Hellooooooooooooo!!
Well it has been a ridiculously long time since I have written on the blog, and for that I am so sorry. IT is really easy to get out of the routine of writing and we hve ben so busy here in the past month that it has flown by and i didnt write once! SO SAD! Anyways we has a great time in May as most of it was spent with two friends from home, ZIggy and Kate.
Ziggy arrived an we went straight up north in thailand to Chaing Mai, and did a hill tribe trek. It was amazing. WE walked about 30 kms in 3 days and spent two nights with the hill tribes in their huts. SO COOL!!! We were on the trip with 4 other Canadians and we had an absolute blast!! After Cahing Mai, we headed back to Bangkok to wait for Kate to Arrive and then headed back sown south the the beautiful islands and beaches of Thailan to experience the Full Mon party in all its'glory one more time. IT was great and the four of us dressed up and looked ridiculous, only pictures can do us justice!!
After The full Moon we headed over to the west coast and went to Koh Phi Phi AKA PAradise. WIt is probably the nicest place that I have ever been to before. We stayed in a really nice place with A/c and a pool and it was great. Koh Phi Phi is where the tsunami hit really hard and you can still see the devesttaion from it although they are working really hard to build it back up to how it once was. That being said it is still un believably beautiful. Koh Phi Phi DOn is the main Island and it is wehre all of the resorts are, however a short boat ride away is Koh Phi Phi Lay, the place where "The Beach"with leonardo DiCaprio was filmed. AMAZING!!! such a nice beach, but a little sad as there was hundreds of tourists there, nothing l ike in the movie!
After Phi Phi TOm and I said bye to Kate and Ziggy as they were heading back to Canada to grauate or move to germany to work.!! GOOD LUCK LOVES!
We headed back into Cambodia but this time made our way to Siem Reap, the town that is the heart and centre of the Angkor Temples... known as the 8th wnders of the world. and they really are wonders... completely amazing. '
Before we headed to the temples we went to the floating village for the day. There is an entire community that lives on the Tolne Sap lake, the biggest lake in Cambodia, and they are all fish farmers and extremely poor. IT was really amazing to go and se how they live and stuff. Tom and I bought 40 notebooks and 40 pencils and donated them to the kids at two different schools... it was unreal, such and amazing experience.
Yesterday, we spend 6 horus (5am-11am) exploring the main temples and they were incredible. I snapped many beautiful pictures although today I lost my camera and am SOO Upset that I won't have any first hand photos of the whole day. I strongly suggest that EVERYONE go to Siem Reap... the temples and ruins are unreal and it is facinating to learn about the history of the Angkor empire as they were VERY posweful and ruled over most of thialand and vietnam and cambodia back in the day.
Anyways thats about it for now, Tom and I head of to Vietnam tomorrow and I promice that we (I) will be better at updating the blog from n ow on. xoxox
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Phnom Penh
So today we did all of the touristy and very depressing things to do in Phnom Penh.
Cambodia suffered through a horrible civil war and went straight into a mass genocide by the political party known as the Khmer Rouge. Led by a man named Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge killed 2 million Cambodian people from 1975-1979. The idea was to build a socialist society of farmers and to start life over at year zero. Pol Pot and his regime killed all educated Camodians. Anyone who thought for themselves was killed and only those who were easily rainwashed were left. If you were a farmer you were "safe" because you were uneducated. However, under the Khmer Rouge conditions thousands of the farmers died of starvation.
Today we visited two integral parts of the Khmer ROuge movement. We went to S-21 an old HIgh school the the KR took over and used as a housing and tofture chamber for the people that were going to be executed in the killing fields. The rooms were either filled with torture instruments or made up of jailike cells where people were interrogated for months. The most educated people were held for about 6-7 months before they were sent off to the killing fields for execution. IN 4 years over 20,000 prisoners of s-21 were sent to the killing fields. of the 20,000 that stayed there only 7 survived.
It;s crazy to think that such travesty happened only 28 years ago. It means taht everyone living in Cambodia now knows someone who was in or died in the genocide. Our tour guide's uncle was killed in the genocide, but his parents "luckily"were farmers and survived (barely) even though they were separted and placed in different farm fields for 4 years. INsane.
The Killing Fields were crazy. there were mass graves that housed over 450 bodies. The victims were placed in a line and executed sometime up to 300 people at a time. And they were done do brutally as the use of a bullet was considered a waste on the people. They killed them by slitting their thraots of beating them to death. The babies (all children and babies of educated people were also exectued) were killed by having their heads hit against a large tree trunk. IT is possible the most grusome thing I have ever seen. the momement taht is for rememrance houses more skulls then you can imagine. It was rainging and the tour guide said that when it rains, bones and old rage of clothing come up from the ground. Sure enough we saw many bones on the walking paths.... very scary.
After a long day, it is really hard to feel in a happy mood knowing that everyone in this country was effected for a mass murdering leader. Pol Pot died in 1998 of old age... so he was never even convicted of war crimes and denyed his involvement until the day he died... isnt that insane?
Anyways tomorrow we are going to go on a walking tour of the city and see the royal palace... A little less depressing! I miss and love everyone very much xoxoxo
Cambodia suffered through a horrible civil war and went straight into a mass genocide by the political party known as the Khmer Rouge. Led by a man named Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge killed 2 million Cambodian people from 1975-1979. The idea was to build a socialist society of farmers and to start life over at year zero. Pol Pot and his regime killed all educated Camodians. Anyone who thought for themselves was killed and only those who were easily rainwashed were left. If you were a farmer you were "safe" because you were uneducated. However, under the Khmer Rouge conditions thousands of the farmers died of starvation.
Today we visited two integral parts of the Khmer ROuge movement. We went to S-21 an old HIgh school the the KR took over and used as a housing and tofture chamber for the people that were going to be executed in the killing fields. The rooms were either filled with torture instruments or made up of jailike cells where people were interrogated for months. The most educated people were held for about 6-7 months before they were sent off to the killing fields for execution. IN 4 years over 20,000 prisoners of s-21 were sent to the killing fields. of the 20,000 that stayed there only 7 survived.
It;s crazy to think that such travesty happened only 28 years ago. It means taht everyone living in Cambodia now knows someone who was in or died in the genocide. Our tour guide's uncle was killed in the genocide, but his parents "luckily"were farmers and survived (barely) even though they were separted and placed in different farm fields for 4 years. INsane.
The Killing Fields were crazy. there were mass graves that housed over 450 bodies. The victims were placed in a line and executed sometime up to 300 people at a time. And they were done do brutally as the use of a bullet was considered a waste on the people. They killed them by slitting their thraots of beating them to death. The babies (all children and babies of educated people were also exectued) were killed by having their heads hit against a large tree trunk. IT is possible the most grusome thing I have ever seen. the momement taht is for rememrance houses more skulls then you can imagine. It was rainging and the tour guide said that when it rains, bones and old rage of clothing come up from the ground. Sure enough we saw many bones on the walking paths.... very scary.
After a long day, it is really hard to feel in a happy mood knowing that everyone in this country was effected for a mass murdering leader. Pol Pot died in 1998 of old age... so he was never even convicted of war crimes and denyed his involvement until the day he died... isnt that insane?
Anyways tomorrow we are going to go on a walking tour of the city and see the royal palace... A little less depressing! I miss and love everyone very much xoxoxo
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Cambodia!
So After we got to Thailand at 6am... we headed straight to the bus station and decided to take a bus to Cambodia. Everyone that we have talked to has said that it is unreal and totally different from Thailand. IT's much less expensice which is great, as thailand was easily costing us at least $50 a day. Here we are paying just $7 for a night and are living in really nice places.
We arrrived at the Border of Thailand and Cambodia and we immediately ripped off. we paid 1000 Baht (about $33) for a $20 visa. then we got ruipped off by our tuk tuk driver... it was a nightmare. It's so annoying. everywhere you turn, you are getting ripped off but then you realize that they are soooooo poor here they are just trying to make more money for their families. Like, we thought that the poverty in Thailand was bad, then you get to cambodia and realize that its WAYYYYYYY worse here.
The roads and everywhere you look at completely covered in garbage... you look around for a garbage can and there isnt one. it's weird.
Anyways we reached the Cambodian border and needed to get to a city cause the place you arrive in is just a place for Thais to come and gamble legally. We looked for a bus, but all the buses had left, and you are bombarded with cab drivers trying to cahrge you $30 to go nowhere. We finally got on the back of a pickup truck with other Cambodians and headed to Battambang (the 2nd largest city in Cambodia) for the night, to head off south to Sihanoukville a beach town.
That's where we are paying $7 a night and we are staying in this wicked place called moneky bungalows run by a british guy. It's a really popular bar and all the places here serve draft beers for 75 cents and pitchers for $3 it's insane! Pool is free everywhere and we rented a scooter to drive around town fror only $7 a day. Its great cause the beach that is close to town is really pretty dirty and full of chil beggars and stuff, but when you drive 15 minutes out of town the beach is beautiful and you are the only one on it!! really crazy!
Also... there are cows everywhere. Literally, you drive in the middle of the road and you have to stop becasue the cows, and all the drivers do here is honk. you honk for everythinkg.... if you are passing you honk, if you are about to hit a cow, you honk... if you want someone to knwo you are coming up behind then, you honk... its so wierd... they dont have rearview mirrors... they only honk... haha
anyways I guess thats all I have to say for now!
Will write soon!
We arrrived at the Border of Thailand and Cambodia and we immediately ripped off. we paid 1000 Baht (about $33) for a $20 visa. then we got ruipped off by our tuk tuk driver... it was a nightmare. It's so annoying. everywhere you turn, you are getting ripped off but then you realize that they are soooooo poor here they are just trying to make more money for their families. Like, we thought that the poverty in Thailand was bad, then you get to cambodia and realize that its WAYYYYYYY worse here.
The roads and everywhere you look at completely covered in garbage... you look around for a garbage can and there isnt one. it's weird.
Anyways we reached the Cambodian border and needed to get to a city cause the place you arrive in is just a place for Thais to come and gamble legally. We looked for a bus, but all the buses had left, and you are bombarded with cab drivers trying to cahrge you $30 to go nowhere. We finally got on the back of a pickup truck with other Cambodians and headed to Battambang (the 2nd largest city in Cambodia) for the night, to head off south to Sihanoukville a beach town.
That's where we are paying $7 a night and we are staying in this wicked place called moneky bungalows run by a british guy. It's a really popular bar and all the places here serve draft beers for 75 cents and pitchers for $3 it's insane! Pool is free everywhere and we rented a scooter to drive around town fror only $7 a day. Its great cause the beach that is close to town is really pretty dirty and full of chil beggars and stuff, but when you drive 15 minutes out of town the beach is beautiful and you are the only one on it!! really crazy!
Also... there are cows everywhere. Literally, you drive in the middle of the road and you have to stop becasue the cows, and all the drivers do here is honk. you honk for everythinkg.... if you are passing you honk, if you are about to hit a cow, you honk... if you want someone to knwo you are coming up behind then, you honk... its so wierd... they dont have rearview mirrors... they only honk... haha
anyways I guess thats all I have to say for now!
Will write soon!
Full MOOOONNNN
Hellloooo,
well its been ages since i have written on here, tom and I have been so bust we really havent wanted to sit in an internet cafe for much longer than 10 minutes. Anyways this is going to be a pretty long post I guess so hopefully I will be able to fill everyone in.
Tom and I left Bangkok on the 14th and we arrived in Koh Phangan Island on the 15th... for 20$ we took an 15 hour air conditioned bus ride with seats that full reclined... not too shabby.
Koh PhanGan in the Island where the legendary Full Moon Parites happen, and we planned to be on the island for that, it happened to fall on the 20th of April, so we made it. The first two nights though we headed up north on the island and went to a more deserted beach... AMAZING gorgeous white sand and the calmest ocean water ever. for just over $10 a night we got a really nice bungalow about 2 seconds from the beach. It was amazing. We hung out there and it turned out there were 200 germans on the same beach as us so everynight it turned into quite a party.
After two night we headed down to Haad Rin Beach where the full moon parties are, and its basically a westerners party place. There are so many restaurants and salons and bars... its pretty crazy. WE looked around and basically everywhere was charging like $20-$30 collars a night becuase of the jacked prices for the full moon party. Luckily, just when we were going to head back up to the north of the Island we found a nice bungalow ith bathroom for only 400B or about $14. We stayed there for five night and hung out waiting for the Full Moon. We met a bunch of Canadians and partied hard. We predrank at the 7-11( they are everywhere) and then went to various pre-full moon parties.
The craziest one that we went to was the Cross Dressing Pool Party... a hilarious, and slightly frightening sight.
The actual full moon party was crazy... basically a ton of people soooo messed on e, mdma, and various other substances or the ones like us, really really drunk from the "buckets"that they give. $5 for a 26 of rum, coke and redbull. We partied hard till 4am and then headed to bed... an early night for the fullmoon! Some of the people we were with were up till 3pm the next day. We stayed one more night and then decided to go back to bangkok. WE took another longggg busride and then got to Bangkok at 6am with no idea where to go next!!
Anyways that was Thailand... next place, CAMBODIA!
well its been ages since i have written on here, tom and I have been so bust we really havent wanted to sit in an internet cafe for much longer than 10 minutes. Anyways this is going to be a pretty long post I guess so hopefully I will be able to fill everyone in.
Tom and I left Bangkok on the 14th and we arrived in Koh Phangan Island on the 15th... for 20$ we took an 15 hour air conditioned bus ride with seats that full reclined... not too shabby.
Koh PhanGan in the Island where the legendary Full Moon Parites happen, and we planned to be on the island for that, it happened to fall on the 20th of April, so we made it. The first two nights though we headed up north on the island and went to a more deserted beach... AMAZING gorgeous white sand and the calmest ocean water ever. for just over $10 a night we got a really nice bungalow about 2 seconds from the beach. It was amazing. We hung out there and it turned out there were 200 germans on the same beach as us so everynight it turned into quite a party.
After two night we headed down to Haad Rin Beach where the full moon parties are, and its basically a westerners party place. There are so many restaurants and salons and bars... its pretty crazy. WE looked around and basically everywhere was charging like $20-$30 collars a night becuase of the jacked prices for the full moon party. Luckily, just when we were going to head back up to the north of the Island we found a nice bungalow ith bathroom for only 400B or about $14. We stayed there for five night and hung out waiting for the Full Moon. We met a bunch of Canadians and partied hard. We predrank at the 7-11( they are everywhere) and then went to various pre-full moon parties.
The craziest one that we went to was the Cross Dressing Pool Party... a hilarious, and slightly frightening sight.
The actual full moon party was crazy... basically a ton of people soooo messed on e, mdma, and various other substances or the ones like us, really really drunk from the "buckets"that they give. $5 for a 26 of rum, coke and redbull. We partied hard till 4am and then headed to bed... an early night for the fullmoon! Some of the people we were with were up till 3pm the next day. We stayed one more night and then decided to go back to bangkok. WE took another longggg busride and then got to Bangkok at 6am with no idea where to go next!!
Anyways that was Thailand... next place, CAMBODIA!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Bangkok!!
We have arrived in Bangkok!!! OUr final days in Australia were really fun but we are now in Asia and everything is much cheaper and we are actually experiencing different culture! We landed at 1145pm on Friday the 11th and didnt get into the city until about 2am. We asked the cab driver to drop us off at Koh San Road as we didnt have anything booked. After he tried hard to rip us off, we landed on Koh San... backpaker land.
Litte did we know that it is New Years here in Thailand and it is CRAZY!!! We booked into our Guesthouse and went straight to bed. In the morning we went out for a tuk tuk ride (little taxis that are everywhere in Bangkok) and for 20 baht (about 66 cents) we were taken on an hour long tour of many of the temples and sigths of the city. After, we headed back to Koh San to join in on the various festivities. We each bought water guns as it is essentially the biggest water gun fight I have ever seen. The whole of Koh San raod is blocked off and turns into a pedestrian walkway... everyone and there dogs have waterguns and you are hit at from every angle you can imagine. Within 5 minutes tom and I were completely soaked through and loving our life! We had a great first day although I had a few too many beers and by 7:30 I was fast asleep!!
The next day we went out to fight again however we managed to stay up to 12:30 ish and partied with some fellow Canadians and some dutch people, it was great!
Today we are heading off to Ko PengYang (wrong spelling) which is the Island where Full moon parties started, and we are staying till the full moon which is on the 21st. It should be very fun!! Anyways we'll write again when we are at our next place. Love you all!!! xoxox
Litte did we know that it is New Years here in Thailand and it is CRAZY!!! We booked into our Guesthouse and went straight to bed. In the morning we went out for a tuk tuk ride (little taxis that are everywhere in Bangkok) and for 20 baht (about 66 cents) we were taken on an hour long tour of many of the temples and sigths of the city. After, we headed back to Koh San to join in on the various festivities. We each bought water guns as it is essentially the biggest water gun fight I have ever seen. The whole of Koh San raod is blocked off and turns into a pedestrian walkway... everyone and there dogs have waterguns and you are hit at from every angle you can imagine. Within 5 minutes tom and I were completely soaked through and loving our life! We had a great first day although I had a few too many beers and by 7:30 I was fast asleep!!
The next day we went out to fight again however we managed to stay up to 12:30 ish and partied with some fellow Canadians and some dutch people, it was great!
Today we are heading off to Ko PengYang (wrong spelling) which is the Island where Full moon parties started, and we are staying till the full moon which is on the 21st. It should be very fun!! Anyways we'll write again when we are at our next place. Love you all!!! xoxox
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Great barrier reef and Whatnot.
We got back to Townsville after magnectic Island to go straight off to a snorkelling trip to the great barrier reef. It was AMAZING... we saw all sort of fish and lost of little nemo's hehe. We had a great time even though I got a little sea sick going out there.
We left on Tuesday morning to head up the coast (with all of our credit cards and whatnot it tow...) and went up to Port Douglas... the gateway to the Daintree Rainforest (even though we didnt have the time to go up there). In Dougie, we went to a bar called the Iron Bar and we raced Cane Toads! it was a hilarious event. Now we are here in Cairns and it is great. It's really nice here althoug there are no beached, the party scene more than makes up for it! We are now waiting to head off to the airport to fly out to Bangkok!!! AHHHHHH so excited!
We left on Tuesday morning to head up the coast (with all of our credit cards and whatnot it tow...) and went up to Port Douglas... the gateway to the Daintree Rainforest (even though we didnt have the time to go up there). In Dougie, we went to a bar called the Iron Bar and we raced Cane Toads! it was a hilarious event. Now we are here in Cairns and it is great. It's really nice here althoug there are no beached, the party scene more than makes up for it! We are now waiting to head off to the airport to fly out to Bangkok!!! AHHHHHH so excited!
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Surfer's and beyond!
Wow, it has been way too long since we wrote in this. Since surfer's quite a lot has happened. We went to Brisbane for a day and stayed with some Canadian girls that we met in our long overdone stay in Nimbin. They were really nice and their appartment was amazing. a HUGEEEEEEEE balcony and white leather couches and a nice plasma screen t.v. Needless to say it was a nice night's sleep after many a night in elvis deluxe (our campervan). We also went on the XXXX (fourex) brewery tour when we were in Brisbane and suggest that anyone who visits there does it. It was fun and only 18$, the best part of it being that at the end you get four free beers.
We left early the next morning to head to Rainbow beach (the backpacker;s shortcut to Fraser Island). There we met up again with our good friends Niall and Michelle to do out 3 day 2 night excursion to Fraser Island. We got there and were put into groupds of 11. We seem to have been stuck with the dud group as we were with 6 un excited 18 years olds... however we made the best of the situation and we were off. The first day the weather was a bit shit, but it was still amazing to see Fraser. It is the largest sand Island in the world and one of the only places where rainforest grows right from the sand. Also, it holds half of the world's perched lakes, some of themost pristine fresh water lakes around. The cars that we rented were huge 4x4 Landcruiser's. You can only drive 4x4s on the island, and in some plceas going even 5kms/hr is too fast! It was a riot! Even I drove. The first day we saw Lake MacKenzie and the Shipwreck and then settled our camp for the night. We were annoyed with our group and luckily the 5 other trucks came and set up tent in the same spot as us.... After a beautiful sunset a raging party started and it was amaizng. we met some Canadians and a shit load more Irish people and partied the night away.
The next day we were up bright and early and the weather was GORGEOUS!! such a nice change form the day before. Our group decided that we would go back to Lake MacKenzie on a nice day after we saw Indian Head and the Champagne Pools. Lake MacKenzie was even more spectacular the second time around with the sun shining! Again after a full day we stopped outside of Eli Creek and set up camp with the other 5 trucks (63 people in total) and partied hard.
The final day we went to Lake Wobby... a nice little lake in the middle of huge sand dunes. it toook about 30 minutes to walk there throught the massive sand dunes... but it was really worth it to dive into another amamzing fresh water lake.
WE headed back to rainbow beach and the next day we were off to head up the coast.... however we realized that our wallet was missing (i.e. I lost it in Rainbow Beach) once we were about 1.5 hours away. We called the station where i remember last using it, and they had not seen it. Needless to say I FREAKED out, and we had to cancel all of our cards and report it lost/stolen (I was convinced it was stolen). Anyways after 3 days and a shitload of hassle, it turns out that it fell out of the car when we stopped to ask for directions, and the lady at the gas station found it. She somehow figured out that We had rented a Wicked campervan, and they contacted us with the number of the gas stationa nd the lady's contact, so we should get everything back....
After realizing that we lost the wallet, we went up to Tonsville through a little town called 1770, really beautiful with a grea motorbike tour.
Now we are on Magnetic Island and it is amaizng. we rented a Moke (the traditional way to get around the Island) and are having an amazing time. I'll try and add photo's sooooon!!! Love you all xoxoxo
We left early the next morning to head to Rainbow beach (the backpacker;s shortcut to Fraser Island). There we met up again with our good friends Niall and Michelle to do out 3 day 2 night excursion to Fraser Island. We got there and were put into groupds of 11. We seem to have been stuck with the dud group as we were with 6 un excited 18 years olds... however we made the best of the situation and we were off. The first day the weather was a bit shit, but it was still amazing to see Fraser. It is the largest sand Island in the world and one of the only places where rainforest grows right from the sand. Also, it holds half of the world's perched lakes, some of themost pristine fresh water lakes around. The cars that we rented were huge 4x4 Landcruiser's. You can only drive 4x4s on the island, and in some plceas going even 5kms/hr is too fast! It was a riot! Even I drove. The first day we saw Lake MacKenzie and the Shipwreck and then settled our camp for the night. We were annoyed with our group and luckily the 5 other trucks came and set up tent in the same spot as us.... After a beautiful sunset a raging party started and it was amaizng. we met some Canadians and a shit load more Irish people and partied the night away.
The next day we were up bright and early and the weather was GORGEOUS!! such a nice change form the day before. Our group decided that we would go back to Lake MacKenzie on a nice day after we saw Indian Head and the Champagne Pools. Lake MacKenzie was even more spectacular the second time around with the sun shining! Again after a full day we stopped outside of Eli Creek and set up camp with the other 5 trucks (63 people in total) and partied hard.
The final day we went to Lake Wobby... a nice little lake in the middle of huge sand dunes. it toook about 30 minutes to walk there throught the massive sand dunes... but it was really worth it to dive into another amamzing fresh water lake.
WE headed back to rainbow beach and the next day we were off to head up the coast.... however we realized that our wallet was missing (i.e. I lost it in Rainbow Beach) once we were about 1.5 hours away. We called the station where i remember last using it, and they had not seen it. Needless to say I FREAKED out, and we had to cancel all of our cards and report it lost/stolen (I was convinced it was stolen). Anyways after 3 days and a shitload of hassle, it turns out that it fell out of the car when we stopped to ask for directions, and the lady at the gas station found it. She somehow figured out that We had rented a Wicked campervan, and they contacted us with the number of the gas stationa nd the lady's contact, so we should get everything back....
After realizing that we lost the wallet, we went up to Tonsville through a little town called 1770, really beautiful with a grea motorbike tour.
Now we are on Magnetic Island and it is amaizng. we rented a Moke (the traditional way to get around the Island) and are having an amazing time. I'll try and add photo's sooooon!!! Love you all xoxoxo
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