Cambodia/Vietnam Adventure

Sapa

kayla_n_danae — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 21:05:00 GMT

Finally arrived in Sapa after a hectic 8 hour train trip from Hanoi! Shared a 4 berth cabin with 3 other girls which was ok but the cabins were so small and cramped and it stunk!

Was good to get some fresh air after getting off the train. It was bloody freezing though! A change from the heat we had been used to.

We were split into two buses and had some down time in the hotel for the rest of the day. Did a bit of shopping. Some girlies got massages ... some went for a spa/sauna. Was great to relax.

We went visiting villages on the second day. Little did we know how much the rain during the night had affected the walking track! We were literally skiing down the hill, knee deep in mud! Thank God for the locals who helped us all down. Whoa that was an experience!

We got back to the hotel and went for showers ... alot of us got our dirty clothes dry cleaned to get the mud out and our shoes washed. Helped alot.

We were given some more down time that night until dinner. We ate at a local restaurant ... a few people tasted deer (i gave it a miss) and then we were given the choice of wondering up the street to see some local dancing or chilling at the hotel. I decided to go back to my room.

The next day we woke up and were told by the teachers that they had a suprise that morning. They ended up taking us to a local lake where we could visit the markets, ride big swannie things on the lake, mess around with the shuttle coc thingies or just chill. Was really nice.

After we had a bit of lunch we had time to pack all our stuff from the hotel ready for checkout.

After checkout we visited another local village. (Concrete this time ... NO MUD)!

Then came the hour bus trip to the traino where we had dinner and then boarded our train back to Hanoi!

Hanoi

kayla_n_danae — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 20:06:00 GMT

We arrived from Siem Reap and met up with our tour guide Phiem, his english was very good! he told us lots of jokes and how to speak in Vietnamese... we went to opur hotel it was called the Galaxy hotel it was very nice.
the next morning i had realised i had lost my wellet i was freaking out big time!! but it all turned out good the teachers really were supportive and done everything they could do.

We had some room changes and i was then with mal not wit kayla new roomie!!the first morning in hanoi was a early one and we went to see Ho Chi Minh masoleum this was where he has been preserved for many years since his death. We then walked around the musuem and seen his house were he had lived and his bomb shelter.
Next we went to visit the old jail "Hilton" it was were all the prisoners were kept during the war, then we went to have some lunch at a famous restaurant. Our tour guide ordered the food so we were able to try some authentic vietnamese dishes. Was very interesting. We Went for a cycleo ride through the Old Quater then to the water pupet show, and out to dinner.
The next morning was an early, we had some breakfast and off to Halong Bay, for the whole day.It was a three hour bus trip out to the bay and back and we ate lunch whilst on the water that was fun. When we got back we packed all our stuff, so that we could catch the train to sapa. It was an over night train and it was four people to a room well you cant really call it a room more like a box...It was fun though.
Hanoi was overall fun but we didnt have enough time for shopping and looking around we only spent a few days there.

Written by Danae (and Kayla)

Cambodia

kayla_n_danae — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 16:28:00 GMT

so far we spent 4 days in cambodia. was absolutely amazing. visited many sites! started by visiting angkor wat. was extremely interesting ... very hot though! continued the day by visiting the ancient city of angkor thom. and ended the day by visiting one last temple surrounded by forest. We went out for dinner that night at 'Khmer Kitchen' ... we went by tuk tuk. we had a race and lost!

started the next day by visiting a land mine museum. very sad. afterwards we were able to do a bit of shopping at some local markets. later that day we went by boat on 'tonle sap' lake to see a floating village.

we began the last day with a tour of Para's (Mr Malones & yr 8's sponsor kid) pagoda which was shown to us by MR Gooding who is now living in Cambodia. Afterwards we visited a local orphanage. It became the highlight of our trip. All the people there were so welcoming. We played games with the kids and gave them presents. They were so appreciative. This is the place where the money from world nomads will be spent on desks for the orphans. "THANKS TO WORLD NOMADS". Afterwards we went back to the hotel with para ... chilled out for a while and had a swim before we had to check out and leave to board our plane for Vietnam (HANOI).

Was an amazing four days ... learned and experienced alot ... would love to go back someday!

WRITTEN BY: Kayla (and Danae)

First Day-

kayla_n_danae — Sat, 7 Apr 2007 20:14:00 GMT

This morning we had to get up early to go to our school and catch a bus to the airport!! we all said our goodbyes and hit the road. we started our adventure...arrived at sydney airport and checked in our bags then went through customs and all those things, then done some duty free shopping and got some breakfast. We boarded our 8 hour plane flight all excited not knowing what was ahead of us. During our flight we watched some movies, got fed alot, and laughed the whole way. WAS FUN!!when we were getting off the plane to go onto the buus it was so hot and everyone was in a hurry to get off and kayla was freeeeeeking out because we couldnt see anyone from our school and wanted to get back onto the plane. Once we arrived in vietnam we had to stay in tansit so that we could fly to cambodia. The teachers organised our tickets for the next flight and lucky me got put next to kayla again! (i got the window twice.) we landed in cambodia and thought we were going to have a smooths landing but kayla jinxed us and it was a rough landing, thanx kayla! we got off the plane and walked across the tarmack into a building(cant call it much of an airport) then we had to fill out these immigration cards to enter cambodia and stupid me sat in water! We had to wait so long to go through immigrations and then got our bags luckily they were all there!!!!! After picking up our bags we walked back outside into the heat to meet our tour guide PAT. we had to put out luggage on the back of a truck and then get into a bus we watched our bags go past us with men sitting on our luggage when we were travelling to the hotel. When we arrived at the hotel. pat said there was no power because the hotel had run out of petrol. i thought he was joking but he wasnt we were sitting in the dark for half an hour and then finally the lights came on and we got allocated rooms!! by this time everyone was so tired and hot. some people went for a swim and others just showerd and went to bed! like us! it wa a great trip and im lloking forward to all the good times we have over here!

Written by Danae Pikkat (and Kayla Newell)