Mat and Vendy's travels

Bangkok and Ko Samui

matsmith — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:48:00 GMT

Spending a day in Bangkok was great, there was just so many things to do and see that we wished we could stay longer. The city is much more expensive than anywhere we'd yet visited but we decided to stay in the city and visit the royal palace and emerald buddha first. What a superb visit - the place is similar to the one in Phnom Penh only much, much bigger and more ornate. We spent nearly three hours going round and looking in the museum there and taking loads of pictures!

After this we left and stumbled into the market area where we saw grwat looking thai food for sale and made a mental note to come back here for dinner. That was when we were accosted by people selling tours on a longtail boat, private for 1000baht (about 20 pounds) - after some negotiation we agreed to pay 800 baht and took our private tour - a great way to see the canals and sights of Bangkok by boat.

Then we returned to the market for lunch and took two wonderful curries for 30baht each (70p) - one of the best and cheapest meals we'd had! It was a pity that we had to pay more for a drink after to cool our mouths down than we paid for this meal! Still, we loved it and we've had at least one curry every day in thailand!

Our last stop was the massive gold reclining buddha temple, which we both wanted to see and after looking round here it started to rain so we went back to the hotel and prepared to meet Darren and Steph again, who were also passing through Bangkok. We went into China Town with them and eventually found a restaurant to please everyone! It was great to catch up with them again, before they go to Burma (I think they are leaving today!)

Next morning we flew out to Ko Samui, and we're staying on MaeNam beach in a lovely bungalow on a quite resort. This morning we had the beach to ourselves! And we just had... guess what... a curry on the beach for lunch!

We were hoping to do a cooking course here but time is flying and tomorrow we're going on a snorkelling day trip. The man at our local restaurant offered to give us a class but unfortunately we'll not have time - but he cooks wonderful food!

Yesterday we rented a motorbike and went around the island exploring, a cheap and fun way to get around. The island as beautiful and luckily as its low season here its not too busy. We visited Big Buddha, mummified monk, namueng waterfall, chaweng beach and another small beach. Unfortunately at the end of the day it started raining and in a lull in the storm we decided to try to make a dash for home when i got a piece of grit or sand in my eye and this morning we ended up in the hospital as it seemed swollen and was watering but after a washing out, a patch and some tablets and eye drops it seems ok now - but not such a cheap day out!

Today we are resting before our final full day in paradise, so this will probably be my final story of the trip.

An afternoon in Battambang

matsmith — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:34:00 GMT

On our way to Thailand we stopped in Battambang, which is not a very interesting place but is the first time we have seen a bit of real Cambodia. We took the opportunity to explore the countryside by motorbike, and saw how the people live, as well as seeing how rice paper, fish sauce, rice noodles (and i'm sure there were other things too!) are made. Then we had a look at the bamboo train, which is a small train which is disassembled when it meets a heavier train going the other way! There is one line and trains go in both directions! It's a strange system but it seems to be working. We didn't go on the train as the rain clouds were rolling in, and the last km back to the hotel we got our first drenching since being out here! An incredibly hard rain fell for about 30 mins, forcing the drivers of our motorbikes to find cover - except for my driver and 2 others who braved it til the end!

Next day we got up and took a bus to Thailand. Unfortunately for us, on arrival at the border Vendy was told she needed a visa - which we were expecting, as on the net we read that she needs to fill in a form at 'point of enrty' and went to get the form but our guide looked very shocked, as you cant get a visa at the border here but only from an airport. After trying to get around the problem by trying the thai side first we were told to go back to Siem Reap and fly to Bangkok where she could complete the visa forms at the airport. It was a frustrating experience but Intrepid helped us out as much as they could, and we took a taxi back to the hotel in Siem Reap where we got lunch and bought our plane tickets for 8.30pm that evening. We sat at the hotel pool and read our books and then we decided to leave a bit early for the airport.

When we arrived we asked if there were any places on an earlier flight and the man said 2 passengers hadn't arrived and asked us to wait for 7 minutes which we did. Noone arrived and to our relief he called us over and checked us onto the plane. Finally we were off, and out of Cambodia.....

We had less than half an hour to wait for the flight and going through the security checks we had to throw out our insect repellant and my dad's army knife, which I'd forgotten was in my bag in all the excitement (sorry dad!). Our big bags were with our group in the mini bus to Bangkok, so with no further ado we left on the short flight.

At the airport we filled in the visa form, waited less than a minute and all the days problems were gone. We were free to go to our hotel and meet the group.

I'm sure there is a moral to this story......

Gallery: 13-14.8 Angkor Wat and other temples

matsmith — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:49:00 GMT

Angkor Wat and Siam Reap

matsmith — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:22:00 GMT

Today we got up early to see sunrise at Angkor Wat, it was a bit difficult but well worth it. It was not as busy as we expected, and afterwards our guide took us through so we could see the temple. What an amazing place! I don't know how else to describe it.

Yesterday we visited Ta Prohm, made famous by Angelina Jolie and the Tomb Raider film. It is held up by trees, and also being destroyed by them but it is great to see how the forest has become part of the temple. Then we moved on to Angkor city and saw where the Khmer king lived and how he lived. Very interesting! His palace is on almost 10km2 of land! Fianlly we visited another couple of temples in the palace grounds before going on to see the pink temple out of town. It was well organised as the bus trip took about an hour and we went there after lunch so most of us managed a siesta! It was the most impressive in the way of carvings and considering it is 200 years older than the other temples it is in a much better state. Another amazing couple of days! This afternoon we visited a floating village on the Tonle Sap lake and saw how the people lived - That was something else - A floating police station and school as well as floating shops! Next we'll have a swim and I might have a fish massage later (where fish chew on your feet to clean them! different! Vendy will proabably have another thai massage.....

Phnom Penh, S-21 and the Killing Fields

matsmith — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:59:00 GMT

Welcome to Cambodia, Kingdom of Wonder. That was the sign we saw on arrival to Cambodia. It didn't seem much different to Vietnam at first, just less motorbikes and more cars. Coming in to Phnom Penh though it was obvious that this was a very different place. There must be some very wealthy people here as there are a lot of expensive, new cars on the road and lots of car dealerships - something we didnt see at all in Vietnam but was more startling because we saw so many. On top of this we saw a lot of big houses and brand new buildings, as well as more mine victims and disabled people begging on the streets, so it seems a country of contrast. Once settled into the hotel we went on a cyklotour and saw how new the city centre is - probably due to the Khmer Rouge and war with Vietnam. The centre is absolutely beautiful, with Thai style buildings - not the Chinese influence we were used to seeing in Vietnam.

After the cyklotour we went for cocktails at FCC and then for dinner. The food here seems to be similar to Thai food too but without the spiciness!

Next morning we went to the prison first (a converted school) where Khmer Rouge took 'criminals' to torture and starve them. I've been to concentration camps before but this seems somehow even worse. They punished their own people for no other reason than being educated or speaking a foreign language and murdered aroud 14000 people here. It is a very moving and chilling place, there are photos on the wall of what Vietnamese liberators found here, people locked to beds and cut to pieces - with vultures eating the corpse in one room. After looking round the prison and seeing the cells and atrocities committed here all of us felt numb. Then it was time to go to the killing fields which was where most of the prisoners were taken and butchered. They think about 20000 people are buried here and there are over 100 mass graves. Most were beaten with spades or iron bars to save bullets. Even babies were killed with their mothers.

Over 3 years almost half the population was killed. About 3 million people.

Later in the day Vendy and me went to visit Wat Phnom and watched the monkeys playing before going to the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda - built by the French and now being restored to its former glory. Its a fabulous building in fabulous grounds. The weather was glorious too, lifting our spirits after a depressing morning.

In the evening our guide for the morning had invited our group for dinner - little did we know that we would be doing an improvised english lesson for the local kids first! They were asking us all questions and their ages ranged from 8-15. It was fun.

After that we went up for dinner and saw his house - where about 30 people lived! Its usual for the husband to move in with the wifes family and its normal to have a big family! His wife has 5 sisters - all married!

After a lovely dinner we were surprised to be offered fried tarantula, a local specialty! I couldn't eat it but several of our group did - and our guide's son! It was gross, but next day I forced myself to try a fried cricket after Vendy ate 3 of them and really enjoyed them!

Gallery: 10-12.8 Phnom Penh

matsmith — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:17:00 GMT

Gallery: 9-10.8 Ho Chi Minh City

matsmith — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:47:00 GMT

The final days in Nam

matsmith — Sun, 9 Aug 2009 20:33:00 GMT

Our final destination in Vietnam was Ho Chi Minh City otherwise known as Saigon. Taking another night train this time from Nha Trang to get there. It was due to leave at 9pm, but when we got to the station our leader overheard someone say the train was delayed until 2am - and held our bus while he checked. The news was true and we went back to the hotel where we could watch the end of the film we had started watchng - room 1408, and then we slept around the pool until it was time to leave. We were all so tired that when we got on the train that most of us slept until we reached Saigon. An interesting thing was when we got to the station, all the shop owners were asleep on sunbeds by the platform and when we came they got up and opened the shops - it's sad that they have to do this to sell another bottle of water and can of coke.

This city was different to others we'd visited, there seemed to be more western type shops, and maybe more cars? It was difficult to describe but you could feel it was different. Anyway, our train delay meant that we had lots to do in a little time and first thing was Cu Chi tunnels - for me it was a highlight to see how the vietcong fought against the americans, watch a very dated, one sided video about the war, and we got the chance to jump in the hiding holes and crawl through the tunnels. It was amazing. On top of that we got to fire overpriced AK47 bullets at a picture of a deer! Very boyish but I was surprised how loud it was! Not nice if you had to use one all day - everyday.

Next day we got up early to visit the Mekong Delta which was another massive hit with the group. We took a boat to an island where we say coconut candy made and we spotted some weird fish that use their fins like hands and breathe air! After that some of the boys got to try snake wine, and later we had a superb local lunch and tried some honey wine too - neither of these drinks were really wine but strong liqeur - the snake wine actually has a snake in it!

After this great day we took a cyklo around the city and went to the war museum which was pretty gruesome, and very graffic - it was a little upsetting but good preparation before what we were about to see in Cambodia, and created a lot of discussion among the group about American and international involvement in the conflict.

In the evening we moved hotel and met our new group before going out for a farewell/hello dinner with our new and old groups.

Tomorrow we would go our own seperate ways.

Gallery: 6-7.8 Nha Trang

matsmith — Fri, 7 Aug 2009 22:17:00 GMT

2 days of chilling in Nha Trang

matsmith — Fri, 7 Aug 2009 22:13:00 GMT

We arrived in Nha Trang after a long day on the train, another one like the night train - but this time nobody had any extra occupants in their cabins. It was a long but nice journey. We spent it chatting, reading and sleeping.

On arrival we went straight to bed and woke early next morning for breakfast. This breakfast had the biggest choice of food so far and yet it was the hardest to find something to eat! At least for me! I ended up having cold pasta and a chip butty.

After breakfast though we went to the harbour and got a private boat to a local village where we had a look round and then we went to a secluded little bay and went snorkelling by a coral reef where we saw some nice fish (but not as many as we were expecting). One man did see an octopus there though! After this we had a superb seafood lunch on the boat and then they took us to a beach where we were the only people visiting. Unfortunatley there was some rubbish floating around which put most of us off swimming but 2 people rented a jetski and another did parascending! Vendy had a massage and a manicure and pedicure while we were resting - all for a very nice price!

Today we have had another relaxing day sitting by the sea, being pestered a little by people selling things and later we went to the pool. After lunch the whole group went for some pampering to the mud baths here- a very strange experience for the boys - I think that everyone enjoyed it though - a thoroughly relaxing stay in Nha Trang..... just wish we could stay longer....

Gallery: 01/08/09 Motorbike trip Hue

matsmith — Tue, 4 Aug 2009 15:18:00 GMT

Gallery: 2-4/08/09 Hoi An

matsmith — Tue, 4 Aug 2009 15:16:00 GMT

Gallery: 31-1/8/09 Hue

matsmith — Tue, 4 Aug 2009 15:15:00 GMT

Hue, Mo'bike?

matsmith — Sun, 2 Aug 2009 18:24:00 GMT

After the stressful train trip we arrived in Hue, which is a lovely contrast to Hanoi. It is (relatively) quiet, pretty and very interesting. Our hotel here was lovely and the first thing we did was shower and sleep! the room wasn't swaying and it was clean!

Hoang took us to a restaurant owned by a deaf and dumb man for lunch. He was great - he has a special trick for opening beers too.... when I remember I'll add the name of his restaurant and you can go there to find out what it is.....

It was extremely cheap there, and the food was lovely - I think beer and lunch was about a pound. After lunch we got a chance to write on his wall, which was fun too! Then Hoang took us on a guided tour of the citadel in Hue, where the king and his mandarins lived until 1945, but it looks like it was built much earlier. They are currently restoring the site and in ten years it will be finished - by then it will be amazing - it is already (the site is huge-and abou a third of it is restored so far). The tour took about 2.5 hours and after that we had a look around the market and went home before going out for dinner.

The next day was to be a busy day! We got up and met at 8.30 for a motorbike trip - Everywhere people are offering to take you out on bikes, shouting mo'bike at you - its funny, even when they are obviously going somewhere! Anyway, today we had a group of drivers waiting for us and they took us out on their motorbikes - it was our best day so far, as it was so interesting and lots of fun! We talked to local people, saw where the lions fought the royal elephants, saw two kings tombs, took a dragon boat down the perfume river, saw the remains of US bunkers, saw how the local people farmed the land at the farming museum and all the while the little children ran out of the houses to wave and shout 'hello!' Wonderful.

A funny story was at one of the tombs when some Japanese tourists saw Eleanor and Kirsten (from NZ and Oz) and thrust their children into their arms for photos! I've never seen anything like it! It was because they had white skin and blonde hair! They were quite an attraction for the locals in Hue too, Kirsten complained that people in the market were touching her!

Reunification Express

matsmith — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 18:09:00 GMT

After a final afternoon hanging around in Hanoi it was time to take the night train to Hue. We didn't really expect much and had heard mixed reports, and it certainly turned out to be an experience! The train compartments were similar to the compartments in Czech trains but they had a lockable door and four bunks inside - it reminded me of a cell - not that I've seen one from the inside but it could've been one from the Hoa Lo prison we visited only yesterday! After about half an hour on the train, Steve came and asked me if we had any cockroaches in our 'cell' - I said no - he said that they had loads running around in theirs and we all felt sorry for them. We even offered for them to come and stay with us. Luckily they sold cheap beer on the train and I think that they got some dutch courage up to stay in their own room, though we did have visits from everyone in their 'cell' during the evening! At one point we gave them some insect repellant which they tried, and they said that it made more of them come out! Obviously those hiding wanted to get away from the spray! I can only imagine how well they slept! As for me, when I settled down to sleep I didnt want to put my head on the pillow we were supplied with or sleep on the sheet which didn't look too clean. After laying on my bag until 1.30am, I gave up and put the sheet over the pillow and fell to sleep. Vendy didn't sleep too well either, even though we had no insect friends in our cell with us she kept thinking about the next overnight journey and she has a bad fear of cockroaches which I have never noticed before but I had to go and check the toilets for her, before she would go in there! Poor thing, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger - I think they say that in 'nam! Her fear of cockroaces seems to be getting better since that night!

Yesterday we bought a sleep sheet each, so hopefully we'll get a better sleep on the next one....

Gallery: 29-30.07.09 Halong Bay

matsmith — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:05:00 GMT

Gallery: 26-28/07/09 Hanoi

matsmith — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:47:00 GMT

Water Puppets and Birthday in Halong Bay

matsmith — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:41:00 GMT

We had a lovely lunch with Darren and Steph in a non-profit making restaurant called Ko-To which trains young, disadvantaged children to work in the restaurant industry and it was fabulous! They were all very friendly and attentive, and then we had to complete a survey about our experience. It was great to catch up with an old friend on the other side of the world! We'll meet them again in Bangkok!

After this we visited Hoa La Prison which was built and used by the french to house Vietnamese prisoners in harsh conditions, and later it is where the US prisoners were kept - according to the information in the prison in much better conditions!

Later that afternoon we took a group cyklotour of the city and went to the water puppet show. This is a good opportunity to describe the traffic system here - there isn't really one! The traffic flows (normally using both sides of the road and in no formal lanes) down the street. I don't know why there are traffic lights either as very few people stop at a red light! The traffic does move fairly slowly and when you want to cross the road you just cross, moving slowly and the traffic avoids you! It's an experience, and on the way to Ho Chi Minhs mausoleum our guide (Hoang) stopped at the first main road and waited for us all to get together before crossing with us all and was waving at the oncoming traffic! I thought it was hilarious! Darren said that when he first arrived last year that he stood at the side of the road for a very long time before admitting that he couldn't cross and went back home!

The water puppets were strange but nice to see, and are a Vietnamese tradition which has to be seen! I'm glad the performance was only for an hour though!

Then on the morning of the 29th, we got up early and it was my birthday! We had breakfast at a charity organisation on the way to Halong Bay and met some of the children that the 'Blue Dragon' is helping here and it was lovely to see. Some of the children speak English, and they all learn so we could talk to them and find out something about them. Then we went on to Halong and boarded our boat just in time for lunch. We had a wonderful lunch with various courses of seafood and meat and rice and it was superb! It just kept coming....

After lunch we went to see these huge limestone rocks out in the bay, there are about 2000 of them, coving almost the same distance in km/sq. We visited some caves and then had a swim. Very interesting were the people on small boats going between the tourist boats selling drinks and snacks at cut prices to what the boats sell them for! Very funny, and then they pass the goods through the port holes!

So the end of my birthday was beautiful, sitting on the deck and watching the sun go down and then enjoying another wonderful meal and some drinks before going to sleep on the mirror like sea, in our perfectly furnished cabin.

Hot in Hanoi

matsmith — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:37:00 GMT

Yesterday we did a lot of exploring in the city and it just got hotter and hotter - the weather websites said it was 37, but feeling like 50! The city is really interesting and bustling with life. The people are really friendly and everything is exactly how I was expecting it to be. We explored the french quarter, the old city, the Hoam Kiem lake and the temple on the lake.

By three o'clock we returned to the hotel for well deserved rest in the hotel and promptly fell asleep for a couple of hours.

Then we met our group who are a nice mix of people from switzerland, USA and New Zealand, Australia and England. Our guide is a Vietnamese man called Hoang so quite an international group!

Hoang took us out for a lovely meal - I had beef, cabbage and noodles (flat ones - like lasagna)and Vendy had seafood noodles. I was happy as I was beginning to think I would have to live on bread and peanuts here!

Today the weather is completely different, it's not as hot and there is a constant drizzle falling which is actually nicer for sightseeing. so far. we have visited Ho Chi Minhs memorial and Pagoda, and then we went to the Temple of Literature which was very interesting and has a very Chinese influence. It was the first University in Vietnam, opened in the 10th Century.

As I'm writing this I'm waiting to meet Darren (and his wife, who are working here) for lunch before going off to the water puppet show tonight - I'm sure that will be an new experience!

The trip to Hanoi

matsmith — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:30:00 GMT

After a long flight to Bangkok (and a lovely thai curry for dinner on the plane) we landed in Bangkok and waited for our connecting flight to Hanoi. The journey was fairly uneventful except for our last (cold) meal on the plane where we didnt recognise anything we were eating - except some cold duck! Travelling to our hotel was interesting as we'd never seen so many motorbikes - they outnumber cars about 1-100, and are like flies or wasps around the cars. It was very warm and we went for a little walk after arriving at the hotel, and saw people sitting at little tables eating dinner on the street. Most seemed to be eating chicken feet, so we decided to buy some water and eat a pack of crisps in the room before sleeping.

Breakfast was a bit better this morning! - noodles, pork, toast, egg, cauliflower - a very strange mixture! And now we're ready to explore the town.......

09.02.21-27 Karnten Ski trip

matsmith — Wed, 4 Mar 2009 07:17:00 GMT

Firstly I have to say what a lovely place Karnten is, its really pretty and I'm sure it looks even nicer when there isn't snow covering everything! You'll see from the pictures how much snow there was and for me it pretty amazing. Not sure if I've ever seen that much snow before!

Next I should say that it was a shame that it took me more than 30 years to learn how to ski, as for the first few days it was very difficult and tiring and I slept after skiing, and again from about 9pm through til morning! Also it seemed to me that the young kids learning could do it without even trying! And they weren't scared of falling and hurting themselves like I was!

But after the initial shock I got used to it and had a lot of fun, and I think that by the end of the week I could go (almost) where I wanted without falling over (too many times!)

On top of this we played some funny games while relaxing in the evenings - the best of which was Aktivity. A similar game to Pictionary - the special version with miming and descriptions and stuff.... which kept us occupied for hours, and there are sme phots of Zdenek, Regina, Pepa and Zuzu all doing some silly things..... unfortunately no one got a picture of me.......

Gallery: Karnten ski trip

matsmith — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 07:05:00 GMT

La Serena

matsmith — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:09:00 GMT

After a 17 hour bus journey we were just glad to arrive in La Serena and get off the bus. The rooms at the hostel werent ready so we took off to a cafe for a while to revive ourselves.

We quickly appreciated how nice it was to walk down paved streets, with no one selling things on every free space. It was a pleasant change! In fact the high street here reminds me of an english one, dont know why but it does! Today, with the grey overcast sky, this similarity is even more apparent. After going for a run along the sea front and seeing the hotels and little cafes it was almost like being in Southend, just bigger waves - or is that because the holiday is coming to a end??

Yesterday afternoon we went to Coquimbo, a fishing town for lunch and saw lots of pelicans hanging around. we had a seafood lunch - a mix of seafood but were horrified to see most of it was cold snails, and various unidentified horrid looking things! We later fed them to the pelicans who also weren´t interested in eating them! Eventually a sea gull came and polished it all off!

Last night we went to the Mummallaba Observatory, there are three very close to La Serena, and though we were tired we thought it best to go in case the weather wasnt so good tonight. It was really interesting, and they said that although there is a lot of cloud and its often overcast in La Serena in the evenings, up the hill they have 320 nights a year of perfect visibility for the stars. The talk was interesting and informative, and they even discussed the possibility of aliens on other planets. We saw jupiter, some stars i cant remember and they showed us the zodiac signs in the sky (upside down of course!) and the Inca dark star signs.

Today we got up late, had a run, went for a walk, went to the japanese garden(yes a japanese garden! it was very pretty - apparently the Chileans have a great relationship with Japan), had some lunch and since then we´ve been hanging around ready for the birthday party tonight.

Tomorrow is our last stop on this holiday, Santiago - which is a mere 7 hour bus journey and we should arrive in the middle of the afternoon.

Gallery: 30.08.08 La Serena

matsmith — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:09:00 GMT

Gallery: 28.08.08 San Pedro de Atacama

matsmith — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:24:00 GMT