Wherever you are in the world - chillin' out at a new age encampment between Brisbane for Sydney, for example (which I was), as far away from reality as I could get at that moment, there are things that happen that grab me by the balls and remind me that I am still part of that world that I am trying to get around, like these events in New York a week ago. With these events in mind it is difficult to get my little world in perspective. So for the purposes of this email I have decided to ignore perspective and the real world, and concentrate on the insignificant happenings of the past 6 weeks..... welcome to my world........
Since last time when I was in Bali I have flown to Darwin, toured round the national parks there, gone down to Alice Springs, tripped out to Uluru (Ayres Rock)and The Olgas. Then flown to Cairns at the north end of the east coast and travelled down the east coast stopping off at a variety of (mainly) interesting places en route. Finally I have reached Sydney.
Note : Written with due apologies to any Aussies who may be reading this.
Firstly I should say that Oz is a confusing place e.g.
- the Adelaide river is nowhere near Adelaide
- the Victoria highway does not go to Victoria
- Saltwater crocodiles live in freshwater (this is important when it comes to swimming in fresh water as the Salties may eat you! (or me!))
Up Top (The Good Bits)
- The main highlight of my time in Oz is obvious..... Stuffing Germany 5-1 in their own backyard. I met several Germans after that and mysteriously all claimed to have no interest in football. Odd that !!
- Kakadu National Park (NP) near Darwin - fantastic scenery and waterfalls - although the water was COLD (very).
- Uluru - the climb up was very steep and so windy that halfway up I wished they had closed it - I thought I was gonna be blown off but fortunately there was a heavyweight chain to hang on to (and I did - with both hands). An amazing place, great sunset and sunrise although it would have been better if we hadn't had to stand with a few hundred people sipping champagne to watch it (we had one warm beer between about 10 of us....) The Olgas are worth a mention - they are similar to Uluru but from certain angles they look like Homer Simpson lying down - Yes Really!
- Diving off Cairns with a rather large Green Turtle (although it was brown in colour). I swam along next to it for a few minutes. Amazing complany, it was very friendly waving it's flipper at me as we swam along together although, to be honest, it didn't say that much.
- Seeing kangaroos, dingos, koalas, camels and a duck billed platypus all in the wild (though not at the same time). The dbp was a bit tricky as we had to wait 1.5 hours for it and then only saw it for 5 seconds - but hey I saw one ! PS It was unimpressive ! The koala was better - got to within 2m of it as it munched it's way through loads of leaves ....... OK so that wasn't that exciting either...... my tiny travelling companions thought it was cute though !
- Humpback Whale watching in Hervey Bay - didn't see many of them but the ones we did see were on form as the enormous mammel jumped high out of the water just so we could take photos of them jumping high out of the water.....
- Whitsunday Islands - 3 days on a racing yacht (not that we raced) more of a cruise really, to the fantastic white sands of Whitehaven beach (reckoned to be one of the top 10 beaches in the world - and we didn't even take a bucket and spade; Damn !)
- Driving a 4x4 on the largest sand island in the world and getting stuck loads of times (everyone else had to push but I was OK - I was driving - nuff said).
- Surfing - Well you just have to ! After all this is Australia.
- Learning to play the didgeredoo - Well you just have to ! After all this is Australia.
- The 'occasional' Party nights with loadsa beer - Well you just have to ! After all this is Australia.
Down Under (The Bad Bits)
- 'Occasional' Hangovers every morning after the 'occasional' party nights out.
- The cost of it all - it may be cheaper than UK but it's about 4 times the price of SE Asia from whence I came so it seems really expensive.
- The aboriginals many of whom are displaced and apparently without hope or motivation. Most of the ones I saw just sat around all day doing nothing.
(Not to be mistaken for fellow travellers who may act in a simiar manner!)
- The whole country is culturally devoid (almost).
- The endless number of small and lifeless towns with near negative populations that are strewn about the country. I think some of them may have stopped breathing!
- There are no Australians here (cos they are all working in pubs in London). Everyone is English and surely half the point in getting away in the first place was to meet some different people. In some places 'a local' is an English person who has been in Australia for more than a month.
- The rest of the travellers on the east coast are teenage girls. OK OK ...... so there are some advantages in that ........ but I shall restrain myself and say no more ... not even ...Well you just have to ! After all this is Australia.
There is loads more i could say but you would get really bored and I would run out of internet time....
Tomorrow I'm off to New Zealand for about 6 weeks, and then to some south pacific islands - and they really will be the middle of nowhere...
Bye for now
Luv Pete
Wednesday, 19 September 2001
Friday, 3 August 2001
Where 10 Bali, Indonesia --OR-- Heaven is an Erupting Volcano
Hi,
Just a few things done in Indonesia - starting in Medan (from Singapore via Penang in Malaysia)on the island of Sumatra, and then down through the island (on some incredibly long and uncomfortable bus journeys)for 2.5 weeks, to Jakarta by 33 hour ferry, through Java via train and bus, then by boat to Bali, Lombok and back to Bali.
The Most Spectacular:
- Mount Bromo in Java at sunrise was the most spectacular natural wonder I have ever seen - a huge crater containing an active volcano (only steam though) backed by another huge volcano belching clouds of steam - you'll have to see the pictures words cannot describe it !! We went down to the active crater and walked approx 1km round the rim which was only 15cm wide in places, a sheer drop on either side and crumbling as each person walked round it. There was one point where I was hanging on for .... something ..... just trying to get across whilst all the locals were almost trotting round it in their flipflops. It was a TOTAL experience the best morning I have ever spent (though some bits I may decline to do again !!)
- Mount Merapi, also in Java (the most active volcanic island in the world).
We went up at midnight to watch the lava coming down the sides (it glows bright red in the dark) and when we eventually did see lava it was bright red rock crashing and bouncing down the slope at an incredible speed (hundreds of miles an hour) and sending off fountains of sparks every time a huge lump hit the ground - absolutely incredible. Over the following few days I heard several stories of people being killed when they got just that bit too close.....
- Lakes Maninjau and Toba in Sumatra - Beautiful lakes set in volcano craters. Toba is supposedly 850m deep in places making it ... deep. The water was really clear and the p a c e
o f l i f e w a s s o s l o w . . . . . And it was so cheap US$ 3 for a lovely room with great balcony views in the top hotel...... sod the culture, I stayed there a while......
- Oran Utans in Sumatra - we went to a rehabilitation centre where they take them from captivity and make them wild again (takes about 7 years). The semi-wild apes come out of the jungle to feed from a feeding station and seeing them in their natural habitat is incredible. They are closely related to humans and it shows. They just hand around (literally - ever seen an ape hang on to branch with one hand, hand on to its baby with another whilst holding a banana with a foot and peeling it with the other foot) and chill out watching us watching them !
- Borobudur in Java - A fantastic circular Buddhist temple on many levels with some really unusual touches, great form and some very well preserved reliefs (2.5km of them) all in stone and built before 850 AD.
- The people in some of the poorer bits of Jakarta; dark narrow alleys with small houses crammed into any available space - but the people are so friendly (the friendliest I have met in any large city) even though most spoke no English, and some of the few people in Indonesia who weren't trying to get money out of me. They gave me a kite which I was trying to fly from
their tiny backyard and I ended up having a kite fight (with another kite) although I was blissfully unaware of this until they exclaimed in unison 'You've Lost' as my kite tumbled earthwards ...........
- Gili Nanggu near Lombok - a tiny island where there were only about 10 other foreigners and a few locals - great snorkelling (huge variety of fish, superbly colourful soft corals etc) and so relaxing i'm yawning just thinking about the place .......
- Another Full moon Party - a tiny affir with only about 50 people but it really mushroomed !
The Least Spectacular
- Travelling in Sumatra - my worst journey so far - 20 hours on a bus where there wasn't enough room to sit up properly - it helps if you know the person next to you quite well !
- the cities of Sumatra - more rats, pollution, mess and awful accomodation than anywhere else I have been.
- travelling on local transport in Bali - it just isn't worth the hassle. I had to bargain for nearly an hour to pay only 6 times more than the locals and just for a 10km journey !
- 5 am prayers. They even stopped the bus so all the muslims (90% of passengers) could get off and pray. And then there are the loudspeakers on every mosque ! Christianity and Buddhusm are definitely in favour at the moment as they are 'quiet religions'. I even had my head shaved as the first step to becoming a Buddhist monk but changed my mind .......
The Summary:
Samatra is Stunning
Java is Fascinating
Lombok is Relaxing
Bali is a touristy Rip Off
Anyway, about half way round the planet now in distance and time, and now for something completely different. I'm off to Oz and looking forward to seeing the Wizard !!
Luv Pete
Just a few things done in Indonesia - starting in Medan (from Singapore via Penang in Malaysia)on the island of Sumatra, and then down through the island (on some incredibly long and uncomfortable bus journeys)for 2.5 weeks, to Jakarta by 33 hour ferry, through Java via train and bus, then by boat to Bali, Lombok and back to Bali.
The Most Spectacular:
- Mount Bromo in Java at sunrise was the most spectacular natural wonder I have ever seen - a huge crater containing an active volcano (only steam though) backed by another huge volcano belching clouds of steam - you'll have to see the pictures words cannot describe it !! We went down to the active crater and walked approx 1km round the rim which was only 15cm wide in places, a sheer drop on either side and crumbling as each person walked round it. There was one point where I was hanging on for .... something ..... just trying to get across whilst all the locals were almost trotting round it in their flipflops. It was a TOTAL experience the best morning I have ever spent (though some bits I may decline to do again !!)
- Mount Merapi, also in Java (the most active volcanic island in the world).
We went up at midnight to watch the lava coming down the sides (it glows bright red in the dark) and when we eventually did see lava it was bright red rock crashing and bouncing down the slope at an incredible speed (hundreds of miles an hour) and sending off fountains of sparks every time a huge lump hit the ground - absolutely incredible. Over the following few days I heard several stories of people being killed when they got just that bit too close.....
- Lakes Maninjau and Toba in Sumatra - Beautiful lakes set in volcano craters. Toba is supposedly 850m deep in places making it ... deep. The water was really clear and the p a c e
o f l i f e w a s s o s l o w . . . . . And it was so cheap US$ 3 for a lovely room with great balcony views in the top hotel...... sod the culture, I stayed there a while......
- Oran Utans in Sumatra - we went to a rehabilitation centre where they take them from captivity and make them wild again (takes about 7 years). The semi-wild apes come out of the jungle to feed from a feeding station and seeing them in their natural habitat is incredible. They are closely related to humans and it shows. They just hand around (literally - ever seen an ape hang on to branch with one hand, hand on to its baby with another whilst holding a banana with a foot and peeling it with the other foot) and chill out watching us watching them !
- Borobudur in Java - A fantastic circular Buddhist temple on many levels with some really unusual touches, great form and some very well preserved reliefs (2.5km of them) all in stone and built before 850 AD.
- The people in some of the poorer bits of Jakarta; dark narrow alleys with small houses crammed into any available space - but the people are so friendly (the friendliest I have met in any large city) even though most spoke no English, and some of the few people in Indonesia who weren't trying to get money out of me. They gave me a kite which I was trying to fly from
their tiny backyard and I ended up having a kite fight (with another kite) although I was blissfully unaware of this until they exclaimed in unison 'You've Lost' as my kite tumbled earthwards ...........
- Gili Nanggu near Lombok - a tiny island where there were only about 10 other foreigners and a few locals - great snorkelling (huge variety of fish, superbly colourful soft corals etc) and so relaxing i'm yawning just thinking about the place .......
- Another Full moon Party - a tiny affir with only about 50 people but it really mushroomed !
The Least Spectacular
- Travelling in Sumatra - my worst journey so far - 20 hours on a bus where there wasn't enough room to sit up properly - it helps if you know the person next to you quite well !
- the cities of Sumatra - more rats, pollution, mess and awful accomodation than anywhere else I have been.
- travelling on local transport in Bali - it just isn't worth the hassle. I had to bargain for nearly an hour to pay only 6 times more than the locals and just for a 10km journey !
- 5 am prayers. They even stopped the bus so all the muslims (90% of passengers) could get off and pray. And then there are the loudspeakers on every mosque ! Christianity and Buddhusm are definitely in favour at the moment as they are 'quiet religions'. I even had my head shaved as the first step to becoming a Buddhist monk but changed my mind .......
The Summary:
Samatra is Stunning
Java is Fascinating
Lombok is Relaxing
Bali is a touristy Rip Off
Anyway, about half way round the planet now in distance and time, and now for something completely different. I'm off to Oz and looking forward to seeing the Wizard !!
Luv Pete
Thursday, 28 June 2001
Where 9 Singapore --OR-- More Western than the West
Hi Peeps
I have been really busy the past few weeks so haven't had time to email (those beaches and clear waters are really time consuming.....)
After Myanma I went South from Bangkok to Thailands east coast and spent 3 weeks on Ko Tao island. Then to the west coast to see the limestone pinnacles at Krabi. South to Malaysia - Penang , Kuala Lumpar, into the jungle (not that KL isn't) in Tamar Negara for a few days, Malaka and then Singapore.....
Highs
- Diving and snorkelling in Thailand was excellent - saw loads of fish, sharks, octopus, squid, hard and soft corals etc... including Xmas Tree Worms which look like tiny colourful Xmas Trees underwater!
- Passed my Advanced Open Water PADI (diving certification) and did night diving and night snorkelling - just a bit creepy night snorkeling on my own!
- Limestones pinnacles rising out of thw water near Krabi - this is where they filmed 007 'The Man with the Golden Gun' in 1973. The bit they used in the film looks a lot bigger on the screen than it did in real life !! (But then in 007 films everything looks bigger than in real life !! - apart from the things that look smaller that is.....)
- Tallest buildings in the world in KL. The Petronas Towers are 452m tall and have 88 floors. The view is good but partly blocked by all the other tallest buildings in the world ! (Actually we could only go up to level 41).
- The oldest rainforest in the world - the jungle at Taman Negara in Malaysia in 130 million years old and is full of trees, bushes, trees, vines, trees and trees and is fantasticly beautiful. The trees grow up to 60 m tall and their surface roots seem even longer ! There are a few animals living there but there is just about zero chance of seeing any (even though you can hear them all night long !) as the jungle is very dark and denser than most US presidents. I spent the last night in a hide deep in the jungle with all the other people who booked it - except that no-one else did and I was alone !! Apart from the bumps on the roof that is ....well .. I mean you've all seen 'Friday 13th' right......
- Full Moon Party on Ko Pha Ngan - it had to be done as it is a bit of an institution. It was good fun but a just a tad over commercialised - maybe the highlight of the night was watching England beat Greece 2-0..........
- The food ! It's just great and cheap - even in S'pore you can get cheap food if you know where to go.....
- Night Safari in S'pore - definitely worth a visit - the best bit was going into a large cage with flying fox bats (the largest bats in the world) they are huge (half rat and half wing)but they are (nearly) cute really!
Not so Highs
- Having my camera stolen on Ko Tao (Ok so I shouldn't fall asleep on the beach at night) - luckily I didn't lose any good pictures....
- lascerating my hand on coral while diving. The worst bit is looking at all the green stuff coming out of my hand ..... After a bit I worked out that all the red light is absorbed by the water at that depth and so blood looks green. Well at least that's what I hoped it was......
- Being attacked by a Trigger fish whilst snorkelling. Thay are less than 0.5m long but are very fast, have big teeth and can easily bite off an ear. On Ko Tao they are very aggressive for no reason. I shoved my sandals in it's face but it kept attacking, 4 times in total. I was as scared - as a fish out of water ! And I didn't go near any trigger fish after that.
- Cost of S'pore (especially the beer). It wouldn't have been so bad but it was just the place for a party so we spent shedloads on the stuff.. and had a great time (I may have to stay in US$1 per night places in Indonesia though...)
- Culture shock in Malaysia and Singapore - the places are so westernised. Everyone had a mobile phone the first I have seen in months. KL has more McDonalds than any other place I have ever been. S'pore is more westernised than any western place I have ever been - where is all the dirt ??? At least they still have rats in S'pore although not a single pigeon ! Any
guesses?
And that was the posh places - now to the grime of Indonesia .......
Best Wishes
Luv
Pete
I have been really busy the past few weeks so haven't had time to email (those beaches and clear waters are really time consuming.....)
After Myanma I went South from Bangkok to Thailands east coast and spent 3 weeks on Ko Tao island. Then to the west coast to see the limestone pinnacles at Krabi. South to Malaysia - Penang , Kuala Lumpar, into the jungle (not that KL isn't) in Tamar Negara for a few days, Malaka and then Singapore.....
Highs
- Diving and snorkelling in Thailand was excellent - saw loads of fish, sharks, octopus, squid, hard and soft corals etc... including Xmas Tree Worms which look like tiny colourful Xmas Trees underwater!
- Passed my Advanced Open Water PADI (diving certification) and did night diving and night snorkelling - just a bit creepy night snorkeling on my own!
- Limestones pinnacles rising out of thw water near Krabi - this is where they filmed 007 'The Man with the Golden Gun' in 1973. The bit they used in the film looks a lot bigger on the screen than it did in real life !! (But then in 007 films everything looks bigger than in real life !! - apart from the things that look smaller that is.....)
- Tallest buildings in the world in KL. The Petronas Towers are 452m tall and have 88 floors. The view is good but partly blocked by all the other tallest buildings in the world ! (Actually we could only go up to level 41).
- The oldest rainforest in the world - the jungle at Taman Negara in Malaysia in 130 million years old and is full of trees, bushes, trees, vines, trees and trees and is fantasticly beautiful. The trees grow up to 60 m tall and their surface roots seem even longer ! There are a few animals living there but there is just about zero chance of seeing any (even though you can hear them all night long !) as the jungle is very dark and denser than most US presidents. I spent the last night in a hide deep in the jungle with all the other people who booked it - except that no-one else did and I was alone !! Apart from the bumps on the roof that is ....well .. I mean you've all seen 'Friday 13th' right......
- Full Moon Party on Ko Pha Ngan - it had to be done as it is a bit of an institution. It was good fun but a just a tad over commercialised - maybe the highlight of the night was watching England beat Greece 2-0..........
- The food ! It's just great and cheap - even in S'pore you can get cheap food if you know where to go.....
- Night Safari in S'pore - definitely worth a visit - the best bit was going into a large cage with flying fox bats (the largest bats in the world) they are huge (half rat and half wing)but they are (nearly) cute really!
Not so Highs
- Having my camera stolen on Ko Tao (Ok so I shouldn't fall asleep on the beach at night) - luckily I didn't lose any good pictures....
- lascerating my hand on coral while diving. The worst bit is looking at all the green stuff coming out of my hand ..... After a bit I worked out that all the red light is absorbed by the water at that depth and so blood looks green. Well at least that's what I hoped it was......
- Being attacked by a Trigger fish whilst snorkelling. Thay are less than 0.5m long but are very fast, have big teeth and can easily bite off an ear. On Ko Tao they are very aggressive for no reason. I shoved my sandals in it's face but it kept attacking, 4 times in total. I was as scared - as a fish out of water ! And I didn't go near any trigger fish after that.
- Cost of S'pore (especially the beer). It wouldn't have been so bad but it was just the place for a party so we spent shedloads on the stuff.. and had a great time (I may have to stay in US$1 per night places in Indonesia though...)
- Culture shock in Malaysia and Singapore - the places are so westernised. Everyone had a mobile phone the first I have seen in months. KL has more McDonalds than any other place I have ever been. S'pore is more westernised than any western place I have ever been - where is all the dirt ??? At least they still have rats in S'pore although not a single pigeon ! Any
guesses?
And that was the posh places - now to the grime of Indonesia .......
Best Wishes
Luv
Pete
Monday, 21 May 2001
Where 8 - Yangon, Myanmar --OR-- Dictating a World of Culture
HI Peeps,
What a month in Myanmar (formerly Burma) - I hardly know where to start or
what to write ........ OK I do know ... as little as possible.
After leaving Lao spent a few days in Chang Mai and then a couple of days in
Bangkok before flying to Myanmar where I spent 4 weeks travelling around.
A few things you should know about Myanmar
- It is a Military State.
- The military lost the elections in 1990 but quashed the result and have
absolute power (there appears to be no ACTIVE opposition and whilst almost
everyone is strongly against the military government they appear to be
content to just wait for something [anything] to happen and bring change
rather than trying to force anything themselves).
- There is no freedom of press or expression of adverse views allowed, and
state informants are everywhere (one comedian was sentenced to 7 years
prison with hard labour in 1996 for telling jokes about the government - and
he is still there). Locals are reluctant to talk to foreigners about
certain issues unless well away from prying ears.
- Corruption is absolutely endemic and is quite open (and therefore all the
top military people are incredibely rich).
- The rest of the population are poor although not desperately poor -
perhaps similar to Vietnam.
- In the rural areas the main forms of transport are pony and trap (for
people) and ox cart (for goods).
- Culture is very traditional - e.g. virtually all men wear longyis (a type
of sarong) - though this is also enforced by law.
- Buddhism is very important - some poor people give up to 70 percent of
their income to Buddhism (this is probably why they are poor whilst the
temples are covered in gold and jewels). In one village the villagers paid
for a monastry to be built rather than spending the money on a water pump to
save them having to collect water from the bottom of the valley !
- The people are very friendly towards foreigners.
- Draught beer is 15cents US (10p) a glass !
The best bits:
- Bagan (Formerly Pagan) - A plain containing over 2,000 temples built
between the 11th and 13th Centuries in brick. A mix of sizes, styles and
colours - majestic in the early morning light - interspersed with farmland
and cart-tracks. A marvellous sight - (although it has be to said that it
does not match up to Angkor, in Cambodia, in size, beauty or detail).
- Inle Lake - A beautiful lake 22km long upon/around which 100,000 people
live from the lake. Most people live on stilt houses and farm the floating
gardens which are staked to the lake floor. Most of the longboats are
paddled standing up using the leg to power the blade through the water.
- Trekking around Kalaw (near Mandalay) - the minority tribes are very
interesting and willing to let you make a fool of yourself joining in the
daily chores such as removing the rice husks with a huge wooden mortar and
pestil (enough said). Stayed at the house of the medicene man in one
village - he gave us some pills which he said contained local herbs,
although on closer questioning it turned out that local herbs included 30%
hash and 10% opium. The're for diahorrea he said ! After that we all had
upset stomachs !!
- There are hardly any foreigners/tourists anywhere !
- Down in the south eastern part where they rarely see foreigners (and the
only bit I did by myself) just walking along the street attracted a huge
amount of attention - everyone saying hello, wanting to shake my hand, buy
me a drink, get me to join in their games etc. After an hour or two it gets
so tiring that I just wanted everyone to go away and stop staring !
- The larest Buddah in the world - still under construction but it will be
160m long when finished in 4 years time (taken 8 years so far and has got
from head to about the knees). I wandered inside (through the missing legs
and up a few floors)to discover in the dim light some newly moulded concrete
statues depicting disturbingly grotesque and realistic scenes of people
being ripped apart by ogres and other animals - apparently a depiction of
hell (it fits into Buddhism between death and rebirth).
- The Golden Rock - An amazing bouldersomehow perched on the top of a cliff
- it should have rolled off ages ago. If Isaac Newton had seen it he would
have reworked his theory about gravity !
On the way up there were stalls selling two main things - religious
artefacts (this is one of the most religious shrines in the coutry) and huge
bamboo guns with rocket launcher attachments that would have had even Rambo
cringing with embarresment at the excess of it all !! And the reason for
this apparent violent tilt at a Buddhist (pacifist) shrine ? I asked one
man - 'It's for the kids' he said !??!
The worst bits:
- The Golden Rock - It's a 4 hour trek - 3.5 if you are fit. So I left at
11am (I had caught the bus at 5am and arrived at the bottom at 10am)and
started to climb but it was so humid I had to stop every 100 yards else I
would have drowned in my own sweat. It was 13km long, all uphill with 1000m
vertical ascent and after walking in cloud and enduring the rain, 5.5
hours later I made it to the top. And then they charged me US$6 to get to
see the boulder !!
The last truck down was at 6pm - BUT they cancelled it because I was the
only passenger. Waited an hour in the then cold rain and eventually was
allowed on the truck carrying all the stall holders down. When I finally
made it back to the guesthouse I told the manager about my day and all he
said was 'You were lucky' ..... er .... How's that then ?
- The heat. Most of the month it was scorching hot - up to 40 degrees C and
it was difficult to do anything between 11am and 3pm.
- At all temples (including ruins) nothing can be worn on the feet anywhere
in the grounds. So whether the path was too hot to walk on or covered in
spikey plants you either suffered or didn't go in (although after the first
time I burnt my feet I cheated a couple of times - much to the annoyance of
my travelling companions who just didn't go in !)
- Being woken up at midnight by the local police who wanted to know what I
was doing there, where I was going and who insisted at looking through all
the visas in my passport - he was particuarly interested in the one from
Egypt 2 years ago !
- Western Pop music is allowed BUT the lyrics have to be in Burmese. So
whilst the music is exactly the same and the words sound very similar, they
have all been sung in Burmese by local artists ! Apparently the words do
make sense but the meaning is not the same. Better than the local music
though..........
Just in cae you thought I was having a holiday here I should just add that
during the last 4 weeks
- I have spent 120 hours travelling (mainly on buses on terrible roads) and
- 30% of the days I have had to get up before 5am either to catch a
bus/train or being chucked off a bus arrived at it's destination - why they
arrive so early no-one could explain !
Now I'm back in Bangkok for the 3rd and hopefully last time (it really is
like coming home !) Anyway after 6 months of travelling at last I'm off for
some relaxation on some remote Thai island (unfortunately the monsoon is
just starting and so I might not get much sun time after
all................)
See ya soon
Luv Pete
What a month in Myanmar (formerly Burma) - I hardly know where to start or
what to write ........ OK I do know ... as little as possible.
After leaving Lao spent a few days in Chang Mai and then a couple of days in
Bangkok before flying to Myanmar where I spent 4 weeks travelling around.
A few things you should know about Myanmar
- It is a Military State.
- The military lost the elections in 1990 but quashed the result and have
absolute power (there appears to be no ACTIVE opposition and whilst almost
everyone is strongly against the military government they appear to be
content to just wait for something [anything] to happen and bring change
rather than trying to force anything themselves).
- There is no freedom of press or expression of adverse views allowed, and
state informants are everywhere (one comedian was sentenced to 7 years
prison with hard labour in 1996 for telling jokes about the government - and
he is still there). Locals are reluctant to talk to foreigners about
certain issues unless well away from prying ears.
- Corruption is absolutely endemic and is quite open (and therefore all the
top military people are incredibely rich).
- The rest of the population are poor although not desperately poor -
perhaps similar to Vietnam.
- In the rural areas the main forms of transport are pony and trap (for
people) and ox cart (for goods).
- Culture is very traditional - e.g. virtually all men wear longyis (a type
of sarong) - though this is also enforced by law.
- Buddhism is very important - some poor people give up to 70 percent of
their income to Buddhism (this is probably why they are poor whilst the
temples are covered in gold and jewels). In one village the villagers paid
for a monastry to be built rather than spending the money on a water pump to
save them having to collect water from the bottom of the valley !
- The people are very friendly towards foreigners.
- Draught beer is 15cents US (10p) a glass !
The best bits:
- Bagan (Formerly Pagan) - A plain containing over 2,000 temples built
between the 11th and 13th Centuries in brick. A mix of sizes, styles and
colours - majestic in the early morning light - interspersed with farmland
and cart-tracks. A marvellous sight - (although it has be to said that it
does not match up to Angkor, in Cambodia, in size, beauty or detail).
- Inle Lake - A beautiful lake 22km long upon/around which 100,000 people
live from the lake. Most people live on stilt houses and farm the floating
gardens which are staked to the lake floor. Most of the longboats are
paddled standing up using the leg to power the blade through the water.
- Trekking around Kalaw (near Mandalay) - the minority tribes are very
interesting and willing to let you make a fool of yourself joining in the
daily chores such as removing the rice husks with a huge wooden mortar and
pestil (enough said). Stayed at the house of the medicene man in one
village - he gave us some pills which he said contained local herbs,
although on closer questioning it turned out that local herbs included 30%
hash and 10% opium. The're for diahorrea he said ! After that we all had
upset stomachs !!
- There are hardly any foreigners/tourists anywhere !
- Down in the south eastern part where they rarely see foreigners (and the
only bit I did by myself) just walking along the street attracted a huge
amount of attention - everyone saying hello, wanting to shake my hand, buy
me a drink, get me to join in their games etc. After an hour or two it gets
so tiring that I just wanted everyone to go away and stop staring !
- The larest Buddah in the world - still under construction but it will be
160m long when finished in 4 years time (taken 8 years so far and has got
from head to about the knees). I wandered inside (through the missing legs
and up a few floors)to discover in the dim light some newly moulded concrete
statues depicting disturbingly grotesque and realistic scenes of people
being ripped apart by ogres and other animals - apparently a depiction of
hell (it fits into Buddhism between death and rebirth).
- The Golden Rock - An amazing bouldersomehow perched on the top of a cliff
- it should have rolled off ages ago. If Isaac Newton had seen it he would
have reworked his theory about gravity !
On the way up there were stalls selling two main things - religious
artefacts (this is one of the most religious shrines in the coutry) and huge
bamboo guns with rocket launcher attachments that would have had even Rambo
cringing with embarresment at the excess of it all !! And the reason for
this apparent violent tilt at a Buddhist (pacifist) shrine ? I asked one
man - 'It's for the kids' he said !??!
The worst bits:
- The Golden Rock - It's a 4 hour trek - 3.5 if you are fit. So I left at
11am (I had caught the bus at 5am and arrived at the bottom at 10am)and
started to climb but it was so humid I had to stop every 100 yards else I
would have drowned in my own sweat. It was 13km long, all uphill with 1000m
vertical ascent and after walking in cloud and enduring the rain, 5.5
hours later I made it to the top. And then they charged me US$6 to get to
see the boulder !!
The last truck down was at 6pm - BUT they cancelled it because I was the
only passenger. Waited an hour in the then cold rain and eventually was
allowed on the truck carrying all the stall holders down. When I finally
made it back to the guesthouse I told the manager about my day and all he
said was 'You were lucky' ..... er .... How's that then ?
- The heat. Most of the month it was scorching hot - up to 40 degrees C and
it was difficult to do anything between 11am and 3pm.
- At all temples (including ruins) nothing can be worn on the feet anywhere
in the grounds. So whether the path was too hot to walk on or covered in
spikey plants you either suffered or didn't go in (although after the first
time I burnt my feet I cheated a couple of times - much to the annoyance of
my travelling companions who just didn't go in !)
- Being woken up at midnight by the local police who wanted to know what I
was doing there, where I was going and who insisted at looking through all
the visas in my passport - he was particuarly interested in the one from
Egypt 2 years ago !
- Western Pop music is allowed BUT the lyrics have to be in Burmese. So
whilst the music is exactly the same and the words sound very similar, they
have all been sung in Burmese by local artists ! Apparently the words do
make sense but the meaning is not the same. Better than the local music
though..........
Just in cae you thought I was having a holiday here I should just add that
during the last 4 weeks
- I have spent 120 hours travelling (mainly on buses on terrible roads) and
- 30% of the days I have had to get up before 5am either to catch a
bus/train or being chucked off a bus arrived at it's destination - why they
arrive so early no-one could explain !
Now I'm back in Bangkok for the 3rd and hopefully last time (it really is
like coming home !) Anyway after 6 months of travelling at last I'm off for
some relaxation on some remote Thai island (unfortunately the monsoon is
just starting and so I might not get much sun time after
all................)
See ya soon
Luv Pete
Monday, 16 April 2001
Where 7 Chang Mai, Thailand --OR-- One Bus All The Way !?
Hi Guys,
Oh what fun I have had since last email (Hanoi) - some memorable journeys
(although not for the right reasons) and some serious chilling out........
When I first started travelling I asked a few people already travelling
whether their backpacks got heavier or lighter as they went on. They all
said that they got heavier because they picked up lots of books along the
way. As I don't tend to read many books this isn't likely to happen to me.
So now I have a backpack ladened down with about a dozen books !!!
First of all by bus from Hanoi across the border into Lao and to the capital
Vientiane where I spent a few days waiting for a visa for Myanma (Burma).
Then north to Vang Vieng - a tiny place famous only amoung travellers; and
then north again to Luang Prubang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site for the New
Year (aka water festival). Then a cruise no less, up the Mekong for 2 days
to the border with Thailand. If only it had been that simple...............
Best Bits
- Vang Vieng is a village with a few locals, loads of travellers and
virtually nothing to do...except play pool, drink beer (US 25c a large
glass) paddle down the river in inflatable canoes, visit some caves, jump in
some pools and just chill out... Big Time. So I spent a f e
w days there ...........
- not to forget the slow 3 hour trip down the river in inflatable inner tubes -
nothing could be more .........er........ nothing
- The water festival. Basically for several days anyone is allowed to soak
anyone else !! In Lao this consists of a few water pistols and a few
small buckets of water mainly being thrown at motorcyclists and other
motorised transport (although no one is exempt). However in Chang Mai (I
got here just before the end of the festival) it is taken slightly more to
extremes....... The streets are packed with pick up trucks packed with huge
barrels of water and people with extra large buckets to get everyone they see soaking wet. The amount of water thrown is immense .... you cannot go out on the street during daylight hours without getting soaked .... carrying passport, travellers cheques etc is not a good idea !
Worst Bits
- the journey from Hanoi to Vientiane. At 22 hours this was always going
to be an experience. However once you have paid your US$26 and given your
ticket to the bus driver as you board you are out on a limb..... (remember
it is guaranteed to be one bus all the way!!) Started 7pm. Got thrown off
the first bus at 2am by a busy road in the middle of nowhere -' you have to
get a different bus from here which leaves at 4am'. Bus no 2 left at 4am
and we get to within 20km of the border (at 7am) and we then have to get a
local bus - this is packed with sacks of grain, bags, people (although
strangely no chickens) and has negative legroom. Then up a huge moutain and
cross the border at a mountain shack at the top. Luckily we have been
promised a luxury minibus from just the other side of the border. 30km the
other side we stop in a small town and thankfully get off the ultra cramped bus! And the
transport for the next stage is a pick up truck (!) with a few seats in the
back. Unfortunately it is already full with 20 people crammed in and the 4
of us are supposed to pile in on top. After some heated 'negotiating' we
get given the money for the remainder of the journey and told to sort it out
ourselves....... So after carefully weighing up our options we realised we
didn't have any ........ so we end up standing on the tailgate of the pick
up holding on for dear life for a couple of hours as we sped on our way.
Then we stopped and a minibus appeared to take us the last 3 hours (bus no.
5 of our guaranteed 'one bus all the way' journey). Still it gives me
something to write about in my emails..............
- Luang Prubang - I expected this world hertitage site to be full of
buildings worth saving (like Hoi An in Vietnam) - but whilst this does have
some pre WW2 french architecture, it has more satelite dishes than charm !
- The jouney out by boat from Luang Prubang to the border is by boat (either
a 1,2 or 3 day journey depending on which boat you choose (the 1 day is very
fast and expensive). I and about 10 others chose the 2 day boat (my visa
expired on the 2nd day so I had to make it to Thailand by then). At
nightfall on the first day we failed to make our expected destination
(stopping at a small village very near the middle of nowhere [actually most
of Lao is the middle of nowhere] and found out that the 'captain' was on a 3
day schedule. So after 1.5 days we made the halfway point and at great
expense transferred to a fast boat and, a tuktuk ride and a ferry later,
just about made the border with 30 mins to spare. Could have done it in 1
day for what it eventuially cost me !!
It's funny how everyone thought of coming back to Thailand almost as coming
home to familiar things. So it's Hurrah for McDonalds then ?
Maybe that would be going just a bit far !!
There has been a slight change of plan - I have decided to go to Myanma
(Burma) for 1 month and this together with my addition excursions into
Cambodia and Lao mean that my original target of coming back in November
(when my ticket runs out) looks unlikely. Plan B is to make South America
by November and take in a few sights there (Patagonia, Carnival in Rio etc
) and come back home around Easter next year....
Luv
Pete
Oh what fun I have had since last email (Hanoi) - some memorable journeys
(although not for the right reasons) and some serious chilling out........
When I first started travelling I asked a few people already travelling
whether their backpacks got heavier or lighter as they went on. They all
said that they got heavier because they picked up lots of books along the
way. As I don't tend to read many books this isn't likely to happen to me.
So now I have a backpack ladened down with about a dozen books !!!
First of all by bus from Hanoi across the border into Lao and to the capital
Vientiane where I spent a few days waiting for a visa for Myanma (Burma).
Then north to Vang Vieng - a tiny place famous only amoung travellers; and
then north again to Luang Prubang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site for the New
Year (aka water festival). Then a cruise no less, up the Mekong for 2 days
to the border with Thailand. If only it had been that simple...............
Best Bits
- Vang Vieng is a village with a few locals, loads of travellers and
virtually nothing to do...except play pool, drink beer (US 25c a large
glass) paddle down the river in inflatable canoes, visit some caves, jump in
some pools and just chill out... Big Time. So I spent a f e
w days there ...........
- not to forget the slow 3 hour trip down the river in inflatable inner tubes -
nothing could be more .........er........ nothing
- The water festival. Basically for several days anyone is allowed to soak
anyone else !! In Lao this consists of a few water pistols and a few
small buckets of water mainly being thrown at motorcyclists and other
motorised transport (although no one is exempt). However in Chang Mai (I
got here just before the end of the festival) it is taken slightly more to
extremes....... The streets are packed with pick up trucks packed with huge
barrels of water and people with extra large buckets to get everyone they see soaking wet. The amount of water thrown is immense .... you cannot go out on the street during daylight hours without getting soaked .... carrying passport, travellers cheques etc is not a good idea !
Worst Bits
- the journey from Hanoi to Vientiane. At 22 hours this was always going
to be an experience. However once you have paid your US$26 and given your
ticket to the bus driver as you board you are out on a limb..... (remember
it is guaranteed to be one bus all the way!!) Started 7pm. Got thrown off
the first bus at 2am by a busy road in the middle of nowhere -' you have to
get a different bus from here which leaves at 4am'. Bus no 2 left at 4am
and we get to within 20km of the border (at 7am) and we then have to get a
local bus - this is packed with sacks of grain, bags, people (although
strangely no chickens) and has negative legroom. Then up a huge moutain and
cross the border at a mountain shack at the top. Luckily we have been
promised a luxury minibus from just the other side of the border. 30km the
other side we stop in a small town and thankfully get off the ultra cramped bus! And the
transport for the next stage is a pick up truck (!) with a few seats in the
back. Unfortunately it is already full with 20 people crammed in and the 4
of us are supposed to pile in on top. After some heated 'negotiating' we
get given the money for the remainder of the journey and told to sort it out
ourselves....... So after carefully weighing up our options we realised we
didn't have any ........ so we end up standing on the tailgate of the pick
up holding on for dear life for a couple of hours as we sped on our way.
Then we stopped and a minibus appeared to take us the last 3 hours (bus no.
5 of our guaranteed 'one bus all the way' journey). Still it gives me
something to write about in my emails..............
- Luang Prubang - I expected this world hertitage site to be full of
buildings worth saving (like Hoi An in Vietnam) - but whilst this does have
some pre WW2 french architecture, it has more satelite dishes than charm !
- The jouney out by boat from Luang Prubang to the border is by boat (either
a 1,2 or 3 day journey depending on which boat you choose (the 1 day is very
fast and expensive). I and about 10 others chose the 2 day boat (my visa
expired on the 2nd day so I had to make it to Thailand by then). At
nightfall on the first day we failed to make our expected destination
(stopping at a small village very near the middle of nowhere [actually most
of Lao is the middle of nowhere] and found out that the 'captain' was on a 3
day schedule. So after 1.5 days we made the halfway point and at great
expense transferred to a fast boat and, a tuktuk ride and a ferry later,
just about made the border with 30 mins to spare. Could have done it in 1
day for what it eventuially cost me !!
It's funny how everyone thought of coming back to Thailand almost as coming
home to familiar things. So it's Hurrah for McDonalds then ?
Maybe that would be going just a bit far !!
There has been a slight change of plan - I have decided to go to Myanma
(Burma) for 1 month and this together with my addition excursions into
Cambodia and Lao mean that my original target of coming back in November
(when my ticket runs out) looks unlikely. Plan B is to make South America
by November and take in a few sights there (Patagonia, Carnival in Rio etc
) and come back home around Easter next year....
Luv
Pete
Saturday, 31 March 2001
Where 6 - Hanoi, Vietnam _OR_ The Art of Crossing the Road in Hanoi
This month I've been wandering around Vietnam - well up and down actually...
The road from Phnom Penh was very bad but once we crossed in Vietnam they were a lot better. Spent a couple of days in the Mekong Delta, a couple in Saigon (no-one there calls it Ho Chi Minh City) followed by a few days in the hills at Dalat, then bus to Nha-trang (next-the-sea), then Hoi-An (a quaint and sleepy french village [well it was 'til we arrived]), then Hue a large town with some wicked banana pancakes, a long overnight bus ride (16 hours) to Hanoi, 3 days out in the mountains of Halong Bay - I hope you are following all this - and then a train !!! (nearly as bumpy as the bus - but not quite) to Sapa in the far north for a wonderful week and now back in Hanoi. Incidentally, the North may have won the war in 1975 but you would never know it - the South is still much better off.
The Best Bits
I hardly know where to start.....
- Sapa - Originally built as a hill station and still no bigger than a village [and not many tourists !!]. High enough in the mountains (1650m) o have fantastic views of the valley and mountains beyond - the main features here are the rice terraces thousands of them carved from the hilside and the minority people (the name the locals give to the hill tribes; though yes they are very small in height as well) in their traditional dress (which most of them wear all the time - they have no other clothes). And what views from the hotel (see later). I spent 3 days trekking in the steep sided valley where the tribes live and farm those rice terraces - still ploughing the terraces with water buffalo (Oxen). Visted 5 tribes and stayed with 2 of them overnight. But don't drink the rice spirit - especially the sort that has had dead snakes and dead birds in it for a few months/years........ The other few days I just wandered around and sat on my balcony admiring the view.....Incidentally, due to microclimates created by the mountains the warmest and coldest places in Vietnam are up here and just a mountain ridge apart - it is just a little windy over that ridge ....
Halong Bay - Basically rocks sticking up out of the water - very beautiful especially in the mist. What can I say - you just had to be there..........
Mekong Delta - Stayed with a family for 1 night on a small island near Long Xuyen (I can't pronounce it either) where they have not allowed tourists to go before (communist countries and all that) so as soon as we walked / cycled down the street we were surrounded by 20 or thirty locals asking us questions - mostly in Vietnamese (and not asking for money!). The lack of tourism had a helping hand that evening when we wandered into a bar (it was basic but there was a tv on, a few people watching it and a few spare chairs and tables) and after some pointing eventually managed to get across to the owner that we wanted 7 beers (wouldn't have though it would be that difficult to order a drink !). He promptly got on his bike and cycled down the road and bought back some beers! Apparently it wasn't a bar after all - maybe just his front terrace ....... And we went to a real floating market where we were the only tourists (a change from Bangkok).
Dalat - A really offbeat french style chill out spot with a mad monk (who made us paint pictues (mine were awful - but he seem pleased!!)); a crazy lady who has built a small 'hotel' with the rooms inside concrete trees and surrounded by a couple of giraffe and giant spiders; a charming french poet who invited us into his cafe (it really was his front room) and insisted showing us all the articles that had been written about him in the international press (there were many)... And we trekked for 2 days in the jungle......fantastic !
Hoi-An - Delightful little place. It's sooooooooo french - but apart from that it's OK !
My Son - Not a genetic reference (I am more careful than that) but the centree of the Cham empire for 900 years. A very importtant site although thanks to the Americans during the war it is now not as impressive as it once was. When compared to Angkor, it bears some resemblence to a pile of bricks......
Beer - not a place but a drink. The local stuff (drinkable) here costs US10cents (UK 7p)for half a pint. It really is cheaper than the drinking water !!!!!! but you have to drink it in the street ..... not that it matters where you start, you will probably end up in the gutter....
The bad bits...
- Crossing the road in Saigon. Ther are 2 million motos (motorbikes) in Saigon and they are all out to get you (I mean me)!!!!! Actually the best way to cross the road is simply to not look and just walk slowly across and they will all drive round you and each other (in theory). Actually I didn't see any accidents in the south of Vietnam although in the north (where there are less motos) I have seen loads - several requiring an ambulance....
- Cheap CDs - Including all your favorites - they cost about US$0.8 each (less than 60p). Unfortunately they have tracks missing and those that are there often get stuck. They look pretty though ! (Someone told me thay might be pirates.....surely not..)
- Loudspeakers - If you thought that Government broadcasts across the whole country getting people to work harder, only have a max. of 2 children etc. only happened in '1984' then think again !!! 1 hour twice a day they blare out the good communism message. Fortunately the loadspeakers have been removed from most of the areas populated by tourists (so we won't know anything about it....)
- The one pillar pogoda - Possibly the most dissapointing tourist attraction since Copenhagen's little mermaid and that peeing boy in Brussels. 'Rabbit hutch on a stick' it should be called..... but then again it was built about 1000 years ago....Oh... no .. it was completely destroyed by the French (!)and they actually rebuilt it in concrete about 20 years ago....delightful!
- Getting dragged down some rapids (unintentionally) near Sapa and then dragged under by the current just as I was abut to hit a huge rock. It's like white water rafting all over again, but without the safety boats! Not recommended !
- Saying 'Hello' - (This represents half my Vietnamese volcabulary). I had been using this phrase for a couple of weeks, much to the amusment of some Vietnamese, when I was told that tones are very important in Vietnamese and that the 2nd half of the phrase (sin jhow) needs to be pronouned with a falling tone. I think that I was pronouncing it with a rising tone .... meaning 'rice soup '!!!!! No wonder they laughed!
That's enough of Vietnam for me, now I'm off on a 24 hour bus ride from Hanoi to Vientiane in Lao (where the roads are worse (?) than Cambodia's).However, I will remember the views of Sapa from my hotel balcony for a long time....(like Swizerland only with rice terraces)...'...below me the rugged hills are covered with pine forests and dotted with 'chalets', supported by stacks of almost endless layers of rice terraces carved into the landscape in sweeping geometric patterns. Opposite a thin layer of cloud slides silently down the valley gently dusting each hilltop. Above the cloud a dark mountain ridge dominates the valley silhouetted against a blue sky sprinkled with white and black clouds calmly reddening in the setting sun and yet cooled by the chill of the mountain air.....Well that's enough of that poetic stuff .. I'm off to read Homer's 'Odyssey' and 'The Iliad'...........
By the way Vietnam was great !
LuvPete
The road from Phnom Penh was very bad but once we crossed in Vietnam they were a lot better. Spent a couple of days in the Mekong Delta, a couple in Saigon (no-one there calls it Ho Chi Minh City) followed by a few days in the hills at Dalat, then bus to Nha-trang (next-the-sea), then Hoi-An (a quaint and sleepy french village [well it was 'til we arrived]), then Hue a large town with some wicked banana pancakes, a long overnight bus ride (16 hours) to Hanoi, 3 days out in the mountains of Halong Bay - I hope you are following all this - and then a train !!! (nearly as bumpy as the bus - but not quite) to Sapa in the far north for a wonderful week and now back in Hanoi. Incidentally, the North may have won the war in 1975 but you would never know it - the South is still much better off.
The Best Bits
I hardly know where to start.....
- Sapa - Originally built as a hill station and still no bigger than a village [and not many tourists !!]. High enough in the mountains (1650m) o have fantastic views of the valley and mountains beyond - the main features here are the rice terraces thousands of them carved from the hilside and the minority people (the name the locals give to the hill tribes; though yes they are very small in height as well) in their traditional dress (which most of them wear all the time - they have no other clothes). And what views from the hotel (see later). I spent 3 days trekking in the steep sided valley where the tribes live and farm those rice terraces - still ploughing the terraces with water buffalo (Oxen). Visted 5 tribes and stayed with 2 of them overnight. But don't drink the rice spirit - especially the sort that has had dead snakes and dead birds in it for a few months/years........ The other few days I just wandered around and sat on my balcony admiring the view.....Incidentally, due to microclimates created by the mountains the warmest and coldest places in Vietnam are up here and just a mountain ridge apart - it is just a little windy over that ridge ....
Halong Bay - Basically rocks sticking up out of the water - very beautiful especially in the mist. What can I say - you just had to be there..........
Mekong Delta - Stayed with a family for 1 night on a small island near Long Xuyen (I can't pronounce it either) where they have not allowed tourists to go before (communist countries and all that) so as soon as we walked / cycled down the street we were surrounded by 20 or thirty locals asking us questions - mostly in Vietnamese (and not asking for money!). The lack of tourism had a helping hand that evening when we wandered into a bar (it was basic but there was a tv on, a few people watching it and a few spare chairs and tables) and after some pointing eventually managed to get across to the owner that we wanted 7 beers (wouldn't have though it would be that difficult to order a drink !). He promptly got on his bike and cycled down the road and bought back some beers! Apparently it wasn't a bar after all - maybe just his front terrace ....... And we went to a real floating market where we were the only tourists (a change from Bangkok).
Dalat - A really offbeat french style chill out spot with a mad monk (who made us paint pictues (mine were awful - but he seem pleased!!)); a crazy lady who has built a small 'hotel' with the rooms inside concrete trees and surrounded by a couple of giraffe and giant spiders; a charming french poet who invited us into his cafe (it really was his front room) and insisted showing us all the articles that had been written about him in the international press (there were many)... And we trekked for 2 days in the jungle......fantastic !
Hoi-An - Delightful little place. It's sooooooooo french - but apart from that it's OK !
My Son - Not a genetic reference (I am more careful than that) but the centree of the Cham empire for 900 years. A very importtant site although thanks to the Americans during the war it is now not as impressive as it once was. When compared to Angkor, it bears some resemblence to a pile of bricks......
Beer - not a place but a drink. The local stuff (drinkable) here costs US10cents (UK 7p)for half a pint. It really is cheaper than the drinking water !!!!!! but you have to drink it in the street ..... not that it matters where you start, you will probably end up in the gutter....
The bad bits...
- Crossing the road in Saigon. Ther are 2 million motos (motorbikes) in Saigon and they are all out to get you (I mean me)!!!!! Actually the best way to cross the road is simply to not look and just walk slowly across and they will all drive round you and each other (in theory). Actually I didn't see any accidents in the south of Vietnam although in the north (where there are less motos) I have seen loads - several requiring an ambulance....
- Cheap CDs - Including all your favorites - they cost about US$0.8 each (less than 60p). Unfortunately they have tracks missing and those that are there often get stuck. They look pretty though ! (Someone told me thay might be pirates.....surely not..)
- Loudspeakers - If you thought that Government broadcasts across the whole country getting people to work harder, only have a max. of 2 children etc. only happened in '1984' then think again !!! 1 hour twice a day they blare out the good communism message. Fortunately the loadspeakers have been removed from most of the areas populated by tourists (so we won't know anything about it....)
- The one pillar pogoda - Possibly the most dissapointing tourist attraction since Copenhagen's little mermaid and that peeing boy in Brussels. 'Rabbit hutch on a stick' it should be called..... but then again it was built about 1000 years ago....Oh... no .. it was completely destroyed by the French (!)and they actually rebuilt it in concrete about 20 years ago....delightful!
- Getting dragged down some rapids (unintentionally) near Sapa and then dragged under by the current just as I was abut to hit a huge rock. It's like white water rafting all over again, but without the safety boats! Not recommended !
- Saying 'Hello' - (This represents half my Vietnamese volcabulary). I had been using this phrase for a couple of weeks, much to the amusment of some Vietnamese, when I was told that tones are very important in Vietnamese and that the 2nd half of the phrase (sin jhow) needs to be pronouned with a falling tone. I think that I was pronouncing it with a rising tone .... meaning 'rice soup '!!!!! No wonder they laughed!
That's enough of Vietnam for me, now I'm off on a 24 hour bus ride from Hanoi to Vientiane in Lao (where the roads are worse (?) than Cambodia's).However, I will remember the views of Sapa from my hotel balcony for a long time....(like Swizerland only with rice terraces)...'...below me the rugged hills are covered with pine forests and dotted with 'chalets', supported by stacks of almost endless layers of rice terraces carved into the landscape in sweeping geometric patterns. Opposite a thin layer of cloud slides silently down the valley gently dusting each hilltop. Above the cloud a dark mountain ridge dominates the valley silhouetted against a blue sky sprinkled with white and black clouds calmly reddening in the setting sun and yet cooled by the chill of the mountain air.....Well that's enough of that poetic stuff .. I'm off to read Homer's 'Odyssey' and 'The Iliad'...........
By the way Vietnam was great !
LuvPete
Monday, 5 March 2001
Where 5 Phnom Penh, Cambodia --OR-- Wat No Angkor
Hi Everyone,
Since last email (Hong Kong) I have moved to hotter and much cheaper
countries - both good news - however there are some downsides..... I spent
a couple of weeks in Bangkok (which was far too long but I had to sort out
visas for Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos) and then travelled by bus to Cambodia,
first to Siem Reap to see the temples at Angkor and then by boat to Phnom
Penh......
The good bits
- The temples at Angkor are incredible, of excellent quality and varied in style. Built by the
Khmer people as their capital city from 9th - 14th century only the temples
remain (only gods could live in stone buildings (temples) so all other
buildings were wooden and have long gone).
The crowning glory is Angkor Wat (the outline of the central towers appears
on the Cambodian flag [with which you are all no doubt familiar : )) ]which
is an incredible building (built 1113 - 1150 AD). It is surronded by a moat
200m wide and 5.5km long; the central building contains 3 levels and 1200sq
metres of stone carvings depicting legends and stories of the time. It is
in almost perfect condition despite the years and wars which have ravaged
the coutry. Said by some to be the greatest building ever conceived by the
human mind - the scale is awesome and the balance is perfect - it flows with the surrounding jungle... inspirational.
Definitely worth 3 days of my time and undoubtedly a highlight of the whole
trip.
- The Royal Palace in Bangkok - choc full of ornate and colourful temples,
chedis and monsters (guarding it all).
- Lying down buddha 46m long with feet 3m by 5m - and it was probably solid
gold .... or maybe it was painted gold .... or maybe you see so many gold
buddhas that after a while it doesn't really matter..... interestingly the
most sacred buddah in the whole of Thailand (in Royal Palace) in only about
1m tall - Even in Bangkok size isn't everything !!
- Talking to some monks at a temple in Bangkok about how they live their
life and ending up talking about Premiership football - thankfully none of
them supported ManU...
- The other travellers I have met - sometimes insane but always interesting
....... (like the Irish farmer who has been travelling for 4.5 years in an
effort to take a picture of his son's rabbit outside each of the famous
sights in the world before his son graduates from college ..... he claims to
have visited over 150 countries..)
The bad bits
- traffic in Bangkok is simply a nightmare - just trying to cross the main
roads is enough to have you certified insane and takes 10 mins - it's
quicker to take a taxi just to cross !! And Phnom Penh is nearly as bad -
few cars but an incredible no. of scooters/motorbikes. Incidentally
Cambodia is the 12th country I have been to this trip but the first place
where they drive on the right ..... not that you would notice !!
- Bangkok is just not a nice place!
- The number of cockroaches in my room. The Thai's get there own back by
frying and eating them.... no I didn't !
- The seedy side is alive and kicking - well I had to make sure it was still
there - girls wandering around in their 'night attire' entertaining the guys
(you really can do that with a string of razor blades)...and on a personal
level...No I didn't !
- Cock fighting - actually I meant the animals - possibly legal and
certainly common - but not very pleasant.
- The roads in Cambodia - they have no roads just dirt tracks with huge
holes in them - it took over 7 hours to go 152km - and it was not
comfortable !!!
The other bits
- The Killing Fields - A mass grave and a monument to the 1 million Cambodians murdered by Khmer Rouge (their own people) 1975-9 made of human skulls (they had a lot of them lying around...)
- S-21 A former school where the Khmer Rouge tortured thousands of people
before killing all but about 7 of them. Perfectly preserved (down to the 'tools' used) it
looks like it could have been used the day before I visited - a disturbing
place made worse by the pictures on the walls of each of the (short term)
occupants - men, women and children....
Next ... Out of here (on a terrible road) to Vietnam and HoChiMin City
(Saigon) ....
For those in UK, I hope the weather isn't getting you down in the foot and mouth too much.
Best Wishes
LuvPete
Since last email (Hong Kong) I have moved to hotter and much cheaper
countries - both good news - however there are some downsides..... I spent
a couple of weeks in Bangkok (which was far too long but I had to sort out
visas for Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos) and then travelled by bus to Cambodia,
first to Siem Reap to see the temples at Angkor and then by boat to Phnom
Penh......
The good bits
- The temples at Angkor are incredible, of excellent quality and varied in style. Built by the
Khmer people as their capital city from 9th - 14th century only the temples
remain (only gods could live in stone buildings (temples) so all other
buildings were wooden and have long gone).
The crowning glory is Angkor Wat (the outline of the central towers appears
on the Cambodian flag [with which you are all no doubt familiar : )) ]which
is an incredible building (built 1113 - 1150 AD). It is surronded by a moat
200m wide and 5.5km long; the central building contains 3 levels and 1200sq
metres of stone carvings depicting legends and stories of the time. It is
in almost perfect condition despite the years and wars which have ravaged
the coutry. Said by some to be the greatest building ever conceived by the
human mind - the scale is awesome and the balance is perfect - it flows with the surrounding jungle... inspirational.
Definitely worth 3 days of my time and undoubtedly a highlight of the whole
trip.
- The Royal Palace in Bangkok - choc full of ornate and colourful temples,
chedis and monsters (guarding it all).
- Lying down buddha 46m long with feet 3m by 5m - and it was probably solid
gold .... or maybe it was painted gold .... or maybe you see so many gold
buddhas that after a while it doesn't really matter..... interestingly the
most sacred buddah in the whole of Thailand (in Royal Palace) in only about
1m tall - Even in Bangkok size isn't everything !!
- Talking to some monks at a temple in Bangkok about how they live their
life and ending up talking about Premiership football - thankfully none of
them supported ManU...
- The other travellers I have met - sometimes insane but always interesting
....... (like the Irish farmer who has been travelling for 4.5 years in an
effort to take a picture of his son's rabbit outside each of the famous
sights in the world before his son graduates from college ..... he claims to
have visited over 150 countries..)
The bad bits
- traffic in Bangkok is simply a nightmare - just trying to cross the main
roads is enough to have you certified insane and takes 10 mins - it's
quicker to take a taxi just to cross !! And Phnom Penh is nearly as bad -
few cars but an incredible no. of scooters/motorbikes. Incidentally
Cambodia is the 12th country I have been to this trip but the first place
where they drive on the right ..... not that you would notice !!
- Bangkok is just not a nice place!
- The number of cockroaches in my room. The Thai's get there own back by
frying and eating them.... no I didn't !
- The seedy side is alive and kicking - well I had to make sure it was still
there - girls wandering around in their 'night attire' entertaining the guys
(you really can do that with a string of razor blades)...and on a personal
level...No I didn't !
- Cock fighting - actually I meant the animals - possibly legal and
certainly common - but not very pleasant.
- The roads in Cambodia - they have no roads just dirt tracks with huge
holes in them - it took over 7 hours to go 152km - and it was not
comfortable !!!
The other bits
- The Killing Fields - A mass grave and a monument to the 1 million Cambodians murdered by Khmer Rouge (their own people) 1975-9 made of human skulls (they had a lot of them lying around...)
- S-21 A former school where the Khmer Rouge tortured thousands of people
before killing all but about 7 of them. Perfectly preserved (down to the 'tools' used) it
looks like it could have been used the day before I visited - a disturbing
place made worse by the pictures on the walls of each of the (short term)
occupants - men, women and children....
Next ... Out of here (on a terrible road) to Vietnam and HoChiMin City
(Saigon) ....
For those in UK, I hope the weather isn't getting you down in the foot and mouth too much.
Best Wishes
LuvPete
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