adventures of coby+amy

family matters in patong

cobyseashell — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:04:00 GMT

hello eeryone. firstly can i just give a shout out to bron and katie for organising a little package of letters and goodies from our great southern homeland along with nick. it was good to hear from some of you, thanks for shring a snapshot of your life with us. Bec and jon, that photo of your little baby is so cute, couldn't quite make out if it was human, but im sure Gods working on it!! and we really enjoyed the vegemite in a tube.

its new years eve, we are in sweaty phuket im feeling sick (sore throat and bit hot) and sorry for myslef as usual. poor ames. we have just had lunch, i had chicken soup and 7up. brillant sick person food. we caught up with nick and his friends the last two days. kinda crazy actually, the first night we were in phuket,after koh tao, we had no where to stay. we kinda vaguly remembered nick saying he was staying at teh family inn, or family guesthouse, or the guesthouse inn, so we took a wild guess and went ot the first one. asked for spare room, but there was no room in the inn. we asked if a really tall australian guy was staying, giving nicks name. no nicholas, he said. finally i got him to pass over the list of names (not an easy feat), to check all the australians in the place to see if i could recognise any of his friends names. then, brillant "EDWARDS". so we left a note and went to find a place to stay. after about 45 mins of aimless wandering, well not aimless, but disapointing, we went into a posh place the Marine Inn. bartered down the price about $10 and then went back to the family inn to leave a note for nick. it was about 11:30pm by this stage. as we had driven in to patong (a part of phuket, popular for its 'working women' and lady boys and ping pong shows) we saw the party part of town and so we headed (or so i thought ) to this direction to see if we could find a needle in a haystack, nick. now me being the better of directions out of the two, paced off down the road in the direction i thought we came from, we reached the beach and amy was like, 'why did we come down here?'. this is the party place, i said and shes like, no it isn't, thats the other way. HAHAH. so i walked over to check out the beach. amy sat down, when i walked back, she was like, 'coby, i think thats your brother, can you hear that laugh' she pointed over to a bar and he was sitting there with his 7 friends!!! it was so weird. so that is my crazy story from patong. we went back to their hotel and swam in their nice pool for a coupld of hours and the security guard kept telling us off!! the next day when we went back, there was a sign up saying swimming from 10am-10pm, which had previously not been there. thats right, we had introduced a new rule in the hotel!!

anyway. we are about to go to the airport (yet again) to catch a plane to bangkok. Its weird, mum and dad always said that they got sick of airports, and i was always like, 'how could you get sick of airports, they are so much fun'. now i know. so far this trip we have caught 5 planes and spent hours waiting in airports, we have 5 flights left to take.....AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH. oh well.

happy new year to everyone. going to nepal tomorrow so not to sure when next email will be, so if you dont get one for a while, just asume i have fallen off mt everest.

love coby

This is the life.

cobyseashell — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:22:00 GMT

Sa Watde from Koh Tao, thailand. it is beeeeeeeautiful here. ohhhhh. the beaches are all postcard beaches, the sand is coral, our accom is amazing. a little bungalow on the beach. you have to get a 'water taxi' (basically a fishing boat) to town from our place, o r walk 30mins. is so remote, no roads. fun. we walked into town after having a amazingn swim in the crystal clear waters. you stand with the water up to your chin and you can see your feet, just as clearly as if you weren't in water. beautiful, thanks God. we walked into town and on the way amy nearly stepped on a snake. scary. it was really thin, but long. looked like a garden hose. i took a photo. we just had chocolate pancakes with banana. yes by this time in our trip we are both obease!! we are missing allie, our friend who was suppose to catch up with us for christmas (she decided to go home to adelaide for family christmas and is leaving indo for good). but amy and i are getting along fine. we have disagreements, but i am usually right and that pisses her off!!! i can't help it if im usually right :) anyway. we were going to go shopping but too expensive. tom we are going to hire scooters for the day. 5 bucks each. sweet. looking forward to seeing the turtle shaped island. so warm here, i am alreadyburnt a bit.

love to all

coby seashell

Posh Siem REap Airport

cobyseashell — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 16:11:00 GMT

hello hello. we are in siem reap airport. it is sssssssooooooooooooo posh can't believe it!! our plane leaves at 1335 and we got here at 1010!!!! we are only suppose to be an hour and a half early but we got here three and a half early....bad maths= yes!!! opps. oh well. we have been staying in a nice bamboo place for the last three nights. which was fun. about to fly to bangkok where we will spend christmas morning and and then will fly to phuket in the arvo and then stay there one night and then go to koh toa for three nights. koh toa is good for diving, i think that is basically all that is there....beaches!!! pretty stoaked about that. looking forward to a good beach. last night we had a night in and watched some movies at our hotel with our french friend frederick and some english chaps. they made us watch a booy movie first, so then we watch december boys, purely because it was australian. it was ok, but the ending was terrible.... we all groaned!! so we have made a few friends along the way. not many we will keep in contact with though which will be sad. we seem to spend full days with people and then either they leave or we leave, so its kinda sad. we like taking the people who are by themselves under our wings. they seem to be the funnest and the most interesting people we've met. the couples are ok, the single girls (like ourselves) i cant stand personally, the boys are nice and amy thinks i am always trying to chat up the older kymer (cambodian) men...... what tha????? anyway. i am just trying to be friendly because they think all white women are snobs, and i hate feeling like a snob, so i try smiling and talking to most people. we have had to push men away that drive the tuk-tuks though. as you walk down the street, all you hear is 'tuk-tuk lady' or 'lady, i give good price on tuk-tuk for you', etc. paul mills- you would appreciate the use of the word 'lady' or "ladies" in the whole of s.e asia!!! anyway. this is costing me a mint so i have to go. will write from thailand.

have a great christmas.

love coby

Phnom Penh

cobyseashell — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:02:00 GMT

Jimripshure, hello from Cambodia. We are in Phnom Penh at the moment. We have had a wonderful three days introduction to the country. We stayed the first two nights in a guest house and last night and tonight staying with some of amys friends, Brent and Di Wilsmore and their five kids. Start at the start. We arrived here on the Monday night, bryan Hughes (works with SERVANTS to Asias Urban Poor who we know through TEAR in Adelaide) picked us up from the bus station after much negotiation with the bus driver, because amy and I had the lonely planet map, which is crap and had no idea where to go. The roads here don’t have names and are just numbers! So first nights we stayed on 278 st. and the house numbers aren’t in any logical order. So bryan came to save us. We took a tuk-tuk to the guest house and then went out to dinner Khmer (Cambodian) style. The food here is so good. Can get a beautiful meal at a nice restaurant for $4. we sat around low tables on cushions. Lisa his wife coulnd’t join us because she was sick (stomach upset from food). Then the next day, bryan picked us up again and we went on a tour of the TASK (one of the organizations SERVANTS works with) Womens health clinic. They do amazing things and I saw a school that is there. It is run out of one classroom and has two teachers, a morning class and a afternoon class. Then we went to the Toul Tom Pong markets and did some shopping while bryan had his language class. After that we joined the whole SERVANTS team at their team centre for lunch. It was nice meeting them, they are all pretty amazing people, as you can imagine, living and working in a place like this. After lunch I can’t remembver, that night we went ot visit bryan and lisa’s house in the slums. They have to move because their neighbours kitchen blows smoke into their one room home three times a day. So we helped pack a few boxes then went out to dinner with them and had frogs legs. they were good but really boney, so kinda hard to eat alot. Yesterday we went to visit brent and di wilsmore for lunch and have ended up stayuing two nights!! Brent is a principal at HOPE international Christian school. He took us to go visit, its really nice actually, I was expecting … well not so nice, but it is really nice for how big is it. They have 180ish students all from around the world. Some khmer, aussies, US, UK, Koren, etc, etc. the kids were on holidays though, so only got to see the grounds. I may come back and work here one day, see what God has planned. And last night we went to a carols by candlelight. I usually hate these things, but it was really nice to be singing “merry Christmas” and silent night, etc. it was put on by a few NGO (non gov. orgn.). so it was mostly westerners and a few khmer people. It was at a local bar which is about the only place ive seen so far that has green grass. So we sat there with our candles and I felt at home!! And I ate a minced pie, mum would know that I hate minced pies, but I really enjoyed this one. So there you go, this Christmas is such a different one for me!!

Today we are meeting up with a girl who is doing an internship with SERVANTS and she is taking us to her home and meeting her host family. Tomorrow we catch a bus to Siem Reap and going to spend a few days there. Prob only one day at Ankor Wat temples and then just relax and fly out to Bangkok on the 24th.

Thanks everyone for your emails. Its nice to still feel connected in some way.

HAVE A STINKING HOT CHRISTMAS (except for mum and dad in Kabul, hope you guys have a white Christmas!!like back in the 80s)

Love coby

Airports

cobyseashell — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 01:17:00 GMT

Xin Chao (hello)HEllo Hello Hello. SO im not heaps good writing in this journal sorry. i feel weird kinda writing and not sure if anyone reads. like i know when i send emails you have to read them, or at least delete them, but this is weird. so anyway, to anyone who is reading this we are in Hanoi airport. This mornign we woke up at 5:45. amy actually woke up at 12:30am, 2:30 am, 3:00am, 4:20am and then 5:30am. crazy. we were having our icecream cocktails last night with our friends Peter and Chantell from Holland and saying how we fly out on tuesday, which we thought was the 17th.... back at our hotel last night at 11:30, getting ready for bed. i was writing in my journal and hadn't done so for a while so i had no idea what date it was, except that on the 15th a new law in Vietnam came in to make everyone riding moto's to wear helmets. so i knew that. then ames was like 'what date is it' and i said the 15th. but we knew that the law came in the day before, because everyone was wearing their helmets, and theyt wouldn't if they didn't have to (believe me!!). so amy checked the ticket and we were like, CRAP WE ARE FLYING OUT TOMORROW!!!! we had to go wake up the bell boy and ask for a wake up call early. note why amy couldn't sleep because she thoguth that we wouldn't wake up in time. i kinda was like, 'it will work, whatever'. i think i annoy her with my 'she'll be right mate'- aussie attitude to life. so we got to the airport at 7:40 because our taxi driver drove like a friggin maniac and the journey took 35mins instead of the usual hour. so we have to kill 2hours till our 10:05 flight.

we land in Saigon and then have to catch a bus to Phomn Penh. i have never been on an international bus ride before, its kind of a foriegn concept in australia i guess! we have to get out at the boarder, be frisked and walk over the boarder and change buses apparently. will be visiting some friends Brian and Lisa who work with SERVANTS to Asias Urban Poor in a slum. should be good for something different i think. im ready for some detox!!

spend a few days with them then go to Ancor Wat temples. then off to thailand for chrissy is the plan. see what adventures happen between now and then. will try to attach some photos soon. we already have a few hundred!!! AHHH

love to all

coby oxoxo

Ca'm on yo! (Thankyou very much....for reading!!!)

Cocktails in Ho Chi Minh

cobyseashell — Wed, 5 Dec 2007 21:33:00 GMT

if i knew how to attach photos, you would see a before and after shot of amy and i with our 'Kims special punch', 'pineapple and rum', margaritta, long island iced tea and my "I LOVE YOU" cocktail..... yes. finding it hard to concentrate right now. just brought a 5L pepsi water. this place is crazy. the traffic is welll...... lots.. of it. and it smells like ....well not nice. and there are beggars, mostly children trying nto sell us chewing gum. so we brought one packet and then we gotr ripped off. both of us brought dresses for our big night out on the town and got ripped off! amy got hers for $9 and mine for $10.; should have been less. we reclined next to the pool this morning. it was nice. but we were the only ones in there so people watched us alot. fun. we found out we were in the non- touristy precinct so we moved here to district one. tomorrow morning we catch a bus at 7:30am from here to make 9our way up to Hanoi. early. so sleepies now.

our itinerary... watch this space and follow our adventure

cobyseashell — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:51:00 GMT

^{_{Coby and Amy’s traveling Itinerary}}

^{_{· 4th December- Flight ADL- SYD (6am)}}

^{_{Flight SYD- Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)}}

^{_{· 5th-13th Making way north through Vietnam on the train and getting off where looks good.}}

^{_{· 14th Leaving Vietnam either by plane, train, bus, tuk tuk, boat or donkey!!}}

^{_{· 14-23rd Cambodia. Visiting Lisa and Brian Hughes in Phnom Penh in a slum and some of Amy’s friends who work in a school}}

^{_{· 24th Thailand. Meeting Allie (from Indonesia) in Bangkok.}}

^{_{· 25th CHRISTMAS. Flying from Bangkok to Phuket}}

^{_{· 26th -29th Travelling to Koh Toa Island}}

^{_{· 29th -31st Hanging out with Nick and his friends in Phuket.}}

^{_{· 31st Flying back up to Bangkok for new years}}

^{_{· 1st Jan. Flying from Bangkok to Kathmandu (Nepal)}}

^{_{· 2nd – 16th NepalDEEP trip with TEAR Australia}}

^{_{· 17th- 24th Treking in Nepal}}

^{_{· 25th Flying Kathmandu to Bangkok}}

^{_{· 25th -28th Thawing in Bankok, perhaps a few day trips out somewhere or just relaxing}}

^{_{· 28th flying BNK- MEL over night}}

^{_{· 29th flying MEL- ADL arriving 2:30 pm}}

leaving home

cobyseashell — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:52:00 GMT

Hello, G'day and Goodbye. about to depart the shores of South Australia, only to land in the shores of New South Wales! Yes that's right 6 hours in Sydney. fun. then off to Ho Chi Minh. Tuesday 6am.... ahhh. Goodbye Australia for 2007.