Friday 17 February 2012
Thursday 16 February 2012
Good morning Vietnam....
Firstly I apologise for the very obvious title...I couldn't help myself! Secondly I apologise for not blogging for a while. In our defence it has been pretty difficult to find internet access fast enough to check our emails, let alone write a blog!
We're in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City to be precise, or Saigon if you're as old as M! We've been here for 5 days and leave tomorrow for Sri Lanka with an overnight stop in Kualalumpa (another sleepless night under an escalator in an international departure hall). Unfortunately we were introduced to the city of Saigon by two young men who attempted a drive by bag snatch on Emma, who valiantly clung on for dear life. Thankfully everyone in Vietnam is around 5ft tall and 7 stone, even M feels beefy in comparissom. After a nice couple of months of blending into the background in NZ and Oz, I'm back to looking like a giant blond freak! Thankfully nothing was stolen, and despite our first impressions, Vietnamese people are very friendly and the country is beautiful! More on that later though.
I've got to write something about Cambodia. Cute little Cambodia! We spent 3 weeks in Cambodia. Firstly in the Capital Phom Penn where we visited Aki Ra's Landmine Museum. What a fantastic bloke, he was recruited by the Khemer Rouge as a child and ordered to lay thousands of land mines until the Vietnamese invaded and he was recruited by them to lay some more. He has spent all of his adult life clearing landmines in Cambodia, training local people to defuse them, setting up a museum and an orphanage for children who have lost limbs or parents through land mines. You can learn more about him and his charity here:
http://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/history
We donated some of the money that friends donated at our leaving party to this charity so thank you everyone who contributed! Xxxx
We also visited Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor Wat. Of course, it was breathtaking. Built in 1113 it is the largest religious site in the world, first Hindu and then Buddhist. We woke at 5am to get to the temples for sunrise and witnessed the sun come up over the largest lake in the Angkor complex, the God's swimming pool! We then spent a day exploring some of the lesser known temples, the Bayon and Angkor Thom before the main attraction Angkor Wat itself. Unfortunately, just like some of the other fantastic sites we've visited on our travels (Macchu Pichu, the Great Barrier Reef) Angkor Wat has become a bit like Disney Land for tourists. We had to negotiate hordes of 'package tourists' with guides with giant umbrellas and squeaky microphones, people trying to sell knock off sunglasses and poor little children pushing dodge postcards. I'm not a fan of people particularly...so this was a bit of a shame.
It didn't distract from the magic of the place though, particularly Angkor Thom where trees grow out of the sandstone, looking like their giant roots have kicked over the walls in frustration! Fantastic. My favourite temple however was the tiny little one, next to where we saw the sun rise. I can't even remember its name. But we explored it alone, at about 6am, before the souvineer stands had been set up, and as the sun moved across the sandstone walls, turning them blood red, it felt like we had discovered our own little Angkorian temple!
I don't want to go on and on about Cambodia, but I love it! Unfortunately, however we visited Sihanoukville for a couple of days on the recommendation of a few friends. The only good thing about this visit was that I completed my PADI for half the cost as in the UK even though the visibility was approximatey 10 cms. There is nothing good about this place, it's a tacky, filthy, faded, wannabe Thailand. If you like your beaches packed with litter and deckchairs and spending time with lager louts or pervy old men looking for a Cambodian wife then Sihanoukville is the place for you. We don't, so we left sharpish.
Needing space from the crowds we headed north to Kratie, famous for visiting the Irrawaddy Dolphins. They are the sweetest looking things with tiny little noses. There's said to be less than 100 left in the Mekong and are suffering great numbers of deaths of their calves due to the awful state of the water. Very sad.
Enjoying our break from the hordes, but saddened by the plight of our dolphin friends, we decided to visit Sen Monorom in the very East of the country. This journey was an interesting one. We are now used to being crushed into minibuses, having to share our seats with two other people and their chickens, but some tourists aren't. Some tourists are unaware that life is difficult in countries other than their own, that people don't have enough money to pay for delux VIP buses, and that people have to share. Not enough touists want to visit Sen Monorom for it to be worth putting on a tourist bus, so people travel local style- we like it this way. Others don't. Especially Russians. One particular Russian lady was so incensed that she had to travel like a local that she shouted hysterically at the driver, who looked like he was about to cry, and then climbed over everyone in the bus,including an elderly blind man, to sit in the front seat and refuse to move. Dispite our suggestions that in fact the back seats were the best seats and that the driver was being kind in giving us the most comfortable places to sit, she would not be moved. She even took control of the radio! Seething with anger, we bit our tongues knowing that she would get what she deserved. And she did. Sitting at the back means that you don't have people climbing in and out over you all the time. The front seat next to the driver is usually reserved for little old ladies who can fit two or maybe three on a seat. You also get the benefit of the air con at the back. Happily for us, and the Cambodian lady who got to sit in the 'tourist seat', our Russian friend was forced to share she seat with two other people, one of whom fell asleep on her shoulder. Her horrified looks back to her boyfriend only made the journey for me much more enjoyable. Emma says I must try to be more Buddhist.
Anyway, we visited an elephant sanctuary in Sen Monorom run by a crazy but brilliant English guy called Jack. Its one of the most inspiring things I've seen on our travels and really shows what one person can do if they believe in something. Jack has a team of people who help him to rescue 
mistreated working elephants in Cambodia. He buys or rents them from families and brings them to live on a piece of land he rents from farmers. He has built a brilliant visitor centre where visitors can stay in the jungle, he employs local people to be mahouts (elephant handlers) and is doing 
important education work in the community. If you visit Cambodia you should spend some time with mad Jack at the elephant valley project! It is beautiful.
We travelled from Sen Monorom to the Vietnamese border, first by bus and then a terrifying moped ride (experiencing massive backpack issues), walked into Vietnam, payed for an extortionate taxi to the nearest town and then another crowded, terrifying bus ride in a vehicle that couldn't go over 40 kph and played twinkle twinkle little star when it reversed. Weird, but South East Asia is a bit weird. Our time in Vietnam has been spent mostly resting in anticipation of an exhausting time in Sri Lanka, but we have managed to see some sites, the amazing system of tunnels used by the Viet Cong and some of the Mekong Delta, but all in all we have spent a lazy time in 'Nam! It's unlikely that there will be Internet at the girls home in Sri Lanka but we will try to keep in touch as often as possible. Sorry for the rambling, awfulness of this post, it's 2.00am, and I'm keeping Emma from her beauty sleep so I'll stop my manic typing!
Love,
Roo
X
We're in Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City to be precise, or Saigon if you're as old as M! We've been here for 5 days and leave tomorrow for Sri Lanka with an overnight stop in Kualalumpa (another sleepless night under an escalator in an international departure hall). Unfortunately we were introduced to the city of Saigon by two young men who attempted a drive by bag snatch on Emma, who valiantly clung on for dear life. Thankfully everyone in Vietnam is around 5ft tall and 7 stone, even M feels beefy in comparissom. After a nice couple of months of blending into the background in NZ and Oz, I'm back to looking like a giant blond freak! Thankfully nothing was stolen, and despite our first impressions, Vietnamese people are very friendly and the country is beautiful! More on that later though.
I've got to write something about Cambodia. Cute little Cambodia! We spent 3 weeks in Cambodia. Firstly in the Capital Phom Penn where we visited Aki Ra's Landmine Museum. What a fantastic bloke, he was recruited by the Khemer Rouge as a child and ordered to lay thousands of land mines until the Vietnamese invaded and he was recruited by them to lay some more. He has spent all of his adult life clearing landmines in Cambodia, training local people to defuse them, setting up a museum and an orphanage for children who have lost limbs or parents through land mines. You can learn more about him and his charity here:
http://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/history
We donated some of the money that friends donated at our leaving party to this charity so thank you everyone who contributed! Xxxx
We also visited Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor Wat. Of course, it was breathtaking. Built in 1113 it is the largest religious site in the world, first Hindu and then Buddhist. We woke at 5am to get to the temples for sunrise and witnessed the sun come up over the largest lake in the Angkor complex, the God's swimming pool! We then spent a day exploring some of the lesser known temples, the Bayon and Angkor Thom before the main attraction Angkor Wat itself. Unfortunately, just like some of the other fantastic sites we've visited on our travels (Macchu Pichu, the Great Barrier Reef) Angkor Wat has become a bit like Disney Land for tourists. We had to negotiate hordes of 'package tourists' with guides with giant umbrellas and squeaky microphones, people trying to sell knock off sunglasses and poor little children pushing dodge postcards. I'm not a fan of people particularly...so this was a bit of a shame.
It didn't distract from the magic of the place though, particularly Angkor Thom where trees grow out of the sandstone, looking like their giant roots have kicked over the walls in frustration! Fantastic. My favourite temple however was the tiny little one, next to where we saw the sun rise. I can't even remember its name. But we explored it alone, at about 6am, before the souvineer stands had been set up, and as the sun moved across the sandstone walls, turning them blood red, it felt like we had discovered our own little Angkorian temple!
I don't want to go on and on about Cambodia, but I love it! Unfortunately, however we visited Sihanoukville for a couple of days on the recommendation of a few friends. The only good thing about this visit was that I completed my PADI for half the cost as in the UK even though the visibility was approximatey 10 cms. There is nothing good about this place, it's a tacky, filthy, faded, wannabe Thailand. If you like your beaches packed with litter and deckchairs and spending time with lager louts or pervy old men looking for a Cambodian wife then Sihanoukville is the place for you. We don't, so we left sharpish.
Needing space from the crowds we headed north to Kratie, famous for visiting the Irrawaddy Dolphins. They are the sweetest looking things with tiny little noses. There's said to be less than 100 left in the Mekong and are suffering great numbers of deaths of their calves due to the awful state of the water. Very sad.
Enjoying our break from the hordes, but saddened by the plight of our dolphin friends, we decided to visit Sen Monorom in the very East of the country. This journey was an interesting one. We are now used to being crushed into minibuses, having to share our seats with two other people and their chickens, but some tourists aren't. Some tourists are unaware that life is difficult in countries other than their own, that people don't have enough money to pay for delux VIP buses, and that people have to share. Not enough touists want to visit Sen Monorom for it to be worth putting on a tourist bus, so people travel local style- we like it this way. Others don't. Especially Russians. One particular Russian lady was so incensed that she had to travel like a local that she shouted hysterically at the driver, who looked like he was about to cry, and then climbed over everyone in the bus,including an elderly blind man, to sit in the front seat and refuse to move. Dispite our suggestions that in fact the back seats were the best seats and that the driver was being kind in giving us the most comfortable places to sit, she would not be moved. She even took control of the radio! Seething with anger, we bit our tongues knowing that she would get what she deserved. And she did. Sitting at the back means that you don't have people climbing in and out over you all the time. The front seat next to the driver is usually reserved for little old ladies who can fit two or maybe three on a seat. You also get the benefit of the air con at the back. Happily for us, and the Cambodian lady who got to sit in the 'tourist seat', our Russian friend was forced to share she seat with two other people, one of whom fell asleep on her shoulder. Her horrified looks back to her boyfriend only made the journey for me much more enjoyable. Emma says I must try to be more Buddhist.
We travelled from Sen Monorom to the Vietnamese border, first by bus and then a terrifying moped ride (experiencing massive backpack issues), walked into Vietnam, payed for an extortionate taxi to the nearest town and then another crowded, terrifying bus ride in a vehicle that couldn't go over 40 kph and played twinkle twinkle little star when it reversed. Weird, but South East Asia is a bit weird. Our time in Vietnam has been spent mostly resting in anticipation of an exhausting time in Sri Lanka, but we have managed to see some sites, the amazing system of tunnels used by the Viet Cong and some of the Mekong Delta, but all in all we have spent a lazy time in 'Nam! It's unlikely that there will be Internet at the girls home in Sri Lanka but we will try to keep in touch as often as possible. Sorry for the rambling, awfulness of this post, it's 2.00am, and I'm keeping Emma from her beauty sleep so I'll stop my manic typing!
Love,
Roo
X
Saturday 11 February 2012
Cambodia photos
Hello
I can't seem to make this link work....not sure why.
You might have to copy and paste this into your navigation bar.
Sorry
http://photobucket.com/albums/ff385/workerbee30/Cambodia
I can't seem to make this link work....not sure why.
You might have to copy and paste this into your navigation bar.
Sorry
http://photobucket.com/albums/ff385/workerbee30/Cambodia
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