Hello Motorbike.... well, If I get a coin for everytime I've heard that I'd be rich now (although I'm travelling...) so this will be rather short... I'm on my way south, I've been in Hue so far, which is a nice city, has a citadel in a citadel in a citadel... but Hoi An is much nicer, it has a river and it is only five kilometers to the beach... oh yes, and I drove a moped for the first time... well at the beginning I was rather stressed, but in the end I enjoyed it...
today I came to Dalat, which is a beautiful city in the mountains... maybe do some trekking or something... byebye....
Sonntag, 29. November 2009
Sonntag, 22. November 2009
Hanoi
Xin chao! I've arrived in Hanoi a couple of days ago and this city is just crazy... very noisy and busy, but it has its own kind of charme... it has this little lake (Hoan Kiem) in the center of the old quarter which is lovely...
so when I arrived at the hostel, the girls of my room told me to come with them to the snake village... I didn't really know what to expect, so of course I said yes... when we went there, at first we could touch snakes and play with them, and then they offered us to kill them and cut out the heart... well... of course I didn't kill them, but they boys loved it... and then everybody could try some snake (tastes like chicken ....) and get drunk on snakewine (?) ... it was quite a weird experience...
the next day I went walking in the city and visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (where you actually can see embalmed Ho Chi Minh - bizarre) and the Literature Temple. I like Hanoi, it's nice and if there weren't so many motorbikes it would be walkable... but when crossing the street everytime you risk your life... amazing...
then I tried to organize a trip to Halong Bay by myself... I met a danish girl, Rikke who joined me... that was quite an experience... first we took a local bus which took ages there and we were kind of an attraction as the only foreigners...
then Halong City was quite empty (apparently low season, because it's rather cold as well), but then we found someone who offered us a tour, which sounded quite nice in the beginning, a boat for ourselves, we saw caves (beautiful), but then we had two wait 2 hours in the dark to get to our hotel, and the next day we were supposed to do some trekking... well we did but there was a lot of driving involved as well... so it took as ages to get there and to get to hanoi again... very exhausting.... originally, my plan was to get to sapa today, but unfortunately I don't feel so good, so I'm going to stay one night more in Hanoi, and leave for Hue tomorrow...
so when I arrived at the hostel, the girls of my room told me to come with them to the snake village... I didn't really know what to expect, so of course I said yes... when we went there, at first we could touch snakes and play with them, and then they offered us to kill them and cut out the heart... well... of course I didn't kill them, but they boys loved it... and then everybody could try some snake (tastes like chicken ....) and get drunk on snakewine (?) ... it was quite a weird experience...
the next day I went walking in the city and visited the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum (where you actually can see embalmed Ho Chi Minh - bizarre) and the Literature Temple. I like Hanoi, it's nice and if there weren't so many motorbikes it would be walkable... but when crossing the street everytime you risk your life... amazing...
then I tried to organize a trip to Halong Bay by myself... I met a danish girl, Rikke who joined me... that was quite an experience... first we took a local bus which took ages there and we were kind of an attraction as the only foreigners...
then Halong City was quite empty (apparently low season, because it's rather cold as well), but then we found someone who offered us a tour, which sounded quite nice in the beginning, a boat for ourselves, we saw caves (beautiful), but then we had two wait 2 hours in the dark to get to our hotel, and the next day we were supposed to do some trekking... well we did but there was a lot of driving involved as well... so it took as ages to get there and to get to hanoi again... very exhausting.... originally, my plan was to get to sapa today, but unfortunately I don't feel so good, so I'm going to stay one night more in Hanoi, and leave for Hue tomorrow...
Montag, 16. November 2009
Vientiane II
so here we go, god or buddha gave me some time, so I decided to summarize some of my thoughts... so whoever is not interested in these, is allowed to stop reading now ;)
when I woke up this morning, I was covered in sweat as usual (well I don't like it, if the air condition is on all night, it's loud and I usually wake up in the middle of the night, freezing), and because the window of my room is broken, the shutters are down and I couldn't see outside... my original plan was to head towards Vang Vieng for a one day trip (more to that later) so I packed my backpack with my swimsuite and towel... well as I went outside it was raining and around 20degrees... yes I was pretty suprised, but you probably won't understand what a relieve that was... amazing... yesterday it was about 30 something degrees and really humide... and it's cold season now, I don't understand how they do it in the hot one...
about this one day trip... Vang Vieng is the city in Lao to go tubing down the river (you take a car tire and just float with the stream), it is about 120 km north of Vientiane so I thought, naive as I am, I could just take a bus there in the morning, go tubing and take a bus home in the evening again... so yesterday I wondered around the capital and asked in about 10 (!) different tour agencies if this is possible... I got 10 different answers and most if them included there are no buses to Vientiane in the evening (??) .. well I can tell you that was quite fruststrating, so in the end I decided I would just go there in the morning and hope, that there are buses back... well, skipped that plan, apparently.
The other thing I tried to find was a copy of "The quiet American" by Graham Greene... well that's impossible either at least in english... although I found one in finnish :))) o yes, for everybody who is interested, the book is about the Vietnam war and should be very good.
So today I think I will visit the Lao National Museum because shamefully I have to admit I don't know sooo much about lao history, although it was a part of the Ho Chi Minh Path as well as french colonialisation... well if anybody is interested, I can write more about it after I've learnt something in the museum (hopefully) right now, they have lunch break (like everybody here from 12 to 1 pm)...
Generally I'm reading 2 books about Southeastasia, and I don't know how much you have learnt about the history of these countries, but I think yes we mentioned the Vietnam war, but that's more or less it... because talking about WW II for half a year is much more important (please don't misunderstand, WW II is very very important but there has to be time for other thing's as well)... so a lot to learn here...
well I think I've babbled enough for now, my flight to Hanoi is leaving tomorrow afternoon... quite exciting :) hugs and kisses
when I woke up this morning, I was covered in sweat as usual (well I don't like it, if the air condition is on all night, it's loud and I usually wake up in the middle of the night, freezing), and because the window of my room is broken, the shutters are down and I couldn't see outside... my original plan was to head towards Vang Vieng for a one day trip (more to that later) so I packed my backpack with my swimsuite and towel... well as I went outside it was raining and around 20degrees... yes I was pretty suprised, but you probably won't understand what a relieve that was... amazing... yesterday it was about 30 something degrees and really humide... and it's cold season now, I don't understand how they do it in the hot one...
about this one day trip... Vang Vieng is the city in Lao to go tubing down the river (you take a car tire and just float with the stream), it is about 120 km north of Vientiane so I thought, naive as I am, I could just take a bus there in the morning, go tubing and take a bus home in the evening again... so yesterday I wondered around the capital and asked in about 10 (!) different tour agencies if this is possible... I got 10 different answers and most if them included there are no buses to Vientiane in the evening (??) .. well I can tell you that was quite fruststrating, so in the end I decided I would just go there in the morning and hope, that there are buses back... well, skipped that plan, apparently.
The other thing I tried to find was a copy of "The quiet American" by Graham Greene... well that's impossible either at least in english... although I found one in finnish :))) o yes, for everybody who is interested, the book is about the Vietnam war and should be very good.
So today I think I will visit the Lao National Museum because shamefully I have to admit I don't know sooo much about lao history, although it was a part of the Ho Chi Minh Path as well as french colonialisation... well if anybody is interested, I can write more about it after I've learnt something in the museum (hopefully) right now, they have lunch break (like everybody here from 12 to 1 pm)...
Generally I'm reading 2 books about Southeastasia, and I don't know how much you have learnt about the history of these countries, but I think yes we mentioned the Vietnam war, but that's more or less it... because talking about WW II for half a year is much more important (please don't misunderstand, WW II is very very important but there has to be time for other thing's as well)... so a lot to learn here...
well I think I've babbled enough for now, my flight to Hanoi is leaving tomorrow afternoon... quite exciting :) hugs and kisses
Samstag, 14. November 2009
Chiang Mai - Luang Prabang - Vientiane
sabai dii! well, i know much time passed by after my last post... what can I say I was rather busy (?!) :) I'll try to sum up what happened in the last week or so... as mentioned I took the slow boat from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang... well this boat is really slow, all in all it took me 3 days to get there... the first day I was only taken to Chiang Khong, we stayed there overnight and the next day after ages of passport and visa controls we got on the boat... which of course was a party boat (at least for the British people)... around 1 pm they started to give away free whiskey shots... (only to ease my partens: i didn't drink any whiskey, not even beer)... so the trip with the boat along the Mekong river is beautiful although after 8h on the boat I was rather happy to have good old land under my feet ;) when you get off the boat in Luang Prabang there a hundreds of guys who want you to stay in their guesthouse... I joined a group of english and met 2 girls who also travel alone, so we shared a room in a actually really nice guesthouse... of course this group of maybe 25 people went out that night... it was fun although bizarre, because we ended up in a bowling center...
the next day, we explored the city (which is really nice) and went up Phu Si to see the sunset (beautiful of course, although we weren't the only ones) and after that I went to the night market to buy some presents :)
all the others went out again (now around 40 !! people) but I decided to go to sleep, because I booked a 3 days trip for the next day again...
so the trek was two days of walking and one day of kayaking and it was wonderful... a group of 6 people, we visited some hill tribe villages stayed with the people there and had a lovely guide :)
just the last day I didn't feel to good, I don't know maybe I caught a cold but I don't have any fever, so everything should be ok again soon :) yesterday I took the overnight bus to Vientiane... which was ok, just a little bit bumpy!
So I think I'll stay here for 2 nights if I can get my vietnamese visum straigt away (shouldn't be a problem though)... maybe i'll get some pics online tomorrow... many kisses
the next day, we explored the city (which is really nice) and went up Phu Si to see the sunset (beautiful of course, although we weren't the only ones) and after that I went to the night market to buy some presents :)
all the others went out again (now around 40 !! people) but I decided to go to sleep, because I booked a 3 days trip for the next day again...
so the trek was two days of walking and one day of kayaking and it was wonderful... a group of 6 people, we visited some hill tribe villages stayed with the people there and had a lovely guide :)
just the last day I didn't feel to good, I don't know maybe I caught a cold but I don't have any fever, so everything should be ok again soon :) yesterday I took the overnight bus to Vientiane... which was ok, just a little bit bumpy!
So I think I'll stay here for 2 nights if I can get my vietnamese visum straigt away (shouldn't be a problem though)... maybe i'll get some pics online tomorrow... many kisses
Samstag, 7. November 2009
Chiang Mai II
I'm sorry about the last post, but I was sitting in this Internetcafe and I was allowed to use Internet 15 min and the woman working there was really unfriendly and stared at me, so I was scared and tried to hurry.... :) but know I have a little bit more time so I can start to write some thoughts down... I hope I won't repeat myself...
First of all, Chiang Mai is a nice city, it is still busy and big (1.6 mio inhabitants), but compared to Bangkok, it is somehow manageable... The Loi Krathong Festival on monday was amazing... hundreds of thousands of people everywhere, even more food on the street than usual and all the lights- flying, floating, shooting in the air - very impressive, although I think it was also pretty dangerous, because kids were shooting fireworks (probably not only kids) in every imaginable direction... but I survived :)
as mentioned the next three days I went on a trek, which was actually fun, although I was thinking we would WALK more... we just did like 2 h the first day (uphill) 4h something the second and 2h again the third... I enjoyed it a lot, but the english boys were pretty much out of breath the whole time... it was fun :D I learnt a lot about english drinking "culture"... if Austria thought we had a drinking problem, look at England... they are insane...
The huts we slept in were ok, although you shouldn't think too much about the blankets or even sniff at them... not a good idea ;) but it was a good experience and I really like the jungle... we saw a lot of waterfalls and could do some rock jumping (highest about 6m) very cool...
the bamboo rafting was fun too, although you shouldn't bring anything that can get wet, so no pics here...
when we came back from the trip, we went out to a reggae bar, PingPong's friend bar... was fun, I didn't know that english boys like to dance so I had a great time, although I found myself a fan... I had to promise PingPong to go with him to dinner the next day before I could go home... I had to leave early because I booked another walking trek for the next day...
This trip was more exhausting so I really liked it... but there were more moskitos, too and we "saw" (well I didn't I just ran) 2 snakes... when the guide saw the first one he really jumped... and said: so this one is deadly... (second experience like that... remember Botswana)... and I also saw a Tarantula... well only the leg but that's enough... the guide told us, they grill them and eat them apparently the help against asthma...
Yesterday I went for a trip to Chiang Rai and the Long Neck village tribes... was very interesting but a lot of driving... I'll put some pics online (picasaweb.google.com/mariebrau)..
today I'm leaving by boat to Lao... so that will take me 2 days or something...
Hope you're all doing great... many kisses
Donnerstag, 5. November 2009
Chiang Mai
Sawasdee kha! I'm not really sure where I left off, but I think I was still in Bangkok... so now I'm further north in Chiang Mai, and I just came back from a three days hike in the National Park Doi Inthanon... wonderful of course, including bamboo rafting and elephant riding... but I'm getting ahead of myself... so from Bangkok to Chiang Mai I took a night train, which was very comfty and I could sleep pretty well.... the Hotel in Chiang Mai has a Pool and the room was very nice (compared to that one in Bangkok)... and I met some very friendly people... 2 french and 2 netherlands... we had a lot of fun and on monday was a big festival in Chiang Mai, where they let lights fly up in the air and let lights flow on the river... of course exactly at that time my battery went down... but I hope the others will send me some pictures :)
So the last 3 days I was hiking in the jungle with 2 swiss girls, 2 frech women, a swedish couple and 5 english boys... at first I was a little bit sceptical but in the end it was a great group and we had a lot of fun... tonight we're going out with our guide, named PingPong :D
so I'm running out of time here... I'll write more later... just wanted to let you know... I'm fine and I love it here :*:*:*
So the last 3 days I was hiking in the jungle with 2 swiss girls, 2 frech women, a swedish couple and 5 english boys... at first I was a little bit sceptical but in the end it was a great group and we had a lot of fun... tonight we're going out with our guide, named PingPong :D
so I'm running out of time here... I'll write more later... just wanted to let you know... I'm fine and I love it here :*:*:*
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