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!
Sunday, August 14, 2011
khao yai national park 12-14/08
This weekend I went to Khao Yai National Park. if you've never heared of it, most of you have already seen it on tv. The film the beach has been filmed in this park. You remember the waterfall where they jumped off to get to the drugs village? I stood at the seem spot. I would have liked to try also to jump or to swim in the waterfall, but after too many injuries and deaths, you can't anymore. It's forbidden now. it's ok, I took a night swim in the river at some other little waterfall.
The first day: Friday I took a 4 hours train to Khao Yai. I sat by coincidence on the same train with three other volunteers, alex (american/french), martin (australian/indian), and ben (british). They should have taken normally the train thursdayevening to Bangkok, but got to hear at first that the train was delayed about two hours. After two hours, they went back to the station to hear that the train already had left. They just partied untill the morning and took the train with me. But this train had also an hour and a half delay. sabai sabai in Thai means relax, take it easy. When our newspapers are screaming criticism about that our trains have even one minute delay.... This brings it more into perspective. my 4 hours ride was thanks to these guys quickly passed and a fun time. At the station the guide picked me up for the first half day tour. I went with a group with two Dutch families with children. The children were lovely, but I already have to deal with a lot of children in the week, than I'd rather relax with some more adults in the weekends. On the half day tour we went to a cave with a lot of bats. In this cave, there was a temple where monks go to pray and meditate each night. There was also a very large spider as the size of my hand. You'll never believe but I let them put it on my hand! I have proof! pictures will follow! You can really see the agony on my face. I still pulled back, but I had told the guide to just force it up on my hand. I thought it might get rid of my aragnofobia, but it only caused me two nights of nightmares about spiders. After that we went to the outside of another cave where there are 2 million bats. At a beautiful sunset, all the bats came out of the cave together. It was magnificent to watch. After sunset I swam in a river in the dark with flashlights. really nice experience.That evening I met amy (british) and Viktoria ( lithuania). We got on really well and decided to take the full tour the next day together and to get dropped off afterwards to the campingside in the park itself.
Second day: I went on the full day tour guide with Viktoria and Amy. We just went with the songtaews with the guides. The whole day was more about seeing the animals, which was nice but sometimes borring. You'll have to wait untill everybody has seen the animals and to take pictures and to wait very long untill you actually see the animal. But it was quite good to go with the guides because they really have an eye as a hawk to find the animals. We saw monkeys, scorpions, snakes, dears, a black wild cat, a lizzard... For three hours we got split up into smaller groups to actually walk into the jungle. There was a french guy with his wife and daughter in our group. What an asshole he was! me and the other girls were talking a bit about documentaries. It's ok to ask us if we would stay quiet, but he just started screaming at us to shut the fuck up. So I just replied that he could ask it also politely. He just started screaming really discusting words to me in French so they others couldn't understand. really what an asshole and aggressive man. what an exemple he makes for his daughter, arghh Just always the great majority of french I meet are complete assholes! But the rest of the day was pretty awesome! That evening we got dropped off at the camping side where we rented a tent. We also met a group of 5 italians. That evening we put our tents together and sat with candlles talking and playing napke/ reign of fire. It was really fun with a little bit of nightswimming!
Suddenly one italian told me they had bought some drugs in Bangkok that they had with them. I couldn't believe how stupid they were to try that! I told them about all the high penalties, about arrests of tourists and getting lifesentences,... I also told them about the british guy that got arrested just for having talked with another guy who he had just met that evening at kho pha ngan. The other guy had stolen a handbag later, so he got arrested on the suspicion of beeing a lookout cause he knew the guy apparently. That convinced them to throw the drugs away. I told them to throw it away, cause if they would get got than, I could also be arrested just for being there with them in the park. The guy threw it away in the river and than game back. he said really dry: yeah I threw it away, but not the plastic bag offcourse, I mean, You can't throw away a plastic bag in a national park, can you. I laughed so hard, how stupid to consider throwing the bag in the river worse than actually bying the drugs in thailand.
The next day we took a trail by ourselves. I'll tell you about it later. I have to go.
kisses
The first day: Friday I took a 4 hours train to Khao Yai. I sat by coincidence on the same train with three other volunteers, alex (american/french), martin (australian/indian), and ben (british). They should have taken normally the train thursdayevening to Bangkok, but got to hear at first that the train was delayed about two hours. After two hours, they went back to the station to hear that the train already had left. They just partied untill the morning and took the train with me. But this train had also an hour and a half delay. sabai sabai in Thai means relax, take it easy. When our newspapers are screaming criticism about that our trains have even one minute delay.... This brings it more into perspective. my 4 hours ride was thanks to these guys quickly passed and a fun time. At the station the guide picked me up for the first half day tour. I went with a group with two Dutch families with children. The children were lovely, but I already have to deal with a lot of children in the week, than I'd rather relax with some more adults in the weekends. On the half day tour we went to a cave with a lot of bats. In this cave, there was a temple where monks go to pray and meditate each night. There was also a very large spider as the size of my hand. You'll never believe but I let them put it on my hand! I have proof! pictures will follow! You can really see the agony on my face. I still pulled back, but I had told the guide to just force it up on my hand. I thought it might get rid of my aragnofobia, but it only caused me two nights of nightmares about spiders. After that we went to the outside of another cave where there are 2 million bats. At a beautiful sunset, all the bats came out of the cave together. It was magnificent to watch. After sunset I swam in a river in the dark with flashlights. really nice experience.That evening I met amy (british) and Viktoria ( lithuania). We got on really well and decided to take the full tour the next day together and to get dropped off afterwards to the campingside in the park itself.
Second day: I went on the full day tour guide with Viktoria and Amy. We just went with the songtaews with the guides. The whole day was more about seeing the animals, which was nice but sometimes borring. You'll have to wait untill everybody has seen the animals and to take pictures and to wait very long untill you actually see the animal. But it was quite good to go with the guides because they really have an eye as a hawk to find the animals. We saw monkeys, scorpions, snakes, dears, a black wild cat, a lizzard... For three hours we got split up into smaller groups to actually walk into the jungle. There was a french guy with his wife and daughter in our group. What an asshole he was! me and the other girls were talking a bit about documentaries. It's ok to ask us if we would stay quiet, but he just started screaming at us to shut the fuck up. So I just replied that he could ask it also politely. He just started screaming really discusting words to me in French so they others couldn't understand. really what an asshole and aggressive man. what an exemple he makes for his daughter, arghh Just always the great majority of french I meet are complete assholes! But the rest of the day was pretty awesome! That evening we got dropped off at the camping side where we rented a tent. We also met a group of 5 italians. That evening we put our tents together and sat with candlles talking and playing napke/ reign of fire. It was really fun with a little bit of nightswimming!
Suddenly one italian told me they had bought some drugs in Bangkok that they had with them. I couldn't believe how stupid they were to try that! I told them about all the high penalties, about arrests of tourists and getting lifesentences,... I also told them about the british guy that got arrested just for having talked with another guy who he had just met that evening at kho pha ngan. The other guy had stolen a handbag later, so he got arrested on the suspicion of beeing a lookout cause he knew the guy apparently. That convinced them to throw the drugs away. I told them to throw it away, cause if they would get got than, I could also be arrested just for being there with them in the park. The guy threw it away in the river and than game back. he said really dry: yeah I threw it away, but not the plastic bag offcourse, I mean, You can't throw away a plastic bag in a national park, can you. I laughed so hard, how stupid to consider throwing the bag in the river worse than actually bying the drugs in thailand.
The next day we took a trail by ourselves. I'll tell you about it later. I have to go.
kisses
Monday, August 8, 2011
weekend 30/07 and 6/08
Hello again,
My last two weekends were really cool, but not so much to tell. The weekend of 30-31 july we went out again, shopped a lot, and visited Phanom Rung. Fridaynight we went out in Surin at Speed 3, after we had 'un apero' in a nice cafe. We came a cross some americans who were apparently soldiers, futile trying to teach the thai soldiers some tactics. It's a little difficult, somehow almost impossible to teach somebody tactics when they don't speak the same language. I even try the most of the times fruitless to teach some Thai children to speak English. The Americans were here for about 3 weeks teaching them tactics and had to leave that saturday morning to the border with cambodia where the fighting area is.
maybe a little history: centuries ago the ancient Khmer ruled over a great area along what is now Thailand, cambodia, vietnam,... At the Border with thailand and combodia there are some ancient temples. Anghkor What is also very close to the border. Cambodia was the first to built roads to the involved temple, although the temple is a little closer to Thailand. Now they are fighting about who has the rights on the temple. An international court ruled that Cambodia is the rightfull owner of the temple. Thailand doesn't accept it, so sented his army. Apparently you can hear at my school sometimes the bombing at the border. In another school there are refugies from the bombing, currently living at that school. Recently the newspapers declared that the fighting stopped and that the ASIAN had ordered the armies to leave the border. Offcourse, dued to some wicked politics, the Thai army is just being changed into 'policemen', who are indeed allowed to stay at the border. Long story short, I learned the valuable lesson to read the journals critically and to see through the appearances. Definitely now I know that even american soldiers are intervening with the conflict. I'm wondering why they choose the side of Thailand, apparantly because of allies. But still, why intervene. It won't be over a temple, and there is no oil in Thailand no? I suppose there are many more of these little tasks all over the world where the USA intervenes in foreign politics. I hope I will be able to cross the border safely, but I'll be choosing the safe crosspoint where there hasn't been any fightings yet.
Although the american soldiers were nice and entertaining, some were even quite hot, I'm really amazed that they didn't even knew what the hell they were fighting about. I know that they are trained to not asking questions and just to follow orders, but still come on. How can you go fighting somewhere without knowing what the hell it is about.
The other day I went to visit Phanom Rung, one of those amazing ancient khmer temples. I took a songtaew to Surin, from Surin a bus to Ban Tako. There I realized that it was a mountain up about 15km. Walking wasn't an option cause I had to get back in time to my home that evening and the busses stop riding at 19 o clock. I got on the back of a motorcycle, which was really beautiful to see the scenery that way. He waited an hour and a half for me and than took me back. It costed me only 150 TB. Pictures from the temple you can see on facebook. I met a geman girl who speaks also Dutch, cause she studied at Maastricht. On the way back I hadn't got any money anymore and the ATM wouldn't take my maestro card so I arranged to get the bus and paying only at the end, at the last stop in Surin.
This weekend of 6 and 7/08 was one of the best weekends I had here, with lots of fun! Fridaynight us girls, me, Benz and Roxanne, did a girlsnight like it should. We had a lot of icecream, coockies, chips,... and The Hangover 2 in Bangkok. Even though how shocking some scenes are, it is truly Thailand :D haha! I'm looking forward to fully visit Bangkok!
Saturdaynight we went out again, offcourse! It was the last time I could go out before I leave. This time we did karaoke, which is so much better in Thailand. You have little rooms to yourself and a lot of choices in songs. I also met some of the other volunteers in town. They are pretty cool, I hope I can see them once again before I leave to go travelling.
I can't believe I have only 7 days left to teach! This weekend I'll go to Khao Yai national park.
I'll finish of with a little happysound that certainly my erasmusfriends will recognize well:
titititiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!
kisses, bisous, goodbye farewell auf wiedersehen adieu!
My last two weekends were really cool, but not so much to tell. The weekend of 30-31 july we went out again, shopped a lot, and visited Phanom Rung. Fridaynight we went out in Surin at Speed 3, after we had 'un apero' in a nice cafe. We came a cross some americans who were apparently soldiers, futile trying to teach the thai soldiers some tactics. It's a little difficult, somehow almost impossible to teach somebody tactics when they don't speak the same language. I even try the most of the times fruitless to teach some Thai children to speak English. The Americans were here for about 3 weeks teaching them tactics and had to leave that saturday morning to the border with cambodia where the fighting area is.
maybe a little history: centuries ago the ancient Khmer ruled over a great area along what is now Thailand, cambodia, vietnam,... At the Border with thailand and combodia there are some ancient temples. Anghkor What is also very close to the border. Cambodia was the first to built roads to the involved temple, although the temple is a little closer to Thailand. Now they are fighting about who has the rights on the temple. An international court ruled that Cambodia is the rightfull owner of the temple. Thailand doesn't accept it, so sented his army. Apparently you can hear at my school sometimes the bombing at the border. In another school there are refugies from the bombing, currently living at that school. Recently the newspapers declared that the fighting stopped and that the ASIAN had ordered the armies to leave the border. Offcourse, dued to some wicked politics, the Thai army is just being changed into 'policemen', who are indeed allowed to stay at the border. Long story short, I learned the valuable lesson to read the journals critically and to see through the appearances. Definitely now I know that even american soldiers are intervening with the conflict. I'm wondering why they choose the side of Thailand, apparantly because of allies. But still, why intervene. It won't be over a temple, and there is no oil in Thailand no? I suppose there are many more of these little tasks all over the world where the USA intervenes in foreign politics. I hope I will be able to cross the border safely, but I'll be choosing the safe crosspoint where there hasn't been any fightings yet.
Although the american soldiers were nice and entertaining, some were even quite hot, I'm really amazed that they didn't even knew what the hell they were fighting about. I know that they are trained to not asking questions and just to follow orders, but still come on. How can you go fighting somewhere without knowing what the hell it is about.
The other day I went to visit Phanom Rung, one of those amazing ancient khmer temples. I took a songtaew to Surin, from Surin a bus to Ban Tako. There I realized that it was a mountain up about 15km. Walking wasn't an option cause I had to get back in time to my home that evening and the busses stop riding at 19 o clock. I got on the back of a motorcycle, which was really beautiful to see the scenery that way. He waited an hour and a half for me and than took me back. It costed me only 150 TB. Pictures from the temple you can see on facebook. I met a geman girl who speaks also Dutch, cause she studied at Maastricht. On the way back I hadn't got any money anymore and the ATM wouldn't take my maestro card so I arranged to get the bus and paying only at the end, at the last stop in Surin.
This weekend of 6 and 7/08 was one of the best weekends I had here, with lots of fun! Fridaynight us girls, me, Benz and Roxanne, did a girlsnight like it should. We had a lot of icecream, coockies, chips,... and The Hangover 2 in Bangkok. Even though how shocking some scenes are, it is truly Thailand :D haha! I'm looking forward to fully visit Bangkok!
Saturdaynight we went out again, offcourse! It was the last time I could go out before I leave. This time we did karaoke, which is so much better in Thailand. You have little rooms to yourself and a lot of choices in songs. I also met some of the other volunteers in town. They are pretty cool, I hope I can see them once again before I leave to go travelling.
I can't believe I have only 7 days left to teach! This weekend I'll go to Khao Yai national park.
I'll finish of with a little happysound that certainly my erasmusfriends will recognize well:
titititiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!!
kisses, bisous, goodbye farewell auf wiedersehen adieu!
Monday, August 1, 2011
elephant village 23/07 to 24/07
Fridaynight my colleagues invited me to an evening out with the english teachers. First we went for a dinner in a nice restaurant with all the english teachers. Afterwards four of us went out to get some drinks and go to a club. The group joined as me (Thai name Vina), Benz (real name Mercedes), Pi Blaa, Pi Mook and Benz sister ( Roxanne or Alan). We ordered like buckets of some thai alcoholic drink with a lot of mixed ice in it. It's delicious! They told me it was pretty strong, but actually I didn't feel much, not even after three buckets of it divided by three. I'll blame it on my Belgian students blood or my experiences as an erasmus student ;) or just on the tiny thai people who can't drink much because they are so tiny and slim. While we were drinking suddenly there stood an elephant behind us. Now I already got used to it. But the first time my reaction was more like: Ow My God elephant, elephant behind you in a city! pretty embarassing while everybody around me was like, yeah so what, we see it everyday.
Benz told me that evening a story which cracked me up, and caused me to laugh a hysteric laugh for half an hour. There aren't many normal european toilets. Most of them are just like a whole and two things where you have to place your feet on to stand. Offcourse handicaped people won't be able to go to that kind of toilets so here and then, you have the normal ones. But however there are many other asian tourists who come to thailand and some of them who have never seen a european toilet. I already saw at each european toilet like a litlle board but I couldn't understand it in thai. Apparently it says: Do Not stand on the toilet!!
haha can you imagine like little japanese trying to stand on a western toilet! I still have to laugh when I imagine it. I'm one of those people who imagines everything you tell me.
Afterwards we went to a club. What a decadency! worse than in Europe, although not all clubs. It was really nice because you had all the time like live bands and dancers. But the dancers were sometimes really not that good and just halve naked. I thought you had to dress appropriately in asian countries, which apparently doesn't apply anymore to the girls here. It seemed somtimes more like London. The shorter, the better! I also saw a lot of ladieboys, which I approve of offcourse. If they are happy, ok by me. But it's still so weird to see them going to the ladiesroom as well. We were wondering why it is that there are so many of them here. I mean, I have several in my class, and who even weirs more make-up than I ever did. It's not that it's more accepted here, because in Belgium they can marry, while here homosexual marriage is still not legal. So why is it that there are so many here? Almost in every class and everytime I go out I see one. I don't mind offcourse. but it is an interesting question for psychology and social sciences.
Saturday and Sunday I went to the Elephant Village. I'll provide you with a little history of it. Mahoots are people who catch and train elephants. They went to the cities to try and earn money with the elephants, while this is really bad for their health. The Queen set up a project for the good cause to try to get all the elephants in Thailand and their mahoots to move to one village and make it into a touristic place. That way the elephants can get better treatment and the mahoots can stay in one place with their families. It is a village with elephants as their pets. They are chained at the side of the houses. They have to be chained, cause they can not just walk around. Even now apparantly every year their is one dumb tourist who thinks he can go alone to an elephant and gets killed. There are also a lot of baby elephants. Kai Mook doesn't seem so special anymore. I played with a little baby elephant :). You can see pictures on FB. I stayed there on homestay. That evening I talked with the other volunteers there who came from australia, uk, america,... It was a nice weekend.
Benz told me that evening a story which cracked me up, and caused me to laugh a hysteric laugh for half an hour. There aren't many normal european toilets. Most of them are just like a whole and two things where you have to place your feet on to stand. Offcourse handicaped people won't be able to go to that kind of toilets so here and then, you have the normal ones. But however there are many other asian tourists who come to thailand and some of them who have never seen a european toilet. I already saw at each european toilet like a litlle board but I couldn't understand it in thai. Apparently it says: Do Not stand on the toilet!!
haha can you imagine like little japanese trying to stand on a western toilet! I still have to laugh when I imagine it. I'm one of those people who imagines everything you tell me.
Afterwards we went to a club. What a decadency! worse than in Europe, although not all clubs. It was really nice because you had all the time like live bands and dancers. But the dancers were sometimes really not that good and just halve naked. I thought you had to dress appropriately in asian countries, which apparently doesn't apply anymore to the girls here. It seemed somtimes more like London. The shorter, the better! I also saw a lot of ladieboys, which I approve of offcourse. If they are happy, ok by me. But it's still so weird to see them going to the ladiesroom as well. We were wondering why it is that there are so many of them here. I mean, I have several in my class, and who even weirs more make-up than I ever did. It's not that it's more accepted here, because in Belgium they can marry, while here homosexual marriage is still not legal. So why is it that there are so many here? Almost in every class and everytime I go out I see one. I don't mind offcourse. but it is an interesting question for psychology and social sciences.
Saturday and Sunday I went to the Elephant Village. I'll provide you with a little history of it. Mahoots are people who catch and train elephants. They went to the cities to try and earn money with the elephants, while this is really bad for their health. The Queen set up a project for the good cause to try to get all the elephants in Thailand and their mahoots to move to one village and make it into a touristic place. That way the elephants can get better treatment and the mahoots can stay in one place with their families. It is a village with elephants as their pets. They are chained at the side of the houses. They have to be chained, cause they can not just walk around. Even now apparantly every year their is one dumb tourist who thinks he can go alone to an elephant and gets killed. There are also a lot of baby elephants. Kai Mook doesn't seem so special anymore. I played with a little baby elephant :). You can see pictures on FB. I stayed there on homestay. That evening I talked with the other volunteers there who came from australia, uk, america,... It was a nice weekend.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
candlelightfestival 15/07 - 16/07
I had the privilige to view and participate in a famous festival in Thailand, c'est a dire the candlelightfestival. This festival started years before when there was no electricity and the monks had to go to the ricefiels and working in the night. The people would help guide the monks then in the nights with a lot of candles all the way. These days they make paradecars with flowers or in the cities they build beautiful stunning paradecars completely carved out of candle-grease. All the schools or teams will parade with the cars through the whole village or city accompanied with traditional thai music and everybody is dressed in taditional thai clothing. Friday before noon whe walked with the whole school in a parade like that with flowercars, traditional music, traditional clothing and thai dancing. The day before I helped a bit with building the paradecar and it was the first time that I made a chain of flowers.
During the parade they were thai dancing. The male teachers were telling me and the other female teachers that normally the teachers should also be in the parade. So I just got behind the thai girls dancing and followed their steps with some other young teachers. I danced the whole way, which everybody tought was strange because they came asking me if I wasn't tired. I noticed that the aren't that sportive persons. They also take just for about everything ,even for a few meters, their car or moppet. They also can not understand that I wanted to walk home even if it's only about 15 minutes tops. It was kinda funny because the whole village came to watch the parade and when they saw me they all started to scream frang frang, which means stranger, and pointing at me and taking pictures. I can't count anymore how many people already asked me to get in the picture with them. Even all the teachers asked me for a picture and want to introduce me to their families and get on pictures. The end of the parade is when they arrive at the temple where they will give all the gifts and food to the buddhist monks and to do their prayings.
Afterwards Pi Mook (another english teacher) took me kindly to the famous candlelightfestival in ubon together with her husband and Pi blaa (another teacher). Their the parade was a lot bigger and all the cars were artworks carved out of candle-crease. It was so amazing, really just art! I'll put pictures on facebook. There were also fireworks, and shops a long the roads. You have always a lot of little shops at motorbikes who sell food and drinks. I tasted my first fried or baked insects in Ubon. I still don't like it, not quite my taste, a bit to crunchy... and just disgusting. You had grasshoppers, worms, bugs, flies,... They eat them as a delicatesse. The next day we got up really early to have a good seat at the tribunes to see the parade. Afterwards we went a bit shopping cause I still needed some more formel clothing for teaching. I enjoyed this weekend very much and had a great time with Pi Mook and Pi blaa who are just two great gals and really kind personalities!
The day after I just went some mountainbiking around the neighbourhood. My bike broke down, but luckily I found a cycle mender after some directions in Thai of Thai people after speaking with hand and teeth, like my mother would say. I'm a bit proud that I could have found the way all back even without a map. My guestfamily is so sweet and concerned about me. Even if I just took a bus to Surin or I wanted to walk home from school he really didn't felt at ease with it. They are sooo kind, apparently they even bought like a new closet for me when I was coming. I try to help them in the household as many as I can but they don't always let me. I try to tutor him and his son well, but I've got the feeling that his son on the one hand wants to learn english, but on the other hand don't want to do too much effort for it. I'm really lucky with my guestfamily. They are really one of the richest families here and have a grand beautiful house, although there is not hot water so I shower everyday with cold water. But at least I have a shower. I saw some houses where they sleep all in just one room and don't have any beds, nor bathroom. They wash themselves in a bucket of water,... I actually tought I would also stay in a house more pourly like that, but yeah so I'm very lucky, not just with the home but also with the family who are all soo kind. I really feel at home here. I truly hope I can give them something good in return. I thought about coocking for them european if I can find some ingredients. I already found belgian chocolate, yes, but it costs about as much as one meal in a little restaurant here, which is about 30TB so 70eurocent. yeah I know so awesome cheap, so I'll be doing some SHOPPINGGGG at Bangkok and Cambodja :D
During the parade they were thai dancing. The male teachers were telling me and the other female teachers that normally the teachers should also be in the parade. So I just got behind the thai girls dancing and followed their steps with some other young teachers. I danced the whole way, which everybody tought was strange because they came asking me if I wasn't tired. I noticed that the aren't that sportive persons. They also take just for about everything ,even for a few meters, their car or moppet. They also can not understand that I wanted to walk home even if it's only about 15 minutes tops. It was kinda funny because the whole village came to watch the parade and when they saw me they all started to scream frang frang, which means stranger, and pointing at me and taking pictures. I can't count anymore how many people already asked me to get in the picture with them. Even all the teachers asked me for a picture and want to introduce me to their families and get on pictures. The end of the parade is when they arrive at the temple where they will give all the gifts and food to the buddhist monks and to do their prayings.
Afterwards Pi Mook (another english teacher) took me kindly to the famous candlelightfestival in ubon together with her husband and Pi blaa (another teacher). Their the parade was a lot bigger and all the cars were artworks carved out of candle-crease. It was so amazing, really just art! I'll put pictures on facebook. There were also fireworks, and shops a long the roads. You have always a lot of little shops at motorbikes who sell food and drinks. I tasted my first fried or baked insects in Ubon. I still don't like it, not quite my taste, a bit to crunchy... and just disgusting. You had grasshoppers, worms, bugs, flies,... They eat them as a delicatesse. The next day we got up really early to have a good seat at the tribunes to see the parade. Afterwards we went a bit shopping cause I still needed some more formel clothing for teaching. I enjoyed this weekend very much and had a great time with Pi Mook and Pi blaa who are just two great gals and really kind personalities!
The day after I just went some mountainbiking around the neighbourhood. My bike broke down, but luckily I found a cycle mender after some directions in Thai of Thai people after speaking with hand and teeth, like my mother would say. I'm a bit proud that I could have found the way all back even without a map. My guestfamily is so sweet and concerned about me. Even if I just took a bus to Surin or I wanted to walk home from school he really didn't felt at ease with it. They are sooo kind, apparently they even bought like a new closet for me when I was coming. I try to help them in the household as many as I can but they don't always let me. I try to tutor him and his son well, but I've got the feeling that his son on the one hand wants to learn english, but on the other hand don't want to do too much effort for it. I'm really lucky with my guestfamily. They are really one of the richest families here and have a grand beautiful house, although there is not hot water so I shower everyday with cold water. But at least I have a shower. I saw some houses where they sleep all in just one room and don't have any beds, nor bathroom. They wash themselves in a bucket of water,... I actually tought I would also stay in a house more pourly like that, but yeah so I'm very lucky, not just with the home but also with the family who are all soo kind. I really feel at home here. I truly hope I can give them something good in return. I thought about coocking for them european if I can find some ingredients. I already found belgian chocolate, yes, but it costs about as much as one meal in a little restaurant here, which is about 30TB so 70eurocent. yeah I know so awesome cheap, so I'll be doing some SHOPPINGGGG at Bangkok and Cambodja :D
Monday, July 18, 2011
19/07 the school surinpitinpathaya
On the 13th of july at 6 'o clock I had to get up to get to school. This was very exhausting because I had only arrived the evening before after two days of travelling so I still had a huge jetlag. PiMook introduced me to all the teachers, but it's very difficult to remember all their names. Each morning the students have like a ceremony with the national anthem and they bow to the king. The king is very popular in Thailand because he does apparently a lot for the poor people. Really in every house and building there are pictures of the king and the queen, and even calenders with on each month a picture of them. After the ceremony I had to get on stage and present myself in front of the whole school which is about 2500 students and many teachers. That day I only went with the teachers to the classes and sat between the students to see and learn how the teachers teach. It's quite awfull. They speak still a lot in Thai and justlet the student repeat what they say. The student can know a word when it's written, but often they don't understand it in a sentence, nor when spoken. That's what I'm here for. I try to let them speak and think for themselves. They are just parrots and can't think for themselves. it's very hard because most of the times the students just look shy and turn away or speak in thai when I ask a question. I still don't know before the lesson what they will teach about so I can't prepare my lessons that quite good. I hope they will give me in time the lessons schedule.
The students are divided into groups of age but also of level. It makes it still difficult to know the level cause sometime hey are too old for little games, but then they have a very low level or just the opposite. It's difficult to give the lesson in a fun way but still to get some reaction. They are sometimes with just too many pupils in one class for making conversations. I have to let them speak to me english because with each other they will only speak thai. Sometimes I feel really foolish.
I have to teach a class with another teacher normally. Some classes went very well when I really may interact with the teacher in class en the theacher can still help me to let the students comprehend. But other teachers just leave me to my own. Two classes went well like this, but others not. It depends a lot of the students. I still have to get to know my students and their level. I also don't know wich words they already learned.
A very positive thing is that the students are very polite. It's amazing how well mannered they are. They bow all the time to teachers. Even if you walk just from one room to another they all bow. To bow with your hands pressed to eachother is the way to say hello in thai. They also always have to take of their shoes to come into the class. The teachers don't have to do that.Almost every day they have another uniform that they wear, even the teachers. I don't have to wear them cause I don't have those uniforms, but I still have to dress formally so I had to buy some formel skirts and blouses.
I can wright on my blog now cause they have midterms so the teachers are mostly revising their contents for the tests tomorrow untill friday. So I can't really do anything.
that's about it. see you later
The students are divided into groups of age but also of level. It makes it still difficult to know the level cause sometime hey are too old for little games, but then they have a very low level or just the opposite. It's difficult to give the lesson in a fun way but still to get some reaction. They are sometimes with just too many pupils in one class for making conversations. I have to let them speak to me english because with each other they will only speak thai. Sometimes I feel really foolish.
I have to teach a class with another teacher normally. Some classes went very well when I really may interact with the teacher in class en the theacher can still help me to let the students comprehend. But other teachers just leave me to my own. Two classes went well like this, but others not. It depends a lot of the students. I still have to get to know my students and their level. I also don't know wich words they already learned.
A very positive thing is that the students are very polite. It's amazing how well mannered they are. They bow all the time to teachers. Even if you walk just from one room to another they all bow. To bow with your hands pressed to eachother is the way to say hello in thai. They also always have to take of their shoes to come into the class. The teachers don't have to do that.Almost every day they have another uniform that they wear, even the teachers. I don't have to wear them cause I don't have those uniforms, but I still have to dress formally so I had to buy some formel skirts and blouses.
I can wright on my blog now cause they have midterms so the teachers are mostly revising their contents for the tests tomorrow untill friday. So I can't really do anything.
that's about it. see you later
Sunday, July 17, 2011
first week 12/07 - 17/07: thai culture
After a long trip of 28 hours, I arrived in bangkok where four teachers of my school waited to pick me up. We still had to drive 8 hours to get to Issan Surin, but on the way we stopped to get some lunch and to buy me some formel clothes for the school. Finally after travelling about 38 hours we arrived at my guesthouse. I live at the house of Pi Ni a teacher, his son Pejet and his wife Pi Pen, who sadly can't speak a word english. The house is quite big and definetely one of the richest houses of this pour region.
I already learned some of the cultural habbits of Thai people. For exemple they love Tv if they can afford it. They have everywhere in different rooms a tv who is almost always on even during dinner and even in the teachers gadering room. Thai think feet are disgusting and impolite, so you can never touch somebody nor point at someone with your feet. I already read about this, but I didn't know that you can't even point your feet at someone. So in the car I had my one leg over the other wchich caused that I had lifted my feet to Pi Ni, which apparently was very impolite. oeps! They also always take their shoes off in almost any building they enter. The head is holy, so you can never touch a head of an older person. You also have to pay a lot of respect at the eldery, even if they are only a few years older than you. The second question they always ask is: How old are you? But it's to know wich polite form they'll have to say to you. They give each other always nicknames. The students know the teachers by their real official name, but I only know them by their nicknames which actually means something. For exemple Palida her nickname is Mook and means pearl. She is older than me so I call here always Pi Mook.
The houses of the thai are very open: litteraly open, there are almost no doors and are just open walls. Luckily I have gazes in front of the windows in my room which keeps the mosquitos away. There are everywhere fans (ventilators) to keep the freshness. The gardens are so beautiful with bananatrees, a lot of chairs, hammocks and so on... The only thing I still can't stand are the toilets. The bathroom is one grand room with toilet, a bucketful and just a showertap. So no toilet paper. I still have to figure out how to go to the toilet and keeping my pants dry when you just have to shower yourself. weird! I also just have to brush my teeth in the shower because there is no lavabo, but than with a bottle of water cause I can't drink the water of the tap.
PS: I already learned to count in thai till 999. still a bit slow, but I can. It's not too hard.
I'll try not to write too long stories, so I'll divide it up in many parts so you can choose yourself which you want to read. have fun! amusez-vous ;)
pictures will follow!
swadi kha ( goodbye in thai)
I already learned some of the cultural habbits of Thai people. For exemple they love Tv if they can afford it. They have everywhere in different rooms a tv who is almost always on even during dinner and even in the teachers gadering room. Thai think feet are disgusting and impolite, so you can never touch somebody nor point at someone with your feet. I already read about this, but I didn't know that you can't even point your feet at someone. So in the car I had my one leg over the other wchich caused that I had lifted my feet to Pi Ni, which apparently was very impolite. oeps! They also always take their shoes off in almost any building they enter. The head is holy, so you can never touch a head of an older person. You also have to pay a lot of respect at the eldery, even if they are only a few years older than you. The second question they always ask is: How old are you? But it's to know wich polite form they'll have to say to you. They give each other always nicknames. The students know the teachers by their real official name, but I only know them by their nicknames which actually means something. For exemple Palida her nickname is Mook and means pearl. She is older than me so I call here always Pi Mook.
The houses of the thai are very open: litteraly open, there are almost no doors and are just open walls. Luckily I have gazes in front of the windows in my room which keeps the mosquitos away. There are everywhere fans (ventilators) to keep the freshness. The gardens are so beautiful with bananatrees, a lot of chairs, hammocks and so on... The only thing I still can't stand are the toilets. The bathroom is one grand room with toilet, a bucketful and just a showertap. So no toilet paper. I still have to figure out how to go to the toilet and keeping my pants dry when you just have to shower yourself. weird! I also just have to brush my teeth in the shower because there is no lavabo, but than with a bottle of water cause I can't drink the water of the tap.
PS: I already learned to count in thai till 999. still a bit slow, but I can. It's not too hard.
I'll try not to write too long stories, so I'll divide it up in many parts so you can choose yourself which you want to read. have fun! amusez-vous ;)
pictures will follow!
swadi kha ( goodbye in thai)
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
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