Where Is Jess......?

Darwin, Kakadu, 3 million Mosquitoe Bites & Day one in Singapore.....!

2010-09-08T12:57:00.000+10:00

Helllloooooo from the open road....!

Well we have finally set off and I am currently updating this from our Hostel in singapore while it is thundering and raining outside....

We arrived in Darwin at around 1am on the 4th of September, and spent the night a Christian Womens hostel (hahahahah little did THEY know!). After checking out of there, we popped around to my Auntie Ronnie and Uncle Alans place....which was MUCH nicer than the hostel we stayed in! Had a quick bite to eat, then picked up our car and drove 300k's to Kakadu.

Now, coming from Melbourne to Darwin was a bit of a shock for 2 reasons. 1) It was so freaking hot my face was peeling off! and 2) The aboriginals...! Growing up in Melbourne, you don't really see alot of aboriginals around. And if you do, they are normally the ones giving talks at schools etc etc. Well...not in Darwin. They would sit in groups drinking, fighting, yelling, singing or begging. Absolutely bizzare.

Anyway, moving along....!

So we set off for Kakadu at around 11am, and after a 3 hour drive we arrived at the Merl Campground just outside of the Ubirr Rock Art. After setting up our tent...which was one of the most frustrating things to do in 35 degree heat, we headed to the rock art site.

I will upload some pictures soon, but to be honest the pictures would not do the artwork justice. It truely was amazing. We spent around an hour looking at the various pieces, and then watched a lovely sunset over Kakadu. It was a good end to our first day on the road!

That night Lucy and I possibly had THE WORST sleep ever imagined! Even though we covered ourselves in deet, we were attacked left right and centre by mosquitoes and sand flys. Lucy currently has around 23 bites on her right knee, and 17 on her left (we clearly missed her knees when applying the repellant!).

The next morning, we drove out to the Nourlangie Rock Art site, which was again fantastic...although not as interesting as Ubirr. I think it was all the tour groups that ruined it for us. Ubirr is around 40k's off the main Kakadu Hwy, and Nourlangie is on the main stretch which makes it one of the busiest spots in Kakadu.

By the time we finished at Nourlangie it was about 12 midday, and it was red hot. We later found out it got upto nearly 40 degrees, so we decided to drive strait back to Darwin rather than camp again. Yes, we are soft, but the thought of a nice comfy bed and airconditioning in Darwin seemed to appealing to let go!

After arriving back in Darwin we wandered into the city and grabbed a bit to eat at a Vietnamese restaurant, and then witnessed what Darwin is famous for: Dick Head English Backpackers. I have never seen so many drunk people in one street. Now, as everyone knows, me and Lucy love a drink or ten, but to see these idiots not only being drunk and pissing in the street, but also blatently taking the mick out of the aboriginals in town just made my blood boil. Anyway, I'l leave it there, but it really wasn't a good look.

On Monday we did a major cull of our bags (never a good sign 2 days into an 8 month trip!) and then headed to the Darwin Museum which housed an excellent Cyclone Tracey Exhibition and some great aboriginal art work. Monday evening we had a lovely meal with my Aunt and Uncle, and Tuesday we headed to Singapore....where we are now....!

We arrived quite late last night, around 9pm. We are staying in the "Little India" part of Singapore which is worlds away from the western influences Orchard Road etc, and we love it! We had a great meal at a Morrocan Restaurant opposite our hostel, which came to a whopping $10AUD (!!!!!), and then we fell asleep....!

Our plan this morning was to go for a wander around the city, but at the moment, being 11am....it has't stopped raining since 8....so therefore I am updating this blog.

We get our flight to Kuching in Borneo in a few hours....very excited about that! Hopefully its not raining there!

Will update from borneo....!

jess xxxx

1 more sleep....!

2010-09-02T13:21:00.000+10:00

Wow the last 2 weeks have gone fast!!

I can't believe Lucy and I actually leave Melbourne tomorrow. Crazy....! We are packed, and as organised as we can be. We will finish up saying the last of our goodbyes to some of our good friends today, then tomorrow its good bye to a predictably teary mum and dad and Melbourne Airport.

So tomorrow - being Friday the 3rd of September, we are flying to Darwin at 9.30pm on Tiger Airways, and arriving in Darwin at about 1.30am. We are staying at a youth hostel in the city centre over night, then on saturday we pick up our car and drive 300k's to Kakadu National Park. The main objective for our time in Kakadu is to see some Aboriginal Rock Art.

For those of you who know me quite well, you know that I am a tight arse traveller. That is, I will not spend money where I dont have to, and if there is a cheaper way to do something...then I will find it!

When we were doing our research for travelling around Kakadu, we figured maybe we will just do a tour of the park, thinking that must be the cheapest and easiest way.

Well...it wasn't. The cheapest tour we could find was $170....EACH! So thats $340 for 6 hours!! Insane...!

The way it would have broke down is this:

Accomodation Darwin x4 nights @ $30 p/night: $120
Kakadu Tour                            @ $170:              $170
Food for 4 days                        @ $20 p/day    $80
                                                                   ____________
TOTAL                                                              $370
TOTAL FOR 4 DAYS ME & LUCY                   $740

$740!!!! FOR 4 DAYS!!!! I don't think so Darwin.

The way we are doing it is this:

Accomodation x1 night Darwin:                            $75
Car Hire for x3 Days                                           $200
Petrol                                                                 $100
Camping 2x nights @ Kakadu @ $10 p/night         $20
Food for 4 days (Cans of Beans & Bread!) $25
Accomodation x1 night at Family's house              FREE!
                                                                  _________________
TOTAL FOR 4 DAYS ME & LUCY                  $420

Now, $420 is still expensive by my travelling standars, but much better than $700 + !!

The budget for the rest of the trip (once we outside of EXPENSIVE australia!) is roughly $35 per day.....! It will be interesting to see if we can stick to this....!

So on that note I shall leave you, if I have chance I will update again tomorrow. If not, you will hear from me in Darwin.

Jess xxxx

10 more sleeps + 1 lost passport

2010-08-24T14:18:00.002+10:00

So...imagine the WORST thing that could happen 2 weeks before leaving on the trip of a lifetime?

Correct - I have lost my passport....! Probably the single worse thing that can happen to someone as OCD and organised as yours truely. However, there is a silver lining in this big effing black cloud of mine! Luckily, I have two passports...an Australian and a Brittish. Lucky for me, it was the latter that I have 'misplaced' somewhere in the house. Which means we can still leave the country and enjoy our trip hassle free. Fortunately our friend Sophie is meeting us in Bangkok for our three months in Nepal, and she is going to courier the thing over in her bag. Lucky!!

And before you say anything, yes I have looked everywhere and ripped the entire hosue apart trying to find it. Murphys law, it will more than likely show up the day before we fly out. We shall see....

In other Jess related news, we are pretty much all organised and just waiting to head off. I finished up work at Clive Peeters last friday (3rd time leaving, you think they would learn their lesson about employing such a free spirited Salesperson!), and Lucy & I had our farewell on Saturday night at Bazoo Bar in Croydon. Great night with some excellent company, including some random blind guy with his dog. Very strange.....

Lucy is busy painting my parents outdoor area as I write this, trying to get as much done in the next week as possible.

Thats about it for news this week...I shall update again next week with a super excited blog regarding leaving and plenty of exclimation marks....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (x300000000000)

Jess xx

4 weeks and 4 days to go...!

2010-08-02T21:07:00.002+10:00

Ok...so we leave soon. Like really soon. Like...sooner than I realised! And now that stuff we needed to do that has been shelved on the 'Things we will do in August' list......yeah that list is pretty damn long now!!!

So in between booking places to stay and working out what else we have missed in our plans, I thought it would be a good idea to get the ball rolling with this blog again and give everyone an idea on where we are off to....

The plan thus far is:

September 3rd - September 7th: Darwin & Kakadu

September 7th: Overnight in Singapore

September 8th - 30th: Malaysian Borneo & Brunei

October 1st - 14th: Thailand

October 14th - January 30th(ish): Nepal (2 months trekking & 6 weeks volunteering)

February 1st - April 30th: Northern India

When we run out of Money: ENGLAND!

Soooo as you can imagine Lucy and I are pretty damn excited. As per usual, Sophie is coming to meet us for some of the trip (mainly Nepal) which will be ace.

Lots of stuff still to do but I will endeavour to update this in the coming weeks.....!

jess xxx

ok...so lets try and kick this off again....!

2009-12-22T18:39:00.001+11:00

Right so just so everyone is aware - I am actually back home in Australia now...!!

I'm going to try and kick off this blog again from the start of the NEXT trip I am planning (41 countried and counting....!!)

Soooo....keep your eyes peeled for some updates over the coming weeks on what the next 12 month plan is....and the 12 months after that....! The main difference to this trip is my beautiful girlfriend will be coming along for the ride....no longer the lonely back packer....!

Anyway - thats it for now....will keep you all posted as things eventuate.

Cheeeeeeeers, jess xx

PS Being home SUCKS!

The Trans-Mongolian Part V - St Petersburg and Goodbye Intrepid

2008-08-10T04:39:00.002+10:00

Our last over night train journey was probably the nicest and most comfertable out of them all....and it was only 12 hours!!! We left Moscow station in the evening and arrived in St Petersburg bright and early at 7am, where we were informed that at 10am we were going to be doing a giant walking tour of St Petersburg....exactly what you want after an overnight train journey!!!!!

The walking tour was actually brillant, even though we were all absolutely knackered by the end of it! Our guide took us through all the back streets of St Petersburg, where I saw some of the most amazing street art I had seen so far on the trip. St Petersburg appeared to be alot more "communists" looking than Moscow, which screams capitalists at the top of its lungs. All the apartments have that standard square look about them and the city in some parts did look a lot more run down. However, in saying this, I think I enjoyed walking around St Peterburg alot more than I did Moscow. I think maybe because it was the Russia I imagined while reasearching. Its a little bit new, a little bit old and has a hell of alot of character about it.

The following day we spent the day walking through the Hermitage Museum, which is one of the biggest museums in the world. The buildings itself was amazing to walk around, let alone the 3 million odd displays of art work from all over the world. There is a fact I read somewhere that if you visited the hermitage, and spent just 1 minute looking at every piece of art work, you would be there for over 3 decades. Pretty crazy huh?

The Hermitage building itself used to be a royal residence back in the day, and the ineterior certainly depicted this. Walking through the various halls was quite similar to walking through somewhere like the Sistine Chapel in Rome, just on a much larger scale. Holding artworks from such big wigs like Picasso, Da Vinci, Monet & Van Gough, the Hermitage is somewhere you have to dedicate at least half a day to walking through, even if its just to have a quick peak. Seriously, 5 - 6 hours is a quick peak!

We spent the afternoon walking up and down the massive Nevsky Prospect, the main street (or avenue rather) in St Petersburg. Holding shops for all tastes and budgets aswell as most Restaurants and nightclubs, you can imagine just how busy this place gets. Honestly, you can't walk in a strait line for more than about 30 - 40 seconds before some one comes barging into you.

That evening we had our final tour group meal, and said our goodbyes to everyone. After spending 3 weeks with these 12 people, it was quite sad to finally bid them farewell. However, not being much of a tour group traveller, I was really looking forward to being back out travelling on my own again (in the company of Sophie for the next 3 months!).

The following we checked out of our hotel, and jumped on a night bus to Helsinki, Finland.

Photos from Suzdal and Moscow

2008-08-10T04:37:00.001+10:00

Suzdal

Suzdal

St Basils Cathedral, Moscow

One of the many amazing Moscow Metro Stations

The Trans-Mongolian Part IV - Suzdal & Moscow

2008-08-01T20:12:00.003+10:00

On arrival in Suzdal, my first impression was how small it was! And the fact that there were next to no people anywhere to be seen. Apart from the market that was set up in the church yard oppisite our Hotel, there was honestly no other people anywhere.

But I guess you have to kind of expect that in a city with no more than 11,000 people in it!

Although small, Suzdal was yet another side to Russia I wasn't expecting to see. Suzdal is a bit of a "weekend" get away for most of the people who live in Moscow, as it's only 5 hours away. So it was quite the laid back town to walk around. No one was in a rush, there was hardly any traffic (due to the fact there were hardly any people!), so you could feel free to just wander around at your own pace.

One thing Suzdal doesn't lack in are churches. They are everywhere! Big ones, small ones, you name it - Suzdal's got it. It was here in Suzdal that I had my first chance to see a Russian Orthodox Church. You know the ones I am talking about, really REALLY big with the giant colorful domes on the top. It was amazing to finally see one in reality after seeing so many in books while researching the trip.

The insides of the church are a fantastic sight to see, unfortunately though I have no pictures! However, if you can imagine your house with every single spare piece of space painted in the most vivid colorful religious paintings, then maybe you get a small idea of what I mean. There is no spot uncovered; the floors, walls and ceilings are all painted depicting different scenes from the bible. Now, although I am not an overly religious person, it really was quite moving to see. While inside one of the churches, we were treated to a group of Russian Tenors singing a hymn, which sounded so wonderful, especially in the painted surroundings of the Church.

We spend the following day on a walking tour of the town, (which as you can imagine didn't take very long given how small Suzdal is!) which included a trip to a folk festival that was on. There was traditional russian singing, dancing and plenty of people in traditional costumes. Quite the sight to see.

We then headed to Moscow the following morning on a 5 hour bus, which me Ben and Sophie were lucky enough to sit up the back next to two severely drunk and smelly russians. It's moments like these that really paint Russia as a whole for me!!

Arriving in Moscow from Suzdal gave the system quite a shock, due to the sheer size of the city, the amount of people and the amount of cars wizzing by at 100 miles an hour. Moscow is the first European City (if you can call it that) that I had encountered so far, so as busy as asia was in its major cities, Asia has NOTHING on Moscow.

We checked into apartment which was right smack bang in the center of Moscow, and went on a walk down to the Red Square. As I said previously, the churches in Suzdal were pretty amazing to see. But in my opinion, you HAVE NOT seen a church until you have seen St Basils Cathedral in the Red Square. The best way to describe this church (aside from flipping HUGE), is as a giant ice cream. The outside is so colorful, and it stands out so much in comparison to all the communists era buildings surrounding it. The church is really the image that I think most people have of Moscow, if not the whole of Russia.

The following day we headed out on our tour of the Kremlin, which has been and still is the center point of Moscow and Russian politics. We walked past where the president resides and spent around 2 hours touring the art galleries inside.

One of the funnier things that happened on this paticular day: In order to get into the Kremlin, you must check in all of your bags (ie Handbags, Backpacks etc etc) into a locker room about a 10 minute walk from the entrance. Us being the organised tour group, had obviously done this. However, a gentleman of about 40 in the group in front us obviously thought he could slip past the Russian guards with his back pack still on......under his jacket (It wasn't one of those small packs either, he kinda looked like the hunch back of Notredam...!). After walking through the metal detector, the alarm bells going off and him insisting for at least 5 minutes that he had nothing to hide, the Russian guards eventually looked behind and saw his bag. He was promptly escorted out, and down to the lockers. What an idiot!

We then headed into one of Moscow's #1 truly bizarre sight, The Mausoleum of Lenin. Here you can bask at Lenin in all his communist glory, deader than dead, yet fully embalmed for all the world to admire. As freaky as it is to see a dead guy in a glass case, that was nothing in comparison to the 20 odd russian guards who stand in threes in all corners and walls of the Mausoleum, watching your every move. As it's quite dark in there (so as not to disturb Lenin in his sleep I presume), you actually don't see these guards until you are about 2 meters in front of them. They really do give you quite a fright!

No trip to Moscow is complete with out a tour of the underground metro system. The various metro stops dotting the center of Moscow are more like living Museums than Metro stops. Full of sculptures, chandeliers and various paintings and mosaics through out, these stations really were a highlight of any visit to Moscow.

A trip to Moscow is also incomplete if you don't make an effort to check out the legendary under ground Moscow Night Club scene. Now, by underground, I mean UNDERGROUND. Ben and I spent around an hour looking for a club one night that was supposed to be a ten minute walk from our apartment. After finding some young guys in the street who spoke English and asking for their assistance, they offered to take us to the club. After walking for about 5 minutes down a back street we are told by our new friends "there it is"....and pointed at a door. With no building behind it. They walked up to the door, knocked, the door was opened and we were greeted by 5 flights of stairs going down to a club full of people! It was absolutely bizarre! After spending around half an hour there, our Russian friends offered to take us to another club...and another...and another, until me and Ben found ourselves walking back to the Apartment at 6am the following morning! Each club was more hidden than the next..the complete opposite of anything I had ever seen before.

The next day we jumped on our last night train, heading for our last stop, St Petersburg.

Photo's from Russia

2008-08-01T20:03:00.004+10:00

Photo's from Mongolia

2008-08-01T20:02:00.001+10:00

Photos from Train Journey - Beijing to UB

2008-08-01T19:51:00.006+10:00

The Party Cabin: Me, Ben, Nat and Sophie

Leaving China

Eating some quality Mongolian train food

The changing of the Bogies (wheels) on the Monlgolia/China border

Sunrise over the Gobi Desert

The Gobi

The Trans-Molgolian Part III - 3 nights on a train, Irkutsk to Vladimir & Suzdal

2008-08-01T19:01:00.004+10:00

I'm guessing most of you just read the above heading and thought "3 nights on a train!!!!", but trust me, it was no way near as bad as it sounds!!!!!

We hopped on the train in Irkutsk at 5pm, armed with instant noodles, bags of chips, fruit and vodka, as well as our normal giant bags...the whole group looked quite the sight as we attempted to board the train.

After settling into our cabins and a having a few pre sleeping vodkas, we all fell asleep quite early getting ready for the following day which was full of.......sitting on the train!!!

It actually quite hard to write about this part of the journey, because in order to pass the time we all really just sat around talked the whole time. Thinking back on it now, I understand that it was a really long time to stay in one place, however during the actual journey, none of us really noticed.

We filled in the time chatting to each other, telling jokes, eating, drinking, listening to music and staring out the window. I dedicated a good chunk of my time to reading Nat's Russian Phrase book, trying to memorise as much as possible, however considering at that point I was having enough trouble saying Hello and Thankyou, it wasn't going as well as I planned.

Staring out the window was more interesting than it sounds, as the ever changing landscape of Siberia was amazing to look at. All the small villages, the millions of birch trees and the sheer nothingness that you sometimes see.

I made friends with some Russians from Irkutsk, Marsha and Den, who were just married and on there way to Moscow for there honey moon. Even though they spoke little english, and none of us really spoke much russian, we still all got on quite well. Mark, who was on our tour, could speak quite a few words of russian and managed to translate most of the conversations for me. One rather funny moment, was when Mark was explaining to Marsha and Den what my travel plans were and how I was going to be away for two years. Up until that point, the pair of them hadn't seen me with any shoes on, which caused them to ask (quite seriously) "Jess is travelling for 2 years with no shoes on??"!!!

On our second day on the train, the 12th of June, I did what every 22 year old in the world wanted to do. I celebrated my 23rd birthday in true Siberian style, aboard the train. Of all the birthdays I have had, this one will definitely stay in my memory for a while! I was given presents and cards from all the tour group and a neat collapsible shot glass from Marsha and Den (which considering they known me less than 24 hours was pretty generous!). After being dragged away for a birthday beer with Nat, I came back to my cabin and discovered Sophie and Ben had completely decorated it with Baloons and streamers, and decked out some food aswell! In the cabin next door we had Marg, Angela and Penny serving drinks from our make shift bar. An just when I thought it couldn't be any better, Marg pulls out a cake with candles and everything! We spent the evening listening to music, eating food and drinking vodka (suprise suprise!) and I had an amazing time....!

The following day was much of the same again, just eating drinking and staring out the window of the train, until the next day we arrived in Vladimir, and headed strait to Suzdal.

The Trans-Mongolian Part II - Ulan Baator (Mongolia) to Irkutsk (Russia)

2008-07-23T18:48:00.001+10:00

Ok, after going back through my pictures I just remembered this leg of the train journey left in the eveining....not in the morning!

So, at around 8pm (I think!) we jumped on our second train bound for Irkutsk in Siberia, Russia. And it was here on the Monoglian station platform that I saw my first russian moustache.....however...it was on a woman. Her name Gallena, and she was our larger than life, slightly petrifying, Provanitza (carriage attendant). She knew next to no english, but after a few offeres of ciggarettes and chocolate, she was the tour groups best friend.

This train was slightly nicer than the previous. It was a lot cleaner, slightly more comfertable, and the carriage attendants were constantly walking up and down the carriage making sure everything was kept in a neat and tidy way.

This train journey was to take 2 nights, so once we sussed out that the border crossing wasn't until the following morning, we decided to have a few drinks on the train with some french guys we had met. It was here that we also met the drunkest tour leader in the world (thank god not our tour leader!), but an aussie girl leading some older folk on a Sundowner tour, which apprently cost a substantial amount more than our trip. This girl was really unbelivable, first of all she knew nothing about the trip and kept asking the F-RAT about when the train was stopping and for how long, and second, she kept leaving her group and crashing our cabin & drinking our vodka! She got so drunk on the first night we met her that we did our best to avoid her for the rest of the journey. Once we had kicked her out of our cabin as she was falling asleep, us lot continued drinking until around midnight when we all went sleep.

The following morning at about 5 am, we the first of our borders, Mongolia. Here we were stuck for around 2 and a half hours while they checked passports. 1 hour later we arrived at the russian border, where we stayed completely stationary for almost 9 hours. The first check we had was customs, where we filled out forms declaring what we did or did not have. Then our passports were taken and visas checked. We got the passports back around 5 hours later. Then they searched each and every cabin for drugs. Then they bought the sniffer dogs through, which was probably the worse part of the whole ordeal for us.

We were sitting in our cabin, patiantly waiting to leave, when all of the sudden the dogs come through sniffing around the outside of our cabin. Then the dog sat down....directly outside our door! Within 2 seconds our cabin door had been slammed shut, and the 4 of us could only sit there and listen as we heard the unhinging of bolts from the wall oppisite our door. Around 10 minutes later they re-opened our door, and we could see where they had completely dismantaled the wall. Even though nothing was found, the guard still wasn't satisfied, so he brought another dog in with 2 other guards...and this dog did the same thing! This time they didn't shut our door, so watched as they dismantaled the whole section of the wall oppisite our cabin, ripping out the lining and insulation in the wall. After around half an hour and still not finding anything, they gave up and put the wall back together again. Although none of us had a guilty conscience, having the area OUTSIDE your cabin searched at a russian border is definitely not something I would like to go through again!

So at around 3pm, the train set off to its first Russian stop, where we were able to get off the train for around half an hour. This is where we got our first taste of Siberian summer fashion, which on the girls included 5 inch high heel shoes, the tightest whitest and highest pants in the world, with a colorful often sequened top tucked in. On the guys it was black tracksuite pants, pulled up extremely high, and a black tank top. It was most bizarre, it was as if fashion in Siberia was still stuck in the early 80's!

We jumped back on the train and headed off towards Irkutsk, where we arrived the following day at around 9am, jumped on a bus, and headed strait to Lake Baikal.

The village where we stayed was called Listvyanka, a small little town right on the shores of the massive Lake Baikal. Lake Baikal is the biggest and deepest fresh water lake in the world, and during the winter months is completely frozen over creating a roadway between each side of the lake. It had only defrosted around a month prior to us arriving. It really was the most amazing thing to look at. It was as if you were looking out at the ocean, not being able to see where the sky began and the lake ended. And the water was so clear, that when we did a boat trip out on the lake, you found yourself suffereing from vertigo as you could see directly to the bottom in some parts. The water tempreture at that time was around 1 degrees, so we decided going for a swim would not be the best of ideas!

Our group stayed in a bed and breakfast run by the charming Nikolai, who without any knowledge of the english language and us with no knowledge of Russian, continued to innitiate quite indepth converstaions with us all for long periods of time! It was really quite amusing....

We stayed in Listvyanka for one night, and the following day we headed back to Irkutsk, where we spent the day wondering around before catching the next part of our trip across Siberia to Vladimir.

The Trans-Mongolian Part I - Beijing to Ulan Baator

2008-07-14T01:25:00.007+10:00

After an emotional and sad goodbye to our friends in Beijing, Sophie, Ben and myself set off on the first leg of our Trans Mongolian journey with Intrepid Travel (http://www.intrepidtravel.com/).

Before we set off, we are all introduced to the group we would be travelling with...all up there was 12 travellers and our group leader, Efrat. When the three of us first saw the group, it was quite amusing. I was the youngest member of the group by about 10 years! In fact, the first thing Ben said to us was "Maybe we should have choosen Vodka Train instead??" (Vodka train being a tour group that appeals to most people our age, but I choose against due to the cost and the fact I did not want to be surrounded by ten 20 somethings who would be durnk 24/7!). However, our impression of the group quickly changed as we got to know everyone....!

We boarded the first train at around 9am on the 4th of June, due to arrive in Ulan Baator at around 1pm the following day. This train was a chinese train, each cabin had four beds (one up one down on either side of the cabin). It was quite comfertable and we were given tickets for 2 meals throughout the journey. In my cabin, there was myself Sophie Ben and Nat, who was from Sydney.

It was amazing to watch the scenary change as we left Beijing. After about 2 hours of travelling through the out skirts of Beijing we eventually ended up in some greener areas, quite similar to those I had seen travelling through Southern China. Lots of forests, lakes and rivers which were a welcome change from the bright smog covered neon lights of Beijing!

As the journey went on, we slowly got to know each of our fellow tour members. There was Phil and Janine from Geelong, Mark and Marie from Brunswick, Angela and Marg from New Zealand, Penny from Melbourne and Phil, who at around 70 years of age had seen almost all of the world and quickly became the hero of the trip (and also an inspiration to me, knowing that even at that age I can keep travelling the world!). Our Tour Leader Efrat, from Israel, was quickly renamed "The F Rat" as none of us could pronounce her name properly...

At around 5pm we cracked open our first bottle of Vodka, thinking that by the time we arrive at the mongolian border we will be sober enough. Unfortunately not the case...because once the three of us plus Nat had finished that, we moved onto beer from the dining cart, and then onto some extremely cheap chinese red wine, which for some reason we mixed with coke as someone in the group thought that would be a good idea to take the taste away.

Lesson one about taking the trans mongolian, or any train crossing the border, don't be drunk when crossing! As the conductor came around with our mongolian immigration cards, Sophie and I proceeded to write our birthdays instead of out entry and exit dates within Mongolia. It was amusing to us, but not so amusing to our beloved F Rat who then had to fill out our third immigration form....!

Prior to arriving at the border, the train stopped for around 3 hours to have the bogies changed. The reason for this is the rail gages between China and Mongolia and Russia are different. Someone at one point told me this was to prevent invation into China...wether there is any truth to this I am unsure.

Basically, the way these are changed is by a machine lifting each individual carriage around 3 meters off the ground. The wheels are then taken off by some big machines, put back on the track and wizzed away. Around 20 minutes later, the new wheels and gages come wizzing under the lifted train, and the same machine lifts them up and places them on the train. Lucky for us, another train pulled up along side ours so we were able to see the whole thing take place. It was quite bizarre to watch.

So after those three hours were up, we moved onto the Mongolian border, where quite possibly the scariest looking and biggest Mongolian lady in the world came into our carriage and checked our passports and visas. Considering we were half asleep when she knocked on the cabin door, it really was quite a fright to see her....! After a furthur two hours of waiting, our passports were handed back and we were on our way.

At around 4am, I woke up needing to use the lovely train toilet. When I came out, I decided to have a look out the window and see where we were....and the strangest sight I had ever seen was before me. We were nowhere. Literally! Although it was still slightly dark, I could see the sun rising over absolutely nothing but desert. When we went into our alcohol induced sleep, we were at the border, and before that in a forest region. Now, there was nothing! Once the sun had risen fully you could see just how far into the Gobi Desert we were. There was absolutely nothing for miles, nothing infront, nothing behind and nothing either side. Just sand, and the odd Mongolian Ger Camp. What was truly strange about going through the desert, is the train kept turning corners. We couldn't really understand why considering there was nothing to dodge...but you would be sitting there eating your noodle soup, and all of the sudden the train would turn quite sharply to the left or right. Very bizarre!

We arrived in Ulan Baator at around 1.30pm, and were greeted by our guides for the three days, Nemo and Mia. We went and changed some money, jumped on the bus and headed to our hotel.

The following morning we headed out to Terlj National Park, around an hour outside of the capital, to stay at Mongolian Ger Camp. A ger camp, for those of who are un aware, are basically big felt tents with loads of layers, perfect for any kind of weather. A good majority of Mongolian people live in the Ger's in the Gobi Desert and in the parks. They really were quite amazing, and quite comfertable aswell! The surroundings of the park were stunning and created a very surreal contrast between UB and the rest of Mongolia.

Myself and Ben headed out horse riding on proper Mongolian horses that after noon, which was really quite amazing. The horse were so small! As we pulled up to one of the stops, we watched as a few mongolian kids were racing there horses at full speed around Turtle Rock. The kids were only about 10. We were informed after we came back that most mongolian children out in the desert and the national parks learn to ride not long after they are able to walk. Pretty amazing stuff.

That night we had dinner with the group at the camp, and finished the evening with Ben, Soph, Nat and myself polishing off 2 bottles of Mongolian Vodka....under the watchful eye of our fearless leader F-RAT of course! We decided to sit up on one of the hills for a while so we didn't keep everyone awake...at around 12 midnight I decided I should probably carry myself off to bed. So I said goodnight, went for a bit of a tumble down the hill and headed into my ger tent. Or so I thought. It turns out that in my vodka filled state I walked strait past my ger tent and right into the one next door....which was housing a whole german family!!! Lucky they were fast asleep so once I realised I had made a rather large mistake, a shut the door and ran into my tent instead!

The following morning we headed back into UB for an afternoon sightseeing tour around the city and some of the monastries. The majority of Mongolian people are buddhists, and all the temples were very traditional. They were very simlar to that I had seen in Laos and Cambodia. After the tour, a few of us headed out to see some tradition mongolian wrestling, a big national sport in Mongolia. The monglians are hoping to win gold this year at the Beijing Olympics. It was quite strange to watch however, as these big giant masculine wrestlers would come out to the ring, wave to the audience, and then do this quite feminine bird like dance around a flag. Very odd, but still amazing to watch.

In the evening we headed out to a traditional monglian folk show, where I got to see the one thing I was dying to see (or hear rather!) in mongolia....THROAT SINGING! This was quite possibly the strangest thing I had ever seen or heard. This guy comes out with a guitar like intrument, starts playing, looking very mundane as he plays. Then all of the sudden he opens his mouth and its like satan is singing from the back of his throat in a foreign language...! Throat singing is only heard of in Mongolia, and if you get a chance to download some from the internet, give it a shot, I personally gurantee it will be the WEIRDEST thing you will ever hear! As well as throat singing there was also traditional Mongolian dancing and opera singing aswell.

The following morning we were up bright and early to get the second leg of our Train into Russia....

(PICTURES TO BE UPLOADED SOON! TO SEE PICTURES FROM THIS PART OF THE TRIP PLEASE CLICK THE LINKS TO THE RIGHT OF YOUR SCREEN)

Apology!

2008-07-14T01:16:00.003+10:00

Before I begin writing about the next segment of the trip, I would first like to yell out a HUGE apology for not updating this blog more regurly. The reason for the lack of updates is while I was travelling through China, the website I use (blogger.com) was actually banned by the Chinese government. So therefore, I was unable to read my blog or update it unless I managed to find a dodgy internet cafe somewhere that had found a loop hole around the chinese fire walls. Then, once I left China, I was travelling on the Trans Mongolian train where there really wasnt ANY access to internet in any part of Russia I went to except the odd 5 minutes worth than was costing me over $10 to use!!!

However, I am now in Eastern Europe, where the internet is not wonderful but at least user friendly.

Right at this point in my trip, I am around 1 month behind on my travel tales, so I will do my best to get this thing as close to up to date as I can over the next week or so!

Thanks to those of you who keep reading it, even though it is out of date! Also a big thanks to those of you who continuely keep bombarding me with insults about how much my blog sucks due its out of dateness.....its the kind words you guys send that make me write more!!!

Goodbye Asia......

2008-07-07T00:37:00.003+10:00

So, before I move onto the next part of this epic journey, I thought I would write down what my highlights have been through each country. Please keep in mind that there have been so many....this is really just small list I can remember off the top of my head!

VIETNAM:

Arriving in Saigon. After never traveled to another Asian city, this was quite the introduction! I couldn't get over the amount of people, the amount of motorbikes, the amount of noise, the amount of Traffic Lights that are blatantly ignored and the amount of street hustlers trying to sell you watches/sunglasses/purses/bags/hammocks/bracelets/necklaces etc etc etc! To some people, that may have been really annoying, and to me it was at first. But after a while, you learn to enjoy it as being hassled and nearly run over every day is all part of Saigon experience!

Hoi An. A nice escape from the big cities, and a great 10k bike ride to the beach. And seriously, if wanted anything made, and i mean ANYTHING, this is THE place to go. There are Tailors on every corner just begging for your buisiness.

CAMBODIA:

Angkor Wat. Few people could come away from seeing one of the big wonders of the world and not count it as a highlight. Even though it was a touch over 40 degrees when I went, it really was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. The only down side is every single temple I see from now on is a bit of a let down!

The boat/pickup truck journey from Siem Reap to Battambang. This is still one of my favorite backpacker stories to tell people, especially now being in Europe. The boat being overcrowded, then getting bogged, us 50 odd passengers being taken off, then being dumped in the back of two pick ups and driven along THE WORST road in the history of roads, all the way to Battambang.

Sihanoukville. The combination of a nice beach, hanging out with two cool people (Leanne and Mary Liz), and being annoyed by Cambodian children all day certainly made this place a highlight. If you are going to Cambodia, get there now before the rest of the world finds it!

LAOS:

Lao New Year. Spending Lao New Year (otherwise known as The Water Festival) in Vang Vieng is an experince I know I will never forget. Not being able to walk down the street without having some child/teenager/adult throwing a giant bucket of water on you was just simply bizarre, but a hell of a lot of fun.

Elephant Mahot Training. This will always be one of the most amazing things I have ever done. Learning how to ride Elephants and then taking them into a river on a 40 degree day to wash then was simply mind blowing.

Luang Prabang. The books and people don't lie, this really is one of the stunning and laid back places I have ever been too. Just remember not to go to a restaurant when your starving for two reasons: 1) your waiter will probably be asleep and you will have to wake him to serve you & 2) Its Lao time! Its ready when its ready!

CHINA

Lost In Translation. The many many sign you see that have been translated into English from Chinese. Theres nothing better when you open a restaurant Menu and read "Steam Dumping Soup", or when your walking near a lake and you see a sign that says "Careful When Slipping". One of my favorites was at Beijing's brand new internation Terminal, built especially for the Internation community comming for the Olympics...and on each escalator at both ends it states "Please Mind Oldster and Child". Now if thats not offensive to the over 65's..then what is???

The Yunnan Province. Seeing "Real China" in all its glory. People working in the fields by hand & ladies in traditional dress. Also the lovely toilets, the constant spitting and the staring. All part of the China Fun!

Shanghai. For a last minute city added due to the earthquake, and somewhere I was not particularly looking forward to visiting, I actually became quite fond of in the 10 days I was there. It probably helped that I met some awesome people to hang out with, but the city itself has an undeniable charm about it that I just can't quite put my finger on.

I must say that by the end of China, I was ready leave Asia behind me. 3 months of travel in Asia does take it out of you (I will be kind of happy never to eat rice EVER again!). However, I really can't wait to get back to this region and see some of the places I missed out on such as Tibet, Burma, Thailand, the South East Asian Islands, North and South Korea and Japan.

So, onwards and upwards towards Europe now!

China - Beijing

2008-07-07T00:01:00.005+10:00

After a wonderful 12 hour train journey, Matt and I made it to Beijing, and checked into our hostel "The Leo Hostel" located about 10 minutes from Tiananmen Square in one of the Beijing Hutong's (Beijing Old Town). I'm sure at one time in there lives, the Hutong's were quite a pretty area to walk around...however with Olympic games just around the corner, almost all of the Hutongs were in process of being effectively ripped to shreds and rebuilt. Its a shame really, as they are a good indication of how northern China used to be.

After spending a couple of days chilling out, I went to pick up Ben and Sophie from Beijing's brand new Terminal Three at Capitol Airport. It was amazing seeing the two of them again after almost three months on the road. It brought back a lot of memories from home, which was quite a bizarre feeling really.

Ben and Sophie clicked in really well with Matt and Emma, which was a relief. Theres nothing worse than introducing friends from different circles and them not getting on...however, in this instance that didn't happen, which was brilliant! A couple of days after our little group met Pete (AKA Pirate Pete...don't ask me why.....) and Dom, plus a few others, and all of the sudden we had quite the posse going on! Over the space 1 week, we managed to test out a good majority of the Beijing Nightlife, which was fantastic.

Beijing really was an amazing city though. So many contrasting differences, and an obvious struggle between the way things used to be and the way things will be going. The best way I can probably describe Beijing is a combination of the entire Yunnan Province and Shanghai. It seems like the people (especially the younger generation) are desperate to become up to date with the latest trends that you see blasted through the internet, yet still wanting to hold onto traditional values as well. In Beijing, it is still quite common to see the older ladies walking down the street carrying tons of food over their shoulders, and men delivering things on Bicycles. Where as in Shanghai you really don't see that at all. It was interesting to say the least!

And the pollution.....oh my god the pollution! Even when it was a nice day you couldn't tell due to the giant smog cloud that shadows the entire city. The only time I saw a blue sky was when some of us went to the Summer Palace and we went to the top of one of the temples. It was so bad that within one day of being there my eyes had swollen up and were itchy as hell...giving them a really stunning red glow to them! One thing I have to say is I definitely feel sorry for every athlete, especially the track and field guys and girls, who have got to run in that. Should be interesting to see how everyone goes.

That said, the city has definitely cleaned up. It was a lot cleaner than I was anticipating, and the entire Beijing population is just so excited about the games. Even some of the taxi drivers had started to get a basic understanding of English, which in China is pretty rare.

The Olympic stadium that has been built for the games was truly an amazing sight to see. The whole area around the stadium is till under heavy construction, however I think by the time the games roll around it will look magnificent.

We spent the first week in Beijing just wondering around the city, checking out only a few of the sights, as we knew the main ones were included in our Intrepid Tour, which was starting the following Sunday. We headed out to the Summer Palace and checked out the 798 district (art house Beijing).

As said earlier, we spent most of our evenings checking out the best of Beijings nightlife, which really was an amazing experience. From dancing in an empty club on a tuesday night, to hitting up $1 shots at a bar called Shooters, to checking out on of the classiest techno clubs in Beijing, Tango...we truly saw it all! It was great to see all the young Chinese out and about, dancing away to music that we get at home.

We then departed our hostel on Sunday the 1st of June, and headed to the Harmony Hotel (quite possibly the fanciest hotel I will ever stay in on this trip!) to start our Intrepid Tour.

China - Lijiang, Earthquakes and an last minute flight to Shanghai!

2008-06-25T01:13:00.004+10:00

So, after finishing Tiger Leaping Gorge, Sarah and I headed back to Lijiang for a couple of days before we both parted ways. Sarah back to Dali, and me heading north to Chengdu.

However, the day before I was due to leave, at 2.30pm, while I was illegally entering a park in Lijiang via a small waterfall as I didn't want to pay the entrance fee, the massive 7.9 Shichaun Earthquake happened. Where we were in Lijiang, we didn't feel a thing (which was lucky as we would have fallen INTO the waterfall we illegally crossing at the precise moment the earthquake hit!), however the earthquake managed to block just about every road heading in and out of the Schicuan province, thus making it rather difficult to get to Chengdu.

After a few phone calls and research, and a very stern warning from my parents about still heading Chengdu, I decided to get on a plane and head to Shanghai instead.

Now, those of you who have been reading my blog and speaking to me a bit about where I have been so far and what the places were like, would all have a general understanding that every place I have been to has been pretty small. So you can probably imagine the look on my face as I cruised into shanghai in the back of a taxi from the airport at 9pm. Every single building was lit up, there were people everywhere and it was M A S S I V E !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was actually quite mind blowing just how big this place was. It felt like every building was a sky scraper and me feel like I was about 2 feet tall.

After arriving at my hostel, checking into my room, and having a quick bite to eat I headed to bed....only to be woken up at around 3am and realising I wasn't feeling very well. So bad in fact, that I spent the next 36 hours vommitting absolutely everything I had consumed in on my trip so far. In my professional traveller opionion (hahaha), I'm pretty sure I got a pretty bad bout of food poisoning from either the food on China Eastern Airlines, or from a potato salad I had the hostel. Either way, the only place I went for my first two days in shanghai was either to the toilet to throw up, or to bed to sleep. Quite the party animal!

Once I finally got over all that (and the fact I lost about 2 kgs in the process!), I got out for my first day and dropped my passport off to have the visa extended. On dropping the application off, with my passport, I found out the process was going to take 10 days!! Most other towns were only 3 - 5. That piece of info threw the rest of my china plans (prior to arriving in Beijing) out the window, and I got myself ready for what I thought was going to be a very painful "almost" 2 weeks in Shanghai.

But then I met Matt and Emma. Its funny how you meet some people when you travel and you don't click at all, then you meet the odd one that you think "yeah, if I met you at home we would probably be mates", and then sometimes very rarely you are fortunate enough to get the chance to meet people that not only do you click with, you know that you are quite possibly going to be mates with them for many many years to come. Thats what happened with me meeting Matt and Emma.

The three of us hung out around Shanghai, seeing the sights of East Nanjing Road, the Bund, going to the top of Jin Mau Tower for great views of the Shanghai and hanging out in the artistic areas of the city. Emma left us about 4 days in, but we agreed to meet in Beijing. Matt and I continued to hang out right up until the day before I left China!

In touring around Shanghai, it was amazing the differences to southern China. Southern China in the Yunnan province was quite traditional and very simple. In Shanghai it was like being in an Asian New York City (even though I haven't yet been to New York, I'm sure you still can catch my drift!) with all the guys and girls wearing designer clothes, listening to modern music and giant bill board advertising signs all the way through the city. For such a large city, Shanghai wasn't overly expensive, however it was around twice the price of everything in the Yunnan Province. Which I guess when you start to make things relative to the earning capicity of the average Chinese worker, thats a pretty big jump in cost.

On my second last day in Shanghai, the Olympic torch made its journey through the city. We all got up early to watch it run on East Nanjing Road, only to be met by a very strong Chinese Millitary Presence right around the city, not allowing us anywhere near the relay. However, later in the day when Matt and I headed out to pick up my passport with its new visa, we "accidently" got stuck in a barricade and we were able to watch the torch run through twice. It was amazing to see just how excited the Chinese were about the Olympics.

The following evening, Matt and I jumped on the Z train express to Beijing.....

Tiger Leaping Gorge - Part III

2008-06-25T00:42:00.003+10:00

Waking up on day three was good, as it wasn't raining!! It was still a little overcast though which was good because it kept the sun away from us most of the day.

At around 9am we set off down to 'Middle Gorge', which was the last part of the trek. The part of the trek took us all the way to the bottom of the gorge to where the river ran through. It took around 1 hour to hike down the amazingly steep track down to the gorge. The further down we got the more I couldn't help thinking about how the hell we were going to get back up again!!

Finally reaching the bottom, we were met by a series of massive rocks lining the banks of the ferocious river. It was amazing, I have never seen rapids like it. Looking at the water, you knew that if you fell in you were as good as dead. There is absolutely no way you could survive it.

As we proceeded to jump over the rocks and have our pictures taken etc etc, I later found out that about 4 weeks earlier a tourist had been doing the same thing...having his picture taken...and lost his balance and fell in the water. They never found him! Comforting to find this out after you have had you picture taken!!

From the middle gorge we proceeded back up to the top of the gorge via a series of very steep paths and extremely steep and unsafe ladders! Finally reaching the top alive and well around 1.5 hours later. We then organised a car to take us back to Lijiang, via a giant landslide in the middle of the road......

Only in China!

Tiger Leaping Gorge - Part II

2008-06-24T17:34:00.003+10:00

So, remember how in the previous post I said that i had been told not to do this trek in the rain?? Well guess what we woke up to the following morning?? RAIN!!!!

And not just a little bit either...it had been absolutely bucketing down all night, so as we set off we discovered that where the track was dirt it had turned to mud, and where it was stones it was really slippery.

As well as the mud and the slipperiness (I'm not actually sure if thats a word...!), random waterfalls kept appearing out of no where right in the middle of the track. So you have no other option but to walk over the top of them or through them to get to the otherside. At the time it was quite funny, but as you look back you kind of start to think 'Wow, that was really dangerous!!!'.

This part of the trek however was quite pretty with lots of flowers and brilliant views (which would have been more brilliant had the weather not been so bad!). And it was all practically down hill or on flat ground...so nice and easy in comparison to the day before! We made it to our last guesthouse, Tinas, at around 3pm. It was practically all downhill for about an hour so that was fun running down this big grassy hill....until a slipped and slip for about 3 meters down the side of it! I slowed down after that....

After grabbing some lunch we decided to stay the night and complete the last part of the trek the
next day.

China - Tiger Leaping Gorge - Part I

2008-06-24T16:52:00.004+10:00

After a couple of days in Lijiang getting ready, Sarah and I headed off to start our 3 day trek through Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Now, before I start telling you about the three days, let me just fill you in on a few of the things I had been told by people who had done the trek:

1) The first part of the trek to the Naxi Guesthouse is really easy, just a really basic walk
2) The 28 Bends are hard, but probably a little bit overrated
3) Don't attempt this hike in the rain, as it can get really dangerous

Please, keep these 3 points in mind as you read this post!

We arrive at Janes Guesthouse (the beggining of the trek) at around 10.30am. The weather was looking brilliant, nice and sunny. After a quick bite to eat and hearing about the conditions of the track, we set off about an hour later.

So, like I said, the first part of the trek is meant to be quite easy?? Just a basic walk?? WELL IT WASN'T!!!!! In the wonderful early morning heat with the sun blistering down on us, we walking for around 2.5k's constantly up hill on a dirt track, with absolutely no relief from the shade what so ever. We managed to do the first part in a little under 2 hours, which was impressive considering we walked quite slow. When we arrived the first guesthouse (Naxi Guesthouse) I wasn't sure I was going to be able to do the next part of the trek as I was absolutely exhausted. However, once I had some lunch and drank my 4th 1ltr bottle of water for the day (I told you it was hot!!) we headed on to begin the hardest part of the trek, the 28 bends.

(Now, before I get to the next bit....When I was in Kunming I met a couple and there 7 year old daughter who had just done the gorge, and said it was quite easy. Even the 7 year old said it was easy, which made me think that if a stupid 7 year old girl can do it, then I shouldn't have a problem.....)

After an hour of walking uphill, we finally got to the beginning of the '28 Bends'. From the bottom the top of the mountain didn't seem that far away, however it did look pretty damn steep.

Unfortunately, calling the 28 bends steep would be a complete understatement....!!

It took us around 2.5 hours from the Naxi Guesthouse to the summit of the 28 bends, and we climbed them in the middle of the day when it was around 26 degrees. The 28 bends are realistically more like 40 bends, as you weave your way through steep corner after steep corner slowly getting towards the summit. Even the fittest people doing the hike were having to stop at least every ten meters to get there breath back.

The worst thing about the whole hike is that you have these guys on horses following you up, waiting for you to give in so you will pay them the equivilent of $10AUD so they will carry you to the top! If anything they make you more determined to carry on. But you see I had two things driving me to get to the top: The horse people and the memory of that stupid 7 year old girl telling me how easy the trek was!! I'm sorry, but there is NO WAY that 7 year old could have found this easy....!

We got to the top at around 4pm, and what a feeling that was! And what a view! You could see all the way back to where we had begun the trek right up to where we were then and there.

It took us another 2 hours to walk down the other side of the mountain, and towards our guest house for the night, the Tea Horse.

We arrived there at around 6pm, had some dinner, and I promptly fell asleep at around 8pm...!!

China - Shangri-La

2008-05-26T15:11:00.007+10:00

After 8 hours, 3 car accidents, and 2 stops for strawberries, we finally arrived in Shangri-la....and my god, it was freezing!

As I have mentioned before, I was currently going through the worst weather of the trip so far with it being quite a bit cooler than Laos and getting the odd spot of rain. Shangri-la however was around 3700 meters above sea level around surrounded by snowcapped mountains, thus making it icy cold (around 5C - 10C degrees). So it was lucky I hit up those fake outdoor gear shops in Dali, as my snow jackets came in more than handy...!

Sahngri-la as a town was quite small, with hardly any tourists. It was a really nice mix of Tibetan and Chinese culture as it was not far from the Tibetan border.

We spent our first day wandering around the town and had a look at one of the monasteries in town. This monastery would have had over 1000 prayer flags throughout the complex in all kinds of different colours, it looked amazing. It also had a giant prayer wheel in the middle overlooking the town, which the locals would climb up to and spin around for good luck.

The evening we caught up with some people Sarah had met along her travels, and had dinner and a few beers with them. We ended up going to a small tibetan bar where we ended up singing along with some guys for most of the night!

On our second day we headed to the Monastery just outside of town. Half falling down and half being rebuilt, this Monastery would have to be one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. The Monastery is home to over 700 monks, whose age ranges from 7 years old to 90. As you walk through the monastery you see the monks doing everyday things like building, cleaning, and chatting on there cell phones.

The colours on the outside of the buildings and temples within the complex were a brilliant yellow and maroon, which matched the Monks robes. We spent around 4 hours just walking around the place exploring the different temples.

The following day we headed to Lijiang....

China - Dali

2008-05-13T17:07:00.011+10:00

After travelling so much on buses throughout South East Asia, I was rather excited to find out I could catch a train from Kunming to Dali. I automatically presumed it would be faster aswell.

I need to learn not to presume things!!!

The train took 9 hours, which at first was fine. Until I was informed by a guy sitting next to me that the bus only took 4 hours...but the train was more scenic...! I think I would have prefered a 4 hour boring journey to a 9 hour over crowded yet scenic train trip....!

On arriving in Dali, I automatically fell in love with the place. This was the China I had come to see. Dali is a tiny town, with a small population of around 40,000. The town its self you could walk around in half a day, and were all traditional chinese buildings and cobblestone streets. The only thing that was slightly out of place were the minority women, around 80 years old, trying to sell you dope and opium as you passed by the Tibetan Cafe...!

At the hostel I stayed at (The Jade Emu), I met up with Sarah and Andres, who I hung out with the whole time I was in Dali. Sarah as it turned out was heading in the same direction as me, so we decided to stick together through the next couple of weeks.

On my second day in Dali, Sarah Andres and myself headed up one of the Jade Mountains that surround Dali. ALthough you can hike it, we took the easy way of a cable car to the top. From the top you could see for miles and the view was stunning. Like I said before, Dali was really my first proper "China" experience, and from the top of these mountains you got a real taste for the beautiful lanscapes that China has to offer; from the way the montains surrounded the lake, to the hundreds of rice fields that appeared painted on the horizon.

The following day we decided to go cycling, which really was quite a dumb idea considering Andreas was cycling around the WHOLE of asia, and was therefore quite fit. He decided we would do an easy 25klm ride (!!!!) to the port of the lake.

The ride was actually quite easy, but the roads were bad bad bad, which made riding slightly more difficult than orignally anticipated....! However, the views while we rode were just about worth the pain my arse went through on those bumpy roads. We rode past a whole bunch of rice fields and farms where there were Chinese working in all there tradational minority clothing, and through a couple of little villages aswell.

It took around 2 and a half hours to get to the lakes edge, so suffice to say we were all completely stuffed by the time we got there. After a small rest, we went in search of a toilet and food. The toilet we found first, which was probably a good thing, as had we found it after eating, we probably would have vommitted our whole meal up. This public toilet was quite possibly the worse public toilet I have ever seen in my whole life. It was as open as every other chinese public toilet (ie: no doors), but this one obviously was completely blocked, due to the smell that almost made you fall backwards as you walked towards the front door. Unfortunately, it appears a few people had "missed" while doing there "buisiness" and this was the result:

Lovely isn't it??

Then came the food search. We couldn't find any obvious food stalls or restaurants anywhere, but we did come across a youth hostel on the street leading to the port. We walked in there, and after finding aboslutely no body spoke a word of english, we mimed the actions to eating to which the guy at reception nodded furiously and led us into the back of the hostel. After walking for about 10 meters, he led the three of us into the kitchen where we basically just pointed at things that we liked and the chef gathered them up.

We ended up turning this:

Into this:

And in doing so, quite possibly ate the greatest meal I have ever tasted in my life, for a total of $5 per person!

After we finished eating we grabbed our bikes to head back to Dali. However, I so tired and really didn't want to ride all the way back....so I took a tuk tuk back! Lazy person that I am...however in saying that I don't know how many of you reading this could honestly be arsed cycling for 55k's in one day??? Honestly???

The next few days were spent generally chilling out at the hostel, and enjoying Dali's knock off versions of North Face and Columbia jacket shopping for less that $20AUD.....!

From Dali, me and Sarah then headed to Shangri-la....

China - Kunming

2008-05-06T20:12:00.003+10:00

I left Laos at 2.30pm on the 26th of April, with China Eastern Airlines to Kunming. The first thing I noticed was that I was the only western person on the flight. Now, the plane was pretty small, however this was the first time in 2 months that this had happened. It was amusing as the flight attendant said all the announcements in Chinese, and then in very broken English, which I'm sure was only really for my benefit....!

Arriving at Kunming, I was then the only western person in the airport! The customs police gave me an awfully funny look as I handed over my passport aswell. I was beggining to realise that this end of China was obviously quite untouched by tourists, which would be a bit of a change after travelling through western tourist invaded Vietnam Cambodia and Laos.

After an early night, I woke up at 8ish the next morning, and decided to go for a bit of a walk around town. A bit of a walk around town turned into 5 hours of getting completely lost and walking hopelessly around the back streets of Kunming trying to find my way back to my hostel! Every single street sign except maybe 2 or 3 are in Chinese, nothing in English. Also, no one speaks English, which was a massive suprise as I thought, quite ignorantly, that China would be the opposite to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. But its not, which makes for some quite amusing situations!

The following day I managed to do the exact same thing again....!

Kunming as a city is probably a good intro into China for someone who hasn't been there before...but it is mainly a buisness town with not a hell of alot to do.

The following day, I headed to Dali...

Laos - Luang Prabang

2008-05-06T19:56:00.002+10:00

So after an eventuful two days riding Elephants and Trekking, I decided a couple of days of chilling out were in order....which considering I was in the most relaxed country in the world, quite an easy thing to achieve!

I saw Ville off to the airport the day after we arrived back from the trek. It was sad to say good bye as we had such a cool time for 2 weeks, but I will be catching up with him when I get to Helsinki which will be fantastic.

So I literally did just do nothing for a couple of days. I did climb to the top of Wat Phu Si, which had a fanastic view of Luang Prabang. I also went for a trip out to the water falls, which were very pretty to look at. But thats about it!

What I did see though was some of the most crazy rain storms I have ever seen! One night I was eating dinner and chatting to a french guy called Piere, and all of the sudden out of no where, the rain came down...and didn't stop for 2 days! It was insane! However, for nearly 2 months I had seen next to no rain and had brilliant weather, so it was nice for a change.

All up I spent a total of 6 days in Luang Prabang, and loved every second of it. Such a stunning town to look at, and a very easy place to just sit back and watch the world go by.

On the 25th, I headed back down to Vientiane, where on the 26th, I headed to country # 4...China!!

Laos - Trekking - Luang Prabang

2008-04-28T15:57:00.008+10:00

So, after dropping Elephants back at the camp, we came back to the lodge and had some breakfast, before setting off on our trek.

Our guide Souk had told us the whole trek should take around 4 - 5 hours, travelling through the Jungles, fields and Minority Villages along the way.

So we set off, the weather not looking wonderful, but I figured the overcast day might keep the blistering tempretures down a notch. Unfortunately, after around an hour of walking, the clouds parted, and the onslaught of heat began.....

We crossed over the Nam Khan river on a wonderfully safe bamboo bridge, and headed into our first village. The village was home to two Lao minority groups. All the houses were made of bamboo, and for a village holding around 100 people, there was only one tap pumping fresh water for showering and drinking.

As we were walking around the village, all the kids came running out to us to say "Sabadee!" and to laugh at us aswell, as big tall white people are seldom seen in this part of Laos, so we were somewhat of a novelty for them!
I asked these girls if I could take there pictures, which they said yes to. After I took it, I showed them on the screen of my camera, andthey thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen. I love how something so simple, that we as westerners take for granted, can amuse these kids to no end. Its little things like that you just don't see at home.

Once we left the village, we walked through the forest for a while, before we began trekking through a clearing. Our guide explained to us that the clearing was once covered in the same trees we had seen previous, but now to make more money, the farmers burn all there land so they can make rice fields to export around Asia. I had noticed alot of burning land on my various bus trips throughout Laos, which now all came together in my mind. It was good but sad in the same way. It was ruining the wonderful forests and jungles of Laos, but building the economy, which Laos is in desperate need of.

We continued trekking through the fields for about an hour, before Souk lead us along a different path towards a mountain. He explained to us that if we went to the right, we could be in the next village with 20 minutes, but if we go to the left, we can get a great view of the country side but it will take longer. It was more of a statement than a question, so considering the trek had been reasonably easy so far, we just followed.

As we got closer and closer to the mountain, I began to realise just how difficult this next part might be. The path was beggining to become non existant, and was getting steeper and steeper by the meter.After almost 45 minutes climbing in a strait line and on an almost 90 degree angle, I started to not feel so great. I had drank enough water, close to 1.5 litres already, but I was getting hotter and hotter, and more and more lathergic as I climbed. I knew I didn't really have much choice but to climb, as they only way back was down. Which now that I was about half way up, looked quite scary!

After another 20 minutes of climbing (which felt like an hour), I finally made it to the top, dripping with sweat, bright red in the face and feeling like a truck had hit me. I basically collapsed on the ground for about 15 minutes, drinking another bottle of water trying so hard just to cool down.

So, as the picture depicts, I sat there, like this just trying to feel better!

After about 20 minutes, I could feel myself starting to come good, and with Souks promise that the rest was either downhill or flat, we set back off again.

We stopped for lunch about half an hour later, but considering I had downed around 2 ltrs of water in the space of 2 hours, there was no way I could fit anything in. So I sat there munching on some sticky rice and the equivilent of beef jerky, only the buffalo variety!

After we finished, we stopped in at a school where Ville showed off his soccer moves with the village kids, and kicked the ball around for about half an hour. The kids loved it! Towards the end, we had produced quite the crowd watching and cheering.

We then set off for another 2 hours of walking back towards Luang Prabang. After about an hour of walking, a thunderstorm came out of no where and brought a welcome relief from the heat, even if we did get drenched.

At around 3pm, we found our ride back to Luang Prabang, and collapsed into the seats of the Van. I estimate we probably trekked for around 18k's all up, which means I had just had not only the most active day of my trip, but quite possibly the most active day of my life! Any weight I had put on in the past 2 months travelling would have all just fallen off!

As difficult as the day was, it was still an awesome experience, and one I would do again and again....however hopefully the second and third time would be a little easier than the first!!

Laos - Elephant Mahot Training - Luang Prabang

2008-04-24T14:38:00.015+10:00

The trip from Phonsavan to Luang Prabang wasn't to bad, just really really long....! It's amusing, because when you look at the map, Luang Prabang is infact only about 90k's away from Phonsavan. However, due the mountains, bad roads and the fact there are next to no bridges in Laos, the trip slowly takes up and down these huge mountains, around rivers and towns, eventually turning a 90k trip into a 245k trip. All I can say is thankgod for Ipod's, books and the fact I was on a good bus!

After arriving in Luang Prabang a little after 5.30pm, I found a guesthouse and then met up with Ville at his hotel. Ville was leaving for Thailand within 3 days, so we decided to go find a 2 day trek we could do together before he left. We headed to All Lao Travel Services on the main street, where we picked up a leaflet for a 2 day Mahot Training Course & Trek. It basically consisted of Elephant riding & trekking through the jungle, Elephant Bathing in the river and a 5 hour trek. All for $70US each including all food and accomodation. We signed up to leave the following morning at 9am.

That morning we woke up to pouring rain, which luckily stopped at around 8.30am! We were picked up from the travel center, where we met our guide Souk, and he drove us away from Luang Prabang for about half an hour. We arrived at this river, where there was no bridge and no boat to cross, so we had to wait for about 20 minutes for the boat driver to rock up and take us across to our accomodation! Apparently he was asleep....

Once we finally got over the river to our accomodation (which was fantastic might I add!), we were given our "Mahot Gear", a stunning dark blue denim uniform which was about 3 sizes to big for me! Mind you, I had kind of stopped caring about how I looked when I left melbourne, however in this get up I did feel like a bit of an idiot, yet very gangsta at the same time!

We crossed over the river again, and walked for around 30 minutes. The first evidence of Elephants we saw very giant massive Elephant poo on the ground, which resembled bright green coconuts. For this rest of our time, every time we passed some (which was quite a number of times!) Ville would say "mmmm fresh coconuts for breakfast!".

Then as we walked up a hill, we came face to face with our first Elephant. They were absolutely massive! I had never seen Elephants before, except at the circus once when I was a kid, so I was completely awe struck by them. There size was the main thing that got me....they were huge! The camp was home to around 6 Elephants, ranging in age from around 25 - 50, male and female.

Our first Elephant ride was reasonably tame, we had a Mahot (Elephant Trainer) riding in front, and myself and Ville were on the back in a seat. It was a good introduction into what was to come in the afternoon...! We trekked through the jungle for around 1 hour, which given how slow the Elephant actually moves, was only around 1 or 2 k's. It was brilliant though, riding up through the trees, along streams, up big hills. It was suprisingly smooth the whole way.

Things started to get a bit more interesting as the Mahot lead the elephant into the River for the first time, which was the most bizarre thing I have ever done. The elephant just casually walked through the river, stopping to have a drinking every now and then, which was understandable as he was lugging us three and it was about 40 degrees! Me and Ville then got our first shot riding the Elephant for a little while, to get used to the feel and learning the comands to control the Elephant.

We headed back to the lodge for some lunch and a quick rest, before heading back to the camp for our first solo ride of the Elephants. Well, almost solo, we still had the mahot's sitting at the back just incase we started to fall off! I was sitting right at the front, on the Elephants neck, with absolutely nothing to hold onto....no ropes, no seats, no nothing. Now, when you are trekking on flat ground thats not that much of an issue, but the minute you start climbing up hills its another story! It was a little scary, but lots of fun at the same time.

After about 45 minutes, we dropped the Elephants back to the camp, and headed back to the river, where the Mahots met us about an hour later. We hopped onto our Elephants, and took them into the river for bathing. This is quite possibly the most amazing thing I have ever done in my life! As they Elephant got deeper, the Mahot told her to sit down so she (and me!) would get almost submerged in the water. We then proceeded to spend the next half an hour throwing water all over the Elephants head to clean them, and also cool them down at the same time. The elephants were loving it, Ville's Elephant wouldn't stop diving its head under the water every few minutes nearly throwing him off in the process!

Once we had finished, we walked the Elephants back upto the river bank, where the Mahots took them back to the camp.

Ville, myself, and our guide then spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the river trying to cool down after such a hot day!

We headed back to the Elephant camp at around 6pm, and rode the Elephants back out to the Jungle where they slept away from the camp for the night. After saying goodnight to them, we headed back to the lodge, where we had a fantastic dinner made for us, which we needed after such an active day.

The following morning, bright and early at 5.45am, we got up and picked up the Elephants from the Jungle and rode them back to the camp. So while all you guys were at work or eating breakfast, Ville and I were riding Elephants through the jungle! Just another Monday morning in Laos really!

Laos - Phonsavan

2008-04-24T14:11:00.007+10:00

Now, when I bought my ticket for the bus to Phonsavan from my guesthouse in Vang Vieng, the ticket said "VIP BUS" - which means reasonably new bus, aircon, mainly western tourists.

What I got was this:

Not quite what I was expecting!!! All up, the bus was missing 6 windows, the seats were mostly broken, and there was around 16 sacks of rice piled up in the aisle, which I had to climb over to get to my seat. When the bus finally left, they had oversold the bus by about 10 tickets, so people were actually sitting on the bags of rice.....!

However, like I said in the previous post, you really shouldn't come to Laos without a sense of humour, and this was one of those moments when you really needed one!

Anyway, the bus did make it to Phonsavan, after around 8 hours of travel up and down the mountains in the Lao country side.

Phonsavan is a tiny town, the main street is the only street, and its around 4 k's long. The only reason people come here, and the only reason I came here, was to see the "Plain of Jars". The Jars are a bizarre formations situated on three different sites about 10 - 20 k's out of Phonsavan. No body knows where they came from our why they are there or what they are made of. The typical Lao rumour is the were used to make Lao Lao hundred of years ago for Lao New Year parties.....given the size of the jars it would have been one hell of a party!!

I signed up with a tour for about $11US with 3 other backpackers I met on the bus, and a Belgium couple in their 60's who had been travelling the world for almost 15 years.

The first site, and by far the biggest, was probably the most impressive. Spanning over around 6k's of country side, there are around 60 jars on the site, as well as a cave in the middle.

After going to the first site, the last two sites were a bit of a let down as far as size was concerned, however, they were a lot prettier. The view from the last two sites were amazing, and there was a bit of shade, which is always welcome during the hot season in Laos.

We spent all up around 5 hours travelling through the three sites and stopping for lunch. It was an interesting part of the world to see.

Phonsavan is also in one of the areas that was most heavily bombed in the 1970's by the US. So everywhere you walk, there are signs warning you about Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) which still haven't been cleared. The Plain of Jars is one area that has been mostly cleared, but its still not worth wondering of the dirt tracks just in case...!

The next day, I headed to Luang Prabang to meet back up with Ville...

Laos - Vang Vieng

2008-04-22T13:41:00.007+10:00

Ok, first off let me apologise for the lack of updates on here. I am trying to be as up to date as possible, but at the moment I am about 2 weeks out!

So, Vang Vieng...........

Ville and I had every intention of leaving Vientiane for Vang Vieng at 10am, which was what our bus ticket said. However, you do learn very quickly that here in Laos, everything happens on a different time frame. So for no apparent reason, we left at 11.30am instead. Bizarre....

Having heard from guide books, the internet and fellow travellers that Vang Vieng is a bit of a dead end town filled with dead end back packer bars constantly playing dead end re-runs of friends/family guy/the simpsons, we decided to stay out of town instead. We headed to a place called the Organic Farm, which was around 4k's out of town situated right next to the Nam Song river. When we arrived the place looked quite good, very quiet and very picturesque. The owner showed us to our rooms, which were $5US a night, and then we decided to sit down and have some lunch at the restaurant.

While waiting for our food, some very hippy looking young backpackers came into the restaurant and sat down next to us. They were talking about the work they had done on the farm ie: cleaning the goats house, farming etc etc, so me and Ville presumed they must live and work at the farm. After a little while, one of the hippy kids came over to us to say hello and asked when we got there, where we were from etc etc etc.

Then he comes out with "So, you guys will be doing some volunteer work on the farm while your here??"
(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
It took all of my composure not to spit my drink everywhere and start laughing hysterically.

One look at Ville told me he was thinking the same thing: "Volunteer? On a farm? We are on holiday!!!!!!"

As politely as we could, we declined the young mans offer, and decided then and there that we would have to check out first thing in the morning and find a guest house in the city.

The next day signified the beggining of Lao New Year, which is a three day new year celebration in which almost all of Laos shuts down and its one big party in every corner of the country. Vang Vieng was no exception. All the locals walked around wearing super bright Hawaiian Shirts, and could be seen drinking Beerlao as early as 8.30am. However, the big fun of Laos New Year is not the drinking, dressing up and dancing. No no no, its all about how many western tourists you can soak with water for the three days! No joke, you couldn't walk any more than 5 meters without some random child comming out of no where with a huge bucket of water to throw at you. Everyone was armed with water pistols, water bombs, garden hoses and buckets. This is a great time of year to visit Laos, however, make sure you have come with a sense of humor and a dry pack to protect your valuables....!!

At about 11am, we started our first day of tubing. Tubing is what Vang Vieng is famous for, and to be honest with you, theres not a hell of alot else to do here except tube. For those of you who are unaware, Tubing is sitting in a giant tractor tyer inner tube and floating down 4k's of water. The fun part however is stopping off at the many makeshift bars en route to drink, eat and fly off giant rope swings.

Our first tubing day ended up being rather eventuful. At our 5th stop, a young lao boy started squirting me with a water pistol, so I chased him with my water bottle. As I ran, the lovely safe and stable bamboo balcony I was running on snapped from underneath me and I went flying through the floor. Lucky for me, I had had quite a few drinks so didn't feel much pain, and found it rather hillarious....which even now it still was quite funny. However, in hindsight, it could have been a lot worse. It was around a 7 meter drop from the balcony down to some rocks and then the river, lucky for me and managed to pull myself back through before any more damage was done. I finished up with a very cut, bruised and swallow right leg, and a few cuts up my right arm. I do wish someone had of got a picture or a video though, it was pretty funny....!!

The next day we decided to hire some push bikes and went riding through the country side of Vang Vieng, which is much prettier than the town its self. All up we probably rode for about 15k's, going down some dirt roads and finding some nice parks. We even accidently ended up crashing a Lao new year party full of locals, which finished with us drinking Beerlao and dancing with them....while being soaked by water of course!

We ended up going tubing again, this time managing to get some really nice photos along the way, which you can view via the link on the right hand side of the screen.

Ville and I managed to go without watching American TV re-runs every day we were in Vang Vieng except one, where we spent about 3 hours watching Family Guy one night when it spontaneously bucketed down with rain. The restaurants with the TVs are the only restaurants with cover so we didn't have much choice...honestly!

All up, we spent 5 days in Vang Vieng, which was probably about 2 and a half days to long, as there really isn't anything to do there aside from drinking, tubing and watching TV. However, we did have a blast there all the same.

Me and Ville then went our seperate ways for a couple of days, as I headed to Phonsavan, and Ville headed direct to Luang Prabang.

Laos - Vientiane

2008-04-14T20:06:00.001+10:00

Its funny the people you run into in the most random of places.....

Just after I checked in for my flight to Vientiane, and was waiting to move through customs, I ran into Ville. Ville I met for all of 20 minutes about 2 weeks earlier in Nha Trang, over a beer at our hotel, and there he was, waiting for the same flight as me! Crazy...! We decided once we were on the flight that we would head towards the same guesthouse, and it turned out we both had roughly the same travel plans for Laos aswell. So a new travel buddy friendship was born!

The first thing I noticed when I got off the plane in Vientiane was how small the airport was. For an international airport that has connections to most of south east asia, china, russia etc etc, it was tiny! It was like landing in the middle of a farm if it wasn't for the giant runway in the middle.

The second thing I noticed was how hot it was. It was 10am when we landed, and it would have already been 35 degrees....!

I paid for my visa, and myself and Villa headed out to find a tuk tuk to take us into town. All the guide books said don't get a taxi from the main exit, as it will cost you to much (too much being $5....). So we headed out the main gates of the airport, where we were immediately approached by another taxi driver, who offered to drive us into Vientiane for $1 each...! Once in Vientiane, me and Ville both booked into the same hotel. I got a nicer room than what I have been used to...mainly because after a night bus and two nights in a dorm room and hanoi, I was absolutely exhausted and needed my own space for a bit. I'm so glad I did it....I slept like a baby that night.

The next day me and Ville headed to Vientiane Swimming Pool and spent the morning there, which we ended up doing for the next few days we were in Vientiane. It was so great not to run around trying to check out sights all day. It was great just to chill out...!

On the way back to our hotel for lunch, we met this old guy called Dowel, who would have been about 70, covered in Tattoos and was traveling the world on his own. He was a sweet old guy, but one of those guys you meet and think "wow, I hope I or anyone else I know ever ends up like that". Dowel had had a pretty rough life, with friends dying in the past few years and his wife left him 7 years ago etc etc etc. He just decided to travel to be away from everything at home. He was a great, happy & funny guy with a reasonably positive outlook on life, considering the circumstance he was in. Ville and I had a beer with him most nights, as otherwise he sat out the front of his hotel, on his own, drinking beer after beer after beer after beer.

One thing about Vientiane that stood out from the other places I have been so far is how quiet it is. After travelling through Vietnam where every driver is a horn junky, and everyone is trying to get your attention to buy something, coming to Laos is like a breath of fresh air. People pass you in the street saying "Saybadeey" (which means hello, or good day), with the biggest smile on their face, and thats all they want to do. Say hello. Theres no alterior motive here.

Vientiane easily would have to win the award for the most laid back capital city in the world. Everything in Laos is done on "lao time", meaning you order food in a restaurant...maybe you will get in 15 minutes....or maybe you will get it an an hour. No one rushes, everyone is just so chilled out its amazing.

After a couple of days of chilling out Lao Style (ie: swimming, bowling and drinking beerlao everyday!), we decided to go and see the most famous monument in Laos - Pha That Luang, which is a giant gold temple dedicated to Buddhism. There were at least 150 monks walking around the grounds as well. It was really quite amazing to look at. We walked around the grounds for around an hour, and then headed to the market which is just outside the Temple grounds.

Now, before I tell you the next bit, I must first explain what Lao New Year is.

Lao New Year is a three day (or sometimes 4 or 5 day) festival in which the people of Laos and in some parts of Thailand celebrate the Lunar New Year, with amazing fashion. It is the one holiday of the year that everyone in Laos looks forward to, as for three or 4 days, absolutely everything closes down.

This festival is also known a little more commonly as "The Water Festival".

So, when me and Ville left Pha That Luang, and were walking around the market, a Lao guy came up to me and said "Excuse me miss??", presuming he was trying to sell me something, I began trying to say politely "No Thankyou", when all of the sudden he poured a 1.5ltr of freezing cold water all over my head!! He yelled at the top of his lungs "HAPPY LAO NEW YEAR!!!" and the whole market broke into hysterics! It was absolutely hillarious.....!

I absolutely loved every second I was in Vientiane, and has definitely got my vote for one of the best capital cities in the world!!

The next day we jumped on a bus to head to Vang Vieng, one day before Lao New Year officially began....

Vietnam - Hanoi

2008-04-11T22:16:00.001+10:00

After yet another sleepless night on yet another sleeper bus, I arrived at Hanoi at 7.30am with all of 2 hours sleep...!

I headed to Hanoi Backpackers, where I had decided to stay. Unfortunately I couldn't check in until 12noon, but they did have free coffee and free internet...so that summed up my whole first morning in Hanoi....however, which sitting on the internet I ran into Mary Liz who I hung out with in Cambodia...which was a huge surprise, as I though she was back in Ireland..she was flying back to Dublin the following day.

We met back up again at 1pm, and headed out to see the Water Puppet Theater. It was quite interesting to watch, and quite possibly the most cultural thing I have done this whole trip. Unfortunately, but as expected, the whole show was in Vietnamese, so me and Mary Liz made up our own story lines as we went along....I think it was much more entertaining that way!

Walking around Hanoi made me wish I was staying there a little longer. It didn't really have that big city feel that I thought it would, which was brilliant. People were quite nice, and there wasn't very many random people trying to sell you stuff every 5 minutes....the complete opposite of Ho Chi Minh.

That night we decided to go out for dinner, Vietnamese style, and eat at one the side restaurants on the streets. At first it was great, we showed the waiter what we wanted in the Menu which was seafood noodles. After about 15 minutes our meal came out....however it wasn't seafood noodles.

Still to this day, I don't actually know what it was we ate. All I know is the next day I could hardly move, and couldn't afford to be any further than around 6 meters from a toilet....or all hell would break lose!!! I spent the whole day either sleeping or in the bathroom. It was quite a productive way to end my time in Vietnam.....!!

I wish I could have spent a little longer in Hanoi, however I am more than happy with amount of time I spent in Vietnam in general. All up I spent about 2 and a half weeks travelling through, and while it is a wonderful country with wonderful people, I definitely didn't love it like I loved Cambodia.

The next day....I headed to Laos!

Vietnam - Hue

2008-04-06T12:35:00.002+10:00

After nearly 4 weeks of perfect sunshine and hot weather, I had my first horribly weather day. I left sunny Hoi An for Hue on Wednesday morning at 8am, and arrived 3 and a half hours later. It's amazing how much the weather can change just by driving three hours north! As I got off the bus it was a little windy and a bit chilly. However I thought it would fine up, so I went to my hotel, and changed into a singlet and shorts and shirt over the top, and headed out with Cuba, a moto driver who worked at the hotel.

For $12 he took me around to all the main sights, aswell as a few off the normal tourist trial. I went to the tomb of Tu Duc, the tomb of Minh Mang, and some pagodas aswell. When I finished at the last Pagoda, Cuba said he could take me to an old army combat base up on the hill if I wanted a really good view of the River. Once we got there, he explained to me that this was the equivilent of "lovers lane" for the Vietnamese and was where they guys took there girlfriends to hang out....and other stuff....(!!). Sure enough, once we walked to the top, there they all were sitting on Moto's, or on blankets over looking the river. It was hillarious...! However, the view was fantastic so I got some great pictures....

Just as we left the Vietnamese "lovers lane", it absolutely poured down with rain. I didn't take my rain jacket out with me so I got absolutely saturated! I learned my lesson pretty damn quick though....always stuff your jacket in the bottom of your bag and never take it out!!

That night I headed to the DMZ Bar on the main street next to the river, where I hung out with a really nice couple from Birmingham. We proceeded to get rather drunk on Tiger Beer and Rice Wine and hung about there till about Midnight. Suffice to say the next day, I was a little worse for wear...so I spent the whole day loading pictures onto face book which you can view by clicking the links to the right of your screen.....

The next day I headed out to the former Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) about 230 k's north of Hue. The DMZ is the border then used to separate the communist North Vietnam to the Capitalist South. One thing I learned very quickly on thsi tour is how the Vietnamese do not refer to the Vietnam War as the Vietnam War. They refer to it as the "American War".

I spent about an hour crawling and walking through the Vin Moch tunnel, which were used as a living area for North Vietnamese families during the war. To think families lived down there terrifying, as it was so small, damp and dark. I kept smacking my head on the roof every time we had to go down some stairs....!

From there we went driving through the mountains, which is where alot of the battles took place. The mountains used to be covered in thousands of acres of Jungle. However, once the Americans started throwing agent orange around everywhere, they all burned up...and now nothing will grow properly there. They currently estimate that perhaps in a thousand years the jungle will be back to half of what it was.

We then stopped at a former military base, where there was a collection of photographs and memoriblilla from the battle of Keh San. For obvious reasons, it was all Pro North Vietnam, and it was interesting too see it all from a different perspective.

When we went to leave, our bus broke down, three times within half an hour. Each time everybody had to get out and push it along so it could start again! Well, nearly everyone. I choose to watch and take pictures instead...its probably the one and only time I will use the fact I am a women to get out of something!

We eventually found our way back to the hotel, where I had dinner with a great couple from Glasgow, and finished the night having a few beers out the front of the hotel with Cuba and his mates...a true authentic Vietnamese experience....!

The following night I jumped on yet another night bus, and headed for Hanoi....

Vietnam - Hoi An

2008-04-06T12:00:00.003+10:00

My first night bus experience. I would love to say I hope it would be my only night bus experience, but unfortunately the journeys are just going to get longer the further north I go...!

I left Nha Trang at 7pm and jumped on the bus. A night bus is basically a dorm room on wheels. It has three row's on bunk beds plus 5 lots of top and bottom beds at the back. I thought maybe if I sat up the back I might be a bit more comfortable, however that was not the case. I got stuck between these two German people, and during the night you are practically spooning the people either side of you....! Now, if I was a lonely person I'm sure I would have loved it. But I'm not. And I hated it. And I only slept for about an hour the whole journey.

One thing that takes a bit of getting used to in South East Asia, especially in Vietnam, is the way they drive. Basically its one foot on the accelerator, one hand on the steering wheel, and the other hand is permanently on the horn. So, basically I would fall asleep, the bus would hit a bump, and the driver would start madly beeping his horn. This happened all the way through night, but became progressively worse the closer we got to Hoi An. Then, as we were approaching Hoi An, the bus driver decides to wake everyone up by turning on the stereo at full volume playing Vietnamese dance and pop music...what a wonderful way to start my first day in Hoi an!

I finally arrived in Hoi An at 6.30am. As some of you may or may not know, Hoi An is the Tailoring capital of Vietnam. You can practically get absolutely anything made for you. Unfortunately, this also produces a lot of touts in the street trying to get your business. Whats even worse, is at 6.30 in the morning, after traveling nearly 12 hours and sleeping for 1 hour, the minute I stepped off the bus I started being hassled by this girl telling me about her families shop. As I waited for my bag she went on and on and on about how her family could make me a cheap suite and shoes ready to take within 2 days.

I was as polite as I could be with one hours sleep at 6.30am, and tried to say I wasn't interested. However, as I headed to my hotel, she yelled after me "I will see you later on Australia!". After a couple of hours sleep at my hotel, I headed for a walk through the town, and this girl has obviously worded up her family about what I looked like, because they saw me pass their shop and came sprinting out yelling "Australia! Australia! You buy suite from me! You speak to my sister!" I just shook my head and said no and practically ran in the opposite direction...!

I spent the rest of the day walking through Hoi An old town, which is now a Unesco World Heritage sight. It had a very heavy French, Japanese and Vietnamese influences, which created a real multi-cultural experience every time you turned a different corner. Hoi an itself as a town is very laid back, not a lot of people and is very easy to navigate your way around on foot. It was nice to be in such a small city for a change.

The next day I hired a push bike and rode 5'ks to the beginning of China Beach, which stretches all the way up to Danang. I then spent about 3 hours walking up and down the beach which was great. It was good to actually do some exercise rather than take a Moto everywhere which is what I have been doing since day one....! I am starting to worry all the beer, rice and noodles are going to catch up with me...!

I headed out for dinner to a tiny little restaurant, where for 60,000 Dong (about $3.50) a had a set menu with all of Hoi Ans culinary specialties, which included White Rose, Cau Lao and home made spring rolls. White Rose is a small steamed dumpling stuffed with shrimp, and Cau Lao is a noodle soup mixed with pork, croutons and bean sprouts. It was absolutely delicious....!

Overall I really like Hoi An, even though there wasn't a huge amount to do there, it was very much a traditional town & not completely over run with tourists. I'm sure in the next few years it will start to change and expand more towards the beach, but right now it was probably one of my favorite places I have visted in Vietnam so far.

Vietnam - Nha Trang

2008-04-03T23:41:00.002+11:00

Once I left Phnom Penh on the bus bound for Ho Chi Minh, it caught fire. Twice. I couldn't believe it! I was sitting on the bus, and all of the sudden I could smell smoke. About 5 minutes later the driver pulls the bus over, jumps out and runs to where all the luggage was, opened it and all this smoke comes pouring out. Turns out a towel of some sort had caught fire. The driver pulled the towel out, stood on it to put it out, and then threw it back in. Unfortunately what he failed to realise is the other end of the towel was still alight, and 10 minutes later we were in the same situation again. This time he actually ran towards a dam and dropped the towel in and left it there. Bad for the environment, but good for our bus.....!

I arrived in Ho Chi Minh at about 7pm, and had missed the last night bus for Nha Trang, so I left the following morning.

Nha Trang was quite a nice place. The beach was beautiful and the weather was fantastic. Unfortunately if you weren't really a beach person there isn't a hell of a lot else to do there. Condering I had just spent close to a week in Sihanoukville, I was and still am a little bit "beached out". That didn't stop spending a full day sitting on the beach though....! It was nice to sit there and not be hassled by 15 Cambodian children trying to sell me bracelets every 5 minutes....very peaceful...!

The following day I did what was becoming a bit of ritual for me - I hired a Moto and driver and got them to take me around to see the sights.

We went and saw the big giant budda that is set up on a hill overlooking the town. While I was walking up to it I was approached by two people, a guy and a girl, in uniform saying that they work at the sight and that they grew up there in the orphanage. They were quite nice and walked with me up to one of the buddas where they offered to take my picture..which I let them do. After that was done they started saying "oh please buy postcards for the orphanage to pay for the children" etc etc. So I bought some postcards, and then they insisted on me giving them $10 donation! To which I refused but they kept on and on for about 5 minutes, so eventually I gave them $5. I can almost guarantee that wont go near any children's orphanage...

The view from the very top was amazing, and well worth the hassle and the stairs....!

After that we went to see the Po Nagar Cham Tower which again over looks Nha Trang, and is still a worship ground for lots of buddists in Nha Trang. Again a wonderful view from the top.

From there we headed to the Oceanographic Institute, which had a great collection of different fish, sharks and stingrays to look at.

By then it was 1pm, and I had seen absolutely everything! I spent the rest of the day on the roof of the hotel reading a book and then went and had some dinner.

I was glad I didn't end up staying longer in Nha Trang. Like I said, it was a nice town, reasonably quiet, but after 5 days of the beach I clearly had well and truly had enough.....

The next day I headed to Hoi An...

Cambodia Part 4: Sihanoukville

2008-03-29T20:22:00.002+11:00

Leanne, Mary Liz & Myself left Battambang for Sihanoukville via Phnom Penh on a local Cambodian bus, on which we were the only non Cambodians. The best bit about the whole 7 hour journey was the Cambodian Karaoke Videos they put on, and some dodgy french slap stick comedy which absolutely everyone found hilarious...

We arrived in Phnom Penh and found a travel agent to try and book us on a bus to Sihanoukville right away. While the travel agent was trying to find out if he could fit us on anywhere, Leanne found a leaflet for PMT airlines, which was a big source of amusement for about half an hour. We were making up conversations like "How was your flight" - "Oh, it was ok. The staff were really angry though, and every time I asked for something the stewardess just burst into tears!"

Amusing stuff!

We missed the last bus to Sihanoukville, so we left the following morning instead.

We managed to get booked on a next to empty aircon mini bus, which only took 4 hours, and only cost $5! The only issue was it dropped us off at this swanky new casino about 5k's out of town. When we ordered a tuk tuk to come and get us, the driver presumed we were customers of the casino, and tried to overcharge us....in the end it cost us $10 to go 5k's, when we had just traveled over 240k's for $5...! However, it was kind of worth because the tuk tuk driver was hysterical...he kept laughing at everything, he accidently smacked Mary Liz on the head while reaching for his hat, and when we were going down the terrible road to our guesthouse, he kept screaming and saying "ouch!" every time the tuk tuk hit a bump. Highly amusing stuff!

We checked into our guesthouse, which was called Coasters Beach Bungalow's, and only cost $7 a night each for a room to share. It was right on the beach as well, which was fantastic.

After we checked in, we decided to go and get some food on the beach. While walking along we came across this girl selling tickets to the full moon party on an island about 1 hours journey from the mainland. We decided to give it a go.

At 9pm, everyone crowded on the beach to jump on one of the 6 boats leaving for the island. What we failed to realise is that the boats don't come to close to the sand, so we had to walk to the boat, through water, absolutely saturating ourselves. Once we arrived at the island, we had to jump back in the water again, this time up to our waists!

The party was actually quite good. There were lots of people there and the drinks weren't overpriced, which you kind of expect at these things... At about 3am, I fell asleep in a chair for about 20 minutes....

Coming back to the mainland was interesting experience. Around 50 drunk people trying to pile into one boat that kept swaying from side to side. Clearly, a perfectly safe thing to do! We arrived back at the mainland at around 5.30am...then slept all day and spent the afternoon on the beach.

That almost sums up how we spent everyday in the end. The beaches were so pretty and the weather was so good that it was hard to do otherwise. We did go out to Bamboo Island for one day which was quite nice, it was just a quiet island about 50 minutes from the mainland where you can go snorkeling.

That night we went out for dinner at one of the seafood BBQs on the beach front. The food was fantastic. Once we had had enough, a young beggar boy came over asking us if he could have our food. We said yes, and he sat there for 5 minutes just smashing down absolutely everything left on our plates. I have never seen anything like it. It was as if he didn't breathe for 5 minutes, just ate. The three of us just sat there in astonishment the whole time. Once he had finished, he stood up, bowed and his best English said "Thank you", then walked off. It was the most amazing yet heartbreaking thing I have ever seen. And he isn't the only one, there would be at least 20 - 30 kids who don't sell things and just want to eat and drink water.

One thing that can either make or break your trip to Sihanoukville, is the children and adults selling things on the beach.

At first, the kids are quite sweet. Asking you where your from, how old you are, how long are you staying etc etc. Then before you know it you are surrounded by about6 or 7 of them, all trying to sell you the exact same thing. When you agree to buy they want you to buy more, if you refuse to buy they just sit there asking why until you do. One of there little tricks is they ask you what your favorite colors are, and they make you a "friendship" bracelet for free. However, that is pretty much then your contract to buy from them, and if you don't, or you try and refuse the bracelet...look out! At one point the three us had had quite enough of the kids hanging around us, so I tried, quite politely, to get them to go away. The response I received from one girl was "You can't talk to me, I'm Cambodian, this is my country" and I replied saying "yes I know, I love your country, but can you please just leave us alone?" She then replied with "Go back to Australia!!!" and stormed off!!!!!!!!!!

Now, I can handle being abused by a 10 year old kid, but its when the adults start having a go that I started to reach the end of my teather!

On our last day there, a lady came over asking me if I wanted to get my legs threaded. Having no idea what she was talking about, she proceeded to show me. What it is, is a new way to shave your legs with a peice of thread. Very very painful. The lady then asked me if I wanted it done, to which I replied no. She then said "Maybe later?" to again I replied "No thankyou". She then said "I'l come back later maybe you get it done then?" so I just kind of nooded and said goodbye. When she came back about 3 hours later I said to her "Look I'm sorry, but I really don't want it done". Well, that was is. She looks at me and says "Are you crazy?" to which Leanne replied "Yes she is, we are going to put her in an institution when she gets home!" and we both fell about laughing. The threading lady didn't like this, and started hurling abuse at me left right and center, calling me "stupid crazy bitch lady" etc etc!! Unfortunately, I do find most things amusing, so I couldn't help but laugh at her which just seem to make it worse. Plus Leanna and Mary Liz were laughing as well. Eventually she stormed off...but still walked past about half an hour later hurling more abuse at me....!!

Again, only in Cambodia!

One thing thats a bit scary about the kids is the way they just jump all over you. I mean, most of them are quite sweet if you buy something off of them or give them a drink or something. However they are just all over you. Touching your hair, your legs, your arms. They have no inhibitions and don't appear to be aware of would could happen if they came across the wrong person. The thought of someone taking advantage of these kids makes me sick to my stomach. There are signs everywhere about the importance of reporting Child abusers in Sihanoukville, so it obviously does happen. But I guess with no education for some or most of these kids, its hard for them to know the difference between whats right and wrong. Like I said, the thought makes me feel physically ill.

We ended up spending 5 full days in Sihanoukville. My original plan was to only spend 2 or 3, so I will now have to do a bit of a race up the coast of Vietnam to make my flight from Hanoi to Vientiane in Laos on the 8th of April. But thats ok, I probably had the funniest & most enjoyable week of my trip so far with Mary Liz and Leanne, and will probably continue to laugh about some of stuff we found amusing over the next couple of months!

I said goodbye to both of them in Phnom Penh on Thursday, and headed back to Vietnam.....

Cambodia Part 3: Battambang

2008-03-29T19:34:00.002+11:00

Now, to explain the next part of my journey, you are all going to have to use your imaginations a little bit.

And if you think you can manage to imagine exactly what my journey to Battambang was like, then times the feeling by about 100 and you should be getting close....!

I bought my boat ticket from the Siem Reap hostel for $15, 2 days before I left. Prior to leaving melbourne I had done a little bit of reasearch about the Siem Reap to Battambang trip, as it is meant to be quite a pretty journey through lots of small villages on the river banks, as well as some floating villages aswell. However, in my research, I had discovered that not all the boats were making it all the way to Battambang, as the water levels were too low. Just before I left however, they were saying on the forums that the boats were making it all the way, it just about 9 hours instead of 7. So when I bought the ticket, I asked the seller if the boat would make it all the way to which he replied "Yes yes!" and then I asked how long does it take and he replied with "5 hours miss, very nice journey!".

Lesson one about transport in Cambodia: Never believe anyone when they tell you something only takes 5 hours!

I get in a minibus on the day of departure at 6.30am, which they pack in with about 5 people too many. We then head down that same horrible road to the boat dock, which seems alot worse in a bus than it did in a tuk tuk!

We arrive 15 minutes late, and I am expecting the boat to have left. I am looking down my ticket at a picture of the boat and trying to see one similar....there is none. As I begin to wonder how on earth I am going to get out of here to Battambang, I see the other people from the bus heading towards the water. Heading towards a boat with other western tourists on it. I look back down at my ticket with picture of the boat, and then look up at the boat than stands before us. The boat in the picture looks simlar to the one from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, this boat looks like something out of a water safety comercial with a big sign under saying "DO NOT BOARD AN UNSAFE BOAT". The wood is rotting away in different points, and its already completely overcrowded. The captain of the boat has lined up plastic chairs down the middle to accomodate those of us who don't have a seat. I manage to find a seat at the front next to the driver, and off we went.

The boat trip was actually quite pleasent, and the books don't lie. Going through the floating villages and having the kids yelling hello to you was awesome. Although just when I was starting to think how nice and polite the cambodian children are, one promptly picks up two peices of mud and starts hurling them at the boat, apprently hitting one lady....!

We stop for a quick break in a little village about 5 hours out of Siem Reap. I decide to move myself up onto the roof for the remaining part of the journey. I estimated in my mind that we would probably have another 2 hours to go.

Within an hour of setting back off again the boat starts to have a bit of trouble. I could see from the roof of the boat that it wasn't very deep, as there were children standing up in it and the water only reached their shoulders. For the next half an hour, the boat guys with two massive sticks proceeded to almost paddle us for the next couple of K's as we kept getting jammed in the mud.

Then we stopped.

The boat guys jumped off the boat and pushed it towards the bank, where we all grabbed our bags and jumped off. At this point, it must have been around 38 - 40 degrees C aswell.

We then walked for about 10 minutes, with our bags, where there were two beaten up Toyota Hilux Utes waiting. Only the boat guys couldn't find the keys, and spent the next 20 minutes crawling through the bush trying to find them....!

Keys in hand we started loading up the Utes.

Now would be a good time for me to point out that there were around 53 people on the boat, plus 5 boat guys, plus big backpack, plus small back packs. They loaded all our big bags in the ute, and put 5 people plus the driver inside the front of the car. Then 18 of us jumped in the tray, sitting on sides, in the middle, or standing up. I opted for the sides because I thought that would be more comfertable. It was here I met Leanne from the UK, who was sitting next to me.

We then started driving down the worst road in the world. I thought the Siem Reap boat dock road was bad? That was heaven in comparison to this! With us all sitting on top of each other, being belted by branches every 5 minutes (thanks to Leanne, I didn't end up with a concussion due to the tree's being overgrown!), the truck travelling at about 60k's an hour, and hitting pot holes the size of skateboarding halfpipes - there were actual moments where I thought "This could quite possibly be the last thing I ever do"!!

The worst part of the journey took about an hour and a half. After that we hit the village roads which were more dusty than dangerous, so I could breathe again once we hit them...

We were meant to arrive in Battambang at around 2pm. We arrived at 4.30pm, sunburnt, covered in dust and absolutely exhausted. I also arrived in hysterics, because the was quite possibly the funniest yet most dangerous thing I have done on this trip! I just couldn't stop laughing about it for days afterward....

I went out for dinner and a well deserved beer with Hana (i'm sorry I know I have spelt your name wrong!), Leanne & Mary Liz, who I met from the truck journey. We worked out that Leanne and Mary Liz were heading in the same direction as me after Battambang, so we decided to all go together.

The next day me and Hana hired two moto drivers who drove us around the countryside of Battambang for the day. They took us to a world vision school, The Killing Caves (yet another Khmer Rouge playground in the 70's), a temple and to Wat Banan where I paid a little boy $1 to fan me all the way up the giant steps to the top.

After that we headed to the Bamboo Train, which is a method of transport that the locals use on the Battambang to Phnom Penh train line. The best way to describe it is as a bamboo raft with an axle and motorcycle motor on the back. We loaded me and Hana, the two moto drivers and there motos and rode down the track for about 15 minutes. Everytime we came across someone coming in the other direction (its a one way track) they would have to get off, unassemble there train, let us go past then reassemble and be on there way. Its was the strangest contraption I have ever been on. But fun fun fun!!!

The whole day took around 6 hours, and was quite possibly the best 6 hours of my trip. It was amazing to go through all these tiny villages, where the kids line up and give you a high 5 as you go past and the families wave at you enthusastically.

That one day in Battambang showed me the way the real Cambodian's live. I am so glad to have been fortunate enough to have seen it.

Cambodia Part 2: Siem Reap

2008-03-29T18:21:00.002+11:00

I left Phnom Penh at 6.30am the following morning, and caught the boat to Siem Reap. When I bought the ticket for the boat, the guesthouse advised me that the boat was oversold and I would have to sit on the roof. It sounded like fun so I though I would give it a go....

I loaded my luggage on the boat and jumped up on the roof. I read in a few places to secure my day pack and anything lose so it would not going flying off the boat, so I did that, put some suncream on, and away we went.

Apprently, according to other passengers, the inside of the boat stunk like deisel, so within an hour there was probably about 35 of us on the roof. It was definitely the best way to travel. However, the belting sun did get a bit hard to manage after a little while. It was great to go through all the little floating villages on the way to Siem Reap. All the kids come out on there little porches and wave at you and scream "Hello!" at the top of their lungs.

After nearly 7 hours of traveling up the Tonle Sap river & Lake, we finally arrived to Siem Reap. Except our boat got bogged due to low water levels and a little boat had to pull us the rest of the way.

While we were waiting to the little boat to pull us away, a bunch of paddle boats with children selling drinks came up along aside us and jumped on the boat. I'm telling you, nothing spells "You are not in Australia" more than a 4 year old girl trying to sell you cans of Anchor Beer for $1!

When we arrive at the boat dock, it is like nothing I have ever seen. There would have been over 200 tuk tuk and moto drivers waiting to greet us, all waving big sign saying "$1 to ANY hotel!". After selecting a driver, I jumped in his Tuk Tuk, where he proceeded to tell me in his best English "Please put leg on bag, road bumpy" and made some strange bumpy movements with his arms. I nooded and put my legs on my bags. He then started pointing above my head, where there were some hand rails. "Hold hold tight tight" he said with the same crazed bumping expression. So, with my legs on my bags, and holding on to the handrails, I gave the driver a quick thumbs up and off we went.

Within about 10 seconds I had nearly fallen out sideways. This exscuse for a road was the WORST exscuse for a road I had ever seen in my life. The pot holes were so big and so frequent, it was as if it had been hit by bombs. As we continued down this road, we drover through some cambodian villages, where the houses were made of Bamboo. There didn't appear to be much of a sewage system either judging by the smell that kept hitting me just as hard as each and every bump. At one point I wasn't sure if I was going to be sick because of the ride, the smell or a combination of the two!

As sick as I felt, I still couldn't help but smiling. The thought that kept crossing my mind was "This is Cambodia, this is what I travelled to see". I then started laughing as I tried to picture people like my parents and some of my friends coping with this ride. I'm guessing most of them couldn't!

After the longest 20 minute journey of my life, we arrived at the "Siem Reap Hostel", which had been reccomended by a few travellers I had come accross in Saigon and Phnom Penh. At $10 a night for a dorm room, it was quite expensive. However, the place was brand new, and quite possibly the cleanest place I have ever stayed in. And, just for bonus points, it had a pool! Exactly what I needed after that Tuk Tuk ride....

The next day I met up with two other backpackers, John and Anika (I hope I spelt that right!), and we headed to the Angkor Temples. By 8.30am, it was already about 30 degrees, so we knew it was going to be a hard day walking around.

Our first temple was Angkor Thom, where we spent around 2 hours walking around that and temples around it. We climbed as many temples as we could, as the views were amazing. However, the steps to get up the temples were just as steep as the walls around it. As I got around half way up one, the only thing I could think of was "if I fall backwards now, I am going to crack my skull and die...". With that in mind, I stopped looking down or up and just clibed as quick as I could to flat ground again!

We looked at a few other temples, one that was completely in ruins which was quite interesting. You will have to forgive me but I can't remember any of the other temples names!

Finally we got to the big one - Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is the most preserved out of all the temples, and took around an hour to walk around what were allowed to see. I was looking forward to climbing the inside tower, but it was closed for some reason. (We later found out that the previous week a french lady had got to the top, lost her balance and fell down the stairs, smashing her head open. No one actually knows if she survived or not....but thats why we weren't allowed!)

On our way out we were accosted by kids selling bracelets. After saying a repeated no, one girl turned around and said "Hey, you Australia!" and I nodded. She then took a deep breath and said "Australia has population of 22 million, Sydney 5 million, Melbourne 4 million. Capital City is Canberra and the Prime Ministers name is Kevin Rudd......but he's new the old one was John Howard"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so shell shocked that I just handed her a dollar and bought ten braclets off of her. These kids must get taught in school exactly how to win an Aussie tourist over!

The next day I spent in the Pool just about all day, until a whole group us decided to celebrate St Patricks day. I find it amusing that no matter what corner of the globe you are in, you can always find a group of Irish lads to celebrate St Pats with - and thats exactly what we did....until about 3am! Suffice to say, the following day was pretty similar to the previous. I sat by the pool all day.....

I did head out in the afternoon for a walk through the town. Siem Reap is a tiny city in comparison to what I had already seen. Very laid back, not to many people trying to sell you stuff in the streets, and its safe.

Between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, I would probably pick Siem Reap anyday. However, I do believe you have to experience both to get a bettwe understanding of Cambodia.

Cambodia Part 1: Phnom Penh

2008-03-29T17:32:00.003+11:00

After being stuck at the border crossing between Vietnam & Cambodia for over 1 hour, having to surrender my passport and then drive away without it and then having my first taste of cambodian food, I saw my first Motorcycle accident. It wasn't pretty. A lady on a bike was hit by a van travelling in front of the bus I was on. We didn't hang around to see if she was ok. From what I could see she clearly wasn't.

We arrived in Phnom Penh around 3 hours later in 36 degree heat. The first thing that struck me about Phnom Penh was how different it was to Saigon. There were motorbikes, thousands of them, but no where near that of Vietnam. The second thing that struck me as different was how friendly the people were to me. Everyone from the bus driver to the guy who worked at the tourist office to my first Tuk Tuk Driver. Everyone wants to practise their english and love to hear about where you come from.

Phnom Penh was my first city where I had booked no accomodation. My first mistake was telling my Tuk Tuk driver that prior to telling him where I actually wanted to stay. He proceeded to ferry me around to 2 different guesthouses prior to taking me to where I wanted to go. After a very stern "Please just just me to the Number 9 Guesthouse!" he finally understood and took me strait there.

The Number 9 guesthouse had everything you would want out of a backpacker hangout; a Retaurant, a Bar with cheap beer, a TV showing movies & a great view. The one thing it didn't have was nice rooms. I mean, they were ok, they just weren't wonderful. However for $5 a night I wasn't about to complain. Plus the bar and the view made up for it!

It wasn't until I went to have a shower that I realised the bathroom situation. I had a bathroom, with a proper toilet etc etc. However the shower was simply a cold water hose and a bucket.

I guess this kind of stuff is character building at the end of the day!

I met one the guesthouses tuk tuk drivers at the bar that night, who offered to take me around town the next day. The next morning I met up with him, and decided to go to the S21 Toul Sleng Prison & The Killing Fields. There was more to see but I didn't want to cram to much into one day.

The Toul Sleng Genocide Museum was a pretty confronting place to walk around. It used to be a school until the Khmer Rouge came into power in the 1970's, where it was converted into a torture prison for people not part of Pol Pots "Ideal Race". The museum has wall to wall pictures of nearly every prisoner who was kept there and killed. In other rooms it has testimonies written by the families of some of the victims. Some which didn't know there bothers, fathers and sons had died until either seeing their picture on those walls, or hearing from someone else who had seen their pictures.

The museum still has the torture chambers set up with their instruments on the floor. Sitting above that on the wall are pictures of the victims who fell to those instruments.

One thing that was probably the most interesting part for me was in one room they have pictures of members of Khmer Rouge who still have not been prosecuted. On these pictures of the Khmer Rouge senior officers, there is all kinds of graffitti written over there faces in cambodian. I can only imagine what it might say.

There is an ongoing argument in Cambodia as to wether there should be a trail or not, due to the cost involved. Some believe that money should be invested back into the rebuilding of Cambodia.

My Tuk Tuk driver then took me out to the Killing Fields, which is where most of the 17,000 detainees from Toul Sleng (s-21) where taken to and killed. In the middle of the field is a massive glass tower, holding over 8000 skulls that were found in the fields. The shallow graves them selves have never been filled in, and just sit open for the public to see. There are signs at certain sights that read "x amount of women and childrens bodies were found here" ect etc. It was all very moving stuff.

However, you can't help but fell angry as you walk through these places. Angry that a genocide like this could have happened, and angry that nothing was done sooner to stop it.

The next day was a bit more light hearted!

My same driver picked me up again and took me to the Central Market, the National Museum and the Royal Palaces.

The Central Market was absolute mahem. Think of anything you have ever wanted in your whole life and you could buy it there. There were people everywhere!

The National Museum was nothing overly exciting. Some interesting looking artifacts, but it took no more than about 20 minutes to walk around.

The Royal Palace was only a 10 minute walk from the museum, so I told my Tuk Tuk driver I would meet him out the front of the palaces at around 3.30pm.

As I walked along the outer walls of the Palace, a young cambodian girl came up to me trying to sell me water. After explaining I wasn't interested she proceeded to bombard me with questions about where I was from, laughing hysterically at every answer I gave her. When I told her I was from Australia, she just about near wet her self and started screaming "G'Day Mate! G'Day Mate!" at the top of lungs....! I had quite a long conversation with her while I waited for the palace to open and learned that the cambodian kids that go to school go from around 7.30am to 11.30am, then come back at 4pm for the rest of their classes. I also got an introduction into the famous Cambodian humour when the girl asked me if I spoke cambodian. When I said no she said (in between fits of laughter) "Thats just strange, because I am Cambodian in Cambodia and speak english, you Australian in Cambodia but don't speak Cambodian!!". In between feeling stupid and embarrassed, I did manage to have a laugh with her about that one!

Once inside the gates of the Royal Palaces, it was amazing. There was around 5 different temples and palace that you could only see the outside of. It was a fantastic area to walk around and like nothing I had ever seen before.

The next day I left for Siem Reap. My overall opinion of Phnom Penh at that time was that I loved it. However, it wasn't until I left there and started to see more of the "real" Cambodian cities, that I began to have a bigger appreciation for the country as a whole.

Pictures from Ho Chi Minh City & The Mekong Delta

2008-03-18T20:55:00.004+11:00

This is the view from a balcony at the Yellow House Hostel, Ho Chi Minh

Crazy Moto's driving around the streets

My new favorite food - Pho`

Me at the top of the Reunification Palace, Ho Chi Minh City

On the boat at the Mekong Delta

Me & Mr Lee my Ho Chi Minh and Mekong Delta tour guide (aka crazy Cyclo & Moto Driver!)

Me being me....

The side of the stream just off of the Mekong River

Don't be fooled, I am definitely NOT pleased to be holding this 40kg Python...that look on my face is sheer panic!!!

Traffic Jam....

Me just hanging out on a hammock!

3 days in Saigon

2008-03-11T14:25:00.002+11:00

So I'm here! Finally!

Arrived Saturday evening about half an hour earlier than expected. To say it was raining on arrival would be the biggest understatement of the trip so far.....it was BUCKETTING down with rain!!

I walked out of the arrival hall of Ho Chi Minh City airport to be met by almost 200 taxi drivers fighting for my business. Lucky for me I has organised a taxi prior with my Hostel - after a 9 hour flight your really don't have it in you to bargain with a driver on how much a $10US trip should really cost...

The drive to my hostel was nothing short of eye opening. Those of you who have been here before will understand where I am coming from. There are lines on the road but no one uses them, There are traffic lights but no one pays attention to them, and the motor cycles on the road would out number the cars at least 250:1. It is mind boggoling. Plus they all drive with hand on the horn so its noisy as hell! I got to my hostel around 8pm and just crashed out.

The next day I woke up bright and early and grabbed some breakfast at a cafe near my hostel. Had my first experience of eating Pho', which is a Vietnamese dish you can eat any time of the day. It's a soup with Beef, Noodles and veggies in. Really nice but huge...! While eating I was approached by a Cyclo driver trying to get my buisness for the day. He introduced himself as Mr Lee and showed my a piece of paper listing all the sites he could take me too on his cyclo (for those of you that don't know, a cyclo is a bike with a seat in the front). The guy was nice enough and spoke reasonable english so I thought I would give it a go.

Best thing I ever did!!!

This guy cycled me around to all the main Saigon sights, aswell as a few off the beaten path. He ferried me around for 5 hours only stopping when I wanted to take a picture or have a look at something. The guy was a machine! He took me to the War museum, the Reunification Palace, Notre Dam Cathedral & Cholon Market. I saw people selling anything you can imagine on the side of the roads. Probably the most disturbing were the dogs and turtles....!!!

After he dropped me back at around 3pm, we agreed to meet again the next day where he would take me to the Mekong Delta region for the day.

At 9am on the dot he met me at my hostel with his bright green motorbike and a bright pink helmet for me to wear. We set off shortly after for a 2.5 hour motorbike trip through some of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. Being on a motorbike in central Saigon was like being on the biggest adrenaline rush of your life! Remember what I said about 250:1 bikes to car ratio? Well when your in the thick of it - it feels like a hell of a lot more...!

After leaving central Saigon, we drove though heaps of towns and villages where you would see people selling stuff on the side of the highway. Lots of new developments coming up in different areas, but then you would see quite a few towns that looked as if they were falling apart. One thing is for sure though - there are people absolutely everywhere on the road..! Even out of the main city. Plus the roads aren't to great to drive on so my bum is a bit sore at the moment!

We then met up with a boat driver who took me and Mr Lee out to 3 of the Islands of the Mekong Delta Region. In one part, we had to get off the boat and go on a canoe where these two Vietnamese guys paddled for about 20 minutes through this Jungle like canal...the two guys looked like they were about 100 years old.

We had lunch at one of the islands, where I ordered prawns with noodles & vegetables. The guy asked how many prawns I wanted, and I wasn't that hungry so I said four. Well, that was a mistake. The prawns that came out where about the same size as my foot (but tasted a hell of a lot better!). The man who took my order came and sat down with me and made me fresh spring rolls with the noodles, vegies and prawns. It tasted amazing!!! The guy spoke really good english as well which was great. I was expecting the meal to cost me a fortune - but it only ended up being $30US!

We left the mekong delta region at about 3pm, and travelled back in the middle of their peak hour traffic. Peak hour was much worse to travel in, you are constantly squashed up with 500 other motorbikes at the traffic intersections....scary scary. We were back in Saigon by about 5pm, safe and sound.

Although the Motorbike and the Cyclo's are a little scary, in my opinion they are the best way to see Saigon. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do", well, when in Saigon - do as the crazy Vietnamese do - Grab a bike, a driver and get the hell out of the city for the day!

I'm spending the day just chilling out today as I am quite severley sunburnt from yesterday. I am catching the Bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia tomorrow morning at 8am.

My opinion of Vietnam so far? I love it! It has an almost intoxication atmosphere about it, although it can be a bit stifling sometimes. The people are friendly and everything is so cheap!!!
Just watch out for the street sellers trying to shine your shoes or sell you books/sunglasses/purses. They can be a real pain after a while....!

Till next time...

Jess

The "see ya later" email....

2008-03-04T23:56:00.003+11:00

Evening all,

this is the email I sent out to just about everyone I know. I got pretty emotional sending it and though you avid readers might enjoy reading it....

_____________________________________________________

Hi Everyone,

As most or all of you know, on Saturday, I am leaving Melbourne to go traveling again.

I wanted to send an email to all of you; family, friends, fellow backpackers and old work colleagues to say a big thank you to you all, and also give you all a bit of an insight into how this trip came about.

When I first decided to plan this trip it was just after I came back from New Zealand in April last year, where I met Ben and Naomi from the UK . Both of you guys are probably partly to blame for me wanting to go away again, as you both (in your own unique way!) re-introduced me to the traveling lifestyle that I had forgotten since coming home the previous year.

It wasn’t until around September that I actually started to make it known to a few of my close mates that I was actually leaving. In my own mind, I didn’t want to make a big deal out of something until I was 100% sure in my own mind of where I was going, and exactly how long I was going for.

You see, when I first started thinking about going, it was just going to be a 2 month trip through Vietnam , Cambodia & Laos . Then I realized there was I bus I could catch into Southern China , so then I was going for 3 months. Then I started reading about this train you could catch across Mongolia & Russia from Beijing called the “Trans Siberian”. That appealed to me more than anything, so then I was going for 4 months. Then, I found out just how easy & cheap it was to catch a bus from St Petersburg in Russia to Helsinki in Finland . From Finland , the possibilities of travel were endless, so I started to make more “in-definite” definite plans.

So, I’m leaving Melbourne armed with a one-way ticket to Vietnam …and now face the adventurous task of slowly finding my way overland across Vietnam , Cambodia , Laos , China , Mongolia , Russian, Finland , Estonia , Sweden , Norway , Denmark , Germany , Spain & Portugal …eventually ending up in England .

It seems that from the moment I told all you guys at work back in October, the time just completely flew. Honestly, I don’t know where these past 3 months have gone.

However, the main reason I wanted to send this email to you all, is to say a big massive thank you.

I thank all of you who have come to my many many farewells over the past two weeks, those of you who have put in for the various presents and signed the cards with your beautiful words. I also want to thank those of you who couldn’t make it to my various farewells, but have still made the effort to call, stop by my house or send a card to wish me well.

I want to send out a big thank you to all the managers and staff at Clive Peeters, who have put up with my constant talking about traveling, traveling and traveling. I know, as well as my previous managers do, that there is no way I would be able to do this trip with out such a fantastic job, or have been able to survive so long waiting to leave without working with such fantastic people.

However, the biggest thank you of all is to all you guys who believed in me from the word go. The people who didn’t think I was stupid or irresponsible for leaving my family, friends and career. The people who didn’t think it was impossible and actually believed in me as a person to be able to make this work. Those people – I give you the biggest THANKYOU….and I will always always remember your support….!

So, consider this not a good bye email, but a “see ya later” email. Because we all know that I will be back in Melbourne one day. However, I hope to see you guys first as you travel around the globe!

Cheers, and see ya soon

Jess xx

9 days....

2008-02-28T19:52:00.003+11:00

Well the farewell was 10 times bigger than I anticipated! I still can't get my head around just how many people showed up.....!!! Also, there was some dude there having his 21st and I'm pretty sure all my mates well and truely out numbered his.....how embarassing!

Still - it was a fantastic night and a big huge THANKYOU to everyone who came....!!

I finally have my Russian, Vietnemese & Chinese visas in my hot little hands...about time too...it bizarre to see them in my passport. It hard to believe how many months of head aches there was just for a couple of little stickers in your passport....

Well I am well and truely organised now. I have bought everything I need, recieved my final pay from work, and now everything is just sitting in a giant pile all over our spare room....

I'm going to one more trial pack this weekend before the final pack is done...just so I can get an idea of the weight.

Also - I can finally see the weather on the day I arrive...! 33C & light showers at the moment....and will probably stay that way for a while....

I have added a photo album to the left of the page aswell....I'm not actually sure if i'm going to use it or not so if you look and there are no pictures...I apoloigise....!

Ok, I think thats all I have to say...apart from the fact I am REALLY REALLY EXCITED!!!!!!!

Jess

14 Days....

2008-02-23T10:44:00.002+11:00

Well, I finally finished up at work yesterday. It's a bit weird, becuase I thought I would be really upset.....but I wasn't. I was just void....I had no feeling at all. As I over analyse everything, it kept me awake most of the night just trying to work out why didn't seem to feel any emotion about it. The only conclusion I could come up with is that perhaps the whole trip thing hasn't actually hit me yet. It's as if I don't believe I will actually leave until I have gone.

Don't get me wrong, I am completely beside myself with excitement about leaving....however the idea of leaving my family and friends for an indefinite period of time hasn't really sunk in. It concerns me a little, because it either means I'm made of stone (which I know I'm not), or its going to hit me really really hard soon. As you can imagine, I'm not looking forward to the moment it all hits me....

I've felt myself getting worked up a little bit. Just about dumb stuff, which shows to me that I am little bit anxious about going. So its a nice mix of being anxious and excited...which is a pretty cool feeling. I've always found the weeks leading up to going somewhere is the best feeling in the world. All that excitement and preperation.....awesome...

It is also really mad to be able to say that in two weeks time, I will have landed at Sydney Airport and will be waiting to board my flight to Ho Chi Minh City....wow!!

All the guys at work gave me a really awesome card with some pretty funny messeges in it, and they did a collection and gave me $225 in cash. So that was awesome....thats like another 2 weeks travelling in south east asia!

I have my farewell party tonight at the pub, which should be good. Theres about 30 - 40 people going. Its a really shitty day outside, which means the pub shouldn't be overly packed. I should be enjoying all this bad weather, considering its about 34C in Phnom Penh in Cambodia at the moment....!!!!

Till next time...

Jess

25 Days....

2008-02-12T10:05:00.000+11:00

I thought I better post on here to let everyone know my russian visa came through!!! So now I can finally start sleeping ok again....

Not to much to talk abot this week. I finish up work next week which I can't wait for. However, it's quite a funny feeling walking around there at the moment. I've worked at Clive Peeters for nearly 6 years (since I was 16), so to think I am leaving and never going back there is a pretty surreal feeling. I have changed so much over the years I have worked there, and will be leaving people I have known for longer than some of my closest mates. I have pretty much grown up there! However, I certainly don't feel bad leaving. I think I have well and truly had enough of retail for the minute. But you never know, I'l probably end up in retail in the UK because I wont be able to find anything else!!

I had a trial pack of my backpack a couple of weeks ago, to see how heavy and how much more room I had to fit stuff. It only ended up weighing 9.kg!! And I just about ahd everything in there I needed. It was a weird sight looking at all my clothes and stuff on the floor ready to be packed. I was like "This is my life for the next 10 months.....", but it didn't look any where near enough...but I think I have everything covered.

This is what I am taking:

CLOTHES

Shoes:
Salomen Hiking Boots
Brooks running shoes
Haviana Thongs
Tee-shirts:
x4 tee shirts
x4 singlet tops
x2 long sleeve tee’s (to wear under t shirts)
Jumpers:
x1 Fleece Jumper
Jackets:
x1 Gortex Rain Jacket
Pants
x1 Jeans
x1 long quick drying pants
x1 ¾ quick drying pants
Underwear & Socks
x14 bonds underwear
x12 long socks
x3 bras
Pajamas
· x2 shorts & singlet combo pj’s
Hats
· x3 Bandanas/Head Bands
· x2 Caps (stussy hat & hurley hat)
TOILETRIES
· x1 Shampoo/conditioner combo
· x1 Liquid Soap
· x1 Moisturiser
· x1 Hair brush
· x1 Roll On Deodorant
· x2 Micro Fiber Towels
· x1 Micro Fiber Face Washer
· Toilet Rolls
· x2 Chapsticks/Blistix
· Baby wipes
· Hand sanitiser
FIRST AID KIT
Band aids
Bandages
Sewing Kit
Shoe Laces (x1 for Salomens, x1 for Brooks)
Swiss Army Knife
Bushmans Gel (x3)
Sun cream
GUIDEBOOKS
Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia & The greater Mekong
China
Scandinavia
ELECTRONICS
Ipod + Charger
Digital Camera + Charger
Power adaptors Asia, Europe & The UK

Doesn't seem like much hey????? I just can't think of anything else to take!!

Anyway, that covers everything I needed to write about at the moment. My Chinese & Vietnemise visas are due back in about 2 weeks and then I'm good to go...scary!

Cheers,

Jess

33 Days To Go

2008-02-04T08:04:00.000+11:00

Ok, so first off I apoligise to all the regular readers of this blog for the lack of updates. Everytime I sit down to write I think that what I am about to write is stupid so I stop....however I realised I am writing this blog for myself aswell as everyone else so now I will write what I want....

33 days to go....god I can't belive how quick this is all comming up now. I finally gave my official letter of resignation to work last week. That didn't really come as any major suprise...although some of my managers said they were hoping I might change my mind. I think at the moment...I'm more excited about finishing work than actually going overseas...!

I'm still waiting on my Russian visa to come back...there was some delay because of public holidays etc. Everything appears to be ok though.....although I don't think I will be able to sleep properly until all my visas and my passport are back in my hand.

Aside from my visas, I pretty much have everything else organised. My friend Brad is in Vietnam and Cambodia at the moment and has been keeping my informed of different places to stay. One thing he has mentioned to me is how him and his friends have not booked any accomodation the whole way through South East Asia. So I have now decided to take the same approach. I think it will be a bit of a laugh to rock up in each place and have to find somewhere to sleep. Well, it will probably be funny until I can't find anywhere to stay....then it will probably really really suck. But I'l cross that bridge when I come to it...! I have booked my first 4 nights in Ho Chi Minh City but thats it.

The whole South East Asia segment fo my trip is pretty much as organised as it can be....I'm going to spend the next 2 days going through China again and making sure I am happy with everything I have semi-planned.

I have finally started sending out invites to my farewell on the 23rd of February. That should be a bit of fun. I just need to make sure I don't drink to much, because then I will probably just cry all night...which is never a good look when you have had a few....!

Ok, well I think that is everything I need to write about today. Will update again soon once I get my visas back....

Cheers,

Jess

No title.....just rambling as usual....

2008-01-16T18:43:00.000+11:00

I had a list of thngs to write about from the past few weeks....but I have put that list somewhere in my room, quite possibly on the floor, and considering I can't actually see my floor at the moment there probably isn't a high chance of me finding that list....!

Camping at Wilsons prom last week was probably one of the best times I have ever had. Who would have thought something as simple as sleeping in a tent, drinking too much and seeing wombats would be so much fun? No seriously, it was more than that. I haven't really had break from work in ages, and I haven't had a break from planning my trip either. So it was nice just to chill out for a few days and do something completely different.

One thing that was really awesome about camping was seeing all the stars. I know that sounds quite lame, but it really was amazing. Hayley, Jimmy and I went down to the beach one night at about Midnight and just lay on the beach looking at the stars. It was crazy, you could see millions of them for miles. Being a bit of city girl (but not really because I live in Montrose), I don't ever remember seeing anything like it. It was funny, we'd downed quite a number of drinks by that stage, and I was getting to that "I'm so drunk and I need to say whats on my mind" stage, and found myself saying to the guys "Wow, what if I never come home? I'm never going to see stars like this again". To which Jimmy replied "Your not moving to a new univerese, they have stars in Asia too".

After I laughed at my drunken statement, began to think about what Jimmy said. He was right, I'm not moving to a new universe, but I might aswell be. One thing that has come to light over the past couple of weeks is how difficult this trip really is going to be. I mean, lets be honest, I'm exactly taking the easy road here am I? Some of these places are almost third world countries, filled with people who will never see what I have or what I will see in my life. People who I will never be able to understand, verbally and emotionally. I think & I hope that this trip will be a really big eye opener for me.

Anyway....on to other things.....!

Trip planning stuff has been pretty intense this past week. I came from Wilsons Prom to an email from my travel agent organising my Russian Visa saying that I couldn't apply for my Visa more than 3 months in advance....which sent me into shock mode. I spent thursday, friday, saturday & sunday freaking out and trying to work out a way to get into russia. I swear I didn't eat or sleep for those days. Anyway, come monday we had it all sorted so I applied for my visa this morning...fingers crossed it comes through in the next 12 days.

I have keep sending my passport off in the post over the next 6 weeks to get my Russian, Mongolian, Chinese, Vietnemese and Cambodian visas sorted. Everything has just crept up s god damn quick....!

I sold my car yesterday which is great....gives me a bit of a boost for my savings for the trip. Plus public transport vs. paying petrol at the moment means I should be saving more money now than ever.....

Anyway...I think that covers everything that may have been on my list for now.

Later,

Jess

Anxiety & The Workings Of The Human Mind....

2008-01-05T22:34:00.000+11:00

Ok, so the title is probably a little more in depth than what I am anticipating writing about....however it seemed somewhat appropriate for some reason.

First off, I would like to apoligise for the lack of updates....my intetion was to update my blog on new years eve. But when I got home, I was sick as a dog for some unknown reason so the pos never eventuated.

Anyway, onto other things.....

Today, it is exactly 9 weeks until I leave. Starting to get closer now. To be honest with you, I am actualy starting to get a little stressed out about the whole thing. Ive had people commenting for the past 3 or 4 weeks that I have been losing weight, which was not intentional and I didn't even notice...Ive been pulling my hair out tring to work out why Ive been losing this wieght, I realised I have probably been stressing more than normal about the whole thing. Plus I've had some other shit on my mind too, which doesn't help. But I'm actually starting to panic a little bit about the trip...

It's somewhat amusing, because as I have sat here for the past week trying to work out what it is I am actually nervous about, its all fallen back to one thing. Its not the travel side of things, the language barrier, the un safe areas. No its none of that......

Its actually me I'm nervous about.

I know I'm going to change on this trip. I know it. I know i'm gong to become a different person, because your surronds influence the way you think about things....and I'm going to be surrounded by some pretty surreal things. In my previous post I wrote about how happy I am with myself, and the person I am. But I know I'm going to change......a bit of a catch 22 really.....

I have a lot of questions within myself about my life that I need to answer. I know they are questions that no one else can answer for me....questions I can only answer when I'm ready to be completely honest with myself. I guess you can't be honest with other people like your friends and family until you are completely honest with yourself. I hope that this is something that I can begin to do while I'm travelling.

The whole concept is petrifying though. The idea that you are happy as you are....but knowing that you will change. Although that chane will surely be for the better, what if other people don' accept it? I guess that means they were never really your friends in the first place....but still. It doesn't change the fact you still want them to be a part of your life.

What amazes me is what anxiety and stress can make a person do. I mean, I'm only a little bit stressed and I have lost nearly 5 kilos. Imagine what could happen if I got really stressed. There has been some nights where I have woken myself up from some kind of anxious pain in my stomach and my mind. I guess I just didn't know what to associate it with...

I dont know....maybe I'm just reading to much into my thoughts again. Which is what I do every now and then.

Anyway.....I'm going to stop there before this gets wayyyyy to indepth.....!!!

I'm off camping on Monday with Hayley & Amy which should be good fun. I went out and bought a new tent and everything..... Should be a laugh anyway...and good to get away for a few days from my brain and its stupid thoughts.......!!!

I will attempt to update when I get back. As this trip gets closer, theres going to be more and more going through my head....so these posts should start to get interesting. Stay tuned....

Cheers,
Jess

Christmas Eve and all that....

2007-12-24T16:37:00.000+11:00

I thought it would only be fitting for me to post on Christms eve, along with all the millions of other bloggers around the world...

Its actually been a bit of an emotional week this week, for a number of reasons. I think one of the main reasons is this is going to be my last christmas at home for quite along time. Also once christmas passes, it really is nearly time for me to leave. I worked out that after I get paid this week, I only have four pays to go until I finish up work. Scary.....

I had a pretty intense conversation with my parents last night....we were all pretty drunk though(which is generally when a family discussion begins!). My parents were talking about people who regret things in there life that they have done, or didn't do. Both my folks could list things, quite a few things, that they regretted in there life so far. I found that quite interesting, because I do not reget anything about my life. If I died tomorrow (fingers crossed that wont happen!), I could die knowing that everything I have done in my life has made me the person, or the better person that I am today.

Its interesting because when I was growing up, I was a bit of a mess for different reasons. I was pretty much an all out fuck up between the ages of 14 to 18. But everything I did, or didn't do, has made me a stronger more independant person. I don't regret anything I got upto in those years; I don't regret messing up school, I don't regret the idiot I dated for 18 months, I don't regret the other stuff I got upto either.....because every single thing that happened has made me the person I am. And I think I'm a great person.....which I guess is all that really matters in the end hey? Being happy about who you are and what direction your heading in.

Well, I couldn't be happier.....

So christmas is here tomorrow.....it has really crept up quickly over the past month.

Anyway, thats about all I have to say at the moment.

Merry Christmas everyone....

Cheers,

Jess

way to tired to think.....

2007-12-16T19:15:00.000+11:00

I actually can't believe I am attempting to update this blog right now, as I have had all of 5 hours sleep last night, about 4 and half the night before, and 5 the night before that....I am absolutely exhausted. Although some people can write better when there tired..you tend to be more relaxed apprently. That could also be a lie....I'm really not sure.

I found out this week my mate Sophie is now joing me for my trip for about 3 months, which will be really cool. I think we will travel pretty good together because we both have the same idea of what travelling is about. By that I mean travelling isn't about going out and getting pissed in every city you visit (although I'm sure that will take place a little bit, maybe every second or third city!)....to me travlling is about being outside your comfert zone and learning what its like to lead a life in a complete different way.

One thing that seriously annoys me at the moment is when I tell some random stranger or even someone I know about my trip and how I have a one way ticket and that I really dont know if/when I'm coming home, they give me the "settleling down" speach. Now this famous speach I thought was reserved for family members only, but apperently its now. Someone said to me the other day "But your such an intelligent girl, why don't you just settle down?".....to which my response was "What? So you should only travel if your dumb ass?". Or the other one that really makes me want to scream is "Why dont you just meet someone, settle down and buy a house?"

Can I just clarify something for everyone really quick???

I DO NOT WANT TO BUY A F**KING HOUSE!!!!!!!

I don't know why everyone seems to think "settling down" here in Melbourne is the be all and end all of the world. People in Australia are starting to sound like some American people....you know the type...the ones who have never left there post code area, but are determined to tell the world that "America is the most fantastic place on earth!". Well, australians are starting to sound like that, especially some people I know.

You know what the stupid thing is? I know Australia is one of the greatest countries in the world. But I never said that until I left to see what other parts of the world are like. I think you can never truly appreciate something until you have missed it. Its a bit like my family....they drive me well up the wall when I'm home, but sometimes when I'm away from here, they are all I want and would do anything to see them...crazy crazy.

Anyway, after that little rant....Sophie is meeting me and Ben in beijing and coming through Mongolia & Russia with me, then Ben leaves from St Petersburg, and Sophie stays travelling all through Finland, Estonia, Sweden, Norway & Denmark with me. Should be pretty ace....

(3 hours later...)

I'm going to have to sign off here because I have just fallen asleep next to my laptop on the couch for the past three and bit hours....I think its time I went to bed!

Till next time....

Jess

96 days to go.....

2007-12-03T14:36:00.000+11:00

Can you believe I actually got yelled at by my friend Chris at our work christmas party because I hadn't updated my blog in a month???? Now I know at least one person reads this thing I will try and be a little more organised and provide more updates...!!

So as the title says, I am finally under the 100 day mark. Starting to get a little nervous now. I had my monthly panic about money on thursday and stayed up most of thursday night going back over my budgets to make sure I hadn't missed anything. I think (fingers crossed!) that I should be fine. I have worked out that it will roughly cost me $23,000 from Ho Chi Minh City to London (March 8th to End of October). Thats includes flights, accomodation, food, drinks and visas. At the moment, I have budgetted to have $20,000 cash to take with me....I have already payed $4000 of the trip which means I should have a few grand up my sleeve just in case and trouble occurs...! I only really need to stress abou money until I get to Finland. If for some reason I have over spent from Vietnam to Russia, I can then fly to the UK and work - save up and come back to where I left off.

Still - it would be pretty damn cool not to work for 8 months...!!!

I'm about to sit down and go back through my itinerary aswell. Not because I want to change anything, but because I need to double check everything. I have written the date for when I need to leave each place...but have forgotten in some spots how and when I actually leave those countries...! For example....I still haven't worked out how to get from Luang Prabang in Laos to Hanoi in Vietnam on the cheap yet. Just little things like that...

I'm going to start buying things for my trip now. I have been holding off for a while waiting the sales and all that. They have finally begun - so I will start my shopping this week. The main stuff I need to get is a new day pack, some good hiking/walking shoes and a really tiny sleeping bag.

I think the next three months are going to go so quick. I worked out that I have 6 pays from work left....which means I only have 12 weeks of work left before I finish up. 12 weeks is nothing!! When ever I think the trip is ages away I just remember that bit and it tend to rev me back up again...I do wish I was leaving earlier though. I've just had enough of everything at the moment!!!! I guess when I go I might wish I had more time at home....but I would go spare if I had to wait any longer.

I went and saw an awesome movie with Jodi last week called "Into The Wild". Absolutely awesome travel and life movie. Anyone whos anyone should go see it....

Ok, so I think thats it at the moment.....will update again soon I promise!

Cheers,

Jess

I have nothing to say.....

2007-11-03T21:18:00.000+11:00

...the title is absolutely true. I really don't. Yet I fell compelled to write something - about nothing....or something like that.

So trip progressions so far? My friend Ben is now officially joining me for Beijing, Mongolia & Russia before heading to the UK and the USA. Very cool! At first I wanted to do this trip entirely by myself...but it will be nice to see someone I know for a few weeks. Especially considering I will have just spent 3 months travelling through some pretty remote parts of Asia and quite possibly won't have spoken english for the same period of time! Ben will be travelling with me for about 5 weeks...which is I think will probably be the amount of time I will be able to tolerate. I know that sounds really bad and bitchy and stuff but its the truth. I'm kind of one of those people who really enjoys being on theire own - but enjoys meeting people at the same time. But travelling with Ben will be good - at least now I have someone to drink all that russian vodka with on the Trans Siberian Train for 3 days strait!

Fingers crossed for something more eventful next time I post.....

Cheers, Jesss

Up and Running...

2007-10-29T14:29:00.000+11:00

Ok, so I have just spend the past four hours deleting my previous blog and starting a new one. The last one was shit anyway, so it wasn't worth reading. Not that anyone was reading it anyway, as I hadn't given this blog address to anyone! Never mind...new blog focus now.

This time it will be better, because I have actually told everyone I am leaving now. Posting previously was just me all depressed and un motivated because I couldn' tell anyone about this trip. However, now everyone knows, including work, so I don't feel like I have to hide anything anymore. Also, in telling everyone, I'm starting to find the time is going a little quicker and everything doesn't seem like such a drag now.

So, I have a touch over 4 months to go till I am out of here. To some people that might seem like ages, but to me its pretty damn close now! I've been planning this trip since April 2007, so I've been counting down since then. Its seems once it got to 6 months away, the time started to go a little quicker. I have now booked everything I can book - including my flight to Ho Chi Minh City, and my train trip on the Trans Siberian through Russia. Everything else I have to do along the way.

I am still not booking myself a ticket home - I think the trip will be much more fun that way and it also means I have to work once I get to Spain or England.

To the right of screen I have posted my itinerary for people to look at. I've got more stuff to put on but haven't had a chance yet. I also have to put a picture on here of myself, but those who know me well know that I'm the one who generally takes the pictures, not the other way around.

Anyway, not much else really to say at the moment. Unlike the last blog, I am going to do my best to update this weekly. Even if I have nothing to say and even if no one is reading this....!

By the way, I finally worked out how to put a guest book on this thing, so sign it if you want. Or don't. Either way.

Cheers, Jess