Monkeyhead

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Good Morning Vietnam

Let’s put this one down to experience…

- Angry men (I think they still hold a grudge against all westerners)
- Getting dropped off by boat to and island in the middle of no where, 30km from civilisation, getting dark, being pushed off a bus and having Vietnamese men yelling that they don’t care as they drive off into the sunset (long story)
- Paying 3 times more than locals because you are a westerner (and then they turn around to their friends and laugh that they quoted so much)
- Meeting a very uncompassionate race on a full power trip

... but thats’ only in the North - we’re hoping the south will be much better

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Xin Chao

Hey everyone,

Well I thought its time to write another update now that we are over
half way! We arrived in SE Asia on the 26th of May and made our way to
northern Thailand where we spent a relaxing few days in Chiang Mai,
and a couple of days with Tobz cousin. Chiang Mai was a fantastic
place for Thai culture, food, handcraft shopping and we also managed
to go to a Muay Thai Championship tournament that included a NZ
fighter. We then took a couple of buses heading North East staying in
some small towns on the way to the Laos border. The scenery was just
amazing so I loved every minute of being in the rickety run down dusty
buses with doors that couldn’t close

We started meeting fellow backpackers once we got into Laos, a number
of them (Dutch, Swiss, Irish and Canadian) that we spent the next 10
days travelling with. We took a slow cargo boat overloaded with
backpackers 2 days down the river on hard wooden seats to a gorgeous
french town called Luang Prabang where we spent a few days eating a
wandering through the town. Laos has a 11:30pm curfew where all locals
have to be at their homes otherwise they are in deep poo but the
falang ("foreigners") don’t have to abide by these laws so everyone
goes bowling!?! Needless to say, bowling is very interesting in Laos;
imagine 200+ backpackers drinking Beer Lao, yelling as loud as
possible and attempting to bowl. Its a sight in itself. I’m glad none
of the locals get to see or I’d be very embarrassed for the whiteman.

We headed south more through the mountains where some of the most
poorest communities in Asia live, many World Vision communities - it
was amazing scenery and a really eye opening trip. One of my
highlights. Funny thing is at the end of the 7 hour bus journey
(incidentally our bus we had originally booked never existed which is
our 17th time we’ve been scammed thus far but thats another story in
itself) we arrived in a small town on a river that exists solely for
tourists. Its like a small Las Vegas in the middle of one of the
poorest countries in the world. Picture this: neon lights, Beer Lao
signs everywhere, a surplus of guesthouses, restaurants that have not
chairs but benches with squabs on them to lie back and watch Friends
or Family Guy and fake audience laughter blaring all down the street.
But best of all, when you are given a menu at one of these restaurants
you are also subtly passed a “special” menu (by subtle i mean face
down) called the “Happy and Fun For You” menu where you can partake in
the local specialty (either “happy” which is marijuana, or mushroom or
opium tea/coffee/shake/pizza or just a joint or bag). - No mum I’m
still an angel but I was impressed with their Marketing The best
part about Vang Vieng was the tubing; hundreds of mad tourists
floating down the Mekong river in a tube with a beer or “bucket”!

We we’re very ready to leave Vang Vieng though and headed for the
capital where we took a flight to Hanoi… hello Vietnam! Hang on, I’m
not quite ready for you. We had to wake up the minute we arrived and
guard ourselves from the many touts and scammers - they don’t hold
back here. The place is frantic as the Chinese cities only with
another million motorbikes spitting black exhaust fumes and honking at
you as you as they almost run you over. We are off to beautiful Halong
Bay in a couple of days to meet up with an irish/korean couple we met
in China. Hopefully the bus we have booked turns up!

Okay everyone, thats enough for now - hope everyone is well, love your
emails, keep ‘em coming.

Love Libs
xxx

PS. Hope to have some pics up very soon - will let you know.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Ni Hao

Hi everyone,

It’s been much harder to find time to write as most places have only
one computer and slow internet in China, and a queue 5 people long so
we use what precious internet time we have to book the next lot of
accommodation/travel etc.

Our trip through China has been very interesting and mostly enjoyable.
China is basically ‘under construction’ so where ever you are you are
always surrounded by construction sites. Its a very dirty country. The
Chinese people will throw rubbish on the ground instead of taking an
extra 2 steps (literally) to put it in a bin. Out most building
windows in all major cities (except for Beijing… Olympics theres
a pile of rubbish. Hmmm. Even driving up to the Great Wall it was a
constant stream of rubbish, each dwelling having its own tip,
literally outside their front door. Charming!

Highlights
The Great Wall was amazing (a great birthday day)… we went to the
“less visited by tourists” part and walked 10km’s along the wall,
mostly where it hasn’t been restored. Our other highlights have been
Yangshuo (a small touristy village south of Guilin) surrounded by
karst mountains and rivers; we basically hired bikes and rode into the
country and got lost between farming villages. Also there was a lovely
park in the middle of Beijing where the locals went to fly kites, play
cards/chess, musical instruments and sing and dance - it was so neat
to see their culture in that light.
Also we have met some lovely people, made some new friends, two of
which (Collie & Nancy, an Irishman and Korean) are coming to New
Zealand to live so it will be neat to catch up with them again. (We
met them on the Great Wall and then randomly bumped into them in
Guilin 2000km’s away, they are biking from Seoul to Singapore so
hopefully we’ll see them in Vietnam too).

Lowlights
Yes there are always some. The major has been our beloved SLR camera
dying on us. :-( and Toby getting food poisoning which meant we had to
stay put in Guilin for a few extra days. He’s getting better now but
its not been pretty.

The Earthquake
We were on a train in Shanghai when the Earthquake hit so we didn’t
feel it but many did. As you can imagine its hit the country hard. Its
constantly on the TV, all of the media reports only report on the
positive like successful rescues, what the government are doing to
help, heart warming stories like people giving their lives for others,
no spreading of diseases etc. Its really weird hearing only the
positive over and over again… either they are doing their job really
well or its total propaganda… I would say its the latter considering
China.

We have arrived in Hong Kong now and its another world. The minute we
got over the border people were speaking English, helping us, the
place was clean and tidy (you can be fined up to HK$5000 for spitting
or littering) and its easy to navigate. Yay!

We’re off to Thailand on Monday for our next leg. Looking forward to
slowing down a bit.

Hope everyone is well… thanks for all your emails, sorry if I
haven’t written you back, I will get around to it I promise.

Lots of love,
Libs (& Tobz)

Monday, May 05, 2008

Konichiwa

Hi everyone,

We’ve had an amazing time with Aimee and Eugene here in Tokyo. This
place is incredible… so vastly different from home yet there are
still many similarities (just on a larger scale). I am exhausted from
a very long and exciting day at Disneyland yesterday and my feet feel
like concrete but other than those minor side effects I’m on top of
the world. We have had 7 busy days in Japan, two of them in Kyoto
visiting hidden temples and shrines in the middle of the city and
walking the gorgeous traditional cobbled streets with cute shops.
Tokyo has more people than I could ever comprehend. From rush hour
commuting to weekend arvo shopping and you are bumping shoulders with
1,000’s. Friday night we went out for dinner and drinks for Eugene’s
birthday with 20+ of their friends and had a great night out. We’ve
visited many shopping districts, gone up to view the city from the top
of the More building, went to the fish markets, Disneyland, had lots
of scrumming food and visited many shrines and temples. We’ve really
enjoyed the Engrish, trying to communicate with the language barriers
and the technology and gimiky shops and of course, spending time with
Aims and Eug.

We’re off to China tomorrow - write again soon.

Sayonara
Libs & Tobz