ive just arrived in siem reap this afternoon and ive been having a great time here in cambodia. im hot and sticky and i dont have my usb cord so im just gonna speed-type up what ive been up to. i think the last time i posted id just arrived in phnom penh and we had so much fun there. its hard to recall exactly what we did but let's see....
one of the days we went to the killing fields which is where the khmer rouge murdered thousands upon thousands of fellow cambodians and it was quite disturbing. there's still bits of clothing and human bone jutting out of the dirt in the fields and there's a large stupa housing something like 9 levels of human skulls and bones. i took a couple of pictures and felt kinda morbid doing it but well i did it anyway. then we went to s-21 which is the high school the khmer rouge turned into one of the most gruesome prisons. classrooms were turned into tiny tiny cells and torture chambers and they had tons of pictures of the prisoners who were kept there. also super sick. so that day overall was grossly disturbing but i guess its one of those things you have to do in cambodia.
we also spent one day walking around in the extreme heat which was lovely. we went to the royal palace which was beautiful but you're not allowed to be sleeveless in the palace so i had to rent a stinky t-shirt to wear over my clothes. this was unpleasant and ever so slightly hindered my palace-going experience. by the way, i totally dont recall the timeline of what ive been doing so im just tossing out things i did but in no particular order. it probably doesnt matter anyway so í shall continue!
on another day, i dragged mini out for a day of shopping. we went to the new/central market which was like a giant maze of stalls and it was super intense. you can buy just about everything in the markets over here, with piles of shoes right next to live fish, right next to dresses, watches, electronics, jewellery, food. you can even get a manicure/pedicure next to the meat section of the market. anyway, i was on a mission to get a skirt cause its fucking sweltering hot here and a skirt is perfect for that. a skirt is also perfect for squat toilets. anyway the market was fun, i got shirts for like $2 which is always good cause all my clothes that i brought over are either cut up or tossed. then we went to what was basically a mall as it was air conditioned and had like 6 floors or somethign like that. i couldnt actually find anything in the mall which was upsetting however it had a supermarket. the best supermarket in the universe! oh but before i get into that, i wanna just say i found A&W root beer over here. how immense is that!? the guys im travelling with thought it tasted like shit and cant understand the wonder that is root beer but thankfully i found a fellow vancouverite who very nearly started drooling when i told him i had a can lying in the fridge in my hotel. aaaaanyway, the supermarket is fantastic and you can buy everything from brie cheese to cheetos (that may not sound thrilling to you , but it is. trust me, it is.) i bought a clay face mask there and made my face feel actually clean for a full couple hours that nite.
but the best day in phnom penh is when we hired a tuk tuk driver to take us around for a full day. we went to the russian market (im not sure why its named that, we think its cause you used to be able to buy ak-47s there) which was just another giant market but i actually found two skirts there and i was super pumped over that. we also went to the seeing hands massage which has fantastic blind masseuses (not sure of spelling and couldnt be bothered right now to find out but apparently i can type out this whole blurb of how i dont know the spelling) and i just got worked like never before. my woman was super strong and basically beat the shit out of me. muscles i didnt know could hurt hurt like a bitch but then i felt great afterwards. we also saw an elephant and a monkey eating an ice cream bar (and yes, i was jealous of the monkey) in the park. we also went to see free style khmer kickboxing! it only cost 300o riel which is like 75 cents or something and it was crazy intense. i think the only rules are something like no biting, kicking in the groin, no hitting when the other person's down. they also play this crazy khmer music that i dont know what it sounds like, maybe like snake charmer music (that sounds so wrong but perhaps that'll give you a general jist. i have it on video anyway, i'll post it soon) and the fighters kinda bounce around to the music before they kick the shit out of one another. it was fun times.
im not doing my time in phnom penh justice with this post but it'll have to do for now! so after 4 nites in PP, we were off to battambang. on our bus we were the other foreigners which was kinda cool. anyway we arrived there, got mauled by people that worked for the hotels and ended up at one hotel but eventually switched the next day. apparently the 2 hotels are total rivals complete with sabotage and beatings. anyway we wanted to go on motorbike tours in the areas surrounding battambang with the guides from the chhaya hotel cause apparently they're the best (and they sooo are) but they couldnt take us cause we were staying at their rival hotel so we ended up moving and it was so a good decision. me, mini and ed went with 3 guides and they were a total blast, it was one of the best days in a long time. they took us through the countryside, through small villages and to a bunch of sites around. we saw buddhist temples, a buddhist school, we climbed something like 350 stairs in apparently 41C heat to reach this little baby angkor wat. we also went up a mountain that had a buddhist temple that was turned into a prison by the khmer rouge and also the killing caves where people were just hurled into and left to die. very sick yet again.
but it was tons of fun, just insanely hot which i'll have to get used to anyway. i think i sweated more yesterday (sorry, i forgot to mention this moto tour thing was yesterday) than ever before in my life. i now understand the term 'sweating buckets' cause im pretty sure thats what i did. it was sick. plus we were extra gross cause we were covered with dust from the dirt 'roads' (i say 'roads' cause really, they barely were that. more like dirt paths wich potholes and tons of bumps). the sweat was the perfect adhesive for said dirt. and then we got caught in a quick rainstorm so the dirt on our bodies turned to mud. we mustve looked so hot. anyway the highlight though was the bamboo train. basically its like a bamboo platform with an engine and there's only one track so if another train is coming towards you, the train that has less stuff on it has to get off the track. unfortunately we didnt have the pleasure of running into another train but it was still a crazy ride. it goes pretty quickly and the track is crazy bumpy so it was some good times.
anyway, our guides were the shit, they were so much fun it was sad to leave them. we took them out for beers and shakes (by the way, its like a way of life to consume ridiculous amounts of fruit shakes over here) and one of our guides apparently never drank before and got kinda tanked after 2 beers. it was a fantastic day.
and then today we took a boat up here to siem reap cause apparently its the most scenic route in all of cambodia. our boat was small and crowded but its true, the scenery is lovely even though i fell asleep a couple of times. but gimme a break, it was over 7 hours long! it felt for disneyland jungle cruise (i suppose it should be the other way around really) and it was fun. we saw floating villages and the surrounding jungle is beautiful. however it's dry season here so the water's very low and we crashed into the riverbank a few times but it was all part of the fun and games. anyway, there's not much to do in battambang itself but the cutest kids in the entire universe live around there so if you're a kid-lover, head on over. they're not trying to sell you anything and are just so happy and are always smiling and waving and yelling hello. i dont like kids and i still liked them so there you have it. so now here we are in siem reap and were off to angkor wat tomorrow which is something like the largest religious site in the world. and for my angelina jolie girls back home, tomb raider was filmed there so yeee-haw.
anyway, hopefully i'll post pictures soon. but in the meantime do check out ed's blog; its under my link's section (edsanoz). he's totally dedicated and has posted roughly a kajillion pictures so that should tide you over.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
the jolie connection :: from pax:vietnam to maddox:cambodia
for those who understand my title, that's right, im all caught up on my celeb gossip blogs as of last nite! so i've arrived in phnom penh, cambodia tonite but for the last few days we were in the mekong delta. basically ive been in dingy boats floating around in some seriously brown, polluted and murky water but it was pretty fabulous. though the water would give us westerners some serious third world runs, the locals here bathe in it, wash their clothes and dishes in it, and cook and drink the water too.
we did tons of shit im just having a hard time remembering...ok i just asked ed and mini cause apparently ive lost my short term memory. we went to a coconut candy 'factory', a crocodile farm (which i dont particularly agree with. also they had two black bears in a tiny cage which i thought PETA should get their ass all over it), a rice noodle factory, a floating market and we visited a cham minority village. im not going into details right now mostly cause im lazy, dirty and uncomfortable after my travelling time today, i'll go into it more later! but what was really cool is that on one of the nites me, mini and ed did a homestay and we lived in a hut in the JUNGLE. it was actually kinda crazy cause first they put the 3 of us and all our bags on a single cycle (which is like a tiny cart being pulled by a motorbike). it couldnt actually make it up a small slope on a bridge so we had to get out and push the cart. and when i say we i mean i sat in the cart, mini pushed, and ed took a photo. then we got on motorbikes and went through the jungle on a small dirt path next to the river. it was actually seriously sketch and mini's motorbike actually crashed once into a ditch (if that was me, id have probably cried.) it still wasnt over and then we had a short walk through the jungle complete with walking across logs over rivers (which they call monkey bridges) while one of the guys we were living with would taunt us with threats of landmines and then grab at my legs in the pitch dark. he also called me 'princess' and told me to 'shut the fuck up and stop complaining' when i asked which hut i was living in. the vietnamese have a wierd sense of humour in the south.
but i loved our homestay and my heart exploded with joy when i saw that there was a western toilet and a shower. that may be an exaggeration, and it may not. when you're as dirty as i am nowadays, you get really pumped to find that you can shower; how sad. oh on our last day in saigon, we actually had no electricity or water in our hotel for practically the whole day! stupid saigon. but we did go to the war museum there which was definitely worth going to, lots of fascinating pictures. (i am fully aware that like many of my other posts, i have zero continuity but whatever, im sweaty and tired.) so where was i....right, our homestay. anyway it was great, we had a really good homecooked meal for dinner and it was amazing cause id never seen the sky so clearly and i could see every star in the sky. if only that could happen in vancouver. i also enjoyed the pure novelty of living in the jungle.
i woke up around 5:30 to see one of my first sunrises ever and to the sound of roosters crowing. it was also then during the first signs of daylight that i actually noticed our hut was next to a grave; awesome! no but i loved the homestay so that was fun times. and then today we had our slow boat trip into cambodia and no doubt its a fucking slow boat! we actually had to take a couple of boats but the main boat from the border took i think over three hours and the boat was pretty ghetto; with folding chairs set up for us to sit on. now my back is pretty fucked but it's all good cause were' finally in phnom penh! im also pumped cause im opting to live the lavish life and im staying in a $15 room for 2 and ive got an actual bath tub and a tv that was playing american idol when i left for dinner. im living in backpackers central so its got tons of guesthouses, internet and restaruants and bars so that should be some good times.
anyway i'll definitely miss vietnam since i was there for almost 5 weeks. oh and id forgotten but i wanted to write about how me and ed volunteered to teach english to street kids in nah trang for a couple of hours one day. but more like we realized how incompetent we really were cause we had no idea what the difference is between 'who' and 'whom' and no clue what a subject or objective pronoun is. im still not sure. so basically i felt stupid but the kids were fantastic and it was a good experience. i better brush up on my english skills before i decide to do anymore volunteering though.
oh and as for some random tidbits about vietnam just floating around my head... we wont be hearing the infamous saying "same same...but different" anymore. everything is always "same same" in vietnam. oh and in the mekong, they refer to the toilet as the "happy room". i think we should all start saying happy room. there are zero western chain restaurants in vietnam; no mcdonalds, no starbucks. and while everyone back home might think i would've died from such deprivation, i didnt and didnt even miss these things cause vietnam's got great food all on its own. only when we arrived in saigon and i saw a KFC was i reminded how there are no western chains anywhere else in vietnam. shocking for me of all people to say, but i wasnt even tempted by some good ol' fried chicken.
well i think ive rambled on long enough and i dont even remember what i wrote but i'll try and post some photos soon!
we did tons of shit im just having a hard time remembering...ok i just asked ed and mini cause apparently ive lost my short term memory. we went to a coconut candy 'factory', a crocodile farm (which i dont particularly agree with. also they had two black bears in a tiny cage which i thought PETA should get their ass all over it), a rice noodle factory, a floating market and we visited a cham minority village. im not going into details right now mostly cause im lazy, dirty and uncomfortable after my travelling time today, i'll go into it more later! but what was really cool is that on one of the nites me, mini and ed did a homestay and we lived in a hut in the JUNGLE. it was actually kinda crazy cause first they put the 3 of us and all our bags on a single cycle (which is like a tiny cart being pulled by a motorbike). it couldnt actually make it up a small slope on a bridge so we had to get out and push the cart. and when i say we i mean i sat in the cart, mini pushed, and ed took a photo. then we got on motorbikes and went through the jungle on a small dirt path next to the river. it was actually seriously sketch and mini's motorbike actually crashed once into a ditch (if that was me, id have probably cried.) it still wasnt over and then we had a short walk through the jungle complete with walking across logs over rivers (which they call monkey bridges) while one of the guys we were living with would taunt us with threats of landmines and then grab at my legs in the pitch dark. he also called me 'princess' and told me to 'shut the fuck up and stop complaining' when i asked which hut i was living in. the vietnamese have a wierd sense of humour in the south.
but i loved our homestay and my heart exploded with joy when i saw that there was a western toilet and a shower. that may be an exaggeration, and it may not. when you're as dirty as i am nowadays, you get really pumped to find that you can shower; how sad. oh on our last day in saigon, we actually had no electricity or water in our hotel for practically the whole day! stupid saigon. but we did go to the war museum there which was definitely worth going to, lots of fascinating pictures. (i am fully aware that like many of my other posts, i have zero continuity but whatever, im sweaty and tired.) so where was i....right, our homestay. anyway it was great, we had a really good homecooked meal for dinner and it was amazing cause id never seen the sky so clearly and i could see every star in the sky. if only that could happen in vancouver. i also enjoyed the pure novelty of living in the jungle.
i woke up around 5:30 to see one of my first sunrises ever and to the sound of roosters crowing. it was also then during the first signs of daylight that i actually noticed our hut was next to a grave; awesome! no but i loved the homestay so that was fun times. and then today we had our slow boat trip into cambodia and no doubt its a fucking slow boat! we actually had to take a couple of boats but the main boat from the border took i think over three hours and the boat was pretty ghetto; with folding chairs set up for us to sit on. now my back is pretty fucked but it's all good cause were' finally in phnom penh! im also pumped cause im opting to live the lavish life and im staying in a $15 room for 2 and ive got an actual bath tub and a tv that was playing american idol when i left for dinner. im living in backpackers central so its got tons of guesthouses, internet and restaruants and bars so that should be some good times.
anyway i'll definitely miss vietnam since i was there for almost 5 weeks. oh and id forgotten but i wanted to write about how me and ed volunteered to teach english to street kids in nah trang for a couple of hours one day. but more like we realized how incompetent we really were cause we had no idea what the difference is between 'who' and 'whom' and no clue what a subject or objective pronoun is. im still not sure. so basically i felt stupid but the kids were fantastic and it was a good experience. i better brush up on my english skills before i decide to do anymore volunteering though.
oh and as for some random tidbits about vietnam just floating around my head... we wont be hearing the infamous saying "same same...but different" anymore. everything is always "same same" in vietnam. oh and in the mekong, they refer to the toilet as the "happy room". i think we should all start saying happy room. there are zero western chain restaurants in vietnam; no mcdonalds, no starbucks. and while everyone back home might think i would've died from such deprivation, i didnt and didnt even miss these things cause vietnam's got great food all on its own. only when we arrived in saigon and i saw a KFC was i reminded how there are no western chains anywhere else in vietnam. shocking for me of all people to say, but i wasnt even tempted by some good ol' fried chicken.
well i think ive rambled on long enough and i dont even remember what i wrote but i'll try and post some photos soon!
Saturday, March 17, 2007
i shot a gun today!
so im in ho chi minh city now (saigon) and its yucky hot and im being rushed to get my ass to the bar cause it's st. patricks day over here and the irish are getting antsy. anyway, i had the best time in nah trang it was just a great city with a good vibe. like i said before, too many mystery buckets but it was still fun. i was so fortunate to meet long thanh cause he's like the pimpest man in town and everyone knows him. i spent plenty of time sitting in his favourite coffee spot just chillin' and and meeting other photographers and stuff. also through him i got to meet crazy kim whose restaurant i ate at practically every meal. i think i ate my own body's weight in food there.
here's my and kim! and this photo was taken my long thanh, so it's extra fantastic.
our big day out in nah trang was on a 4 island boat tour. basically it was like a giant party boat and i had a lot of firsts that day. like i went snorkelling for the first time. and we had to wear these retarded get-ups:
i also got stung by my first jelly fish while snorkelling. and then my second, and then third. our boat crew was pretty insane and after lunch they gave us a little boy-band performance.
on one of the islands we got to go jet-skiing, yet another first. i went on mini's and well whaddya know, i also got tossed off a jet-ski as it flipped over for the first time too. it was a very productive day indeed. it was minorly horrific but then i was consoled with a coconut. it's great, you get a fresh coconut hacked open for only 10,000 dong here and they're not like the shitty ones we get back in vancouver.
and here's me and long thanh posing next to his most famous piece in his gallery! you really should check out his page, his work is absolutely wonderful.
in nha trang i also went to check out one of the cham towers which was quite interesting but we only made it to the one closest to the city centre cause well, we had no idea where any of the others were.
from nah trang we hopped on a bus to dalat, which i believe is touted as vietnam's honeymoon capital as well as the absolute most tacky and kitschy place in the country. it is absolutely true. there's even a mini eiffel tower. anyway, there's a place called the 'crazy house' in dalat cause i suppose the architecture is quite out there. i think it's described as quasi-alice in wonderland and its got themed rooms like the ant room or the bear room. the kangaroo room had a giant kangaroo in it that had eyes that lit up red; it was actually kinda freaky. it was just really fucked up.
on our 2nd day in dalat, we hired easy riders (basically guides on motorbikes) for half a day and went to a minority village where we got to drink some rice wine with one of the elders.
we also went to the summer palace which was so harsh 70's retro. as in rooms were painted seafoam green. the palace also had wierd shit like giant trolls and elephants scattered on the lawn,
lastly we went to one of the waterfalls where we could ride a mini roller coaster to the fall as well as back up. honestly it seemed creepy dangerous and felt like you could fly off at any given time but it was fun fun fun. you could control it with hand brakes but really, such practice wasnt encouraged.
so there you have it, tackiest place ive ever been to. soo wierd. and to cap off our time in dalat, we decided to go get massages where all the boys had some, ahem, special treatment and were offered 'happy endings'. good times all around! and now were in saigon which is pretty crazy cause there's so many people and traffic and i havent been in a big city in a whileso its kinda intense. it's also sweltering hot but what can ya do!
today we went to the cu chi tunnels and i got to shoot a GUN. i'm sure all the boys out there are wagging their tongues at this one. there were a bunch of guns you could choose from and you just buy the bullets and they just stick the gun in your hands. i shot an AK-47 and it's just crazy loud and when it goes off the gun just blasts into your shoulder, it was pretty coooooool.
we also got to see the different kinds of home-made weapons and booby-traps they used and that was pretty interesting. anyway i dont know exactly what i as expecting for the tunnels but i figured since people were living underground and using these things for weeks on end it'd be at least semi-livable. well it's not and basically we were crawling around in almost pitch-dark in a tiny tunnel for what felt like eons and it was just creepy and i couldnt wait to get out. respect for the vietnamese!
anyway its paddy's day and apparently they dont drink green beer in ireland so i have no idea what we've been getting up to back at home. i guess tonite i'll get to see how we're actually supposed to celebrate and so im off!
here's my and kim! and this photo was taken my long thanh, so it's extra fantastic.
our big day out in nah trang was on a 4 island boat tour. basically it was like a giant party boat and i had a lot of firsts that day. like i went snorkelling for the first time. and we had to wear these retarded get-ups:
i also got stung by my first jelly fish while snorkelling. and then my second, and then third. our boat crew was pretty insane and after lunch they gave us a little boy-band performance.
on one of the islands we got to go jet-skiing, yet another first. i went on mini's and well whaddya know, i also got tossed off a jet-ski as it flipped over for the first time too. it was a very productive day indeed. it was minorly horrific but then i was consoled with a coconut. it's great, you get a fresh coconut hacked open for only 10,000 dong here and they're not like the shitty ones we get back in vancouver.
and here's me and long thanh posing next to his most famous piece in his gallery! you really should check out his page, his work is absolutely wonderful.
in nha trang i also went to check out one of the cham towers which was quite interesting but we only made it to the one closest to the city centre cause well, we had no idea where any of the others were.
from nah trang we hopped on a bus to dalat, which i believe is touted as vietnam's honeymoon capital as well as the absolute most tacky and kitschy place in the country. it is absolutely true. there's even a mini eiffel tower. anyway, there's a place called the 'crazy house' in dalat cause i suppose the architecture is quite out there. i think it's described as quasi-alice in wonderland and its got themed rooms like the ant room or the bear room. the kangaroo room had a giant kangaroo in it that had eyes that lit up red; it was actually kinda freaky. it was just really fucked up.
on our 2nd day in dalat, we hired easy riders (basically guides on motorbikes) for half a day and went to a minority village where we got to drink some rice wine with one of the elders.
we also went to the summer palace which was so harsh 70's retro. as in rooms were painted seafoam green. the palace also had wierd shit like giant trolls and elephants scattered on the lawn,
lastly we went to one of the waterfalls where we could ride a mini roller coaster to the fall as well as back up. honestly it seemed creepy dangerous and felt like you could fly off at any given time but it was fun fun fun. you could control it with hand brakes but really, such practice wasnt encouraged.
so there you have it, tackiest place ive ever been to. soo wierd. and to cap off our time in dalat, we decided to go get massages where all the boys had some, ahem, special treatment and were offered 'happy endings'. good times all around! and now were in saigon which is pretty crazy cause there's so many people and traffic and i havent been in a big city in a whileso its kinda intense. it's also sweltering hot but what can ya do!
today we went to the cu chi tunnels and i got to shoot a GUN. i'm sure all the boys out there are wagging their tongues at this one. there were a bunch of guns you could choose from and you just buy the bullets and they just stick the gun in your hands. i shot an AK-47 and it's just crazy loud and when it goes off the gun just blasts into your shoulder, it was pretty coooooool.
we also got to see the different kinds of home-made weapons and booby-traps they used and that was pretty interesting. anyway i dont know exactly what i as expecting for the tunnels but i figured since people were living underground and using these things for weeks on end it'd be at least semi-livable. well it's not and basically we were crawling around in almost pitch-dark in a tiny tunnel for what felt like eons and it was just creepy and i couldnt wait to get out. respect for the vietnamese!
anyway its paddy's day and apparently they dont drink green beer in ireland so i have no idea what we've been getting up to back at home. i guess tonite i'll get to see how we're actually supposed to celebrate and so im off!
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
china beach pics
we're leaving nha trang for dalat tomorrow at 7 am and its so sad cause i love nha trang the most out of anywhere in vietnam. anyway im just procrastinating cause i have to pack so im gonna put up some of our pictures from back in china beach. most of our pics from there are from our rum-fuelled nites on the beach and i never had my camera so these are ripped from mini's camera. more like ed took them off mini's camera, re-sized the pics and put them on his blog and im just stealing them off his site. (by the way, you can see mini's and ed's blogs or whatever, as well as some other people's i've met while travelling, under the links section)
a massage conga line:
me & pretty boy fernie from holland. fern's just a giant bundle of joy and i'll forever associate china beach with him.
this is the wierdo "fire camping" i was talking about before. us busting a move:
and this one is of me mid-descent in one of the marble mountain caves:
ooook and im lazy. more like im hot, sticky and ive got roughly 451,000 mosquito bites. there's an especially large concentration of them on my ankles and feet, it's really special. so i suppose its time to pack and shower but i'll write all about nha trang soon because im in love with this place.
a massage conga line:
me & pretty boy fernie from holland. fern's just a giant bundle of joy and i'll forever associate china beach with him.
this is the wierdo "fire camping" i was talking about before. us busting a move:
and this one is of me mid-descent in one of the marble mountain caves:
ooook and im lazy. more like im hot, sticky and ive got roughly 451,000 mosquito bites. there's an especially large concentration of them on my ankles and feet, it's really special. so i suppose its time to pack and shower but i'll write all about nha trang soon because im in love with this place.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
my travel gang
wheeee! i love eugene wu forever! he's helped me finally get a flight from bangkok to tokyo to see the lovely julia and i could not be more relieved! mostly cause ive been borderline ripping out my own eyeballs trying to find a flight. anyway these videos were taken on our boat trip yesterday to the islands around nha trang and basically its the people im travelling with introducing themselves to my mommy!
and here's the first take which was quite the blunder but oh well. neither are that hot anyway.
and here's the first take which was quite the blunder but oh well. neither are that hot anyway.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
beach photos
so its been a crazy time drinking too much mystery booze out of small plastic buckets here in nah trang. yesterday i think we accomplished absolutely nothing as we only rolled out of an irish pub we went to for breakfast at like 3 pm. as for today, ive had quite an interesting day so far actually. the rest of the gang went to go chill in mineral muds or something which i didnt find particularly enticing so i went to the art gallery of long thanh, the most famous photographer in nah trang, met the man and hes been toting me around on the back of his vespa and even took me to the spa. and now im in a place called 'crazy kim' where we just had some fab cocktails with crazy kim herself. he wants me to go to the salt fields tomorrow with him and a bunch of other pro photographers at 4:30 am but im doubting i'll be able to make that. oh how i disappoint myself with my laziness. anyway, his photos are amazing and you can check them out at www.longthanhart.com
anyway im finally attempting to post some pictures from china beach and jungle beach so here we go. but the internet's damn slow so we'll see what i get accomplished. also most of the pictures of china beach are drunken beach pictures and those are all on mini's camera which is currently broken so hopefully i can post those soon-ish.
the dudes hanging out in front of hao's place:
me & ed looking seriously indiana jones in the caves of marble mountain at china beach. i dont recall if i ever even mentioned marble mountain but it's basically a mountain that's got marble; whaddya know! its filled with cool pagodas and caves so we went a-explorin':
me & mini sitting with one of the buddhas in marble mountain and then me and ed risking our lives climbing around inside one of the caves:
me looking slightly dishevelled on the top of marble mountain. and in the background you can see where we were living, right on the beach:
the crew posing with good ol' mr. hoa. he was just great times, sneaking smokes behind his wife's back and tossing out lines like "fucking vietnamese!" "fucking eh!"
and here's our cute lil' hut at jungle beach! ed in a hammock just adds to the ambience
quite a difference in attire for me compared to in china. i prefer the bikini. and that's ibbie-pie (ib) chillin' in the hammock.
jungle beach! possibly the bluest and clearest water ive ever seen.
and on our last day in jungle beach i think i mentioned we climbing around on the treacherous rocks of doom and here's a picture of sarah bravely smiling while trying desperately not to fall to her death. we were such champions that day (by the way, to all the haters out there, those jagged rocks totally scratched up my fake chanel sunglasses so now i traded them in for new ones, so dont rag on my style no more!):
anyway im still eating my face off here in vietnam, cutting up more of my clothes cause its getting pretty damn hot and that's about it. im ripping my hair out trying to find a flight to see lovely julia in japan and the photos are taking eons and i simply cant be bothered so i'll post more another time!
anyway im finally attempting to post some pictures from china beach and jungle beach so here we go. but the internet's damn slow so we'll see what i get accomplished. also most of the pictures of china beach are drunken beach pictures and those are all on mini's camera which is currently broken so hopefully i can post those soon-ish.
the dudes hanging out in front of hao's place:
me & ed looking seriously indiana jones in the caves of marble mountain at china beach. i dont recall if i ever even mentioned marble mountain but it's basically a mountain that's got marble; whaddya know! its filled with cool pagodas and caves so we went a-explorin':
me & mini sitting with one of the buddhas in marble mountain and then me and ed risking our lives climbing around inside one of the caves:
me looking slightly dishevelled on the top of marble mountain. and in the background you can see where we were living, right on the beach:
the crew posing with good ol' mr. hoa. he was just great times, sneaking smokes behind his wife's back and tossing out lines like "fucking vietnamese!" "fucking eh!"
and here's our cute lil' hut at jungle beach! ed in a hammock just adds to the ambience
quite a difference in attire for me compared to in china. i prefer the bikini. and that's ibbie-pie (ib) chillin' in the hammock.
jungle beach! possibly the bluest and clearest water ive ever seen.
and on our last day in jungle beach i think i mentioned we climbing around on the treacherous rocks of doom and here's a picture of sarah bravely smiling while trying desperately not to fall to her death. we were such champions that day (by the way, to all the haters out there
anyway im still eating my face off here in vietnam, cutting up more of my clothes cause its getting pretty damn hot and that's about it. im ripping my hair out trying to find a flight to see lovely julia in japan and the photos are taking eons and i simply cant be bothered so i'll post more another time!
Thursday, March 8, 2007
from one beach to the next
so we've just arrived in nha trang and last nite we were at a place called jungle beach. unfortunately i still cant post any photos cause apparently the computers they have going at this internet place im at are ancient and incapable of being in anyway useful. hopefully tomorrow i'll find a place that doesn't suck ass. anyway, i wanna just say that i had multiple near death experiences on the overnite bus going to jungle beach. it was my first long bus journey in vietnam and while it wasnt as awful as i anticipated, it was still...interesting.
first off we spent 1/2 hr looping around hoi an picking up people and then ending up exactly where we first got onto the bus. it was incredibly productive. but the bus ride itself was rather frightening; me and ed found it better to simply shut our eyes and pretend we weren't always on the cusp of a firey death. bus drivers here apparently like to pass other cars by driving in the lane with opposing traffic heading straight for you and only violently swerve back into the right hand lane at the very last moment. its riveting i tell you. and apparently all the bridges in vietnam are complete shit so when were on a bridge, the bus driver simpley swerves from side to side avoiding potholes and the like but it appears as though you are always just about to drive right off the side of the bridge when all of a sudden you jerkily swerve to the other side of the bridge, like a zig zag. also quite exciting.
anyway, we arrived at a secluded little 'resort' called jungle beach around 5 am and though it was lovely its too expensive for my (current) blood. as in it's $18/nite and yes for me that is now expensive. but it was fun, the owner's from a small town in BC, and the five of us got to live in a little bamboo and palm leaf hut. now i can say that live lived in an actual hut before, what an accomplishment! there were palm trees and hammocks strewn about and a bunch of dogs and cats roaming around. our hut was very cute and we had mattresses set up on stilts and mosquito nets so we couldnt get eaten alive by bugs or whatever. the beach is totally beautiful with white sand and clear blue, blue water. ive been doing a lot of being lazy lately. as in i think on the first day we were all a bit comatose after spending the nite not sleeping on a bus and so it was just lazing around, eating. i also spent a good chunk of time peeling skin off of poor sunburnt irish ed with my tweezers. it was actually kinda sick but that was as productive as i got that day so i figured it was worth noting. it was a little wierd though cause the place was absolutely run amock with couples and everyone was asleep by like 10pm so it was a bit boring at night.
today i went with the boys and sarah, a lovely german girl, to try and visit a waterfall via a trail. but it was more like there was a quasi-trail and then for the majority of the trek you have to climb around like a fucking monkey on giant treacherous rocks and boulders of death. that may sound overly-dramatic, but thats exactly how it went down. me and sarah also did all this monkey-climbing in our bikinis and bare foot because apparently i brought running shoes just for show. anyway i was quite amazed at how limber i am and the amazing gripping ability i have in my fingers and toes, i deserve a medal or something. but instead of a medal, i ate a lot.
anyway so now were in nha trang which apparently is quite a party city which is exactly what i want after spending so many days in the middle of nowhere on a beach. im just too city for my own good. anyway i'll wait till i can get some pictures going on here before i post more (also im a tad lethargic cause i just ate a lotta pasta) so be patient, it's all coming soon.
first off we spent 1/2 hr looping around hoi an picking up people and then ending up exactly where we first got onto the bus. it was incredibly productive. but the bus ride itself was rather frightening; me and ed found it better to simply shut our eyes and pretend we weren't always on the cusp of a firey death. bus drivers here apparently like to pass other cars by driving in the lane with opposing traffic heading straight for you and only violently swerve back into the right hand lane at the very last moment. its riveting i tell you. and apparently all the bridges in vietnam are complete shit so when were on a bridge, the bus driver simpley swerves from side to side avoiding potholes and the like but it appears as though you are always just about to drive right off the side of the bridge when all of a sudden you jerkily swerve to the other side of the bridge, like a zig zag. also quite exciting.
anyway, we arrived at a secluded little 'resort' called jungle beach around 5 am and though it was lovely its too expensive for my (current) blood. as in it's $18/nite and yes for me that is now expensive. but it was fun, the owner's from a small town in BC, and the five of us got to live in a little bamboo and palm leaf hut. now i can say that live lived in an actual hut before, what an accomplishment! there were palm trees and hammocks strewn about and a bunch of dogs and cats roaming around. our hut was very cute and we had mattresses set up on stilts and mosquito nets so we couldnt get eaten alive by bugs or whatever. the beach is totally beautiful with white sand and clear blue, blue water. ive been doing a lot of being lazy lately. as in i think on the first day we were all a bit comatose after spending the nite not sleeping on a bus and so it was just lazing around, eating. i also spent a good chunk of time peeling skin off of poor sunburnt irish ed with my tweezers. it was actually kinda sick but that was as productive as i got that day so i figured it was worth noting. it was a little wierd though cause the place was absolutely run amock with couples and everyone was asleep by like 10pm so it was a bit boring at night.
today i went with the boys and sarah, a lovely german girl, to try and visit a waterfall via a trail. but it was more like there was a quasi-trail and then for the majority of the trek you have to climb around like a fucking monkey on giant treacherous rocks and boulders of death. that may sound overly-dramatic, but thats exactly how it went down. me and sarah also did all this monkey-climbing in our bikinis and bare foot because apparently i brought running shoes just for show. anyway i was quite amazed at how limber i am and the amazing gripping ability i have in my fingers and toes, i deserve a medal or something. but instead of a medal, i ate a lot.
anyway so now were in nha trang which apparently is quite a party city which is exactly what i want after spending so many days in the middle of nowhere on a beach. im just too city for my own good. anyway i'll wait till i can get some pictures going on here before i post more (also im a tad lethargic cause i just ate a lotta pasta) so be patient, it's all coming soon.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
lazin' around china beach
so we had an agonizingly long train ride into danang and we're currently staying in between danang and hoi an at a place called china beach which basically has nothing but 15,000 dong bottles of rum (which is just under a dollar i believe) and a lovely beach. i now know i indeed can get sunburnt.
we're staying at a guesthouse called hao's place and mr. hao is some crazy shit, he tosses out swear words better than me. the place is interesting, its got lizards all over the walls and everyone's just hella lazing around. and for your information, the laziness is extremely infectious and i barely know what im typing about right now cause its just after noon, hot and im only 1/4 functioning. im currently sitting in an internet cafe in hoi an waiting for a dress to be made. hoi an is just full of tailor shops and you can get all sorts of clothes and shoes made here its fantastic. however y'all should be impressed cause they've got some pimp coats here that you can get made for only like $30 but im resisting! instead im getting a dress for $7,not bad eh? i figure its more practical that a wool coat.
by the way, in case you havent noticed there is absolutely zero continuity, rhyme or reason in this post, im just straight up mindlessly rambling. and so i'll continue. all my clothes are dirty, im always dirty and there's practically a beach in my bed. i think im seriously turning into a straight up hobo! but anyway, all there is to do in china beach is lie on the beach, and drink. people are always down at the beach at nite drinking beer and cheap rum. on one of the nites a bunch of local girls who looked quite young and wasted came around and told us theyre 89-100 years old and had just flown in from the moon. no joke, it was wierd.
yesterday a bunch of us came into hoi an to do some shopping and eating which was good. we had a good motorbike/scooter gang going on with me and linn hanging off the backs of the bikes; im sure we looked smokin' hot. johnny couldnt make it cause he had a whole bottle of rum to himself the nite before but he's still alive and kickin'. (and im aware i may seem slightly disoriented via this text but i assure you i havent had a single drink,its only noon! i think it's just china beach syndrome.)
and last nite just down the beach from us there was the wierdest party of all time. it was a bunch of japanese tourists, who arrived on something called the 'peace boat' which just cruises around the world, and a whole slew of locals and they told me they were "fire camping". basically it looked like sorta psychotic cult prancing around a giant bonfire on the beach in a giant circle. someone gave me their torch and i pranced around that fire too. there's always someone in the middle of the giant circle dancing and then basically everyone else copies them so its like synchronized dancing. good ol' irish ed decided to have a go and got right there in the middle of that circle and had everyone mimicking his crazy dance moves. it was pretty much the wierdest thing you couldever see. i'll have to post pictures later cause i am just doing a shit job describing absolutely anything and everything right now.
oh! i wanted to note, the area where we're living is really wierd in that all along the road are stores that sell massive stone sculptures of like lions and buddhas and mermaids and shit. it's actually seriously creepy. but alright i wont torture you all any longer cause i can barely comprehend what i just typed and im attempting to edit this shit but i cant even so i apologize. dont give up on me just yet! im getting outta here tomorrow by nite bus and its just gonna suck so bad that i already told everyone im going to be crying half the time. and john's leavin' me high and dry for laos tomorrow so i wont be able to inform you all of what he's up to for a while, not sure when. and so for now im with my swedes and 2 irish boys and im gonna have to extend my visa cause my 2 week stay in vietnam is now somehow stretching past the one month mark.
we're staying at a guesthouse called hao's place and mr. hao is some crazy shit, he tosses out swear words better than me. the place is interesting, its got lizards all over the walls and everyone's just hella lazing around. and for your information, the laziness is extremely infectious and i barely know what im typing about right now cause its just after noon, hot and im only 1/4 functioning. im currently sitting in an internet cafe in hoi an waiting for a dress to be made. hoi an is just full of tailor shops and you can get all sorts of clothes and shoes made here its fantastic. however y'all should be impressed cause they've got some pimp coats here that you can get made for only like $30 but im resisting! instead im getting a dress for $7,not bad eh? i figure its more practical that a wool coat.
by the way, in case you havent noticed there is absolutely zero continuity, rhyme or reason in this post, im just straight up mindlessly rambling. and so i'll continue. all my clothes are dirty, im always dirty and there's practically a beach in my bed. i think im seriously turning into a straight up hobo! but anyway, all there is to do in china beach is lie on the beach, and drink. people are always down at the beach at nite drinking beer and cheap rum. on one of the nites a bunch of local girls who looked quite young and wasted came around and told us theyre 89-100 years old and had just flown in from the moon. no joke, it was wierd.
yesterday a bunch of us came into hoi an to do some shopping and eating which was good. we had a good motorbike/scooter gang going on with me and linn hanging off the backs of the bikes; im sure we looked smokin' hot. johnny couldnt make it cause he had a whole bottle of rum to himself the nite before but he's still alive and kickin'. (and im aware i may seem slightly disoriented via this text but i assure you i havent had a single drink,its only noon! i think it's just china beach syndrome.)
and last nite just down the beach from us there was the wierdest party of all time. it was a bunch of japanese tourists, who arrived on something called the 'peace boat' which just cruises around the world, and a whole slew of locals and they told me they were "fire camping". basically it looked like sorta psychotic cult prancing around a giant bonfire on the beach in a giant circle. someone gave me their torch and i pranced around that fire too. there's always someone in the middle of the giant circle dancing and then basically everyone else copies them so its like synchronized dancing. good ol' irish ed decided to have a go and got right there in the middle of that circle and had everyone mimicking his crazy dance moves. it was pretty much the wierdest thing you couldever see. i'll have to post pictures later cause i am just doing a shit job describing absolutely anything and everything right now.
oh! i wanted to note, the area where we're living is really wierd in that all along the road are stores that sell massive stone sculptures of like lions and buddhas and mermaids and shit. it's actually seriously creepy. but alright i wont torture you all any longer cause i can barely comprehend what i just typed and im attempting to edit this shit but i cant even so i apologize. dont give up on me just yet! im getting outta here tomorrow by nite bus and its just gonna suck so bad that i already told everyone im going to be crying half the time. and john's leavin' me high and dry for laos tomorrow so i wont be able to inform you all of what he's up to for a while, not sure when. and so for now im with my swedes and 2 irish boys and im gonna have to extend my visa cause my 2 week stay in vietnam is now somehow stretching past the one month mark.
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