Hey,
So do you remember that I told you last time about that delicious Indian meal I ate in melaka? Well it gave me food poisoning.... joy! I was only sick for one good day, but still. I walked around Melaka for one day, I took a boot trip on the river. Melaka is really a beautiful city, also recognized by unesco. The city is crowded with several interesting museums. One museum is even located in a big ship in wood on the land. In the afternoon I got really sick and my stomach hurt so much. I got back to the hotel, but I had already checked out and I had my bus to KL only three hours later. Luckily the owner of the guesthouse was really nice and gave me a double bedroom to rest for those three hours. After that I was better and I got on my bus to KL.
I arrived pretty late in KL and I had to take the metro all over town. KL is a really big capital and it has a perfect combination of the nicest Asian architecture and culture with some western influences. When I arrived in the centre it was already dark and I knew the guesthouse couldn't be far, but there were so many streets and cars the street names had been changed since my map so I wanted to take a teksi (malaysian word for taxi). One teksi driver told me the guesthouse was further away so I had to pay more, but when I got there it was a completely other street and a hotel with too expensive rooms. I told him to get me to the guesthouse I told him, which he really tried to find and even called the guesthouse to ask the way. Long live GPS in all the taxi's in Europe. Turns out the guesthouse was at the other side of the street where the teksi had picked me up, so I was quite angry and only wanted to pay him half of what we had agreed. The next days I walked around in KL which is pretty big, but in three days you can do most of it by foot. I walked a lot though, and I was really exhausted after wards. One funny thing was that suddenly I saw helicopters, F16's, running soldiers, tanks,... for one second I feared a war or something, but than I realized it was only a parade for the independence day of Malaysia. I watched the parade for some time and it was impressive to see the whole army parading through the streets of KL.
To be honest, it is already a week ago that I was in Malaysia and so much has happened in between that I don't recall all the interesting details. I'd say look at the pictures and my stories will come again to my mind seeing pictures or talking about my travels. One thing I do remember is that I had a three hour delay of my flight from KL to Laos. The worsed thing was that the TV's and my boarding pass gave a different gate to enter. I spend most of those three hours walking from one gate to another to make sure which gate was the right one. It looked like French administration!
I'm now in laos, but I'll tell you about that later.
Kisses,
vina
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Friday, September 16, 2011
wedstrijd travel blog award
hey,
Ik ga hier dus aan proberen mee te doen, want het lijkt me wel leuk om mijn blog te laten lezen door andere mensen op zoek naar leuke blogverhalen en reisverhalen. Het zou natuurlijk zeer aangenaam zijn om de prijs te winnen waardoor ik nog meer zou kunnen travellen!
groetjes,
Vina
CheapTickets.be en Travel Magazine op zoek naar bloggers!
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www.travel-magazine.be/travelblogaward/nl
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Ik ga hier dus aan proberen mee te doen, want het lijkt me wel leuk om mijn blog te laten lezen door andere mensen op zoek naar leuke blogverhalen en reisverhalen. Het zou natuurlijk zeer aangenaam zijn om de prijs te winnen waardoor ik nog meer zou kunnen travellen!
groetjes,
Vina
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Malaysia Penang + Georgetown + Cameron Highlands + Melaka
Hallo,
After my amazingly lay-back relaxing week at Pulau Langkawi I needed to go forward and restart traveling. I took the ferry to Penang which is an island to the continent. Penang has been governed a long time by the British, which you can still see in the architecture and some parts of the culture. I stayed in the city Georgetown which is the small capital city of Penang. I walked in a few hours all of Georgetown and viewed the buildings, temples, the fort and the museums. The national history museum was really interesting. it's also amazing to view all the religions together in harmony in Malaysia. You have mosques and churches and Buddhist temples next to each other. I took a bus to the Keh Lok Si temple which was one of the only things I actually thought was worth seeing. After that I took another bus to get to another temple with a big lying Buddha. The next morning I took the bus to Cameron Highlands.
The Cameron Highlands are stunning! It can get really cold though in the night. I had to wear my pull and two blankets to get warm, but I'm really bad against the cold. I'd rather have the heat. I went to Father guesthouse cause I thought my friends from Langkawi would be normally there waiting for me.They were not there... but I immediately met some cool Germans of course. After a few hours suddenly the woman of the guesthouse comes up to me asking me to come with her, acting secretive and all... And than I see my friends coming up to me. They hadn't been able to get in time to Ipoh to get the bus to Cameron Highlands so they had to stay a night in Ipoh. I actually arrived before them. Of course I was really glad to see them. I went for a walk to a waterfall with the Germans, although we didn't find the waterfall we had a lot of fun.The next day I booked myself a full day tour cause I hadn't got much time and wanted to view as much as possible. my friends chose the half day-tour. I had a group full of Germans, a Spanish guy and his Polish wife. In the first part of the day, we went hiking to the biggest flower in the world. We had to cross a river which was pretty funny cause you got all wet. The flower is indeed really big. After that we went to an aboriginal village which of course I critically doubt if they are that aboriginal but we could enter the houses and see how they lived. It was ok. They showed us how they hunt with blowpipes. We also had the chance to blow an arrow out of the blowpipe. I hit the target :). In the afternoon we went to visit a butterfly farm, where they also had a lot of insects, snakes and spiders. I volunteered again to have a scorpion on my hand, but suddenly he placed four other on my shoulders and neck, which I didn't really liked of course. I do have pictures of it. Luckily they didn't sting me. We saw a tea plantation and a strawberry farm as well. I had a Belgian waffle there which didn't taste at all as a Belgian waffle but still they have more in asia of Belgian than I thought. They have Tintin and the smurfs. I see everywhere the smurfs. Today I saw a girl with a smurfs T-shirt and even a smurf-Tattoo! I wanted to ask here wtf are you maybe Belgian, but I had to run for my bus so I can only guess why the hell she was so obsessed with the smurfs. The last evening of Cameron Highlands we had a really nice drink and card games and after the bars were closed we ended up eating a tandoori at 3 o clock in the night somewhere. The German smoked a lot, so I made a game out of it to steal his cigarettes and hide them, which was quite funny.
The next morning I had to get up really early to take the bus to KL and from KL to Melaka. I asked two people or that the place was where the bus came, but suddenly 5 minutes after the normal departure time a person told me I was at the wrong place. So I ran, but luckily the bus was late as well, so I got it. At KL I had to take a metro to get to the other side of town to the other bus station. There I took the bus to Melaka. I walked around in Melaka this evening and was very hungry cause I hadn't eaten anything since 7 in the morning. I had the best indian malaysian dish ever on a coconut leave. They even kept on giving me more vegetables when I had ate them all. It was only about 2 euro... don't you just got to love Asia :D. I got a tandoori bread and to little glasses with sauce. I dipped the bread in the sauce and ate it like that. After dinner the waiter tells me that it's actually a drink... oops!
Tomorrow I'll see the rest of Melaka.
Goodnight,
Vina
After my amazingly lay-back relaxing week at Pulau Langkawi I needed to go forward and restart traveling. I took the ferry to Penang which is an island to the continent. Penang has been governed a long time by the British, which you can still see in the architecture and some parts of the culture. I stayed in the city Georgetown which is the small capital city of Penang. I walked in a few hours all of Georgetown and viewed the buildings, temples, the fort and the museums. The national history museum was really interesting. it's also amazing to view all the religions together in harmony in Malaysia. You have mosques and churches and Buddhist temples next to each other. I took a bus to the Keh Lok Si temple which was one of the only things I actually thought was worth seeing. After that I took another bus to get to another temple with a big lying Buddha. The next morning I took the bus to Cameron Highlands.
The Cameron Highlands are stunning! It can get really cold though in the night. I had to wear my pull and two blankets to get warm, but I'm really bad against the cold. I'd rather have the heat. I went to Father guesthouse cause I thought my friends from Langkawi would be normally there waiting for me.They were not there... but I immediately met some cool Germans of course. After a few hours suddenly the woman of the guesthouse comes up to me asking me to come with her, acting secretive and all... And than I see my friends coming up to me. They hadn't been able to get in time to Ipoh to get the bus to Cameron Highlands so they had to stay a night in Ipoh. I actually arrived before them. Of course I was really glad to see them. I went for a walk to a waterfall with the Germans, although we didn't find the waterfall we had a lot of fun.The next day I booked myself a full day tour cause I hadn't got much time and wanted to view as much as possible. my friends chose the half day-tour. I had a group full of Germans, a Spanish guy and his Polish wife. In the first part of the day, we went hiking to the biggest flower in the world. We had to cross a river which was pretty funny cause you got all wet. The flower is indeed really big. After that we went to an aboriginal village which of course I critically doubt if they are that aboriginal but we could enter the houses and see how they lived. It was ok. They showed us how they hunt with blowpipes. We also had the chance to blow an arrow out of the blowpipe. I hit the target :). In the afternoon we went to visit a butterfly farm, where they also had a lot of insects, snakes and spiders. I volunteered again to have a scorpion on my hand, but suddenly he placed four other on my shoulders and neck, which I didn't really liked of course. I do have pictures of it. Luckily they didn't sting me. We saw a tea plantation and a strawberry farm as well. I had a Belgian waffle there which didn't taste at all as a Belgian waffle but still they have more in asia of Belgian than I thought. They have Tintin and the smurfs. I see everywhere the smurfs. Today I saw a girl with a smurfs T-shirt and even a smurf-Tattoo! I wanted to ask here wtf are you maybe Belgian, but I had to run for my bus so I can only guess why the hell she was so obsessed with the smurfs. The last evening of Cameron Highlands we had a really nice drink and card games and after the bars were closed we ended up eating a tandoori at 3 o clock in the night somewhere. The German smoked a lot, so I made a game out of it to steal his cigarettes and hide them, which was quite funny.
The next morning I had to get up really early to take the bus to KL and from KL to Melaka. I asked two people or that the place was where the bus came, but suddenly 5 minutes after the normal departure time a person told me I was at the wrong place. So I ran, but luckily the bus was late as well, so I got it. At KL I had to take a metro to get to the other side of town to the other bus station. There I took the bus to Melaka. I walked around in Melaka this evening and was very hungry cause I hadn't eaten anything since 7 in the morning. I had the best indian malaysian dish ever on a coconut leave. They even kept on giving me more vegetables when I had ate them all. It was only about 2 euro... don't you just got to love Asia :D. I got a tandoori bread and to little glasses with sauce. I dipped the bread in the sauce and ate it like that. After dinner the waiter tells me that it's actually a drink... oops!
Tomorrow I'll see the rest of Melaka.
Goodnight,
Vina
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Malaysia Pulau Langkawi 1/09 - 7/09
I took a bus from Kao Lak to Sarut Thani and from there I took a bus to Satun. I arrived in Satun at 3:30 AM in the night. I had to go with all my backpack and bags on a motorcycle to find a hotel in the night. Of course the one hotel that was still open told me they only had one room available of the highest price...bullshit but what can I do I have to get a room and off the street in the night, so I payed. The next day I took a taxi to the border cause there were no buses. At the other sight of the border in malaysia there were nor buses nor taxi's, but luckily malaysian people are so kind and they offered me immediately to drive me to the ferry terminal. I had no malaysian money yet so I had to find a bank that could change my TB into MR (malaysian ringit). Apparently it was a holiday so the banks were closed. A malaysian helped me out and searched a bank with me on the motorcycle. When we didn't found one he called up a friend who could change my money, so I happily got Ringit to buy my ticket for the ferry. Malaysian people are so friendly and helpful! They do ask a lot where my husband is :). They are surprised that a woman can travel alone by herself without husband or boyfriend. It's still mostly a muslim country. It's still strange to me to see burka's and nikhabs.
So I finally arrived at Pulau Langkawi in the evening of 1/09. I am staying at Gecko Guesthouse which is owned by a British woman. It's really nice here! I love this island, it is stunning and there is so much to do. It's a really amazing atmosphere of relaxing and lay back sabai sabai. The first day I just swam in the sea and got tanned at the beach....The next days we took some tours. I met here a British guy, american, two kiwi's, a finish girl, a south-Korean who has had apparently a relationship with a Belgian girl from Leuven as well. We went to visit the mangrove, the cave, a fish farm, eagle feeding,.... The next day we went island hopping to white sand beaches and a black sand beach, we went up the mountain with the cable car for the beautiful stunning view. The last day we went snorkeling at the coral riff between little sharks and a sand fish who kept biting me to protect his territory. Yesterday was my last day here and we just relaxed at the beach. Every evening we went for a drink at the beach and watch the sunset, smoke a shisha, listen to music... really a nice relaxing experience which I really needed after my fast travelling in Cambodia and Thailand. I was sick at the end of Thailand but here I got better. Today I'm leaving to Penang and I'm really sad about leaving but I'm curious about the rest of Malaysia.
see you soon,
kisses,
vina
So I finally arrived at Pulau Langkawi in the evening of 1/09. I am staying at Gecko Guesthouse which is owned by a British woman. It's really nice here! I love this island, it is stunning and there is so much to do. It's a really amazing atmosphere of relaxing and lay back sabai sabai. The first day I just swam in the sea and got tanned at the beach....The next days we took some tours. I met here a British guy, american, two kiwi's, a finish girl, a south-Korean who has had apparently a relationship with a Belgian girl from Leuven as well. We went to visit the mangrove, the cave, a fish farm, eagle feeding,.... The next day we went island hopping to white sand beaches and a black sand beach, we went up the mountain with the cable car for the beautiful stunning view. The last day we went snorkeling at the coral riff between little sharks and a sand fish who kept biting me to protect his territory. Yesterday was my last day here and we just relaxed at the beach. Every evening we went for a drink at the beach and watch the sunset, smoke a shisha, listen to music... really a nice relaxing experience which I really needed after my fast travelling in Cambodia and Thailand. I was sick at the end of Thailand but here I got better. Today I'm leaving to Penang and I'm really sad about leaving but I'm curious about the rest of Malaysia.
see you soon,
kisses,
vina
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
The South of Thailand 28/08
We took a night train to Sarut Thani, with actual little beds. When we arrived in the morning there came immediately some touroperators trying to sell us bustickets. Julie and Tina were still deciding where they would go. I decided to go to Krabi and the bus was leaving, so we said goodbye there at the trainstation. At that time it was already raining a lot! When I arrived at the hotel in Krabi I started talking with a south-african who lived already 11 years in England. It was pretty funny because we could talk in English and when he talked sout-african I could understand most of it, and also the other way around when I spoke Dutch. He just loved that we sing in Belgium the song Sarie-Marijs in South-African. He was a thai boxer and had builded his own thai boxing thai chi and other martial fights sports gyms in England. He wanted to learn Thai boxing so he went to Thailand, but he didn't want to learn it from the commercialized gyms who just ask a lot of money and learn thai boxing fast but not good. He didnt knew where to look but just followed his gutfeeling and it brought him to Krabi where he had found by luck Khruw, a bangkok champion thai boxer who had built his own gym in his backyard and had sewed everything of the training materials by himself. Normally he never teaches foreigners, but for Kevin (soutafrican) he made an exception. Khruw couldn't speak English and Kevin couldn't speak Thai, but he stayed there for three months to learn thai boxing. After that he came back every year and now he takes two students with him for their training. So normally it's quite an honor to be able to learn from Khruw. So when I was speaking with Kevin and I told him I was interested to see the actual thai boxing, he suddenly invited me to come along. Of course I said hell yeah! it was raining anyway so I had nothing else to do on the beach.
I should tell you that I was already sick for 5 days by then, so I was completely drained out and had not much energy left and felt really weak. Anyhow Kevin took me and his students as a warm up to the Buddha statue and temple at the top of the mountain, which is by the way a climb of 1400 stairs. It took me about a half hour to get to the top completely soaked because of the rain and exhausted but I made it! Some stairs were that high that you had to climb it with hands and feet. At the top there was a prehistoric fossil of a dinosaurs footprint. I've got a picture where my tine foot stands into the fossil. In Krabi there are apparently many fossils to find.
Afterwards we went already soaked wet to the Thai boxing. It was amazing because it really was a family of Thai boxing who knew the art of Thai boxing. Every member of the family trained, even the girls, and it has been that way for already 6 generations of that family. The father, Khruw, had been a bangkok champion and now his son as wel. I trained with them and they showed me how to do the basics. I especially loved the kicks. They teached me so much more and faster than with Taekwando. The son, Siphon, was crazy but amazing as well, he studies still in college under a topsport statute and he has done already 400 fights and has won a lot, and that all already at the age of 23! It's a pity though that he had just broken his jaw two weeks before because of an accident during the training. Kevin was training his kicks and Siphon couldn't block one of them and it went right at his jaw. Kevin tries to built a lot of fundings projects here and volunteer work. For example he wants to put up an ambulance and ambulance over water or speedboats, because it took too long to get Siphon to the hospital in Phuket. His jaw was only operated two days later! Can you believe walking around with a broken jaw for two days? He has an enormous high pain barrier. The next day we went training again there. They were so kind to me! They even gave me a lucky bracelet which I have to wear for 7 days so I'd be protected during my travelling across asia... so they believe, but I'll obey by it.
Tuesday 30/08 I took the bus to Khao Lak. I wanted to see the tsunami museum and the boat that has been placed 2km land in because of the tsunami. There is also a beach there. The first day I just lay on the beach reading my book and swimming sometimes in the ocean. The waves were too high even at the beginning of the water already. It was a completely deserted beach. I was all alone. It's almost september so all the families and children already returned home and the rest of the tourist probably fled for the rain. I myself didn't like it here, so I decided not to stick around for ko pha ngan and I want to go sooner to malaysia. I could have stayed and dop some island hopping untill the half moon party and afterwards to malaysia. But the weather isn't to good, and it's not a nice atmosphere here. They try to rip you off with everything, and it's 3 times more expensive than anywhere else in Thailand. I don't like it here. Maybe you really can't come in the rainy season and only in the cold season. It's also to dangerous to dive or snorkle because of the rain.
Long story short I decided to not go to the halfmoon party because it's too expensive and if it would rain, it would be one fucked up party. It rains very hard here if it rains, and I don't want a pukkelpop on my trip :S. Apparantly the weather is better in malaysia, and there are also islands and beaches there. Another avantage is that I'll have more time to see malaysia so I don't have to travel that fast anymore. Travelling fast has it's downsides, it's more exhausting and expensive and if you meet cool people you always have to say almost immediately already goodbye.
Next story will be about malaysia. I'll arrive with the bus in Satun at 2 AM in the night, so I hope I can find quickly a guesthouse at my arrival. In the morning than I'll cross the border.
kisses,
Vina
I should tell you that I was already sick for 5 days by then, so I was completely drained out and had not much energy left and felt really weak. Anyhow Kevin took me and his students as a warm up to the Buddha statue and temple at the top of the mountain, which is by the way a climb of 1400 stairs. It took me about a half hour to get to the top completely soaked because of the rain and exhausted but I made it! Some stairs were that high that you had to climb it with hands and feet. At the top there was a prehistoric fossil of a dinosaurs footprint. I've got a picture where my tine foot stands into the fossil. In Krabi there are apparently many fossils to find.
Afterwards we went already soaked wet to the Thai boxing. It was amazing because it really was a family of Thai boxing who knew the art of Thai boxing. Every member of the family trained, even the girls, and it has been that way for already 6 generations of that family. The father, Khruw, had been a bangkok champion and now his son as wel. I trained with them and they showed me how to do the basics. I especially loved the kicks. They teached me so much more and faster than with Taekwando. The son, Siphon, was crazy but amazing as well, he studies still in college under a topsport statute and he has done already 400 fights and has won a lot, and that all already at the age of 23! It's a pity though that he had just broken his jaw two weeks before because of an accident during the training. Kevin was training his kicks and Siphon couldn't block one of them and it went right at his jaw. Kevin tries to built a lot of fundings projects here and volunteer work. For example he wants to put up an ambulance and ambulance over water or speedboats, because it took too long to get Siphon to the hospital in Phuket. His jaw was only operated two days later! Can you believe walking around with a broken jaw for two days? He has an enormous high pain barrier. The next day we went training again there. They were so kind to me! They even gave me a lucky bracelet which I have to wear for 7 days so I'd be protected during my travelling across asia... so they believe, but I'll obey by it.
Tuesday 30/08 I took the bus to Khao Lak. I wanted to see the tsunami museum and the boat that has been placed 2km land in because of the tsunami. There is also a beach there. The first day I just lay on the beach reading my book and swimming sometimes in the ocean. The waves were too high even at the beginning of the water already. It was a completely deserted beach. I was all alone. It's almost september so all the families and children already returned home and the rest of the tourist probably fled for the rain. I myself didn't like it here, so I decided not to stick around for ko pha ngan and I want to go sooner to malaysia. I could have stayed and dop some island hopping untill the half moon party and afterwards to malaysia. But the weather isn't to good, and it's not a nice atmosphere here. They try to rip you off with everything, and it's 3 times more expensive than anywhere else in Thailand. I don't like it here. Maybe you really can't come in the rainy season and only in the cold season. It's also to dangerous to dive or snorkle because of the rain.
Long story short I decided to not go to the halfmoon party because it's too expensive and if it would rain, it would be one fucked up party. It rains very hard here if it rains, and I don't want a pukkelpop on my trip :S. Apparantly the weather is better in malaysia, and there are also islands and beaches there. Another avantage is that I'll have more time to see malaysia so I don't have to travel that fast anymore. Travelling fast has it's downsides, it's more exhausting and expensive and if you meet cool people you always have to say almost immediately already goodbye.
Next story will be about malaysia. I'll arrive with the bus in Satun at 2 AM in the night, so I hope I can find quickly a guesthouse at my arrival. In the morning than I'll cross the border.
kisses,
Vina
Thailand from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi 24/08 - 27/08
I was quite sad when we left Cambodia behind us, because I truly had an amazing time there. We took the bus to Poipet in the early morning at 7 o clock, still with a hangover from the party with cambodians untill 5 o clock. When we crossed the border of Thailand where our visa got checked, we found out that the Thai consulat in Belgium had lied to us. Normally I have a visa for three months which I normally can use even while crossing other borders, but now they told me I had only a 15 days left in Thailand. Luckily I already had planned to go to malaysia and lao before those 15 days had passed, but I would still have to buy me a new visa when I get back to thailand in the end to take my airplane in Bangkok. My friends had more trouble because they planned to stay in Thailand and had there airplane 7 days after those 15 days, which has a fine of 500TB a day to late. We decided to go to Bangkok to see what to do with our visa. We should have crossed there anyway. On the way we met a cool costa rican who had studied in the US and was now studying for 4 years in China. he travelled all over the world. he was completely the sabai sabai (hakuna mattata) type, but a bit too much.
That evening we went to get a drink and a shisha in Bangkok. Afterwards we wanted to go to a club, so when a tuktuk called for only 5 Tb each to bring us to a club, we thought hell yeah! He drove a little too far to ask only 5 TB so my gutfeeling told me that something was wrong. The costa rican told me noo all ok, sabai sabai,.... lesson 1: Follow your gutfeeling even if some one more wiser tells you it will be ok. The driver drove so far out of centre and kept going and turning street to street, so we told him get us to a club or get back. suddenly he stopped at a dark alley with a peepshow where women shoot pingpongballs out of their private parts, if you know what I mean. i and my friend were maybe interested to see that if it was not way too expensive and a little to dark alley. The driver told us he wanted 300TB to get us back, which of course we declined because I am not going to pay somebody just to drive us around to the middle of nowhere. he got aggressive so eventually we got out. We had to walk 30 minutes in the red district with all the whores, childprostitutes, discusting old white men looking for young meet, and of course the ladyboys. If me and julie would have been alone, we would have been scared maybe but now it was kind of interesting to see the red district, which otherwise I wouldn't have seen. I felt a little like the hangover 2 in bangkok. The costa rican had it worse cause he had already 3 ladyboys trying to grap his private parts, which he wasn't really fond of.
The next day we split up because julie and tina went to the thai consulat of immigration. I got a thai massage. We were suppossed to meet at the train station but when I got there I got a sms to go to the other side of bangkok to another trainstation. I arrived just when the train was about to leave and had just the time to throw the money to the tuktukdriver and jump into the train with all my bags. We were on our way to kanchanaburi. In kanchanaburi we visited the bridge over the river Kwai which is famous of the worldwar. Thousands of war prisonners died while building the bridge in hands of the Japanese. At the end of the fight over the bridge, american troops bombed the bridge even while all the prisonners were still on the bridge. They had sacrificed all the prisonners of Dutch, English, Thai,... nationalities. We also saw the museum, which was interesting. That same day we swam in the river Kwai at our hotel, because we were staying in rafthouses. It was really beautiful to swim there, untill somebody came up to warn us about some huge snaked in the river. we went to ask the hotel who told us: no ok ok to swim, no problem, no snakes, no snakes. So we kept on swiming but 5minutes after we got out of the river, we saw 2 huge snakes in the water each at least a meter long. Thank you thai culture to never tell a negative answer!
The day after that we went to the Erawan waterfalls which were really beautiful! We swam in the waterfalls between some monkeys climbing the threes. I can't really explain the beauty of the nature in the few phrases I have here, so you'll have to see it in the films and pictures we made.
next stop is the south of Thailand.
see you later,
kisses
That evening we went to get a drink and a shisha in Bangkok. Afterwards we wanted to go to a club, so when a tuktuk called for only 5 Tb each to bring us to a club, we thought hell yeah! He drove a little too far to ask only 5 TB so my gutfeeling told me that something was wrong. The costa rican told me noo all ok, sabai sabai,.... lesson 1: Follow your gutfeeling even if some one more wiser tells you it will be ok. The driver drove so far out of centre and kept going and turning street to street, so we told him get us to a club or get back. suddenly he stopped at a dark alley with a peepshow where women shoot pingpongballs out of their private parts, if you know what I mean. i and my friend were maybe interested to see that if it was not way too expensive and a little to dark alley. The driver told us he wanted 300TB to get us back, which of course we declined because I am not going to pay somebody just to drive us around to the middle of nowhere. he got aggressive so eventually we got out. We had to walk 30 minutes in the red district with all the whores, childprostitutes, discusting old white men looking for young meet, and of course the ladyboys. If me and julie would have been alone, we would have been scared maybe but now it was kind of interesting to see the red district, which otherwise I wouldn't have seen. I felt a little like the hangover 2 in bangkok. The costa rican had it worse cause he had already 3 ladyboys trying to grap his private parts, which he wasn't really fond of.
The next day we split up because julie and tina went to the thai consulat of immigration. I got a thai massage. We were suppossed to meet at the train station but when I got there I got a sms to go to the other side of bangkok to another trainstation. I arrived just when the train was about to leave and had just the time to throw the money to the tuktukdriver and jump into the train with all my bags. We were on our way to kanchanaburi. In kanchanaburi we visited the bridge over the river Kwai which is famous of the worldwar. Thousands of war prisonners died while building the bridge in hands of the Japanese. At the end of the fight over the bridge, american troops bombed the bridge even while all the prisonners were still on the bridge. They had sacrificed all the prisonners of Dutch, English, Thai,... nationalities. We also saw the museum, which was interesting. That same day we swam in the river Kwai at our hotel, because we were staying in rafthouses. It was really beautiful to swim there, untill somebody came up to warn us about some huge snaked in the river. we went to ask the hotel who told us: no ok ok to swim, no problem, no snakes, no snakes. So we kept on swiming but 5minutes after we got out of the river, we saw 2 huge snakes in the water each at least a meter long. Thank you thai culture to never tell a negative answer!
The day after that we went to the Erawan waterfalls which were really beautiful! We swam in the waterfalls between some monkeys climbing the threes. I can't really explain the beauty of the nature in the few phrases I have here, so you'll have to see it in the films and pictures we made.
next stop is the south of Thailand.
see you later,
kisses
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Cambodia 19/08 - 24/08
Thursday 18/08 was my last day of teaching. Some students made a song for me to say goodbye. It was beautiful! Apparently some students even cried when I was leaving. That evening the teachers gave me a goodbye party with even a karaoke and a barbecue. It was very kind and we had a lot of fun. I thanked everybody for their hospitality and kindness. Friday morning they drove me up to the Chom Chong border to cross over to Cambodia all by myself, without the safety net of the school and my Thai family.
Friday 19/08 I crossed the border at Chon Chong, which is a deserted border without any busses, so I had to take a taxi of 60 dollars because it was a two hour drive to Siem Reap. My first day of Siem Reap I rented a bike and cycled around in the little town. It was completely crowded with tourist, that I felt even overwhelmed. I went to the market and bought some nice travelling clothes, a new backpack ( so yes brother I threw the ancient backpack away) and some nice souvenirs. You could have a massage for 1 dollar, a manicure for 1 dollar,... It was extremely cheap everything. Uschi it's your paradise! So many clothes for only a dollar or 5, 1 dollar massages,...
Saturday I went to Angkor Wat, which was already for a long time a dream. I actually got up at 4 o clock in the night to see the sunrise. It was pretty cool because I had to walk in the dark to the ruins with only the light of some flashlights of three other tourists. We were with 30 people sitting and waiting for the sunrise above Angkor Wat. The view was less than expected, but the atmosphere was amazing. That day I saw a lot of temples guided by me tuktuk driver who I had reserved from dusk till dawn for only 15 dollars. I could describe the temples, but not even a thousand words can describe how amazing beautiful and wonderful it is. You'll all have to see for yourself, or you can see my pictures in a while. I can't put the pictures on facebook cause this computer won't allow my USB, bollocks!
I took that evening the night bus to Phnom Pen where I arrived at 5 o clock in the night. I went to the hotel but I had to wait another hour and a half or else I had to pay for the room already that night. I met some Germans who just came back from a night out, and we decided to see the sunrise at the riverside. It was really extraordinary to see over phnom pen and the river the red sunrise. It was more beautiful than at Angkor wat, but here the place wasn't ancient and mystical as in Angkor wat. I met up with Tina and Julie afterwards. We went to see S21, the palace, the national museum and the killing fields. Although it was nice, we didn't had a good feeling about phnom pen, but I think we can blame it on the historical importance of visiting S21 and the killing fields which actually just leaves you with a really heavy sad and disgusted feeling. But you have to visit it otherwise it's a huge cultural and historical gap in your visit of Cambodia. It helps you understand more about the mentality of the Cambodian people who are by the way one of the nicest people I've ever met. They would make the French feeling ashamed ;)! They are more honest and don't beg as much as in Thailand although there is so much more poverty. In Thailand I was already shocked by some poor houses of my students, but even that was more of the exception. In Cambodia it is the usual and normal poverty of every day and almost every family.
Monday we went to Battambang, which was a 5 hour drive where we had to get up for at 5:30. The first day we visited the bamboo trail where hundreds of Asian people have died during the Japanese terror to build the rail. It's not used any more by trains, but the locals still use it to transport little things. We went with just two wheals, a motor and a bamboo cover on the rails. It went pretty faster than we'd imagined. We saw an amazing scenery of nature and people waving from the rice fields. We stopped to visit a stone factory where we learned also how the make artwork with papaya leaves. We gave the family some money because they were so kind but so poor. Afterwards we went to the killing cave where you can see hundreds of baths at sunset. We saw some monkeys on the way to the killing cave. A lot of little children came up asking us to guide for a dollar, but we say always no to children cause it's child's work.
The next day we visited an ancient Khmer temple. It was still beautiful but after you've seen so many of them at Angkor wat it kind a gets boring. We also went to see a pagoda where the Red Khmer also used to torture and imprison innocent people. Afterwards they just threw them in the cave, which is now called the killing cave. The last stop was a big lake which is probably the most beautiful lake I've ever seen. it was crowded with flowers and plants and lily's. We took a boat trip of an hour on the lake where we also saw houses on the lake and fisherman fishing. We took a swim right in the middle of the lake where we were completely in solitude.
That evening we got invited to a birthday party of a 2year old girl of the restaurant across our hotel where we had eaten three times. They were so kind and wanted to stay and party with their family. We got the whole evening to eat and drink with the family for free. And my god how the Cambodians know how to throw a party! It's nice to see a thing in common between Belgians and Cambodians :D! I'd like to go to an adult birthday party of a Cambodian, how they already partied the whole night long with music and lots of beer,... They wouldn't take no for an answer and kept giving us free beer and toasting to drink bottoms up. ( ad fundum) It really looked like a students Belgian party. But they danced like crazy, not good but they just let themselves go completely on the dancefloor. We went with two spanish, an australian girl and a Dutch guy to a club. The club was really cool but they already closed at 2PM, which is way to early so I got my cards to play an alcohol game on the rooftop of the hotel. We got even a free bottle of wine from the hotel. At 4:30 I finally threw myself in my bed to just get up about two hours later...to take the bus to the border.
Goodbye Cambodia, I fell in love with you and I really want to come back! Just amazing kind people Cambodians and really more trustworthy and open. The nature was incredible as well. It's just too sad that there is that much poverty. 65 percent of Cambodia has tuberculoses. Cambodia is one of the 6 poorest countries in the world with a high rate of HIV. I think I'd like to organize a fund raising for the childrens hospital and for the orphanage school. Only for 2 dollar you can let a child go to school for a whole month! They don't even have 2 dollars the month sometimes. There are also still a lot of landmines which causes still the day of today a lot of deaths or injured people and children. But it's a lovely country which everybody should visit!
Friday 19/08 I crossed the border at Chon Chong, which is a deserted border without any busses, so I had to take a taxi of 60 dollars because it was a two hour drive to Siem Reap. My first day of Siem Reap I rented a bike and cycled around in the little town. It was completely crowded with tourist, that I felt even overwhelmed. I went to the market and bought some nice travelling clothes, a new backpack ( so yes brother I threw the ancient backpack away) and some nice souvenirs. You could have a massage for 1 dollar, a manicure for 1 dollar,... It was extremely cheap everything. Uschi it's your paradise! So many clothes for only a dollar or 5, 1 dollar massages,...
Saturday I went to Angkor Wat, which was already for a long time a dream. I actually got up at 4 o clock in the night to see the sunrise. It was pretty cool because I had to walk in the dark to the ruins with only the light of some flashlights of three other tourists. We were with 30 people sitting and waiting for the sunrise above Angkor Wat. The view was less than expected, but the atmosphere was amazing. That day I saw a lot of temples guided by me tuktuk driver who I had reserved from dusk till dawn for only 15 dollars. I could describe the temples, but not even a thousand words can describe how amazing beautiful and wonderful it is. You'll all have to see for yourself, or you can see my pictures in a while. I can't put the pictures on facebook cause this computer won't allow my USB, bollocks!
I took that evening the night bus to Phnom Pen where I arrived at 5 o clock in the night. I went to the hotel but I had to wait another hour and a half or else I had to pay for the room already that night. I met some Germans who just came back from a night out, and we decided to see the sunrise at the riverside. It was really extraordinary to see over phnom pen and the river the red sunrise. It was more beautiful than at Angkor wat, but here the place wasn't ancient and mystical as in Angkor wat. I met up with Tina and Julie afterwards. We went to see S21, the palace, the national museum and the killing fields. Although it was nice, we didn't had a good feeling about phnom pen, but I think we can blame it on the historical importance of visiting S21 and the killing fields which actually just leaves you with a really heavy sad and disgusted feeling. But you have to visit it otherwise it's a huge cultural and historical gap in your visit of Cambodia. It helps you understand more about the mentality of the Cambodian people who are by the way one of the nicest people I've ever met. They would make the French feeling ashamed ;)! They are more honest and don't beg as much as in Thailand although there is so much more poverty. In Thailand I was already shocked by some poor houses of my students, but even that was more of the exception. In Cambodia it is the usual and normal poverty of every day and almost every family.
Monday we went to Battambang, which was a 5 hour drive where we had to get up for at 5:30. The first day we visited the bamboo trail where hundreds of Asian people have died during the Japanese terror to build the rail. It's not used any more by trains, but the locals still use it to transport little things. We went with just two wheals, a motor and a bamboo cover on the rails. It went pretty faster than we'd imagined. We saw an amazing scenery of nature and people waving from the rice fields. We stopped to visit a stone factory where we learned also how the make artwork with papaya leaves. We gave the family some money because they were so kind but so poor. Afterwards we went to the killing cave where you can see hundreds of baths at sunset. We saw some monkeys on the way to the killing cave. A lot of little children came up asking us to guide for a dollar, but we say always no to children cause it's child's work.
The next day we visited an ancient Khmer temple. It was still beautiful but after you've seen so many of them at Angkor wat it kind a gets boring. We also went to see a pagoda where the Red Khmer also used to torture and imprison innocent people. Afterwards they just threw them in the cave, which is now called the killing cave. The last stop was a big lake which is probably the most beautiful lake I've ever seen. it was crowded with flowers and plants and lily's. We took a boat trip of an hour on the lake where we also saw houses on the lake and fisherman fishing. We took a swim right in the middle of the lake where we were completely in solitude.
That evening we got invited to a birthday party of a 2year old girl of the restaurant across our hotel where we had eaten three times. They were so kind and wanted to stay and party with their family. We got the whole evening to eat and drink with the family for free. And my god how the Cambodians know how to throw a party! It's nice to see a thing in common between Belgians and Cambodians :D! I'd like to go to an adult birthday party of a Cambodian, how they already partied the whole night long with music and lots of beer,... They wouldn't take no for an answer and kept giving us free beer and toasting to drink bottoms up. ( ad fundum) It really looked like a students Belgian party. But they danced like crazy, not good but they just let themselves go completely on the dancefloor. We went with two spanish, an australian girl and a Dutch guy to a club. The club was really cool but they already closed at 2PM, which is way to early so I got my cards to play an alcohol game on the rooftop of the hotel. We got even a free bottle of wine from the hotel. At 4:30 I finally threw myself in my bed to just get up about two hours later...to take the bus to the border.
Goodbye Cambodia, I fell in love with you and I really want to come back! Just amazing kind people Cambodians and really more trustworthy and open. The nature was incredible as well. It's just too sad that there is that much poverty. 65 percent of Cambodia has tuberculoses. Cambodia is one of the 6 poorest countries in the world with a high rate of HIV. I think I'd like to organize a fund raising for the childrens hospital and for the orphanage school. Only for 2 dollar you can let a child go to school for a whole month! They don't even have 2 dollars the month sometimes. There are also still a lot of landmines which causes still the day of today a lot of deaths or injured people and children. But it's a lovely country which everybody should visit!
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