Ok SORRY I've been so slack.. the last few days of our trip were spent in Phuket, pretty much doing nothing.. hence updating the blog would have interfered with the 'nothingness' and there really isn't that much to report on anyway!
We had prebooked ourselves a Deluxe Room at the Rayaburi Hotel at Patong Beach to celebrate the end of our 2 month adventure (and to try and cheer ourselves up about the fact that we were about to return home to work/study!).
Our days consisted of lying on sunloungers on the very-crowded Patong Beach, reading, swimming, shopping, eating.... that's it. I can tell you that I am not missing the constant "G'day Mate, want a suit?" or "Hello lady, you want massage?" that followed us wherever we went!
One night we ventured to the infamous Bangla Rd to check it out, and I can safely say that it was the seediest place we've been on the whole trip! Prostitutes everywhere, Thai girls (or ladyboys? hard to tell sometimes) dancing on bars, PingPong Shows etc etc. Absolutely packed with people! There were guys carrying around big iguanas, trying to get tourists to get a photo with their iguana so they could charge them money. Those things really freak me out... which is why I went running when about 5 guys with iguanas started cornering me. ARGH. There were also a group of ladyboys in costume standing on the side of the street getting people to take photos with them (and charging for it, of course). I went up for a photo... "Hold me!" squealed the ladyboy, so I obliged.. even though I'm not entirely sure why they'd want me to hold them, considering I'm a female. Steve didn't want a photo, but the ladyboys protested (Steve has a way with Asian men...) so Steve decided to lose his inhibitions and get a photo too. Turns out the ladyboys really like Steve too, as evidenced by the way one of them held Steve's hand to their 'breast'. Check the photo out, it's hilarious. Funny how they got a lot closer to Steve in his photo than they did to me in my photo....
After that we decided to escape Bangla Rd and head down to the beach and check out the party that they were throwing for the Chinese New Year. We lit up a paper lantern (which I've always wanted to do!) and sat in the sand watching it float away.
Next day was Valentine's day and we spent the day lounging around in true Phuket fashion. We both got Thai massages, and went to a really nice restaurant literally on the beach for dinner and delicious dessert. It was a really nice way to spend the last night of our trip!
The next morning we took a taxi to the airport, on the way we reminisced and made a list of things we would and wouldn't miss about SE Asia.. actually I might post that here on the blog if I can remember it all!
After aaages lining up at Phuket airport (there was a 10m line just to get in the door.. they really need to redesign that airport!) we caught our first flight to Singapore. At Changi airport we had a stopover for a few hours in which we used the free foot massage chairs, free internet and visited the Butterfly Room! Changi really is the best airport.
The flight to Brisbane was great.. I love Singapore Airlines. Plenty of leg room, seats recline a fair way back, your own personal screen and heaps of movies and tv shows etc, AND the food is great! Only problem I found was that they only turned the lights out for about 2hrs and then served breakfast straight away... which didn't allow for much sleep! We arrived at Brisbane airport at about 6am. It felt so good to be back on our home turf and to hear Aussie accents, even though it meant we were no longer travelling.
I've added a Thailand photo album.. but then realised really how 'on holiday' we were; we took about 4 photos in Thailand! oops! Sorry guys! But hey, we had fun :)
Amiee x
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Baaaangkok
Flew to Thailand yesterday morning. Was THE longest airport check-in/customs etc process we've had to go through in both airports! Took an expensive taxi to the backpacker area, Khao San Rd. Hotels, restaurants, shops EVERYWHERE. There's even a Burger King, McDonalds, and Subway.. no surprise really. We did our usual trick of Amiee sitting somewhere with our bags while Steve runs from hotel to hotel finding the best value room. This time I sat in a cafe and enjoyed a coffee shake (I was staaarving at that point). We then went and checked in to our room, and then went and ate some Pad Thai and fresh orange juice. I was feeling very sluggish and not at all well, which is unusual considering how much shopping there is to do here! I had to sit down on the gutter.. Steve suggested he take me back to the hotel, which turned out to be a good idea because as soon as I got into the bathroom I threw up my entire stomach contents. First time I've had food poisoning the entire trip and it happens within a couple of hours of getting into Thailand! Great. Felt a lot better afterwards though, had a bit of a nap and then went shopping :)
Shopping was exhausting due to the amount of failed haggling.. they try to charge ridiculous prices here for things, compared to what we've been paying for similar items in the rest of South East Asia. We're going to head to the big markets today and are hoping the prices might be a bit more reasonable. Thinking the prices on Khao San might be more expensive because it's so touristy. Had some encounters with some very unfriendly shop assistants yesterday, most notable was the guy running the bookshop we were browsing in. I saw a big book on 'Thai Architecture' and reached up and got it from the shelf to look at. He came over, took it out of my hands, showed me the price (RIDICULOUSLY overpriced at 1800 baht = $60AUD) and then put it back up on the shelf. Bastard. Not sure how he's expecting to sell it ever if he won't let anyone even look at it. Hmphf.
Had a quiet night reading books in our room, despite staying on a very rowdy party street. Was not up to going out after recent food poisoning! Spending the day in Bangkok today, and then flying to Phuket early tomorrow morning :)
Amiee x
Shopping was exhausting due to the amount of failed haggling.. they try to charge ridiculous prices here for things, compared to what we've been paying for similar items in the rest of South East Asia. We're going to head to the big markets today and are hoping the prices might be a bit more reasonable. Thinking the prices on Khao San might be more expensive because it's so touristy. Had some encounters with some very unfriendly shop assistants yesterday, most notable was the guy running the bookshop we were browsing in. I saw a big book on 'Thai Architecture' and reached up and got it from the shelf to look at. He came over, took it out of my hands, showed me the price (RIDICULOUSLY overpriced at 1800 baht = $60AUD) and then put it back up on the shelf. Bastard. Not sure how he's expecting to sell it ever if he won't let anyone even look at it. Hmphf.
Had a quiet night reading books in our room, despite staying on a very rowdy party street. Was not up to going out after recent food poisoning! Spending the day in Bangkok today, and then flying to Phuket early tomorrow morning :)
Amiee x
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Mui Ne... then back to Saigon!!
Spent 2 nights in Mui Ne.. not really much to do other than kite surf (if you're into that sort of thing.. was way too expensive for us to give it a go at this stage in our trip).. although there are some really cool sand dunes nearby.. the place looks like a mini Sahara desert! Photos to come soon.
Today we've completed our grand circuit and have made it back to Saigon! Would have loved to have had twice the time to do it, but we've done pretty well with the time we've had, I think! Tomorrow morning we fly over to Bangkok, and then the following day down to Phuket where we commence the final stage of our trip: lying on a beautiful beach and doing as close to nothing as possible. Have started to try and come to terms with the fact that we'll be home soon.. but trying not to think about it toooo much as it makes us sad... except for the fact that going back to Australia means seeing friends and relatives, of course ;)
Amiee xx
Today we've completed our grand circuit and have made it back to Saigon! Would have loved to have had twice the time to do it, but we've done pretty well with the time we've had, I think! Tomorrow morning we fly over to Bangkok, and then the following day down to Phuket where we commence the final stage of our trip: lying on a beautiful beach and doing as close to nothing as possible. Have started to try and come to terms with the fact that we'll be home soon.. but trying not to think about it toooo much as it makes us sad... except for the fact that going back to Australia means seeing friends and relatives, of course ;)
Amiee xx
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang!
Just realised it's been about a week since my last post so I thought I should probably update!
After Hanoi, we arrived in Hue via a sleeper train and spent a night there. Hue was the imperial capital of Vietnam at one point, so we spent the morning visiting some of the monuments, mainly the Citadel. The architecture is a lot more 'oriental' here. We found the Citadel a bit underwhelming; most of it had been demolished, demolished and rebuilt at some point in history, or was currently being rebuilt. Inside the Citadel was a forbidden city where the Emperor spent his personal life (and which housed the Emperors' concubines; consequently only male servants who were eunuchs were allowed to enter - which we found amusing). We thought the Emperor's Reading Room was nice, but we were disappointed to find that you couldn't actually enter the building. We snuck a peak inside and saw a few shoes, clothing etc.. it looked like one of the employees were living there!
Next we took a fairly short bus ride (only about 4 hours) to Hoi An. Most beautiful town we've visited so far.. AND home to hundreds of tailors and cobblers! AND a gooorgeous quiet beach. Perfection! The lovely old buildings around Hoi An have been beautifully preserved and refurbished and it just creates such a great atmosphere. The streets were decorated with colourful paper lanterns ready for the Tet (New Year) celebrations, and there are countless little restaurants and bars overlooking the river. Ah I just can't describe well enough how amazing it is! On the first day I went a bit crazy with getting clothes and shoes made (Steve was off exploring Hoi An by bike hehe).. but hey, it would cost at least 3x the price in Aus AND everything fits perfectly (except for 1 pair of shoes but that's a long story!). We took the lovely 4km bike ride to the beach, which is a gorgeous wide stretch of sand with hundreds of palm trees and enjoyed a fresh coconut.. ahhh the sererenity :) I love palm trees. We were sad to leave Hoi An but we were running out of time and had to get back on the road.
After a rather (thankfully) uneventful sleeper bus journey (on which we actually got some sleep!!!) we arrived early yesterday morning in Nha Trang, a the beach city of Vietnam. We spent the morning catching up on some sleep (even though we slept on the bus, the many times we woke up during the night tends to reduce the quality of the sleep!), and then did some sight-seeing. The highlight of our stay here is definitely our visit to the Thap Ba Hot Springs; we had so much fun there! For $5 each we went through a huge process of various treatments. First, a hot mineral spring shower before soaking in a mineral mud path for several minutes. We both agree that the mud bath was definitely the most fun.. and you could float on the mud so easily! Next we had to lie in the sun for a few minutes (for all the muddy goodness to absorb into our skin??) before taking another hot mineral spring shower to rinse off. We then had some hot spring 'hydrotherapy' which involved walking through a 'hallway' of high pressure water jets. Not sure what that was supposed to accomplish really. Then we got into a hot mineral spring water bath.. it was so hot we felt like lobsters. After we couldn't stand the heat any longer, we had a shower under the mini waterfall. I could see a group of Asian men watching us and giggling amongst themselves. Steve jumped into the hot spring pool while I spent a bit longer in the waterfall, at which point I was approached by one of the giggling Asian men (the spokesman??).
Spokesman: "Your boyfriend is very handsome!"
Me: "Uh.. yes he is.. you like him??"
Spokesman: "We all like him!"
Looks like I've got some competition here! Steve couldn't work out why I was giggling so much when I joined him in the pool! Hehe.
Today we visited an amusement park called Vinpearl Land on an island off-shore. They've built 'Vinpearl' in giant white letters on the top of the island (Hollywood-style) that can be seen clearly from the mainland. Very subtle. The cable-car ride over to the island was very scenic.. it's supposedly the longest cross-sea cable-car? We got to Vinpearl Land at about 11am and practically had the place to ourselves! We spent the first hour-ish in the Indoor Games area.. a giant arcade where all the games were free! There were some super-ridiculous arcade games! There was one that was a racing game, but instead of pressing buttons like normal.. you had to scream into a microphone to make your player accelerate.. although I found that hysterical laughter works just as well as yelling! We rode fake horses, threw coloured balls at a game-screen (it was part of the game!), went on a '4D' virtual rollercoaster ride, and got zapped by dodgy pistols in a shooter-game. Having developed square eyes, we took a stroll down to the water park section. It looked just like an Australian water-park.. except there is no way in hell that some of the slides would be approved in Australia! Most of the slides that you went on without tubes acted a bit like a grater, taking skin off your back! And a lot of the slides dumped you into a kiddy pool at the end, rather than one that is actually deep enough! My favourite was a slide called the 'Tsunami' in which you were dumped (in a double tube) into a half pipe (so steep that we actually 'got air' at a point!) and then slid up and down the sides until you lost momentum and were dumped (literally) into a kiddy pool... except we didn't lose momentum quite as quickly as we were supposed to (thanks to Steve pushing us off the sides!) and we slammed into the side, narrowly avoiding concussion. I think the fear of death definitely added to the thrill of the rides... because although part of you knows that the rides are fine.. another part says.. "well.. this is Asia....... what if...".
Unfortunately we have to leave tomorrow morning to spend a couple of nights in Mui Ne. This whole 'limited time' thing sucks. We're definitely coming back! Seriously.
Goodnight!!
Amiee x
After Hanoi, we arrived in Hue via a sleeper train and spent a night there. Hue was the imperial capital of Vietnam at one point, so we spent the morning visiting some of the monuments, mainly the Citadel. The architecture is a lot more 'oriental' here. We found the Citadel a bit underwhelming; most of it had been demolished, demolished and rebuilt at some point in history, or was currently being rebuilt. Inside the Citadel was a forbidden city where the Emperor spent his personal life (and which housed the Emperors' concubines; consequently only male servants who were eunuchs were allowed to enter - which we found amusing). We thought the Emperor's Reading Room was nice, but we were disappointed to find that you couldn't actually enter the building. We snuck a peak inside and saw a few shoes, clothing etc.. it looked like one of the employees were living there!
Next we took a fairly short bus ride (only about 4 hours) to Hoi An. Most beautiful town we've visited so far.. AND home to hundreds of tailors and cobblers! AND a gooorgeous quiet beach. Perfection! The lovely old buildings around Hoi An have been beautifully preserved and refurbished and it just creates such a great atmosphere. The streets were decorated with colourful paper lanterns ready for the Tet (New Year) celebrations, and there are countless little restaurants and bars overlooking the river. Ah I just can't describe well enough how amazing it is! On the first day I went a bit crazy with getting clothes and shoes made (Steve was off exploring Hoi An by bike hehe).. but hey, it would cost at least 3x the price in Aus AND everything fits perfectly (except for 1 pair of shoes but that's a long story!). We took the lovely 4km bike ride to the beach, which is a gorgeous wide stretch of sand with hundreds of palm trees and enjoyed a fresh coconut.. ahhh the sererenity :) I love palm trees. We were sad to leave Hoi An but we were running out of time and had to get back on the road.
After a rather (thankfully) uneventful sleeper bus journey (on which we actually got some sleep!!!) we arrived early yesterday morning in Nha Trang, a the beach city of Vietnam. We spent the morning catching up on some sleep (even though we slept on the bus, the many times we woke up during the night tends to reduce the quality of the sleep!), and then did some sight-seeing. The highlight of our stay here is definitely our visit to the Thap Ba Hot Springs; we had so much fun there! For $5 each we went through a huge process of various treatments. First, a hot mineral spring shower before soaking in a mineral mud path for several minutes. We both agree that the mud bath was definitely the most fun.. and you could float on the mud so easily! Next we had to lie in the sun for a few minutes (for all the muddy goodness to absorb into our skin??) before taking another hot mineral spring shower to rinse off. We then had some hot spring 'hydrotherapy' which involved walking through a 'hallway' of high pressure water jets. Not sure what that was supposed to accomplish really. Then we got into a hot mineral spring water bath.. it was so hot we felt like lobsters. After we couldn't stand the heat any longer, we had a shower under the mini waterfall. I could see a group of Asian men watching us and giggling amongst themselves. Steve jumped into the hot spring pool while I spent a bit longer in the waterfall, at which point I was approached by one of the giggling Asian men (the spokesman??).
Spokesman: "Your boyfriend is very handsome!"
Me: "Uh.. yes he is.. you like him??"
Spokesman: "We all like him!"
Looks like I've got some competition here! Steve couldn't work out why I was giggling so much when I joined him in the pool! Hehe.
Today we visited an amusement park called Vinpearl Land on an island off-shore. They've built 'Vinpearl' in giant white letters on the top of the island (Hollywood-style) that can be seen clearly from the mainland. Very subtle. The cable-car ride over to the island was very scenic.. it's supposedly the longest cross-sea cable-car? We got to Vinpearl Land at about 11am and practically had the place to ourselves! We spent the first hour-ish in the Indoor Games area.. a giant arcade where all the games were free! There were some super-ridiculous arcade games! There was one that was a racing game, but instead of pressing buttons like normal.. you had to scream into a microphone to make your player accelerate.. although I found that hysterical laughter works just as well as yelling! We rode fake horses, threw coloured balls at a game-screen (it was part of the game!), went on a '4D' virtual rollercoaster ride, and got zapped by dodgy pistols in a shooter-game. Having developed square eyes, we took a stroll down to the water park section. It looked just like an Australian water-park.. except there is no way in hell that some of the slides would be approved in Australia! Most of the slides that you went on without tubes acted a bit like a grater, taking skin off your back! And a lot of the slides dumped you into a kiddy pool at the end, rather than one that is actually deep enough! My favourite was a slide called the 'Tsunami' in which you were dumped (in a double tube) into a half pipe (so steep that we actually 'got air' at a point!) and then slid up and down the sides until you lost momentum and were dumped (literally) into a kiddy pool... except we didn't lose momentum quite as quickly as we were supposed to (thanks to Steve pushing us off the sides!) and we slammed into the side, narrowly avoiding concussion. I think the fear of death definitely added to the thrill of the rides... because although part of you knows that the rides are fine.. another part says.. "well.. this is Asia....... what if...".
Unfortunately we have to leave tomorrow morning to spend a couple of nights in Mui Ne. This whole 'limited time' thing sucks. We're definitely coming back! Seriously.
Goodnight!!
Amiee x
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