Friday, July 30th: Elephants!

Susanni:

I am sitting on the 2nd floor (only one with wifi access) in PJ`s and a chang beer by my side chatting away with some other travelers passing though on the way to their rooms.  My gosh, life is different here than at home.  Dual life Susanne.....

Today was elephant riding day. We were picked up at our hotel and driven about 3o minutes into a more forested area...well, jungle, I guess.  Some elephants were ready for us and we hopped on into the little cabin thing on top. we had asked if we could ride bare back and were told that we could not, but once we were about 20 minutes into our rides (Chelsea and Michelle on one and I was on the other), our guides hopped off the necks of the elephants and asked us to take our seat belts off (yes, actual car seat belts with a buckle) and to hop onto the necks.  Wow, that was pretty cool. You really have to hang on as it is quite bouncy and they the guides walked along the elephants and have some commands while we enjoyed the view. They also took our cameras and took pics.  very fun. It was all over in an hour.  we got to also play with some young, 10 month old elephants for a bit, as well.

What magnificent powerful animals..... (Carol, I thought about you today....)

The whole thing was done in an hour or so and we got ready for the beach.  We got a couple of good hours before rain came in again and we spent the afternoon in our bathing suits and sarongs wandering around shopping, having coffee at a sidewalk cafe (it was actually the one from the hotel where we would have stayed if we had done our Thailand R&R here if the Thailand trip had happened versus Cambodia).  A lazy but nice afternoon with a beer on the beach and some more swimming for Michelle and myself.

Our 4th visit to our favorite restaurant tonight and ready to get up at 4:30 a.m. or so to make the one hour ride to the airport to catch our 8 a.m. flight.

We avoided naked beach guy as well as demon dog today...so pretty safe day today :)

Thursday, July 29th: Island hopping in rain and shine

Susanne writing you all again. actually, my name has been Susanni for a few weeks now, which seems to be the way Cambodians and folks in Thailand pronounce it. So it was adopted during the Habitat build and Chelsea and Michelle still use it here and there. It`s grown on me :)

Thursday was our island hopping tour. We were picked up from our hotel, got on our huge speed boat and made our 1 hour treck towards the famous islands.  The islands are indeed beautiful. Many limestone cliffs jutting out of the water, the water is turquoise and warm.....amazingly beautiful.
There were about 40 people on the boat. It seems like there are many tourists here from Holland (we were told that it is a big holiday at home), Russia, Germany and the UK.  Have not met any Canadians yet, many people think we are from Australia.  Some kind of English accent, I guess :)

 The weather was off and on. Thankfully when we stopped and had beach or snorkeling time, it was sunny, but we literally had monsoon type weather when we sometimes got into the boat to the new destination.  The boat was covered but had a tarp like cover whicvh still allowed water in.  We got absolutely drenched (well, wet bathing suits already, so did not matter much).  We stopped at the island used for the movie The Beach, one spot was in one of the James Bond movies and there was an island which had wild monkeys living on them. Since the tide was high, they could not go on the beach, but we drove near some trees they were hanging out and fed them some cookies by throwing them at them.  Some were pretty good catchers.  Others: not so much, fed the fish instead.

The day finished at 4:30ish and we got into our routine of doing some internet stuff, doing some laundry, showering and going out for supper and a drink.    The nights are warm and it is nice to wander aorund in the evenings.  We found one place that was recommended where we have eaten every night so far, and sit at the same table. The bar staff grins when they see us yet again.  60 baht for Pad Thai...about $2.  Not bad !

Tomorrow is our elephant riding day which we booked this evening. Seems like an appropriate thing to do in Thailand :)

Wednesday, July 28th: 30 minute flight to Phuket. THAILAND!!!....sun, beach, and weird stories....

Susanne:

Our flight was a quick one: 30 minutes.  We had heard that a cab from the airport to Karon beach, our home for the next 3 days, would be about 500 baht and haggled again with about 5 different cab drivers until we found one that would meet our price.

We got to our Pineapple guest house which was more on the low end of the ones we have stayed in: a bigger bed with a cot showed in next do it.  The place is a bit shady, but looks clean and is literally about a 500 meter walk to Karon Beach: that`s what it`s all about and we are paying about $6 each a night: more money for excursions and ``doing stuff``. that was our motto for this trip.
We literally dropped out things and were in bikinis on the beach by 10:20 a.m.  By 1:30 pm, we had enough sun and went back to our rooms for an afternoon nap (for Michelle and myself) and Chelsea bought some breakfast food, did laundry and internet stuff ...hmmm, no blog writing, I seem to notice...you`re stuck with me as I go to bed the latest and usually write then, as is the case now  :) 
We all got a bit too much sun, I think.  The waves were pretty crazy, so that we actually could only got in so far,  There is quite an undertow so we only go in about mid waist. I always try to recreate my days in Australia body surfing and thought: hey, let`s do this here. well, the waves really were crazy and you were just churned upside down and had to go searching for your bathing suit, so no success. Maybe tomorrow.

Oh. One other story I should tell you:  we have been having weird things occur with total strangers.
In our hotel in saigon, I had gone downstairs for something and came back up meeting a guy getting into our elevator on our 7th floor. Whhen I entered our room, Michelle and Chelsea were laughing hysterically. When I asked for the reason they said: this guy came into the room, farted and left (sorry, Mom...haha).  I had left the door ajar and he just walked in, let one go and left again.  well, that was in Vietnam, so let me continue with out story at the beach.

We had our towels close to the water (beautiful beach, by the way), and as the tide crept in, we kept moving our towels up the beach to a section which almost had this palmy grass.  This older man was about 5 meters away from us but somehow seemed to be getting closer as we moved our towels once or twice.  he would go in the water with shorts, but then would take them off and cover himself ``down there`` with a bandana which he would strategically place on his front.

well, at one time, I was lying on my front and turned my head the other way and saw something silhouette-like out of the corner of my eye: the bandana must have blown off and he was proudly showing his manhood to the sun...and to us.  My, my. I got Michelle`s attention first and we tried to not laugh out loud so that we wouldn`t wake him, then Chelsea was brought into the loop and the three of us snickered while avoiding ad looking at that aside of the beach for the rest of our time there. Some people  ..... I think he must have gotten a bad burn, too....  :)

At night, we booked our Phi Phi island tour for tomorrow and went our to a local restaurant on the beach which was recommended to us by the travel agent/tour guide down the street. Sweet woman whose daughter was also in the store with this crazy little poodle with a pink sweater on. I was trying to be friendly and did the `tsk tsk` to get the dog`s attention (it must have weighed 2 pounds).  well, let`s just say that the cute little 3 month old poodle turned vicious and grabbed at my ankles, then snapped at my finger, hung onto Michelle`s dress, then her purse and we literally had to be rescued. The travel agent said : just pick her up, she will calm right down.  Not on my life......demon dog.  Where are my old geriatric little guys....they are calm, stay on the floor, don`t pee on it and don`t wear clothing.....

We are getting use to our little pineapple house without a real shower (just the shower on the wall and a drain in the floor like what I saw in Sweden and Macedonia at times), no tub or curtain.  Easier to clean, though :)

We are loving the beach and the sun after all this rain. Life is gooooooood !

below you can see Michelle holding corn yoghurt....hmmmmm

Add captionour mansion incuding laundry room

Tuesday, July 27: Tunnels in HCMC and unexpected stay in Malaysia...ever so short :)

Susanne

Today was our third day in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) and we set out to see the Cu Chi Tunnels about 50 km`s outside of the city which obviously date back to the war days. We took a tour out and took all of our luggage as they were going to drop us ``close`` to the airport on the way back.  well, let`s see what that might look like :)

The tour at the tunnels was really good.  Some of the things we saw were the types of traps used by the Vietcong back then and we learned that even though they could shoot with automatic weapons, they would usually only shoot one bullet and then run: in order to save bullets. the fire power they had was nowhere close to that of the enemy`s.  Then came the part we had been looking for, we were allowed to try getting into the tunnels.  The one we tried was actually one with a larger opening which allowed us ``westerners`` to fit in. Some that we saw were even tinier and would not allowed us to fit through. Vietcong obviously had a smaller build and capitalized on this.  The tunnels could be built down into the ground into 3 stages,  The ones we tried were stage 1 and as the number increases, they are built deeper into the ground and the oxygen decreases. As it is too dangerous and there would be a lot of liability issues if a tourist got ill in one of the stage 2 or 3 tunnels, we are just not allowed in. You climb in and descend about 4 or 5 feet and then are left with tunnels that are almost pitch black (they left a little bit of lighting there for us) and about 3 feet tall. So you can either crawl on hands and knees which is hard on both or you can walk on your hands and feet. also hard, especially on your bent back, but at least you can move. There were openings every 20 meters which allowed you to leave back up and out for the fresh air. A lot of people get too claustrophobic and are not able to stay in the tunnels or enter them because visibility is so low and often you cannot see any upcoming openings, it really can be a bit unnerving.
Chelsea went first and I was behind her. Michelle was a couple of people back and had a tough time with the dark and narrow tunnel and went back up. Chelsea and I crawled along for a while and there were literally times where I could hear her voice, and she would likely be two feet in front of me but I could not even see a shape or outline.  It was pretty cool, I have to say. But hard on the back and knees. So I bailed after about 3 stations, not a back friendly exercise at all. Chelsea went another one or two. Most came out drenched with sweat but happy to have tried this.  Out of our group, about half of them tried. 

We finished the tour and were dropped off by the side of the road, grabbed a taxi (we are good at haggling now, you should see us) and made it to the airport on time. we were off to Kuala Lumpur with a stop of an about an hour before continuing into Phuket, Thailand.  As we got to the airport, we learned that our flight was an hour delayed and that we should kiss the second flight goodbye and stay over night in Malaysia to take another flight to Phuket the next day.  Certainly a disappointment, but maybe a bit our fault as the connection was very tight and a bit risky.

So we flew to Malaysia and arrived at the airport at around 8 or 9 pm with no place to stay.  We got our laptops out and started searching. We weighed out staying at  the airport all night until our morning check-in at 5:30 am, but in the end we rented a hotel for about $50 each (high for our trip standards!) which was about 40 minutes from the airport. When getting there, we almost had to laugh: it was beautiful. Situated high on a hilltop, it had an amazing lobby, a very open feel and while Chelsea hit the hay, Michelle and I went for a little walk being tourists with cameras in town, and found an infinity pool and amazing other floors. The room was pretty neat as well with a bathroom which opened into the huge bedroom so that you could sit in the tub and watch TV (hard to explain, wait for the pics).  It was quite ritzy, I must say. We only had a few hours to sleep. but the  bathroom was so nice that Michelle decided to take a shower (we did not have hot water in our Vietnam place).....well, all this exclusiveness and still: flooding CAN occur :). Something in the shower door was not tight and there was literally a little river that ran out of the shower through the bathroom and into the hallway toward the beds. We called the front desk who called their "engineers" and two people came to fix it. Well, I guess even ritzy things break.  LONG DAY!  so the only thing in Malaysia we can really comment on was the airport and the drive to the hotel.  Certainly not an expert or anything.   But we were almost in shock going from tuk tuk ridden, not very welled developed, packed places in Cambdia, Thailand and Vietnam to the highways of Malaysia. There was definitely a huge difference: highways were broad, cars were new, no garbage on the road, definitely very few cars out and almost no motos.  Highways was super smooth and some really nice high rise buildings, cool architecture and we saw what we thought was a huge palace like building which ended up being the prime minister's residence.  Neat glimpse for us...unplanned, but oh, well :)

Monday, July 26th: Good Morning, Vietnam!

Susanne:

we slept until almost 8 a.m. this morning; must be a first!

Today was our HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City) sight seeing day but we got side tracked a few times, so we did not get a ton done, but are now sitting here watching Kate and Pete repack their bags one last time as they are catching a bus up the coast to go for another week on the Vietnamese beaches.

First impressions:

• Pho (sorry, can't find the o with the thing above it), but it is pronounced "Fa" and is the Vietnamese noodle dish you can every for about $2 or so
• tons and tons of motos that beep and honk all the time, but they DO have traffic lights and seem to operate according to them versus the Cambodian way...they just somehow work it out
• more advanced and industrial than Cambodia
• all cables above ground it seems, there are literally hundreds at times that are running along 1sr floor height
• cleaner, less garbage
• more money, more tourists
• hostels EVERYwhere
• lots of twinkling and neon lights
• coffee is big here. was not in Cambodia, cafes everywhere. yum.
• nicer cars, nicer stores
• still loots of street vendors
• "Thanks" is "cam on"...pronounced Gam On, almost like : Come'on. Had fun with that today, but have it mastered now, I think

We will go see the Cu Chi tunnels tomorrow but booked a flight to Thailand's Phuket by the Southern beaches for tomorrow evening and will stay there for 3 full beach days before flying to Bali for another 3. We are also ready for some beach relaxing time. We hadn't booked anything until today, but after a stop-in at a cafe with Internet, we saw that prices were increasing as options were decreasing. We had not booked anything and were literally doing everything last minute but decided that we really had to nail the flights down. So all is booked now. After Bali, we fly into China and have about 8 days there which will be busy days, as well. In Phuket and Bali, we are looking for some beach relaxation, cold drinks and warm evenings with great local food and rinks. Hmm hmmm, can't wait! Chelsea, our own little"travel agent", did all the bookings on line and is now looking for hostels with Michelle while I am on Blog duty. Will put some pics up for the last few days soon. My mission is to get everyone caught up sometime tonight. So hang tight :)

Today we wandered toward the market which was somewhat similar to the Russian market but more upscale (which means walls, no garbage or smells and cleaner), did some bookings for our travels (Kate and Pete and their bus, as well) and then went onto the War Remnant`s museum. After all we saw in Cambodia, maybe we were a bit hardened to some things we saw today, but still learned a lot about many things I did not know about the Vietnam war: specifically Agent Orange, the poisonous liquids that were spread over Vietnam, literally millions of litres which not only affected those touched by it at that time, but the effects of children born years later and related deformities were startling., Many pictures and stories, may weapons, tanks, planes etc. as well as tiger cages which I remember seeing in movies: cages made out of barbed wire where prisoners were held during the war. It would have been tough to enter the museum as an American, I think, as half the museum was about the atrocities Americans committed during the war, then it shifted toward the political climate and nations, including many Communist ones, joining ranks to support Vietnam in evicting American troops. It ended on a positive note with relationships today. But overall it was again a good history lesson for us all, I think.

So I was still working on the blog and putting some pictures up and as we were all doing a bunch of computer work, we decided to hang out with a bottle of wine and PJ`s and get caught up on a few things. well, little did we know that my ever trusty Leatherman tool which has saved us a couple of times already, did not have a cork screw. I finally called downstairs but communication likely wasn`t great so that we had a security guy up to check our fridge versus bring a cork screw. But he did return a few minutes later with a cork screw. OK, that took care of the bottle. Now we went looking for glasses in the bathroom and only found one for Michelle and me to share...hmm, we did have a little plastic bottle, so we poured wine into one glass and one empty water bottle.  Cla-ssy!

The next pic shows Chelsea cleaning up the room a bit and saying: why don`t you use these glasses...which were apparently right in the middle of the room. Oh, well.  plastic bottle it is... :)

(PS: for all of you who know Chelsea (and she may delete this): as Michelle and I told her we would tell the truth on this blog and she seemed to not agree with our approach....in order to take a pic able to make it on the blog, Chelsea had to be able to not only brush her hair as she just got out of the shower, but take 5 takes to get a pic in her PJ`s worthy of posting....some things don`t change...even in Vietnam. It was a nice, low key night. We have to get up at 6:15 am once again so am signing off :)