Paradise

The more we stay in Sihanoukville, the more we like it. We were planning on leaving this morning for Kampot but now we're staying tonight and tomorrow night here as well. We just keep discovering new exciting things here! We were lying on the beach yesterday and an American guy came up and started talking to us about a snorkeling cruise going to some of the islands off the coast. Anyway, long story short, that's what we did today, and we had the BEST day.

The boat was 4 levels; sleeping/showers/toilets, lounge/dining, bar/lounge, sundeck. We stopped and went snorkelling at a reef off of Koh Kong Kang which was actually the first time I've been snorkelling so I loved it. We then had an 'all you can eat' buffet on the boat before arriving at the pièce de résistance, Koh Rong Samloem! The most beautiful beach I have ever seen! Snow white sand, turquoise water, absolutely stunning. The eccentric German guy who owns the boat told us all that it was completely uninhabited except for a fishing village and a navy base. I found this strange because I was sure I'd read about a guesthouse on the island.. WELL.. we went for a walk through the rainforest to a beach on the other side of the island where we found bungalows and tourists. Not many people at all, but still, the island isn't uninhabited like he says.

While cruising home we went past this very small island that looked like just a hunk of rock and tree.. but with a few buildings on it, and what looked like a 'wat'. It was very strange, just sitting there in the middle of the ocean, complete with a big statue of a shark...? We found out that it is called Koh Dek Koule, and you can actually stay there from $350 - $3000 a night!

We've found out some interesting things, and found some interesting places. Like foreigners can't actually own land here, but they can take out 99yr leases and build/do whatever they want with the place, but the government can just take it back at any time they want. Which is why they love their Russian investors here because apparently they keep pumping money into the bank accounts of the right people to make sure that their lease doesn't suddenly expire. There are rumours of a Russian billionaire snake-collector, who has bought Koh Pos ('Snake Island') which is just off the coast, and is currently constructing a huge bridge from the mainland out to the island. He is apparently the same guy who owns the aforementioned Koh Dek Koule, and a restaurant in town called the 'Snake House' where you eat on glass topped tables with snakes underneath, and a collection of snakes all around you. Apparently there are even crocodiles, and one sits in the restaurant on a leash. We're going there tomorrow night.

One day when we were swimming at Occheuteal Beach we noticed that all of a sudden the dozen or so child bracelet/fruit sellers all went running down one end of the beach. We thought this was really strange because usually they're all very busy bargaining with tourists. A couple of minutes later we noticed that there was a cop walking along the beach, and the children had sprinted off to avoid him! We thought that was a bit suss, and next time a girl was trying to sell me a bracelet, the couple that was next to us asked her why it is that all the kids run away from the cops. She answered that the cops tend to get drunk and beat the children! Keeping in mind that it could just be another sob story to try and get me to buy her bracelets, it's still a bit suss.

You might notice in some of the photos that Occheuteal Beach in Sihanoukville has a strip of sand only a couple of metres wide. We thought this must have just been normal for that particular beach, but we were talking to a guy who had been about a year earlier and said that the beach was at least 3 times as wide then! We immediately thought that it must have been all the shacks lined up right on the beach itself that caused the sand to erode, but we talked to a local and apparently ALL the sand had washed away not long ago due to a combination of a hurricane somewhere and the particular tide at the time. It's supposedly going to take a few years for the beach to rebuild itself to its former glory. I think by that time this place is going to be FULLY developed.. there'll be highrises everywhere!

Stay tuned for more!
Amiee xo

Merry Christmas from Sihanoukville, Cambodia!!

Merry Christmas to everyone! Love from Steve, Amiee and Steve's beard x

Cambodia!

Ok so we are currently in Cambodia! We spent 2 nights in Phnom Penh (the capital) before taking a bus to the beachside town of Sihanoukville for Christmas.

The bus from Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh seemed to take forever. Plus they decided to play Asian karaoke dvds the whole way, which made me very very sad. The border crossing was fun as usual. So so sick of crossing borders and all the customs and procedures that go with it. The Cambodian visa process was a bit weird because rather than us providing a passport photo for them to use, they took our photos with a webcam (and without telling me too, so I wasn't even looking at the thing!).

There really isn't much to Phnom Penh. We had the charismatic (and somewhat cheeky) tuk-tuk driver, 'Mr Lucky', attach himself to us as soon as we hopped off the bus; so he was our driver for our stay. He was good because he spoke very good English and knew where to take us to organise our Laos visas etc. He tells me that apparently my skin is too pale for me to be an Aussie. Nice guy.

The story goes that one day a woman named Penh was just going about her business, when a couple of buddha statues float by in the river. She pulled them up and laid them to rest on a hill (or 'phnom' in Khmer/Cambodian) and that's how Phnom Penh got its name... Hill of Penh/Hill where Penh left some Buddhas. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but that's the story, so we thought we'd better visit this Phnom. These days there's a wat (temple) on the top.. so it's called Wat Phnom. Really nothing spectacular. It's a very small hill, and because we're tourists, we were charged US$1 each to go up.

The touts/beggars here are way worse than the countries we've been to so far. In Ho Chi Minh City they'd come up to your table while you were eating with their goods to sell, but all you'd have to say is 'no thanks' and they'd keep moving. Here, they go for the heartstrings. At dinner on our first night in Phnom Penh we had a little boy come up to the table selling roses. We immediately said 'no thanks' (we try not to buy from the touts or you just get more and more coming up) but he hung around with his sad face on, nudging Steve on the arm and saying "you buy rose, you buy rose" over and over in his little sad quiet voice. Well.. I know we probably shouldn't have after we'd already said no, but we're soft and eventually gave in (mainly because he wouldn't leave!) and bought a rose (it was only about $0.50AUD afterall). We've seen so many amputees (presumably land mine victims) begging in the streets. Women come up to you carrying their young dirty child/children trying to get money. I wish I had an inbuilt bullshit detector so I could tell which ones really need the help, and which are just doing it for profit; as well as which ones are actually going to benefit from the money you give them, compared to the ones who are 'managed' by someone who takes most of the profit (when Steve was in Thailand last time he saw an amputee who had been begging for the day getting wheeled away in a wheelchair by a man in a suit!). Tourism has brought with it an attitude of expectation rather than gratitude. When we were walking home from dinner that night in Phnom Penh we saw a cute little boy with his mother. We paused to smile and say hello, but when the little boy saw us looking at him, the first thing he did was put his hand out for money. Cheeky little bugger.

So yesterday we took a bus to Sihanoukville so we'd be at the beach for Christmas. It's quite nice here; very relaxed, beachy atmosphere. The beach is lined with 'restaurant'/bars on the sand with sun-lounges out the front. There's no empty sand, just sun-lounges, and then ocean; it looks like something from the movies. The only thing ruining the relaxation of lying on a sun-lounge less than a metre from the ocean under a big umbrella with a cool drink is the constant front of women and girls wanting to sell you bracelets, wanting to make you bracelets, wanting to massage you, wanting to give you a pedicure, wanting to remove your leg hair etc etc etc etc etc. I mean you just have to take it as it comes, we are in their country, but it's when they won't take no for an answer that it gets a bit much. We had a bit of trouble with a couple of young girls who got increasingly rude and wouldn't leave, but that's a long story.

We went out to the strip of bars on the beach last night. There was huge Christmas Eve festivities going on, complete with fireworks, fire twirlers etc etc. Really fun.

We're staying at the 'Monkey Republic' guesthouse and we have our own little bright blue, thatched roof bungalow. The restaurant next to us is putting on a full Christmas lunch (turkey, ham, prawns, roast veg, apple crumble) so we're going to go there!

Anyway, I promise I'll post some photos either this afternoon or tomorrow.
Merry Christmas! Amiee xox

Ho Chi Minh City!

FINALLY up to date with my blogging thanks to free internet at our hotel! Steve has had a bit of a bug so I've been blogging away while he sleeps it off.

We are currently in Ho Chi Minh City and absolutely loving it. The people are so friendly, everything is so so cheap. Last night we found a Mexican place (that also did Italian, Vietnamese, +anything else really) and I got the Spag Bol I'd been craving!! Steve had BBQ pork ribs, and we shared 3 cocktails.. all for a grand total of $16AUD.

The traffic is even crazier than KL. Thousands upon thousands of motorbikes, and everyone uses a horn as a substitute for an indicator! We both went to the Blind Institute and had hour long massages for about $3AUD yesterday, which were OK..

Meeting up with the brother of our friend, Ka, this afternoon and he'll show us around the city a bit. Tomorrow we'll take a bus across the border into Cambodia! (Of course, we'll be back in Vietnam later for a proper exploration).

Photo taken on the rooftop of our hotel in Ho Chi Minh City!

Amiee x

Back in Singapore 19&20/12

Another short visit to Singapore. This time we stayed overnight in the Little India district.
Spent the day shopping in Sari fabric heaven! Sooo many beautiful fabrics and so cheap. Steve wasn't so fussed lol. Had my hand henna-ed and bought a few bangles.
So sick of rice rice rice, so ate Naan bread and Tandoori chicken (WITHOUT rice) for dinner.

20/12 Flew to Ho Chi Minh City.

17/12 & 18/12 - Genting Highlands & Sunway Lagoon, KL

On Thursday we took a bus up into the Genting Highlands. It was very cool, and the air was very crisp up there, compared to the polluted humidity of KL. There would have been a gorgeous view of KL, but the clouds were in the way (I'm told they usually are). Genting consists of several huge hotels, a casino, shopping centre, and an indoor and outdoor theme park of sorts. The whole place is very Westernised, considering we only saw 2 other white people there. We spent most of our time around the (overpriced) indoor theme park area. The whole place was a bit too 'crazy' for our liking, but it reminded me a bit of the arcade area that used to be up the top of the Queen St Myer Centre, but 100x bigger. We took a cable car down the mountainside, which was very scenic.

Friday we went to Sunway Lagoon, which, like Genting, consists of several hotels, a shopping centre, and a theme park. The Shopping Centre had an 'Egyptian' theme for the most part, complete with giant sphinx and pyramid, and heiroglyphs. We also found a Moroccan themed part, and there could be more that we missed. In the centre was a big ice skating rink! The most spectacular part was the water park. The place is huge and set in a valley, right in the middle of KL, complete with dozens of waterslides, rollercoaster, 'natural' (?) lagoon, wave pool, and a big suspension bridge from one side to the other. It was amazing. We would have loved to have time to go and swim but we had to catch a train back to Singapore!

16/12/09 - Chinatown, Little India, Batu Cave, Petronas Towers (KL, Malaysia)

I'm a bit behind on the blog updates because we have just been constantly on the go, so bear with me...

On Wednesday we visited Chinatown markets in KL for some bargains and a lesson in bartering. Everything is so so cheap here. Steve picked up a 'Billabong' and an 'Armani' shirt for 40RM (bit over $10AUD). I bought a 'pure silk' (hmm...) dressing gown for 40RM, having bartered her the woman down from 90RM. I didn't find bartering as hard as I thought I would.

We also had a walk around the Central Market in/near Chinatown and had a fish massage which involved us dangling our feet into an inflatable pool full of thousands of tiny sucky fish, and then them sucking/nibbling at our feet for 10 minutes. It truly was an experience. I was constantly laughing for the first 5min because it tickled like anything, after that you kind of got used to it. Such a strange sensation, a bit like pins and needles!

We then visited 'Little India' (which is nothing compared to the Little India in Singapore) where I bought some goooooorgeous sari fabric for half the ticket price.

Afterwards we visited Batu Caves. BIG let down. It looked amazing from the photos I'd seen. There is a giant golden statue of some sort of Hindu deity out the front, and then 272 steps leading up to the cave itself in the side of a rocky cliff face. We climbed the steps and were very underwhelmed by the cave itself. They have poured a concrete floor in the bottom of the cave, painted 2m up the wall in pastel colours, and the whole cavern is empty apart from a little shrine here and there (and some cats and chickens..). The place reminded me of an abandoned sideshow; they've completely ruined the natural beauty of the place. Save yourself the climb and just stay at the bottom and take photos, it looks MUCH better from the outside.

At night we went to KLCC (Petronas Towers). The shopping centre is very upmarket; plenty of designer brands. Out the front there's a nice fountain and a gorgeous view looking up at the Towers. (The good photos are taken by Steve. lol)

The drivers are crazy in KL. Sticking to your lane seems optional, people merge into various lanes without blinkers leaving a 2cm gap between cars, and right of way is given to whoever crams their car in the way first.

More soon.
Amiee x

No innuendo here....

They don't muck around...

First 24 hours

Tired. Tired. Tired

Singapore was a good way to 'ease ourselves' into Asia; most of it could pass as Brisbane, except the Asian:White ratio would be slightly higher than normal...
Having a few hours to kill before we caught the train, we ventured forth from the Airport into Singapore for some brief explorations and dinner. The lady at the Airport Visitors Centre and the man at the MRT ticket machines that we spoke to both seemed somewhat troubled by our lack of set plans and 'let's just wing it' attitudes. Both were very helpful, but I think they were sure we'd end up utterly lost (which we didn't!).

The Singapore MRT (mass rapid transport) system is very simple to navigate; all very well signed and the ticketing is very easy to understand.. miles ahead of Translink back in Brisbane, not to mention that it's never late!

As instructed by the Visitor Centre lady, we hopped off at City Hall, found our way through the Citylink Mall, and somehow ended up in the Esplanade Theatre/Concert Hall that looks like a giant durian fruit. There really is some very interesting/quirky architecture in Singapore! We made our way to a strip of restaurants on the river edge and ate dinner there.

Later that night we caught the MRT and a taxi to the railway station where our overnight train to Malaysia departs. The station is run by a Malaysian company, so Customs was a bit backwards (and very laid back - they barely looked at our documentation and never took our departure cards) (not to mention that they let me(steve) back through customs, past all the queues, just to get a bottle of water...then just stroll back in without a word from the officials...Awesome! hehe - steve) as we went through Malaysian entry before half an hour later stopping at the border of Singapore to go through Singaporean exit procedures. Unfortunately, when we stopped and got off the train at the Singapore border, I left my Singapore Arrival Card stub (which apparently you need) in my bag on the train and had to be escorted into a separate room to wait. Luckily the guy there did something up fairly quickly (not sure what) and I was free to go again.

The overnight train ride was possible the worst sleep I've ever had, rivalled only by the time I stayed overnight at uni, sleeping on the floor under a computer desk. Someone thought it'd be a cool idea to smoke on the train, so I inhaled that all night which made me feel nice and nauseated. People kept talking and listening to music to all hours, which I guess really didn't matter anyway considering the fluro light on the roof was positioned perfectly to shine directly over the curtain into my compartment, making it bright as day! It wasn't a very smooth train ride; at one point the train was shaking so violently and loudly that I woke and said a quick prayer that we'd survive. Woke up again at one point (I seemed to sleep in 1hour naps) and had to use the toilet, stumbling down the hall to find the 'automatic' door to the compartment was jammed, so I stumbled down to the other end, into the next cart to use their toilet. At this point the train was still violently shaking, and although it was a 'sit' toilet, there was no way I was about to sit on it... you can imagine the rest. Oh and to top it all off, the guy sleeping in the bed under Steve, across from me, had some sort of rifle with him! haha.



We are now in Kuala Lumpur and enjoying it a lot! Although we have been overseas for less than 2 days, due to lack of sleep it feels like we've been gone a week! Amiee.

International Calling

I've bought a prepaid sim card from the local travel agent that will work overseas (fingers crossed).
The sim is run through BackChat Mobile.
Below are the rates for each country, per minute, so you can understand if we don't talk for very long...

Singapore

Cost to Call Landline:	$0.99
Cost to Call Mobile:	$1.37
Cost to Receive:	$0.79
Cost to Send SMS:	$0.75

Malaysia

Cost to Call Landline:	$1.49
Cost to Call Mobile:	$1.87
Cost to Receive:	$0.75
Cost to Send SMS:	$0.99

Vietnam

Cost to Call Landline:	$1.49
Cost to Call Mobile:	$1.87
Cost to Receive:	Free
Cost to Send SMS:	$0.99

Cambodia

Cost to Call Landline:	$1.49
Cost to Call Mobile:	$1.87
Cost to Receive:	$0.87
Cost to Send SMS:	$0.99

Laos
Unavailable (using Steve's mobile here)

Thailand

Cost to Call Landline:	$1.99
Cost to Call Mobile:	$2.37
Cost to Receive:	$1.52
Cost to Send SMS:	$0.99

Slightly more detailed itinerary...

Dec 14: fly BNE -> Singapore, O/night train to KL, Malaysia
Dec 15 - 18: KL, Malaysia
Dec 18: O/night train to Singapore
Dec 19: Singapore
Dec 20: fly Singapore -> Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Dec 21&22: Vietnam/Ho Chi Minh area
Dec 23 - Jan 12: Cambodia
Jan 13 - Jan 26: Laos
Jan 27 - Feb 7: Vietnam
Feb 7: fly Ho Chi Minh -> Bangkok
Feb 7 - 15: Thailand
Feb 15/16: fly Phuket -> Singapore -> BNE