Friday, October 29, 2010

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!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

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 :)

Saturday, October 23, 2010

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!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

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. :)

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

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.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

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.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

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.

Monday, October 4, 2010

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! 

Friday, October 1, 2010

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.