre en la habitacion. la directora piensa que era fantasma ya que fantasmas predicen enfermedad (o por lo menos esto es lo que creen los en el pueblo)...

el proyecto termino el martes. pasamos dos dias en el capital, phnom penh antes de ir a vietnam. vimos el museo de genocidio y los campos de exterminio. ya estamos en vietnam. ibamos en barca por el mekong delta y ahora estamos en saigon!

Bang Mealea - update

aoife_duffy — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:08:00 GMT

Hey all's still going well in Bang Melea. We've been out there for two weeks without coming back into the city so sleeping last night without being woken up by the noise of cows/pigs/babies crying/the monk's drum beating at 4am was quite nice!

All's still going well in the village. The farm is starting to take shape and the school has just got a curriculum, made specially for orphans in Cambodia, so teaching will be a lot easier now.

Last weekend we went to some of the temples near the village. One was 60km away and we went on the back of a motorbike. It's officially illegal for foreigners to rent motorbikes but we had no problem getting one - a policeman offered to drive one of the bikes to solve any problems! The temple was in ruins but impressive to see. The next day we went to the temple in the village, it was by far the prettiest we've seen. In the evening we had to look after the kids so we took them swimming in the temple, fully clothed obviously as it would be a scandal to wear a bikini!

On Friday we were invited a "party" on the farm. As there's no electricity the parties start around 5 so you can become before dark (8pm!). We had home-made rice wine which is just passed round the circle. It is apparently rude to decline! Then to eat we had cut vegetables to dip into a sauce made of fish paste and dead ants. After another man came along with a pig's head - the nicest meat I've ever tasted but I drew the line when they started offering round the eyeballs chopped up... Then we took the party back to our house as one of the girls has a sore ankle and was house bound. We have one light for the porch which is powered by electric and we put on some music. Next thing we know loads of neighbours had round to join us. It was such an amazing night.

Yesterday we took the kids out on an day trip. They have class 7 days a week so we reckoned they would enjoy a change. We took them to place which looks after endangered animals then some temples (we didn't go in..its free for Cambodians, pretty dear for tourists even if they are volunteers who are there to supervise the kids). After that we took them to the Baray near Angkor Wat to swim. They loved it - it's the closest thing to the seaside they'll see. They were given a dollar each to spend so they had a brilliant time treating themselves. Last on the itinerary was Angkor Wat. On the way back we were dropped into Siem Reap. The look on the kids faces was incredible. It was their first time in a city and they were fascinated by the street lights and big buildings.

Anyway that's all for now. Back to the village tomorrow for the last week of the project!

Bang Mealea

aoife_duffy — Sat, 1 Aug 2009 13:44:00 GMT

We are back in Siem Reap for a few hours while waiting on a bus to Battambang where we are spending the weekend. We have been at the new project for two weeks. It is brilliant. We are working with an orphange/school for orphans, poor and homeless. Over a hundred children come for extra classes/informal education and around 20 live there. 100 have breakfast at the school which is a new project as their families can't afford that meal. The children are amazing and we're already very attached to them. Apart from teaching English classes (I am teaching the director) we are also helping the farmers/builders on the farm. The orphanage/school is currently making a farm where the children can learn permaculture (agriculture in a way that makes the settlement self-sufficient). It will also be a source of food and income for the school.

The village is very remote, which I love because we are very far from tourists. Our house is just one big room where we hang up hammocks at night to sleep and have a chamber pot in the room! The shower is in the garden and is two big pots which collect rain water and a little pot to throw the water over yourself. The women have to wear "sarongs" in the shower which is a long piece of material elasticated to hold it under arms and goes almost to the ground so we had to go the market last week to get ours made.

The bus we got back into Siem Reap was a pick-up truck that picks up people on the way by driving along blarring its horn so people know its coming and then people sit on the edge of the truck (the good seats) or one the ground in the middle (not so comfortable...). I am having an amazing time. I think it will be a shock to get to Australia as it is so far removed from our living conditions here. When I think of our house now it seems like a mansion and luxurious beyond belief. The people are so nice - more so in the country than the city though. Having come back into the city having people trying to sell you stuff/ride in their tuk-tuk/moto etc. hit us with a shock. I'm thoroughly enjoying the peace of country life!

Still missing you all!

Todavia estoy pasandolo pipa. Me encanta el segundo proyecto (mas que el primero). Estamos en un pueblo en la jungla - lejos de civilacion y turistas. Nos quedamos en una casa - solo hay un salon y no hay nada dentro (con la excepcion de la bacinica...). Dormimos en hamacas y nos duchamos en la jardin. Las mujeres tienen que cubrir todo el cuerpo fuera de la casa asi que llevamos pareo en la ducha!

Estamos trabajando en un orfanato/escuela. Los ninos son increibles. hay unos 100 estudiantes que vienen para aprender ingles y unos 20 que viven ahi por una razon u otra. No todos son huerfanos - hay unos que son de familias pobres o sin techo. Les ensenamos ingles y yo enseno ingles al director. Ademas, estamos trabajando en la granja. La escuela quiere tener una para ensenar acuicultura a los ninos - tambien sera ingreso y comida para la escuela.

Lo siento por no escribir las otras historias en espanol!

Adios besos!!!

the project - week two

aoife_duffy — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 20:30:00 GMT

the first project is now finished! it took us two days extra than planned. it went brilliantly and the kids loved the sports. they were huge fans of tug-of-war, rounders and skittles - all new games for them. Each day there were less and less kids - they either had to help at home picking rice (most families are self-sufficient and need to collect the rice to last them throughout the dry season) or were going to the village's self-help community centre where they can get extra classes. It's an amazing centre set up by a local man where kids can go to free english lessons or learn agriculture, basket weaving etc. Attendence is completely voluntary and the children are split into groups. They then make up their own rules and discipline each other. It might sound a bit too idealistic but it is a huge success, as shown by kids going there for a full day's schooling on their summer holidays.

Weekend - Did a cooking course. It was brilliant but slightly doubtful I will ever be able to repeat it at home!

Also went to Wat Bo. We met a monk who was keen to practise English so was more than happy to explain what different things meant. The temple itself was not Buddhist but is now used by Buddhist monks. The paintings on the walls were amazing although half is missing from when the Khmer Rouge shot the walls and tried to burn it down as part of their effort to stamp out religion in the country..

Moving onto Bang Melea tomorrow to start the next project. It is in the jungle and we will be living in a house with no water or electricity. As the 'shower' will be bucket in the garden we had to buy Khmer sarongs to cover our whole body. It's not the most attractive garment I've seen in my life but needs must!

The project - week 1

aoife_duffy — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:03:00 GMT

the first part of the project is painting a new building of a school (the other buildings are also undecorated, just concrete walls etc but you have to start somewhere...). it's going well so far. we have sandpapered, primed and painted the whole exterior and just got started with the primer on the first classroom today. loads of kids come to help even though they're on their holidays which i was really impressed by. at the start we would have preferred to have done it ourselves as controlling the kids was impossible and they were wasting quite a bit of the materials we have bought but we realised this is as much a community project as much as anything. although the vast majority of children join school the teaching is poor and often exams are set on material which is only taught in private tutition classes. that results in the majority being forced to repeat years and their parents thinking their children aren't smart and withdrawing them from school. the project is meant to instill a bit of pride in them and their school and encourage them to stay on. they have done an amazing amount of work on the building, incluiding things that we would never allow kids at home to do... kids sitting on beams on the roof and hanging out of windows to get awkward angles painted!!

We are organising sports every afternoon next week (more painting in the morning followed by lunch then sports). I'm not sure how it is going to work as the ground isn't very suitable but that's what the director and the NGO want us to do.. they don't have any sports or art etc in school and i imagine their lives would be fairly mundane so it will be a brilliant week for them - i'm just not quite sure yet how we're going to pull it off!

we're hoping to go and see angkor wat tonight and tomorro. it is very overcast and windy at the minute so we'll see how the weather is in a few hours. it'll also be interesting to see how we're feeling later - its our first weekend since starting the project so feel like we should make use of it especially since from now on we won't have afternoons off but we get up at 6am and are normally in bed at 9.30 so we'll probably be knackered!

Kanchanburi/Siem Reap

aoife_duffy — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:54:00 GMT

After Bangkok we headed to Kanchanaburi which is a few hours north of Bangkok. It was much more enjoyable than Bangkok - quieter and less in your face. We hired bicycles and cycled out to these caves where there were loads of buddhist statues etc it was really interesting seeing the monks inc. child monks who were no older than 9 or 10. We covered miles on the bikes and were able to take our surroundings in better than if we had been on a bus. the only down side was the state of us after having cycled so long in such warm weather... it was not a pretty sight!!

Next day we went on a tour where we swam in the Erawan waterfalls. Then we were taken to an elephant camp where we rode an elephant and went bamboo rafting. The train on the Death Railway had overturned so we weren't able to take a ride on the train which had been part of the tour.

Following day we went to the tiger temple where monks have raised tigers to be tame. Despite being quite scared initially I got a bit braver towards the end and petted quite a few.

dinner most evening was in the night market - the food is gorgeous and we have tried so many different things.

On Friday we flew to phnom penh in cambodia, we stayed one nght then yesterday took a six hour bus to siem reap. I really like cambodia so far. We didnt do much today because of the heat. We went in the early evening to the night market - it's completely aimed at tourists but there is some amazing stuff there. I'm having to try very hard at not buying everything..

Induction for our volunteer work starts tomorrow morning so that's where the real fun will begin!

Bangkok!

aoife_duffy — Tue, 7 Jul 2009 00:58:00 GMT

I have arrived in Bangkok. All's going well so far. We haven't done too much yet - just relaxing. We have seen the "real" Bangkok - it's really poor and a lot of families just live in one house. We went out one night so have seen the party side of the city as well. Went to see some temples today - they are beautiful. We are now 150km north of Bangkok. We are spending three days here to go and ride elephants and see tigers before heading to Cambodia. My camera broke - bought a new one today so will upload pictures next time

Missing you all loads!

He llegado a Bangkok. Por el momento todo va bien. No hemos hecho mucho - solo relajandonos. Hemos visto la Bangkok <<verdadera>> - es muy pobre y muchas familias vive en un cuarto. Fuimos de juerga una noche asi que hemos visto las fiestas tambien. Vimos unos templos - son preciosos. Ahora estamos 150km norte de Bangkok. Pasaremos tres dias aqui para ver elefantes y tigres antes de ir a Camboya. Mi camara rompio - compre otra hoy asi que colgare fotos la proxima vez

Os echo mucho de menos

Besos