the gibbon experience.

sunday morning. We woke early and got to the bus station half an hour before we were meant to leave. Apparently eveyone else had a similar idea, because by the time we got on the bus there was only one seat left. Thinking id be standing up the whole way, i braced myself for the journey, but I shouldn't have been so doubtful of the lao way because they had it all covered. Plastic chairs were loaded into the aisle for those of us unlucky enough to have missed out on a seat. It wasn't so bad at first-before we started moving-but after the first three blind corners my poor chair legs were barely hanging in there, let alone my screaming arms. every corner I was up on two legs, trying my hardest not to snap the flimsy plastic seat or end up on the people next to me, all the while determined to maintain some level of composure. After about 2 hours, we arrived at our destination. A dusty little unknown village called don chai, nestled cosily against a roaring highway. Before leaving luang nam tha, we had experienced a little bit of trouble explaining to the driver that we wanted to get off there, (this is where we would be picked up the next morning by the gibbon people) but we figured it couldn't be too hard to spot. Realisation dawned on us when we were promptly offloaded under a sign that read 'don chai' on the edge of a highway, literally in the middle of nowhere. To try and avoid looking like lost fools to the other people on the bus, we stuck our chins out and began walking purposefully in one direction only to find about 10 bamboo huts and a pack of mangey dogs. Shit. Luckily, there were some monks watching us from a temple up on a hill and they started yelling to us, 'where you go?' All we had was a piece of paper saying 'mr I-deng's guest house and restaurant' and so Claire yelled out 'do you know mr I-Deng?' They all pointed immediately back the way we had come, and so we lumbered off like unco-ordinated turtles under our packs, asking anyone we saw if they knew mr I-Deng. The highway was so dusty that every 30 seconds we were enveloped in a gigantic plume of dirt as a semi trailer roared by, just you're averaged roadside village experience. Everyone just kept pointing down the road until the very last place, where we finally found the elusive 'restaurant and guest house' which would be more adequately described as 'dusty shop of random snacks with a little room in the back.' We plonked our things down and got some lunch, and then were joined by mr I-Deng's two young daughters- Ghanda and Aiv. They taught us to speak a little lao, and also gave us a lesson in traditional dance. We made origami and played cards, and the next morning the younger one got me to braid her hair for school. So cute! At about 11, we were picked up by the people from the gibbon experience and drove along the most ridiculously steep and bumpy track until we reached a little village. We walked from there into the jungle for about 2 hours, until we reached a cool little waterfall. From there, we hiked up a maze of steps to our first zip line. excitement rippled through our group of 8 as one by one we clipped ourselves on to the wire and made the leap of faith off the platform. When you jump, you shoot forward instantly, flying through the trees on either side of you until suddenly they disappear and you're 100m above the jungle canopy, flying over a valley between two mountains. The view is breathtaking, and you have to pinch yourself to get your brain to realise it's actually happening. A few more zip lines later and we saw our treehouse. It was so great -very tarzan- with a little kitchen, table and mosquito nets hanging from the roof over our beds. The shower was the best though; two walls behind you, but infront was just a small railing and then the most incredible view of the jungle, from a cool 70m up. The next few days were amazing, zipping through the jungle on about 20 different wires, fighting off leeches, climbing mountains, eating jungle food and ducking through the dark caves made by the thick bamboo plants that bent over the path. It was an experience like nothing else, and by the time we got back to little don chai our bodies were aching and we were covered in mud to prove it. We got what tasted like the best meal of our lives, and then steeled ourselves for the bus ride back up to luang nam tha. Waving goodbye to the others, who were going to huay xai, we asked Mr I-deng when we should expect the bus to luang nam tha. "Oh maybe 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, sometimes 3 or 4" came the reply, accompanied by vague gesticulations and a little chuckle. So we decided that all we could do was wait and hope to flag down the bus (because it wasn't actually stopping) when it went by. As we waited, a shiny silver van pulled up outside the shop. The first man to topple out was a beaming chinese man in a hawaiian shirt, clutching a glass of bubbly. "hey hey!" he yelled, raising his glass, still beaming, doing some awkward kind of grapevine step across the dirt in his loafers. He was closely followed by a gaggle of men in ralph lauren polo's, the kind of rich business men who go on holiday but can't bring themselves to unwind enough to go without a button up shirt. within seconds they had swarmed the building, plucking bottles of scotch from the shelves and acting all charming-or so they must have thought. Having just come from 3 days in the jungle, the last thing we felt like doing was posing for photographs with drunk, over-friendly chinese men. One guy was trying to communicate something in broken english, and kept sliding up along the seat. A lady who must have been his wife started saying "my husband" and bending and straightening her elbow. I couldn't decide whether she was threatening us or just demonstrating that her husband has quite a good range of motioon in his joints. Who knows. About half an hour after they left, we spotted the rickety old bus motoring down the highway with a gigantic cloud of dust billowing out behind. I darted out onto the road and waved it down, and we climbed aboard amongst bags of rice, computer parts and confused people who had though we were missionaries. Go figure. We got back safely to luang nam tha and had the best nights sleep in a good week, all in preparation for our journey onwards.

december 11th.

Yesterday we had one of the best days of our trip. It was so much fun. We had met up with simon and lau, the danish guys we had met in vientiane, and we decided to visit the waterfalls with 3 other girls we had met on our travels. We got a tuk tuk out there and payed the driver a little extra to wait for longer than 2 hours (which is the usual limit). We went in and sw all the moon bears that they had in the rescue centre, they were so big and fluffy-like nothing we have back home. Most of them had been rescued from poachers and bile farms. We chatted to them for a while, then walked up to the first lagoon. We all kind of stopped and stared because it was so beautiful! The water was a creamy blue colour, bright aqua and almost milky around the edges. We decided to keep walking up the hill until we dound an even bigger lagoon with a waterfall and a rope swing coming out of the tree! it was so cool except the water was so freaking cold you wouldn't believe it! The best way to get in was to just launch out on the rope swing and jump straight in.. Simon and lau went first, but when I hit the water it was so cold that it knocked all the breath out of me and made my skin burn. Refreshing! We found a little cave underneath the waterfall, and soon discovered that the lagoon was home to the same little fish that had nibbled our feet in siem reap. So funny! Anna, one of the girls with us, had what she thought was a secret map to a hidden swimming place, but we followed it into the jungle only to find a big hole and the realisation that we suck at reading maps! We started climbing the regular steps up the side of the waterfall, and then spotted the 'danger no swimming' sign which-according to the map- was our cue to turn right towards the falls. We followed this little path through the jungle, and then came across a waterfall that we had to climb up. We had all gotten dressed after our swim so we got soaked again scrambling up the rocks as the water gushed down over us. When we got to the top we were all grinning at the sight of the huge waterfalls cascading down onto a small lagoon and rock shelf-our own secret place halway between the top and bottom of the falls. Despite feeling like we had frost bite all over, we got back into our bathers and started exploring all around. We found this awesome cave that went right back into the rock wall, underneath the wall of water. Following simon's monkey man walk up the cliff, we founf a cave with a little secret pool in the bottom. The colours were the best though! These crazy bright jade spirals coming down from the roof, and rocks under our feet that fels like spongey plastic, filled with millions of tiny holes. We walked all the way to the top and played on the fallen logs in the calm pool above the falls. It wad amazing how slowly the water moved at the start compared to the speed it got rushing down the other side. We slid back down the other side because it was so steep and muddy, and went for one more rope swing to finish off the days. On the way back we passed all these concrete bears lined up against the wall of this building and tried to take photos with them. We tried climbing up to sit on their paws, and claire has the best picture of us scrambling up these animals in vain. When we eventually got up there, all these japanese people started taking photos with us, one lady even put her arm around me haha. We bought some bananas and pineapple for lunch and made our way back to the tuk tuk. On the way we saw a lady roasting bananas, and she let me swap some raw ones for some barbequed ones which pretty much made my day! We piled back in the tuk tuk and started off home, everytime we get in one of those things it feels like we're soldiers about to be deployed on a mission somewhere. A few minutes into the journey i climbed out onto the back platform, followed by simon and claire. We stood so that our heads popped up over the roof of the tuk tuk and we got an amazing view of everything! It was the coolest ever- flying through the mountains with our hair whipping out behind us, waving at all the kids we passed on bikes and hanging on for dear life as we hurtled around the bends at some ridiculous speeds (sorry mum!) gladly, we made it home safely and everyone did their own thing for a little while before meeting for dinner later on. We went to this place called utopia which was really incredible. It was set on the side of a mountain, with a bar, a garden as the dining area, beach volleyball and a bamboo platform covered in cushions and little tables where you could sit and look over the river. We ordered some dinner (claire was late following a mad dash down the street after realising she had an hour left to enrol in uni) and sat there for ages just chatting and hanging out. Instead of dessert, the boys decided it would be fun to get one of those massive shisha/peace pipes to share seeing as we had never tried it before. They apparently ordered apple flavour but it tasted like liquorice. One of the strangest sensations ever, we felt like the caterpillar from alice in wonderland. Everywhere in laos shuts at 11, so we were sound asleep by 12 after a lovely/crazy day of being real hippies! Sadly we left the boys behind this morning, but we will meet up with them again for christmas in chang mai. The next few days we will be having the best time ever at the gibbon experience- ill let you know how it goes!

the epic bus jourrney (33 hours)

We got on the bus in siem reap at midnight, with tickets that said we'd be in vientiane by the next evening. On the way to the bus we met two girls who told us their friend had done the same trip in reverse and said it was the most frightening experience of his life, and he had thought the bus was going to drive off a cliff every 2 minutes. Absolutely crapping our pants, we got on what was meant to be a sleeper bus that turned out to be seats. This didn't matter anyway because the trip was so terrifying we didn't sleep a wink. Although we didn't see any cliffs,both of us sat bolt upright and wide eyed for the whole 4 hour trip, as we careered around corners and sped like crazy into the dark. Three days earlier, the same journey in reverse had taken 6 hours. Back in phnom penh we were dropped at some random bus station where they were blaring hip hop shit music at 5am. We were so happy to get on the next bus, even though that wasn't a sleeper either. It was ok though because we had two seats each, and passed the time experimenting with different ways to sleep without falling into the aisle at every corner. We stopped for lunch at another random roadside place and the lady sitting opposite me on the bus bought a giant fried tarantula. Back on the bus, I watched in horror as she crunched her way through the legs so painfully slowly and then started pulling apart the abdomen. I was in shock, it was so repulsive. We got to the laos border which was just a little shack with a flag on it where we had to pay to get our passports stamped for some corrupt reason or another. When we got to pakse though, we got on the coolest bus ever. Walking up the aisle, we got to our seats which were actually just a double bed, two pillows and some blankets. Not the safest ride but definitely the most fun! We befriended this gorgeous cambodian couple opposite us-the only other foreigners on the bus, who shared their fruit and dinner with us, and laughed at the whole 'bird foetus' episode that I talked about before. As we arrived in vientiane, we piled into a tuk tuk with everyone else and sped off into town. One of the most memorable experiences of our trip will be driving around the capital that morning to the tunes of 'funky town' and 'kung fu fighting' that blared from the boom box at the front of the truck. What can you do except laugh!

freaky food

We've been traveling for about 7 weeks now and have definitely had our fair share of new experiences. Some of the most memorable being the weird food we've tried.
In Phnom Penh, we tried these amazing pork dumplings which were steamed in pots on by street vendors. They also did ones with sweet pumpkin so Claire was set! They were so soft and sticky, obviously a health food! Haha. We've found that they prefer to use pumpkin in desserts rather than in actual meals, and even pumpkin juice is pretty popular! We stumbled across this awesome vegetarian buffet in Vientiane last week, and they had what is one of the most ridiculous desserts i have ever tasted. you get a bowl of kidney beans, then pour coconut cream over the top, add some squares of black jelly and this weird sugar syrup, and top it off with splash of pumpkin juice. surprisingly, it was so freaking good we went back for seconds...duh! Haha.
On the bus on the way to Laos from Cambodia we stopped at some ridiculous hour of the early, early morning to grab something to eat. Climbing down from the bus, I spotted some boiled eggs at one of the stalls and so i grabbed 4 for us to munch on later. It was only as i was halfway through peeling the first one that i realised it wasn't a boiled egg. Turns out half developed chicken foetus is a perfectly legitimate snack in laos. Lovely!
One of our all time favourites are the simple yet divine roasted bananas, or check anh in khmer :) have a look for yourself, dont be jealous- well roast you some when we get back!
Oh my god, i just remembered, last night we went back to visit this lady who named herself 'mumma lee' when we met her the other night. She is a legend! everywhere in vang vieng you can buy pancakes/burgers/sandwiches from vendors on every corner, but mumma lee made us the best thing ever! A toasted baguette with fried banana, nutella, coconut, peanut butter and chocolate. She even let me help with the roasting and chuckled away to herself as we declared our love for her and her sandwich. Funny, funny night!
Just this morning, we walked through the market and saw water buffalo hooves wrapped up like bunches of flowers, as well as something that looked alarmingly like a skinless puppy grilling on a grate at a stall. Ugh.
All in a day's fun in indochina.

ODA

When we were in Siem Reap we set aside an hour or so to visit an orphanage that my uncle had donated to. I don't know what we expected to find, but we could never have anticipated just how amazing this place and these people are. The orphanage is called "Orphans and Disabled Arts" and is located in the Angkor Wat complex.
We had planned to visit for an hour, but we stayed the whole afternoon, captivated by the stories of the children and the people who care for them. There were times when we were both sitting so still, trying desperately not to cry as we were so overwhelmed by all that we were being told. This is one of the best organisations in the world. Every single cent that is donated goes directly to the children-you can see it. It was just incredible.
Please take the time to watch this short clip, which explains about their lives.

Tragedy.

So this morning we woke up to phone calls from our worried parents, who had spent the morning listening to the news of the stampede at the water festival. We came home early last night, so we managed to miss it, but we are still a bit shocked about the whole thing. The crowds were absolutely insane, like a giant mosh pit swarming down the riverfront. Apparently there were heaps of people on one of the islands, which is connected to the mainland by just one bridge. At some point something has scared the crowd, and people have started trying to get off the island as quickly as they could. This has created mayhem on the bridge as people were crushed as they fell down, or dived over the bridge into the water and drowned. The whole bridge was decorated with colourful lights, but somehow these wires electrocuted people who fell into them-only horrifying the crowd even more. We are so upset that the joy of the last 3 days has ended like this. Such a sad day for the entire country because millions had come from provinces all over Cambodia. The Prime Minister has declared Wednesday (tomorrow) a day of mourning, so we are just kind of playing it by ear as we don't know what to expect/what is expected of us. You can read more about the incident here.

Of all the things.

Of all the shops and sights in Phnom Penh, Claire and I today succeeded in finding what is quite possibly the only thrift store in Cambodia. Needless to say we had the BEST DAY EVER. We bought about 4 kilo's of stuff each (we measure our purchases in mass now that we have to carry them everywhere) and it was only $7 for each of us! We spent 2 hours in this little store, running up and down the aisles of clothes, dressed up in god knows what and having a ball. We got tops, skirts, jumpers (Claire; Well I am going to uni in Melbourne and it's cold there...") and a bathing suit each. Hopefully tomorrow we can get a few snaps and show you all what we got! The day didn't start out too great, our grand plans of a sleep in were shattered when Claire's Dad called at 6:30, but soon we were up and bustling around, chugging down our morning coffees. A little too quickly though, I managed to throw up again. Yes, it has become a regular occurance for some reason! Lovely. After our shopping, we went back to this cute little frozen yoghurt place on the river front, and watched the boat races from the second storey. So incredible.
Yesterday we went to see the S-21 prison/ genocide museum. I can't even begin to explain what that was like. We had been reading books and studying the history of the place as well as talking to other people who had been, but nothing could prepare us for what we felt as we walked in. Halfway through the tour we were both crying our eyes out as we tried to wrap our heads around everything that happened. But it's like trying to understand whats at the end of the universe. Freaking impossible. The thing that got me was the look in the eyes of every person in the images that lined the walls. Hundreds and hundreds of mug shots of prisoners and Khmer Rouge fighters. They all had this haunting look of sadness, fear and defeat, and their eyes were just piercing into you. I could barely look at them, the same look repeated in every single face, from babies to the elderly. It's making my skin prickle just thinking of it. It definitely made us realise how insignificant all our problems are, and how pointless it is for people to bitch and fight about nothing. I have never appreciated the simple existence of my friends and family more. Love you all :)

My Day!

So this morning after some issues with transport yesterday, I decided to rent a bike and do the 8k to work like that. I got the bike ok, and everything was going great until I set off without a map (thinking that I'd be super fine with just some street names written on my hand...) or a helmet-they hire out bikes, but nowhere seems to have a decent crash hat. About 10 minutes into my journey I realised I was completely lost, so I decided I would just ride around until I saw something familiar and go there. I passed the same people at this one stall so many times that by the last time they all pointed and waved. Nice. I eventually found the road I was going on, they're mostly all numbered streets, though they didn't think to actually line up the numbers when they did it so you get St, 123 right next to st 217, and crossing st 186. Confusing is an understatement, because then they have 3 different names for each main road as well. Argh!
Anyway, I soon discovered that being on a bicycle is perhaps more dangerous than being on the back of a moto, if that is at all possible. You have (almost) total control, so you feel in charge of where you're going, though you just have to follow the traffic up onto the pavement or through puddles and god knows what-just try not to put your feet down! You have to go fast to keep up with the movement of traffic, and you have to concentrate on everything. All the time. It's almost better to zone out and use your peripheral vision because you can't ever keep track of everyone on each side. The navigation itself is not too bad, it's just like skiing or snowboarding. Give way to people ahead of you, but be mindful of anyone behind, get the hell out of the way of someone out of control, and try to swerve around the huge slow ones. I swallowed SO MUCH DUST. Luckily I had my sunnies to keep it out of my eyes. Riding in a dress is always interesting, but trying to keep your knees hidden, your mouth covered and your bag secure all at once takes it to a whole new level.
When I got to the centre, none of the other volunteers were there, and neither was the lovely lady with the adorable grandson (who kissed me on the cheek yesterday. Aw!) who usually takes charge. I walked into the room and there were two people I had only ever passed in the hallway, sitting waiting for me to get the party going. I was thinking "Öh God help me, where in the world am I right now?" but I just got on with it. Said hello to them all, did the 'welcome song' and got out some games. At about 9, the ladies just left. It was me alone in a room with 10 severely disabled kids, who must have just taken it as a cue to go nuts. I tried to feed them their snack, but it ended up strewn all over the room, crushed into the floor. One of the girls ripped out a clump of my hair and proceeded to eat it, and one little boy just pooed right in the middle of the floor. Ugh it was so bad. At 9:50 the lady came back with a basket of boardshorts and swim nappies, and motioned for me to change them all and take them outside. That was fun :| More wee. Haha yesterday I slipped in a puddle of wee and nearly went A over T. The lady was laughing so hard and mimicking me for about 10 minutes. So funny. We went outside and she had set up a wading pool, which was cool. But she just kind of chucked them all in it and started washing them all together. One little boy who is autistic and hides in the corner all day was freaking out in a massive way. Quivering in his little white trunks. I picked him up and he clung onto me for dear life, which is so out of character for him. I was soaking wet in a second, but my heart was absolutely breaking for this little thing who had buried his head in my shirt, whimpering and crying. I had to dress them all again, without towels, which was great but I managed. When the other girls who work at the school asked if I wanted to visit their afternoon class, I was not saying no! As much as I want to keep doing as much as I can with that room, I just couldn't do it today. I was in tears by about 11, and just needed to get out.
For lunch I had bbq bananas! So weird! They were hard and salty on the outside, like a biscuit or crusty bread, but then they were sweet on the inside. So strange, but lovely!
After that I went to see the school part of the building, and it was so great just to be around some kids that could fully understand what was being said to them. They were so freaking cute! One little girl-the only one in a class of boys-reminded me of myself when I was little. Before the class started, she was helping to teach me Khmer numbers and the alphabet, but when the teacher asked her to recite it all to the class she was so shy that she freaked out and forgot it. The poor dear. Some of the girls had made a parachute which we played with for a while, and the kids were so excited! They were squealing and jumping and laughing. It was so great to see.
On the way home on my bike, I was confronted with the biggest crowds I have ever seen. Thousands and thousands of people- walking, pushing carts, carrying things, riding wagons- all on their way into Phnom Penh for the water festival this weekend. We had heard that they would come, and so have spent the week preparing for the mosh pit that apparently engulfs the city every year. Hopefully we will get a glimpse of the boats racing on the river, or see some of the performances. I read that, at this time of year, the river actually reverses in direction as the floodwaters come from the lake out to the ocean. Seeing the size of the river the other day, I couldn't believe it, but I guess it is just one of those things! How awesome! We are having a great time, missing our families and everyone back home, but super excited for the weekend, and loving the guest house we are in. They are simply adorable :)

Brand New Eyes,

Today was my second day volunteering at the orphanage in Phnom Penh. The first thing that I realised about the place when I arrived yesterday, was that it is not so much an orphanage as a home for severely disabled and abandoned children and adults. Technically referred to as a "Nutrition Centre," it is home to almost 200 children and adults, most of whom are both physically and mentally disabled. I don't know how to describe it, or where to start, so I'm going to just keep typing and see what happens. I was dropped off this morning at about 9am. The Khmer man that took me out there introduced me to the director of the home, who was lovely. She didn't speak a word of English, but she had kind eyes. We stayed in her office for a while because there were a couple of problems with my placement. There was a bit of an issue regarding my lack of experience working with disabled children, considering that most volunteers there are recent graduates/currently employed as speech or occupational therapists, or at least have some form of nursing experience. I, however, seem to have gracefully slipped through the cracks and ended up miles from the other volunteers. I told her that I would give it a go and try my best, helping out wherever I was needed most. And so began my day. I was taken on a short tour of the building, which was surprisingly big, and as equally surprisingly empty. There was no furniture, and some of the rooms were completely bare. Cream walls. White floors. The hallways are long and thin, with bright sunlight flooding in at the ends-an eerie thing to see in such a depressing place. The bare rooms made me feel uneasy at first, but I think the simpleness of them can be calming for the autistic kids that can't handle too much stimuli. In the first room I saw, there were mattresses and pillows laid out over a 5x5m area, on which 25-30 children were lying. This group of kids were the most severely physically disabled ones in the centre, and so their bodies were all contorted and strange. Some of their expressions were horribly vacant, and I won't lie- it scared the shit out of me. The staff were lifting them up and down, playing with them and singing to them. All the while there were songs like Öld Macdonald"playing in the background. It was a feeble attempt to distract from the haunting sounds of groaning and moaning coming from the other rooms. The second room was better, the kids were more "with it" and it was great to see some smiling and laughing, it was great to see some conscious awareness! The room I worked in on the first morning was one for older kids, who weren't so physically disabled, allowing them to move around in various ways. It was all ages, from 3 years to 28, but that lady could well have been 4. I met two Khmer women and two English volunteers, all of whom are amazing.  The volunteers have been there 3 months as a part of their degrees in something like speech pathology and occupational therapy- I can't really remember. Meeting them, and speaking with them over just 2 days has made me determined to do as much as I can, even if I am overwhelmed and a bit scared. In just 2 and a half months they have completely transformed every aspect of the centre. They explained that when they first arrived, the children would just sit and play with plastic fruit for 3 hours at a time. Then eat, then play with plastic lego or something for another 3 hours. Shit. If you weren't disabled before that, you certainly would be after a few weeks! Now they have integrated all kinds of sensory and interactive games, dancing, stories and singing. Which has really had a visible effect on both the children and the minders. The majority of the kids in that room seem happy enough, but there are always a couple who aren't quite as peachy. I was asking about where the children come from, and where they go after the centre. They said that most of them have been abandoned in homes, at hospitals and at the gates at random times. They really come from everywhere. Just today I met a little blind boy who had been taken to 9 NGO's before this place, and he had been refused from every one. It really is the end of the line. One of the little boys sits in the corner, curled up into himself with his nads covering his eyes and ears. The girls explained that when he was found, he was alone in a room in this house, chained to the floor. No one would be ok after that. There is one little boy in thr group who seems to be developing normally, and the girls think that he is the grandson of one of the Khmer women. I can't help but wonder what the effects of this upbringing will have on his development and his life in the future.
The two Khmer women that work in this room are just beautiful. They deserve more credit than anyone working for any aid agency in the world. All the women who work there (I have not yet seen any men) have such love for the kids, and that is what keeps them doing it day after day. They earn just $20 per month. I was saddened to hear that they could triple their wage if they worked at the dog food factory across the road. It just makes me feel sick. Because of this factory, the entire complex reeks of dog food, I have been told that you "get used to it" after a while, but it still makes my stomach turn. Most of the women at the borey also live their, and have moved their families in to little flats in the complex so they can still work their 24 hour shifts. Yeah, 24 hours. They get days off, but mostly spend them working elsewhere to supplement their income. During our lunch breaks, I have been able to get to know some of the other volunteers, As you might imagine, they are a group of the most dedicated, passionate and loving people I have come across, and they really inspire me. They were saying today that they are so glad I am there to help, because the centre is desperate for more volunteers. When I asked why they don't have enough, they explained that it is not a very kitsch or glamorous job, and people stay for a day but can't handle it. They said that in Cambodia, and similar countries, at the moment there is a serious problem with regards to "tourist orphanages."They told me that particular homes have taken advantage of the fact that certain types of volunteering has become a popular trend with westerners, and they are using it to make a profit. Volunteers who are looking for something a bit more superficial out of the experience; a photo of them with a group of smiling Khmer kids for their facebook, a nice little addition to a resume, or just something to brag about to friends at home, are being used by these not-so-great places as a way to make some money. These orphanages create bogus and completely pointless "English classes" and charge ridiculous amounts for people to volunteer. It is really sad because the kids get screwed over from both sides of the spectrum; they learn nothing, waste time, and have to cope with constant disruption as volunteers rotate every couple of weeks. Even though I would have loved to meet some regular cambodian children, I am happy to think that I'm in a place which needs and appreciates me. I will keep you posted on what's going on, but I have to go because Claire and i are going on a mission to find some cake! :)

Crossing the border,

My diary entry from 1:30pm, on the bus to Phnom Penh.


Just crossed over the border into Cambodia, and what a strange experience that was! Dogs and chickens running everywhere, dust clouds filling everyones eyes, nose and mouth until you can't breathe. 'There is a gap of about 300m between the Cambodian side of the crossing and the Vietnamese side. Between the two points are rows and rows of casinos and clubs, with signs saying "Welcome to Ha Tien Vegas!"We decided that the rules must get a bit foggy in this dusty no man's land, so it would be the perfect spot for something as dodgy as a mini world of casinos. The only semi official thing about the crossing was the stamps, the security checkpoints are pretty much just little huts in the sand, with guys in hats propped up behind a desk. It was unnerving relinquishing our passports for even a second, especially when we found out that our group had somehow ended up with some other guys passport-he was going a few hundred k's in the opposite direction :S 

We walked through the sandy wasteland for about 600m, got some stamps and a visa, and piled back onto the bus. The whole interior of the bus was completely caked in the red dirt, so when we finally had to change buses we all looked like we'd been on safari with Bear Grylls for a week. We drove through the Cambodian countryside for about 4 hours, and finally arrived in Phnom Penh 3 hours behind schedule. Stepping down from the bus steps is like descending into a churning ocean of tuk tuk and moto drivers. Absolutely overwhelmed, we tried to find our bags amongst the growing pile whilst fending off the yelling and grappling. "Lady! Lady!"they scream, grabbing your arm and trying to pull you over to their tuk tuk before you go with someone else. "Guesthouse!" "Hotel"-they yell anything to try and get your attention. I have never been so glad to look up and see two people I know, standing amongst the swarming crowd. Lucy and Rob (two people we met in Vietnam) picked the four of us up from the bus and walked us to their guesthouse just around the corner. We checked in, and then made our way to the market- delirious with hunger! There were 8 of us at dinner, and I think we ate them out of work! We pointed at a handful of random things on the menu, and for about 2 hours the dishes just kept coming! So much food. It was such a fun thing to do, actually having to figure out what is on your plate. Thank God it was dark because I don't know how much I would have eaten if I could have seen it properly! Haven't been sick yet though, so fingers crossed :D

Can Tho.

Ok so I'm jumping a little bit back in time, to tell you about the night we spent in Can Tho before we went to Phu Quoc Island. After an amazing day of touring the Mekong Delta; drinking tea, eating local fruits and seeing how they make coconut candy and rice wine (an interesting combination) we pulled into the riverside town of Can Tho. The bus ride hadn't been bad, but we were ready to get off asap when we saw ourselves stopping outside an amazing hotel in the main street. As we pulled up, Claire and I squealed with delight, hypnotised by the glow of the neon signs reading "jacuzzi"and "sauna." The reality soon set in, however, as we realised that we were dropping off two people from the group who could obviously afford to pay a little more, and thought themselves to be above the "simple accommodation"offered on the brochure. We were most certainly put back in our place as we turned the corner and made our way, on foot, through the flood waters in the street beside the jacuzzi hotel. Damn. Haha. We didn't let it get us down though, because we thought we would freshen up and treat ourselves to a nice dinner. Armed with a fistful of cash and some clean clothes, we ventured out into the streets of Can Tho. The streets themselves left a bit to be desired, but the riverside area was just beautiful! Parks and walkways stretch along the bank, which is dotted with little benches and statues, as well as street vendors and restaurants. We walked for a little while, but then got this uneasy feeling that people were staring at us. Little eyes followed us everywhere, people on bikes were craning their necks to look back at us over their shoulders, groups of girls looked at us, then talked to each other and all stared again. We started freaking out. First I thought that maybe I had a piece of toilet paper hanging off my pants or something, then we started thinking that maybe there is some secret way to wear your scarf that means you're a prostitute, and we had somehow accidentally stumbled upon it. We decided to get off the street, and so we ducked into the first little restaurant we came across. From the minute we walked in we were treated like queens, it was incredible. We both had sauteed vegies with lemongrass and chilli. Absolutely fantastic! We paid for it, and thought we would retreat back to the hostel, considering how uncomfortable we felt, and thinking that maybe we were offending people somehow. The girl out the front was staring at us but trying not to make it obvious. Sweet. We went to leave, and said thank you to her as we passed, at which point she started absolutely gushing over our "beautiful skin"and my blonde hair. Who would have thought that being pasty as would bring such compliments. We asked her if we were doing anything wrong, or dressing strangely, but she just said that we were beautiful and had lovely *pale* skin. Very flattered (in a weird way) we left the restaurant with a little spring in our step. You might say the compliments went straight to our heads, and we decided to wander up the river a little more seeing as we were 90% sure that we weren't advertising sexual favours. A group of 5 people-4 girls, one boy- approached us shyly about 100m on, and asked if they could talk with us to improve their english conversation. They were adorable! Especially the boy, who was the vietnamese version of Carson from Queer eye. Haha. They were pretty great at English, and we sat with them for a while just chatting about life and school in vietnam. It's always a tad awkward, but they were the same age as us, so we had heaps to chat about. They bought us each these gorgeous little roses that a lady was making from ribbon on the street. They also got us each a bird that she had made from this ribbon. We were so flattered! They thanked us for talking to them and we wished them luck in their studies. We were so happy to have met such great people, and felt really lucky to have had that chance to talk to people our own age. Then these four little girls came running over to us, no doubt they had seen the roses and birds, which we gave to each of them. Their little gap toothed grins were just priceless. We took a photo of them with their gifts, and I'm smiling now just remembering the way they skipped and jumped back to their parents. It was such a good feeling to see them so happy and amused with such trivial little things. Compliments, lovely people and cute kids. Needless to say, we loved Can Tho!

Phu Quoc Island

For the last 3 days we have been in absolute paradise! We arrived safely after a hellish journey from Saigon, complete with taxi drivers trying to rip us off, lots of yelling in Vietnamese and some seriously dangerous cramming in a minibus. It has all been worth it though, we are staying in a little bungalow about 50m from the beach, complete with hammocks, a little porch, lots of sand and a gecko which we named Loretta. The power only comes on between midday and 8:30pm, so that makes things fun when you forget a torch! We have been strolling down to the beach every morning, having breakfast (and the BEST coffee) with our feet in the sand, sipping out of coconuts and getting massages, jumping in the sea to cool off and then just like that it's dinner time and we're faced with the biggest decision of our day, what to order! It certainly is a far cry from the lives we were living this time last year! On the first night, we treated ourselves to some incredible cocktails, and lounged in the ocean-which was like a bath. It has rained a couple of times, but usually only at night, and we are managing to score some beautiful sunny days. A few days ago we got some coconuts and got the guys at the restaurant to chop them open for us. That was all fine until we thought it might be nice to roast them over the barbeque-to the absolute bewilderment of the locals. Everyone crowded around to stare at the weird foreigners with no idea how to eat a coconut, and we were equally as confused that they had never even tried it. As we sat down to eat, I sprinkled some sugar over the top to sweeten it up a little, which was obviously way too much for the old lady sitting opposite who began shrieking with laughter and collapsed into hysterics. I had to stop with the sugar for fear of causing her a heart attack! We met up with the 9 people who we had been seeing all the way down, so we have had a few really good nights with them. We spent almost the whole night in this one deserted bar called Amigos, just the 11 of us playing card games and hanging out. It was so much fun! Then last night we thought we'd venture out and try somewhere different, but that backfired when we ended up in what was obviously a strip club and filled with ladies that were definitely actually men... That was fun. Most of them went off to Cambodia today, and so we are waiting to hear how it goes before we book our trip. It's so weird to think we are nearly done in Vietnam, but at the same time it feels like we have been here for years! We are missing some home comforts, muesli, our own beds and our families, but we are having so much fun. Today we are looking at another day lounging in the sun, most definitely some more Vietnamese coffee, and possibly a dip in the ocean. Wow, life is hard.

Recent events.

Ok so I have been a bit lazy with updating lately, but we have had a pretty full on couple of days! in the last post, we were heading off to dalat on the night bus. it was a serious journey (12 hours!) but we managed to sleep most of the way. Luckily we werent near the bathroom this time, but we might as well have been because the b.o coming from the guy below us was actually the scent of death! I spend most of the trip with a packet of chips over my mouth and nose to try and block it out. Ugh im shuddering just thinking about it. Anyway, we got to nha trang and it was underwater like they had predicted. We were congratulating ourselves on deciding to go to dalat until the driver stood up and said that there would be no busses to dalat that day, and he couldn't guarantee there would be one in the next week. With nothing else to do, we decided to get back on the bus-another 12 hours on the dreaded bus! that passed pretty easily though, and pretty uneventfully, and just like that we were in saigon! That night we were so exciting- we went and tried fruit shakes at like, 5 different places to suss out the best ones. We stayed in this horribly dodgey place with cracks in the walls and a rooster literally just outside, weird because we were on the 4th floor...The next day i was feeling a bit sick, so i went back to the (different, obviously) hotel while claire went to see the museum and stuff. Welll, thats what she told me she was doing. He came back to the hotel about 8 hours later looking like she was about to faint. She managed to get so completely lost that she went about 5 ks in the wrong direction and had to get a school girl to tell her she was in district 5. We were staying in district one... That night we met up with some of the other backpackers who we seem to bump into in every town, to this place called le pub. We had a couple of drinks and then this random 34 year old vietnamese guy was trying to impress someone on our table so he bought everyone cocktails (sweet!) and started talking about his job (accounting, not so sweet) Needless to say, we took full advantage of the situation, im not one to say no to free mojitos! After le pub we jumped in a taxi and went to this club called apocolypse now. We had so much fun! It was absolutely packed, and the dancefloor was massive. They played heaps of western music, but i think it as half half tourists and locals. We haven't been out together properly in ages, so it was probably the best night so far :) we got home at around 2, because we had a 6am start the next day. We got out of the taxi and realised that the hotel had locked us out! Freaking tthat we'd have to sleep on the street, claire started frantically ringing the doorbell until this lady opened the door. The poor thing, im not going to lie, she looked like hell. She had about 20% eye openage happening-maximum. Im surprised she even made it to the door. We laughed for about 45 minutes about it when we walked up the millin steps(not exaggerating) to our room. The alarm went off about 3 hours later for us to get up and go to see the cu chi tunnels. It was 2 1/2 hours to get there, but the man driving had attatched this god damn clanging charm to the bus. It was like someone scraping their knife wrong on a plate, or nails on a chalkboard. But LOUD. I thought i was going to have a breakdown halfway there. Wasn't helped by the fact we were pretty hungover. We were tip top by the time we got there and found it really interesting. Our guide was great, and i even jumped in a hole. We got to run through the tunnels, using the local one rather than the tourist one which has (ironically) been widened to accommodate for fat westeners. Go figure. I went first because i couldn't think of anything worse than beingandwiched in ntunel between two slow and sweaty people. I pretty much ran the whle way, but at some point i had to crawl, there were parts in total darkness, and every now and then it just dropped away below you. I freaked at one point when whacked my head on a couple of bats on the roof of the tunnel. Delightful. That night we went for dinner at this place we'd been to the night before. We had come across two restaurants opposite each other, that had exactly the same menu's. This is not uncommon in Vietnam, as it seems that as soon as someone finds success doing something, everyone sets up an identical enterprise right next door. We decided on the on the left, and sat upstairs looking back down on to the street. We ordered soo many fruit shakes (only 50c each!) and the waitress took down our meals. She disappeared downstairs and 10 seconds later we saw her run across the road to the other place. Naturally, we were a little confused as we watched her, but this only intensified as we saw her clip our order to street vendor stall just outside what appeared to be the kitchen. We actually sat and watched our meals being prepared on the street from the second floor of the opposite building. Haha! When the food was ready, the waiters loaded up their arms with plates, crossed the crazy street traffic and came up the stairs! Despite the curious arrangement, the meals were amazing! I got a whole roast pumpkin, with the middle cut out and filled with risotto. Best ever!

Hoi An

Today is the last of almost 3 days in the so called "sleepy" town of Hoi An. We have had a pretty interesting time, but still can't figure out if we like it or not. Driving in to the town, we were so excited and fell in love at once with the old style houses, the colourful boats on the river and the prospect of getting any garment at all made to fit you perfectly. That's where the trouble began. I'm a pretty indecisive person in general, but when you have hundreds of different patterns, materials, styles and modifications to consider, you can get very confused very quickly. Just choosing which tailor shop to go to (there are over 200 in the small town) is a mammoth effort in itself. There are even places where you can get shoes made to fit you exactly, complete with your own design and colour. We went to almost every shop, hoping to find some kind of sign that this was "the one" but after a whole day and a half of wandering, we just picked a couple of random ones and hoped for the best. Claire got 2 dresses, a suit blazer, 2 pairs of shoes, a silk shirt, skirt and 4 dress shirts made in various locations around town. This made it interesting when we had to co ordinate multiple fittings at different times, the difficulty in actually finding the places only adding to the fun... It is a novelty to have clothes made this way, but as we are all finding out, it can be really unnecessarily stressful! I was so overwhelmed for the entire time that I only just got a dress made today, with this adorable lady who completely restored our faith in Hoi An and the tailoring business in general. She was sweet and gentle, and really did want to make us happy as her customers. When I couldn't decide on anything, she told me not to buy something for the sake of it, because it would never be right. She made Claire the most beautiful things out of everything she bought, and so e went back every single day. She was so happy when I finally decided on something, and spent the afternoon helping me plan it. The enjoyment she got from making the things for us really showed, and made the whole experience really wonderful. We have spent the whole of today telling everyone to go there.
There seems to be a group of about 20 of us (backpackers) who all end up in the same towns at around the same time. It is the most bizarre thing to be walking down the street in a Vietnamese town and bump into people you know more often than you would at home. It's great though, we all went out last night and the night before, and feel so lucky to have met such an amazing group of people. We had a couple of cocktails at a good spot after dinner, but were keen to head back to the hotel by about 11. The weather has been a bit horrible, with flooding and rain, so we weren't surprised when it was drizzling as we started walking home. Two minutes later it had turned into a torrential downpour and we were stranded out in the street getting absolutely soaked. All we could do was laugh and run, trying not to slip over or fall in a puddle as we tried to navigate our way past bikes and what appeared to be waterfalls coming off the roof of every shop. It was so funny.
This morning we got up bright and early (we didn't need an alarm clock because we have been woken at 6:30am on the dot every morning by some man hucking up his lungs in the next room. Yummy.) and decided to hire a couple of bikes. We spent a couple of hours just biking around, seeing some of the less busy areas of Hoi An, where it is much more peaceful and there are less hoards of camera wielding foreigners. We stopped at a little food market and Claire got into this massive bartering argument with one lady, who stole her money then gave it back and succeeded in confusing the hell out of me. It ended with Claire in possession of 4 lychees and a smack from this crazy laughing lady.At one point during our ride, a man went past us on a motorbike and looked at us over his shoulder for long enough for it to be a little creepy. About 50m ahead he pulled over and got off his motorbike, and proceeded to unzip his pants (yes, it is what you think) and shout "hello" as we went by. I think he was after a bigger reaction than us just looking the other way, but we're still unsure just what he was trying to achieve.
On a lighter note, there is this one lady walking the streets of Hoi An who has made my stay in this town completely worthwhile. She is old and slow, and is the master of what can only be described as heaven in a bowl. You can hear her from miles away, this incredibly distinct call of what sounds like "Cow Hong Laow" but is most probably something completely different. It is (apparently) boiled down soy beans, and is one of the hardest things to explain, let alone make it sounds as appetising as it actually is. It has the appearance of natural yoghurt, the consistency of jelly, and tastes like sweet porridge. She puts grated ginger and some kind of sauce on top, which tastes a bit like golden syrup. Oh my god. Today, I saw her across the street and heard her calling out whatever it is she calls, and my stomach literally somersaulted with excitement. I am pretty sure I ran across the road to her I was that happy! Claire just laughed but it was most definitely  the best part of my day!
Tonight we are going on the sleeper bus again, 12 hours, but hopefully we can snag a seat that is more than 2 feet from the toilet. We have decided to bypass Nha Trang because it's waist deep in water, but are heading for the higher ground of Dalat instead. Altogether I think we're in for 20+ hours of travel. Good thing we bought books!

Top Gear and the Knight bus.

On our last day in Hanoi, we booked a sleeper bus to take us on the 12 hour journey down to Hue. When it pulled up just after dinner, we almost died with excitement. It was pretty much a replica of the Knight bus on Harry Potter. It was so cool! There were 3 rows of beds, each of them bunks, and everyone got a little pillow and blanket. I took a couple of photos but the hostel computer wont let me upload them, so when we get to another one I will put them all up. Oh my gosh you can not even believe how great it was. The funniest thing was that it drove like the Knight bus too. We were swerving in and out of traffic and dodging people left and right. It was so much fun, though not the best sleeping conditions there ever were. Luckily we had anticipated this, and had taken on a little vodka which meant I was out like a light after about half an hour, despite all the excitement and the novelty of the experience. The novelty wore off pretty quickly though, because unlike Harry Potter, we had to spend 12 hours on the bus. The beds were really comfy-but about 2 inches too short-and when I woke to the swerving and honking of the bus I was astounded that I had actually slept at all! At around 5am we nearly skittled a water buffalo that was being herded across the road in some little town. The driver slammed on the brakes so hard that everyone slid forward until we were all awkwardly crumpled at the foot of our little beds. Everyone's bags slid halfway down the aisle, and I was laughing my head off with this old Vietnamese guy who was opposite me. It was that hysterical "I'm pretty sure we just narrowly escaped death" cackle that made the whole situation even more funny. Claire slept through it though and so wasn't as enthusiastic as she could have been about survival when I woke her to tell her about it 2 minutes later. She didn't miss out though, because we spent the following 4 hours swerving in and out of oncoming traffic, forcing trucks off the road and side swiping God knows what. I swear we passed about 5 pelatons of school children who must have had a major ride if they were up and cycling at 5:30am. At one point, I nearly got knocked out by a flying bottle of water that kamakazeed off one of the tops bunks as we crossed 3 lanes of traffic to avoid a sausage dog on the highway(?) Hahaha. I have come to accept that the road rules are; the person who is going the fastest and beeping the loudest gets right of way. It was no wonder that a lady came running and vomited all into the bus stairwell, which was conveniently located to out immediate right, just next to the most foul smelling toilet you will ever come across. Ugh. I shudder just thinking about it. I used almost a whole bottle of perfume trying to do something, anything to make it better. We arrived safely-finally-at around 9am, and were picked up by the hostel car. This place is beautiful, such a chilled out area. Free brekky, coffee and tea all day, cocktails for 50c at happy hour, the most amazing friendly staff. Oh it's paradise.

After arriving we decided to go and see some of the sights, we asked the people at the hostel to give us the best and cheapest way-so they ordered us 2 guys on bikes to take us around (sorry Mum) At 11:25, two nice looking chaps rolled up and introduced themselves and Thung and Chi. They got us all suited up and away we went. It was so much fun. I have never been on one of those scooters and it as surprisingly relaxing, nothing like being on the back of a real motorbike. The seats were comfy and really big-I guess they cater for all sorts of fat tourists! We went to this one pagoda which they explained was one of the most significant structures for Buddhists, and was surrounded by an old school for monks. There were little monks chanting in their class, which was the most adorable thing I have ever seen. They wore grey or brown robes, and had their heads shaved except for the fringe. It was such a serene and peaceful place, right on the edge of the river, a world away from the bustle of the roads. We went to the tombs on 2 emperor's after that. They were enormous! First we went to Minh Mang and then after, Khai Dinh. They were both so beautiful, and so ornate. Really overwhelming. The first one was sprawled over an enormous area, incorporating a lake and many gardens. You could clearly see the chinese influence in the design, whereas with Khai Dinh it was the European influence that showed, and the mosaics in the actual tomb covered everything and were just incredible. I think we both preferred the second one.

It was such a great way to see the country, because they took us on all these back roads and through mountains. It all kind of fell apart though after the last tomb, when they said we had to pay them when we got back to the hostel. We freaked out because we had already payed the people at the desk when we booked, and they had told us that the drivers never ask for money. Long story short, the guys we were actually meant to go with rocked up just after we had gone! These two had pretended to be our hired guides! We figured it all out in the end, and managed to have got a better deal than we first had organised-plus a bit of excitement/freaking out. Haha! Wow that is long as, I'm going to go wake Claire and get some free brekky :) Bye!

the lovely notes project is very sweet. is it working? i hope so.

I haven't had much time to check it since I have been away, but it seems that people would rather keep the notes for themselves than pass them on. It is a little bit sad, but I guess it is a good thing that they like them so much. I guess we will have to wait and see how it all goes.

Tell me your secrets.

Halong Bay

We booked into a 3 day/ 2 night tour of Halong Bay at the backpackers, really excited to get out of the busy city and into the open air. This is my journal entry from the second day;

"Right now I am sitting with Claire and the others on the most beautiful little deserted island somewhere in Halong Bay. It is literally a strip of sand at the base of an enormous limestone karst, and we are surrounded by what seems to be just mountains of tropical forest. We are sleeping tonight in tiny huts with low roofs and no walls, made from bamboo and dried plants. They are actually on the beach; when you step out of them you step onto the sand and can walk 5 meters to the water. The ocean is warm, and such an intense jade colour. Apparently if you swim at night, the plankton light up the sea as they swim away from you because they contain phosphorus, lighting up the ocean. We are sleeping in the most secluded part of the beach with Joan and Rachael (our Canadian friends) There is a boat for wakeboarding and tubing, a volleyball net on the sand, a ping pong table and a bar and kitchen area for hanging out. Last night we were on the boat overnight and it was so much fun. Claire and I had a neat little room to ourselves with our own bathroom and everything. It was funny because there was just a showerhead coming out of the wall of the bathroom, rather than a separate shower, and the floor was sloped for it to drain out. I have never seen anything like it before. We had lunch in the dining room, which was the middle of 3 floors on this old boat, and then went kayaking through the towering limestone karsts. It was amazing! The air was kind of misty, so it gave the area this eerie, magical feel. After dinner we all sat on the rooftop deck and had a couple of drinks and just chatted with everyone. We met some really cool people, and laughed so much as we were playing games. One girl got really drunk and started stroking my hair and telling me that I should enter a dolly modelling competition, but she kept calling my "Byron Bay Claire" which was kind of awkward because by the time I realised it was past the point when it is ok to correct someone, so I just let her run with it! The next morning we gathered our things nice and early and jumped on a boat to bring us here. It was the most amazing boat ride, the sky got clearer with every corner we turned, and we went past the floating villi\ages which out guide had told us about the day before. He said that the sea people never ever touched land, that for their whole lives they lived on boats and pontoons. They believe that if they touch just one foot on land they will be cursed by a ghost. There are two kinds of funerals they have because they don't bury their dead on land. There is a sea funeral; where they lower the body into the water in a casket with holes in it. They leave it to decompose for 3 years and then they go back to collect the bones which give good luck to the village. The other one is a sky funeral, which they also practice in the hills of Tibet. When someone dies, a monk will take the body to the highest peak in the area and chop it to pieces with an axe. They ring a special bell and eagles come and take the pieces to feed to their families. It really embodies the concept of the circle of life, though it is a little confronting."

In the afternoon on the second day, just after this was written, we went on a banana boat ride. We thought it was going to be pretty tame, so I wasn't too worried when my life jacket didn't fit. I had to wrap it around me without zipping it up, and just use the buckle to fasten it shut. When we got out there though, we realised that it was less "romantic cruise" than "vicious death machine." They were flipping us off every 30 seconds, and it was quite dangerous because eight people falling off the one thing into the same spot never ends well. As I soon discovered. One time, I was flung off with everyone else, and as I hit the water, I smacked head first into someone else. I felt my nose crunch as I landed, and then I was pushed under by another person landing on top of me. Coughing and spluttering I popped up on the surface, conveniently being strangled by my almost non existent life vest. I turned around and everyone's jaws dropped when they saw me. My face and chest were covered with blood. I could taste it and feel it running down my face. All I could think was "Please don't be broken, don't ruin out trip" as I climbed into the back of the boat. Needless to say, that was the end of my banana boating career. It swelled up like you would not believe, I looked like Shrek. Still do. It had stopped bleeding now- 2 days later, but still hurts like hell! Claire and I had planned to do a massive bike ride trip today, but we're both feeling a bit worn out so we thought we would get coffee and a massage instead. Haha! We went to the best Indian restaurant last night and realised that this time last year we were in our English exam. Oh my god. It is the best feeling to be so far away from all that, out exploring the world. Just doing whatever we feel like and not having to please anyone but ourselves. We are having a blast! Going to put some photos up soon, so you can see everything I had described! Bye :)

Hanoi

We got to hanoi in the end, after spending a pretty interesting night in the KL airport. We managed to get a bit of sleep in starbucks, but they woke us up when they were closing and we had to go sleep in Maccas. Haha. We came across this shop that sold all kinds of lollies and fruits, and things, but they had the weirdest things! We saw dried fish that was so crispy it looked like potato chips, and this weird thing that had a label saying "chicken floss roll"-we didn't try any! We have spent 2 days and 2 nights in Hanoi so far, what an amazing city! It is so full of life and character-and so, so busy! We went out for lunch the fist day we got here, and when we went to pay the bill was 40,000d. Not really understanding the money yet we took a while to work out that it had cost $2 for both of us! Oh my gosh. We have experienced so many sights and sounds and tastes in the last couple of days it is almost overwhelming!

Some of the highlights;

• Seeing the beautiful lake, it's amazing how calm the benks of the lake are despite the crazy city all around it. We have walked around it a few times on our way to various things, and it is always an amazing sight. We were walking along on the first day, we saw a bride and groom posing for photos on the river bank, she had the most beautiful dress, and looked just like a doll-absolutely stunning! She didn't look very happy though but we just assumed it was the heat. About 50m on, we saw another bride getting her make-up retouched before getting a photo taken. Surprised by the coincidence, we kapt walking and thought nothing of it, but couldn't ignore the situation when, 70m on, we were surrounded by a sea of brides, grooms, wedding parties and photographers. There were so many! It must have been a magazine photoshoot; grumpy, skinny, pretty brides, standing next to bored, flustered husbands, Photographers literally grabbing their faces and turning them roughly, pushing the couples closer together. It was such a weird thing to see, but then yesterday we went back, and there were more! So confused!!!
• Going to this amazing coutryard for dinner, where they had massive tables in the middle and food being cooked at stations all around. We sat at this communal table, opposite a lovely Canadian couple, and looked over the menu. Everything was only $1 per dish, so we assumed they were little serves. We thought it would be fun to order a few different things and share. We got a vietnamese pancake, vegetarian dumplings, fried rice balls, soup and chicken skewers. The waitress and waiter started laughing at us halway through our order, but assured us that the serves were small when we atarted freaking out. The liars! When the pancake came, it was this MASSIVE meal! It was bean sprouts, prawn and chicken(?) in this fried wonton, set out sort of like a giant piece of ravioli, with a 20cm diameter. We got given rice paper rolls that you had to full with the pancake, some greens, and dip into chilli sauce. It was the best ever! And after that, we went to this place called "Fanny" which has the best ice cream in Hanoi. We ordered ice cream sushi! Which was coffee, strawberry and vanilla sorbet, rolled up with sesame seads on the outside.
• The Hoa Lo prison was an intense experience. It wook us a while to get through it because we were so overwhelmed by it. They still have everything set up like it used to be, and you can see marks on the floor where the prisoners were, and the guillotine that they were still using up until the 30's. So freaky.
• Exploring the city is he best way to see it. Just walking down streets and following what looks good. You can always find your way back, but we have found that when you get lost you discover the best things!
• We went to KOTO yesterday for lunch, it was amazing, and the people were so sweet and so lovely. What a wonderful place.
• Meeing some great people. We are staying with the loveliest bunch of girls, and we went out last night with Joan and Rachael from Canada. It's great how everyone is so friendly and can offer so much advice.
• We have mastered the art of crossing the street! The road rules apear to be; pedestrians give way to cars, motorbikes give way to pedestrians, and cars just plow through everyone and the motorbikes swerve around them. The best way is to walk slowly across the street at a constant pace, avoiding cars, and the bikes just swerve around you. You have to fight everything you know not to sprint across, but it seems to work well in some bizarre way! Claire nearly got hit by an old lady riding a bike, who did an endo and then started yelling at her in vietnamese. So funny!   

Lowlights:

• Trying to be scammed on our first day by a girl pretending to raise money for orphans, and then another girl doing the same thing the next day.
• Taxi driver taking us to the complete wrong place after doing laps of the lake to get the fare up.
• Things we wanted to visit being closed.

What's ahead;

• Tomorrow we are going to see the perfume pagoda.
• The next day we are going to HaLong Bay for a 3 day/2 night cruise which we are super excited about.
• Going to see the water puppets at some stage.

So far we are having a blast! Spending way too much money because we cant resist all the beautiful things, but that's how it is! Excited for the next part of the trip :) I'll try and post some photos soon, so many already!

halfway hell.

So we arrived safely in Kuala Lumpur despite some pretty intense turbulence on the way over. We got through customs by 7am and thought it would be fun to head into the city for a bit of a wander around. We jumped on a bus and then another train, and found ourselves right in the midst of everything. Walking through chinatown was a mission in itself, so too our uncanny ability to sit in places that we really werent't meant to. Did I mention the heat? Oh man. It is stuffy and humid to the max, and that smell of spices and incence floats through the air everywhere you go. . We had the biggest luch and the most amazing market. It had so many wonderful silks and woven things, we grabbed some cookies but didn't get up enoough courage to try the ice cream sandwich- literally a slab of ice cream between two slices of wonderwhite toast...yeah, incredible. right now we are back at the airport, its 4pm and our plane doesn't leave until 6am tomorrow. Lus we have the added bonus of looking and feeling like we have just been run over by a semi trailer. Yay! We are just hanging in there now, dreaming of vietnam and having a place to sleep other than the terminal floor. :)

Leaving town.

Tonight is my last proper night in Australia, this time tomorrow, I will be ready to get on the next plane to KL. How scary is that? We have been planning this trip the whole year, saving our pennies (well, Claire's been saving) and dreaming of the adventure we'll have. It seems so crazy that it's just around the corner, that it's finally actually about to happen. Oh yeah, I got my P's today! Freaking Jesus god finally. Haha. Sad thing is that I don't really get to enjoy it before January. Yeah, by the way, we're away until then. So the rough plan is, arrive in North Vietnam on October 22, spend 3 weeks making our way down the coast, stopping wherever we like on the way down. Over into Cambodia by November 15, we are signed up for a 2 weeks volunteering program in Phnom Penh. We are teaching/working in a school/children's home. Even though we won't be able to help out too much in 2 weeks, we thought that it would mean we were a bit safer and it's always nice to know someone's looking out for you. Up to Siem Reap, we are going to stop in and visit an orphanage that my uncle donated money to, to help them set up a running water system. Hopefully we can do something to give them a hand, even if we just hang out for a bit. From Cambodia, we're going up into Laos, where we will spend almost a month roaming around. We will do all the touristy things, go tubing in Vang Vieng, do the gibbon experience in Huay Xai (living in tarzan style houses for a few days) trek through the hill tribe villages in Phongsali and hopefully be in Luang Prabang for Christmas. I think Laos will be my favourite place, but who knows! From laos, we'll fly into Bangkok, and catch a sleeper train all the way down the coast to Ko Pha ngan. New years is the full moon party which is going to be crazy, but we are right on the other side of the island to the party area, so hopefully we can reatreat to our beachside bungalows if it all gets too much. After that, we will find our way home by early January. Woah. I don't really understand anything I just wrote so I hope that if you're reading it you managed to get some kind of rough idea out of all the bullsh. Ha. If we are near the internet for a long enough time, I will keep updating the blog, but apologies if I am a little vague or hard to understand. Oh my god so excited/nervous/scared/freaked out/happy/idon'tevenknow. This is something that has to be done though. It's weird to think that when I get back, I will be a different person. Not completely, but everything changes you, every experience makes you that little bit different from before. Hopefully I will be wiser, smarter, more insightful, more caring and just better in general. Hope it's good. I hope you like who I am when I get back. I wonder if you'll be able to notice the changes in my updates, that would be cool. Haha hopefully Claire and I still like each other when we get back. Another thing to wait and see! Love you all! Goodbye Australia.

Totally crying my eyes out right now.

And it doesn't help that I'm at work. Shouldn't have watched. My heart is breaking.

Last Minutes with ODEN from phos pictures on Vimeo.

Russell.

So yesterday I got home and walked in the door to see Louis taking photos on the webcam of him and what appeared to be a bundle of blankets. "Hey Char" he said brightly, "meet Russell." He turned around and thrust the blanket towards my face, and I realised that there was a magpie sandwiched in there somehow. "Oh my god Louie. Put the bird outside. Bird. Outside. Outside with the bird. Bird. Out" was all I could manage, haunted by vivid flashbacks of that time on holiday when I was seven, and thought it would be cool to show Dad that there was a bird sitting on my shoulder. He was inside the supermarket. Needless to say, the bird did not approve of the supermarket environment and I watched in horror as the park ranger smushed it up against the glass with a hessian sack, completing an afternoon of bird screeching, father yelling, tear streaming fun. Anyway, Russell went outside and Louie obviously decoded my expression to mean "What the fuck is even going on and why is the birds name Russel?" and immediately launched into a wildlife warrior style story of how he rescued Russell from the storm outside because he couldn't fly and he was looking sad standing in the rain. We left him to sort out his demons about the rain for a good half hour, and then Louie thought it might encourage him to embrace life a little if only he had a bit of bread to nibble on. Fast forward about an hour and I look out the window to see Russ standing in the backyard with a forlorn expression amid what can only be described as a mountain of bread. Millions and millions of tiny little pieces of wonder white, covering every inch of visible ground in a 30cm radius of the bird. I think Louie thought that if he made it so the only thing Russ could see was bread, he might take the initiative to try some. No such luck. That's when I realised that something was definitely wrong with the bird. "Bobs," I suggested tentatively (I have called him that since he was a baby-there wasn't someone else there) "Maybe we should put Russell in a box, make him comfortable." Out of the corner of my eye I saw the bloody bird fall over sideways and start twitching, never a good sign. We got a cardboard box, lined it with newspaper and put Russell in it. I think he took that as the sign to give up on life. He started having this violent seizure and there were feathers going in all directions, I didn't know what to do so I just said stupidly; "Hmmm, Louie I don't think Russ is feeling to great right now." Haha shit. He proceeded to die there and then, the whole rigor mortis and everything, until he lay awkwardly in the bottom of the box. "Should I dig a grave?" he asked. the rest of the afternoon was spent constructing a shrine to Russell and holding a funeral in the back corner of the garden. I can't help but hope to God that Louie's little bird had a brain injury/life threatening issue before he adopted him. I guess we'll never know. Rest in Peace Russ.

Tea Party.

I desperately want to throw an afternoon tea party. Oh it is consuming me. Every time I think about anything else all of a sudden my thoughts morph into something tea party related. I want cupcakes and those little triangle ham and pickle sandwiches. I want to wear my white gloves and sip on english breakfast from fine china. I want a darling rose centerpiece, and a sea of beautiful guests. I want to make this happen. The thing is, people don't have the time to come to a tea party. They all have work or school or something more important to attend to. I really want to make this work. If everyone brought a plate of something- like they used to do back in the good days- we could have the most magical amazing garden party and everything would be great. Just look at it!

Oh I really want this to happen. Let's say, if i invited you to an afternoon tea party, would you come? Would you bring something to share and dress up sweetly? It would make my day! 

My new ride.

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HAHA totally kidding. :| As if I could afford something like that. No. This, my dear friends, is my latest purchase;

All $25 dollars worth of sweet, sweet bicycle that Mum bought off Dunks when he went back to Victoria. See, I didn't even pay for it. Ha.

So it has this impressively cool basket on the front, which I don't think is even meant to be a basket because it is tied on to the handlebars with these tiny pieces of wire.

They seem to hold it there pretty well, and it holds loads of stuff, except you have to be careful because when you go over a bump it jerks and flips up towards you, like the hoopla thing you with pasta in the colander, tipping your things out into your lap. I have a feeling that it's a little small for me because my legs stay bent the whole way around the pedalling motion. Like, bmx bike bent. And whenever I catch my reflection in a shop window I'm all hunched over because the space between the seat and the handlebars is cosy at best. It's not much to look at, but I feel like the mother of a really hopelessly pathetic child in that I don't see it the way other people do. I look at it and see a fierce piece of machinery with a basket that instantly triples it's awesomeness and lovability. No matter that I look like a circus clown riding it, and even though we have only been together for a few days, we have already made some lasting memories. Yesterday I woke up and thought "I don't want to miss this beautiful morning, I'll do the gym class tonight." Oh I'm totally lying again, I thought "Fark being up this early, I'm going back to sleep." Then during the day I started feeling guilty somewhere between my 4th and 5th affogato, and thought I'd better do some kind of exercise. I was scheduled to leave the house at 4:15 on my trusty new bike, but at 4:00 out of nowhere came this GIGANTIC STORM. It was raining so much you couldn't even tell the raindrops apart-it was just a constant stream of water. There was thunder and lightning and everything, but I wasn't backing down. I put on Mum's bright yellow heavy duty raincoat, and put all my gym stuff in a plastic bag in my basket and ventured out into the rain. I looked as homeless as a homeless person could ever look. It was so depressing. I laughed as I rode through actual rivers on my two wheeled mean machine. The path was so flooded that the bottom half of each pedal cycle was actually underwater. You know that feeling you get when you jump off the jetty and water goes up your nose? I got that feeling because the puddles were spraying up so hard into my face haha. Good times, good times. Today we went to west Ballina together, then on the way home we stopped at one of the op shops along the highway. I spent the best 20 bucks of my life. Got some amazing things which I will post up here soon. I shouldn't have spent money on clothes but I could not bring myself to leave the shop without them. Ah. 

Got my life back at 12:15.

This morning I woke up and I thought I was dying. At least 95% dead. My vision was all blurry, my muscles ached and I had the worst headache ever. I rolled over to look at my clock, which is actually just a pocket-watch hanging off a naked barbie, and it said I had been asleep for at least 11 hours. What the heck. I thought that maybe I was feeling bad because my room was so dark, like how flowers shrivel up at night but come out in the sun. I don't know why I thought this, but in my delirious state it seemed like a perfectly logical explanation. I rolled out of bed onto the mammoth pile of clothes and books on my floor, and pretty much crawled outside onto the lounge chair. I felt like Bear Grylls in the Sahara, dragging my dehydrated carcass across the bricks and out into the sun. I collapsed onto the chair, and as I lay there I realised how much of a bad idea it was. The sun was so hot I thought I was on fire. My head throbbed and I could feel my pasty vampire skin burning on the spot. I closed my eyes trying to block out all the feeling in the hope that I wouldn't have to move anymore.
I lay there for about 20 minutes just willing myself to feel better, and gathering the strength to get me to the kitchen.
A good half hour later, I staggered into the house, bracing myself on the kitchen bench. I gathered together an assortment of about 10 pills from Mum's health corner of the pantry, and washed them down with a good strong coffee. This got me as far as the couch where I collapsed face first into the cushions and fell asleep again. Again! What the hell? I lay there wanting to die, wondering how in the world I am going to cope in Vietnam with our days packed with actual things apart from slow and painful death. But as I was walking through the house, at 12:15, all of a sudden I felt fine, I felt fucking great! I was on top of the world, and out of nowhere I launch into this crazy planning and cleaning spree. I cleaned the bathrooms, picked up all of the crap off my floor, washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen, heck-I even scrubbed the bloody toilets. I was in the mood for planning, oh! What a day to make plans, grand plans! Grander! Bigger! Im going to cook a three course meal for dinner that involves some sort of flambe, I'm going to become an artist and sell my paintings, I'm going to learn guitar, and piano, and I'm going to get fit, so fit, look at my brand new training program! Oh I love planning, I plan everything. I plan my day, plan my week.I make lists, oh the lists! So many lists, lists of what to take overseas, lists of what I eat, what movies I'm going to see, things that I want to do before I die. When I'm in these moods I am the queen of lists.I love them, even though I know that most of the things I'm planning wont even happen ever. But I enjoy making them.
I have been having weird dreams about animals lately. No, nothing like that. I mean, the other night I had a dream that I was being eaten alive by wolves in a swimming pool, and then there was that one about being chased by a family of snakes, and then last night I dreamt that I was rescuing a puppy from this gigantic swing made out of logs. HA! I wonder what I will dream about tonight. I wish you could chose what to dream about. They always feel so real! Once I had a dream that Justin Timberlake invited me back to his place and started trying to make out with me and I was like "Ew um, I'm 14 and you probably have a billion diseases." I thought I was being completely logical in a not-so-weird situation but then I woke up and realised what I was dreaming about and freaked myself OUT! Haha. Anyway, I'll tell you what I dream about :D

Formspring answers,

Whoever you are, you made my day. I've decided that formspring is not just for cyber-bullying. Haha.

I hope these shoes are waterproof.

I hate people who drink milk out of the bottle. I can't stand it. They're the type people who go through the '12 items or less' checkout with 18 things, or the people who always seem to text you when you're right in that moment before you fall asleep and scare the shit out of you. Well, dear people, today I have become one of you.  That's right. I drank from the carton. I've done it before, when I was little, but it was always a sneaky, half a second gulp before I put it away. Today I opened the fridge, grabbed the milk, had a few sips and put it right back. I didn't even use it for anything, just drank it. As soon as I did it I felt myself morph into one of them. *Dark, ominous sounding music* Those leave-20-tops-on-the-fitting-room-floor, not-covering-the-food-when-it-goes-in-the-microwave people. And it felt good. It's sad to say that drinking milk from the bottle counts as one of the baddest things I do on your average day. And it was soy milk, so it's not like anyone else is going to drink it anyway. I have decided however, that I have had such a good karma, pay it forward, smile with your heart day that I am entitled to at least a little horrible slob behaviour.

This morning I got up at 6:30. Which is pretty frecking early when you're currently me. Which doesn't really make sense because you're not me, and most likely will never be, but if you're anything like the current me then you get the picture. Oh my god that's so not even relevant to the story, I'm lost. Okay. ANYWAY, I'm kind of glad that my alarm went off at that particular time, because it conveniently interrupted an insanely vivid dream in which I was being chased by a family of snakes. Not kidding, a whole family. Probably something to do with the fact that I was thinking about the next Harry Potter movie, for which I had seen the trailer the night before (Super excited about it, btw.) which, obviously, contains snakes. Well, one snake. But yeah. So the reason I was up so early was so that I could go to help out one of mum's friends in this cafe she owns. She is super sweet, and is short staffed at the moment, so I offered to give her a hand before I went to my body balance class. I spent the morning chopping veggies and peeling avocados, as well as labeling all sorts of amazing foods. Kind of harsh to have to write it all out and not get to eat any of it :( Ah, and so goes the pain of my terrible life. Haha. I did it for free because I was going to be in Alstonville anyway, and I felt like doing something nice.

At 9:30 I went to what I had been told was a 'body balance' class, but which turned out to be a yoga/tai chi/meditation session. The full hippy experience was on offer today! So off I went, to this little place called "Happy Mountain" -yes, the name does give it away, to any clear thinking individual-which I obviously am not. As soon as I step into Happy mountain I am hit in the face with a cloud of incense so strong I almost fall over. I move up the stairs cautiously, pushing my way through the smokey vapours, like tarzan pushing aside vines and what not in the jungle-or so I imagine he would do so. I go past candles and little arrangements that I have no idea are actually legitimate shrines, I just assume that someone ran out of space for buddhas and leaves upstairs... When I get up there, there is the sweetest, most welcoming, light aura omitting hippy woman there to greet me and welcome me into this strange and wonderful place. She's decked out completely, checking all the boxes with her burgandy hair tied loosely underneath a pink and silver scarf, her shoulders draped with a dark shawl, loose yoga pants, bare feet, nose piercing and beautiful smile. She stands at the front of the class, her hands pressed together at her chest, welcoming us into this 'sanctuary of peace and light.' Her voice is like honey; soothing, sweet and calming. She instructs us to bow to our 'inner light.' And so the fun begins.
We do an interesting combination of different stretches, strength excercises and breathing/meditation. It is all very relaxing and peaceful. Except I have to stop myself from laughing a few times. There is this one pose, called "observing the clouds," which looks exactly as it sounds. You stand with your feet wide apart, hands on hips, and turn your shoulders to the side, leaning back as if you're looking at the sky. A whole room full of people doing this looks absolutely ridiculous. Especially when the roof is low.

Another of my favourites is the oh-so-dignified "Himalayan pose," which goes a lil' somethin' like this...

Achieved.

After my enlightening visit to Happy Mountain, I went back up to the shop and put in another 3 hours of decent work. I found myself actually making the food, as well as taking orders and serving coffee. By God I make some mean thai fish cakes. Haha. It was a pretty fun day, and I don't really mind working for free, especially since they were all so nice. I think I am doing it all again tomorrow, with an even earlier start. Plus today I sent out a few more lovely notes in the mail. Oh oh! I almost forgot. Yesterday a lady called me to say I had somehow acquired a free hair, make-up and photo shoot session worth $450 for free as part of some promotion thing I can vaguely remember signing up for online. Unfortunately for me, it happens in Sydney so I couldn't afford to go. But luckily for Kate and Shannyn, who do live in Sydney, they are now participating on my behalf, and I can't wait to see the photos :) All this goodness is making me feel like Jesus, I'll be walking on water next week. Maybe not. At any rate, I'll be able to get away with leaving the trolley in the middle of the car-park at Coles! As for right now, I'm off to eat some peanut butter out of the tub. Peace :)