sabaidee!

anything would have been nice after vietnam, i expect, but laos was particularly awesome. there was such a laid back, chilled out vibe that was impossible to ignore, and we all recovered from the chaos that was vietnam in no time.

vientiane was nice, if a little sterile. everything was clean and orderly and spread out. we hired bicycles and rode around to a few temples. we saw pha that luang, the national symbol. that was pretty impressive. we also visited wat si saket, a 200 year old temple filled with hundreds of budda statues.


after a few recovery days we headed north to vang vieng. when we got off the bus we were a little worried, as it looked like tourist party town, but after settling in to our guesthouse and getting a snack from a friends cafe (yep, they have cafes that play friends from open to close, with bed style seats to lie in) we started to relax.

the next day we hired tubes from the old market and a tuk tuk dropped us three km north of town. we were greeted by people yelling 'free shots at my bar!' and lots of drunken backpackers swinging from trees into the river. we jumped in our tubes and headed down stream, relieved to find the crazy busy bars stopped after 100m, leaving a few quieter ones dotted along the rest of the way. we decided to stop at a bar and waved a guy holding a rope. he swung it out and pulled us in. it was awesome sipping g and t's watching people float by and soaking up the mountain atmosphere. we got back in our tubes and kept drifting down the river, stopping at a few more bars before winding back up in vang vieng.

jess had read about an organic mulberry farm 4km out of town, so the next morning we rented bikes and cycled out there. the ride seemed to take aaaages, but when we got there and ordered mulberry fruit shakes it was so worth it. the drinks were amazing and the food was better! everything was organic and most of it was grown there. everything we bought supported the local school (someone recently donated a bus and they were raising money for a full time driver) and they offered volunteer work. jess wanted to do mud hut building, but we didnt have enough time.

we then cycled back in to town and 7 km in the other direction on crazy unsealed 'road' try more like 'river stones'! we were heading for a blue lagoon at the base of phu kam cave. after the ride we were hot and bothered, but still climbed the steep stairs to the mouth of the cave. after admiring the cave for a little while, we headed back down and straight for the lagoon. it was the most amazing blue! the water was freezing, but awesome after all the exercise we had done. we jumped off the rope swing and tried to avoid the fish that hung around the bridge. we then headed back to town ready for a long bus ride to luang prabang the next day.

luang prabang had a fair bit to live up to, seeing as we loved every part of Laos so far and it was meant to be the best town there. it definately didnt disappoint! like the rest of Laos that we visited, it was cool and laid back. nothing is much of a problem, and quirky little coffee shops are easy to find. we were convinced by a guy at the bus station to stay at his family's guest house, and it was a really nice litle place.


the first night we were there we found a sign for a place called Utopia, which we had read a little bit about in lonely planet. it was awesome! it was about 500m down a little winding alley and when you went throught the bamboo door, an oasis opened up, with funky cabanas and a deck that overlooked the Nam som river. the best part about it was the chairs.. or lack of them.. they had there pillowy things that were triangle shaped, and on the ground! it meant i could do my favourite thing which was eat and then lie down and relax under the stars.

we had read lots about an elephant sanctuary that was a place that they keep several elephants that had been saved from the toils of the logging industry. they offered a few different options for tourists to go and visit. at first i didnt want to go becasue i thought it would defeat the purpose of being a sanctuary if we all went there and gawked at them. but i read more and realised that they only let a small number of people in at a time, and the elephants depend on the money that we pay to visit, because it costs so much to keep them. we also read that everyone who goes there is taught about the elephants, and they believe that the more awareness there is, the more hope the elephants have. we learnt that laos used to be named as 'The Land of a Million Elephants', but now there are only 1600, so its really important that someone does something about it. some of the elephants that we met had scars from abuse and they had even been fed ecstacy by the loggers so they worked better. after we decided it was a great place, we chose to do the one day mahout training.

we were in a group of six, and we went about 20 minutes out of town (luang prabang is quite rural) and pulled up at the most beautiful place. our guide Lo taught us heaps about the elephants and then we went on an hour long walk, sitting in the baskets on teh back of the elephant. each elephant had her own Mahout, who is a carer for the elephant, and who will care for her until the day she dies. if she out lives him, his son or daughter will become the mahout of that elephant, so she is like family to them. our elephants name was Mae San, and she was 45 years old. i wont lie, i absolutely shat myself. i dont get scared by that many things, but i was shaking like a leaf! i started to relax after a while, and the elephants then went down a hill, into the river. it was beautiful. then our mahout completely surprised us, and asked if we wanted to swap spots with him... we were like... WHAT?! and he was like.... YEAH! but in lao. so i scrambled across the elephant and after a bit of careful manouvering i was on the elephants neck with my feet tucked up behind her ears, and the mahout was lazing in the basket!! it is really the most amazing feeling. i cant even describe it in a way that might give you an idea. after a while, i swapped with ange, who was much more cool calm and collected that i was, and we made our was back to camp.

we were given an awesome lunch, which was pork curry and vege stir fry with rice. delicious. and then we we each given our own elephant, which we had to very clumsily climb up on (i ended up kicking the mahout in the stomach) and we were going to be the elephants mahout for the rest of the day, while the real mahout sat on the back. we learnt the words for left right, go and stop, but i had a sneaky suspicion the elephants knew not to actually listen to us..

we headed off down the hills, and of course i had to have the biggest tallest elephant, and we seriously went down dirt faces that were at impossible angles and there were times i thought i was going to fall and break my neck. we ended up splashing into the river, and we were given a brush and the elephants lay down in the water and we washed them! they seemed to LOVE this part, and gaels elephant kept splashing everyone with her trunk.

that day was one of the best days i've ever had. i felt so happy and exhausted by the end, and we were sad to say goodbye to the girls.

good morning, vietnam!

we got into saigon after a six hour bus ride from pnomh penh, made bearable by 'universal soldier' - i thought that seeing it was based around the vietnam war it was mildly inappropriate, but hey i enjoyed it anyway. as we got out of the bus we got herded into a taxi and got taken a roundabout way to our hotel and then charged 500,000 dong for the trip. we had no idea what the exchange rate was but when we worked it out it was $30 US! what a nice start to saigon.

we booked a city tour the next day and went to the war remnants museum. there was an awesome photography exhibition, focusing on the media correspondants. it was really interesting to see the vietnamese side of the war, even if it was a little biased. after the museum we went to a temple and a church, but couldnt get in to the reunification palace as it was closed.

the next day we headed to cu chi tunnels, which were definately a highlight of saigon. we saw how tiny the entrances were; jess could barely fit down there! we also got to walk through a section of the tunnel that had been widened to accomodate tourists and it was still small. jess walked the entire lenght (about 120m) but gael, ross and i piked at around 40m. we waited for jess at the end, and saw a bat fly in to the tunnel. it turns out it flew straight into her face. scary! we also watched a video about how the brave inhabitants of cu chi village won the war. again, it might have been a little biased...

i didnt like saigon as much as i thought i would. i was looking forward to a big bustling city and thats certainly what we got, but it was a rude city, where everyone was trying to rip you off and take your money. we were looking forward to going up the coast, and the next stop was nha trang.

as we drove into town the scenery was stunning. there were mountains that disappeared into the clouds, and cliffs dropping in to the bay. the weather was pretty bad, but that kind of added to the mystical-ness of the whole place. we got to our hotel and were greeted by lovely staff. they booked us on a four island boat trip the next day.

the weather wasnt looking promising for the boat trip, but we set off anyway. the skipper said it might be cut a little short - three islands instead of four. the first stop was an aquarium in the shape of a ship. the exterior was probably the most exciting thing about it, and jess was particularly excited that you got to walk through a lionfish. the next stop was a beautiful bay on the other side of the bay. the weather was a lot nicer, and i even got up the nerve to jump in. jess followed and we enjoyed it for a few minutes before jess talked to a girl with goggles who could see hundreds of jelly fish surrounding us! we couldnt get back to the boat fast enough. we only got stung a couple of times. we were told we were going to a floating restaurant, which turned out to be the boat we were on. the food was ok, but the whole boat was a little grimy so we avoided most of it. ross, gael, jess and i escaped to the roof of the boat before they started karaoke (even though jess said that she would be totally awesome at it but didnt want to show off) and we listened to everyone murdering 'sweet child of mine'.

we were also promised a stop at a 'floating bar', which turned out to be the crazy skipper (now quite drunk) jumping into the ocean with a grimy piece of styrofoam with a table cloth and a vase with plastic flowers in it glued on. everyone then was told to jump in (we were still hidden on the roof) and have some cheap nasty wine/sea water. he had six bottles and refused to go anywhere else until it was all gone. most of the wine ended up in his stomach - straight from the bottle - despite the gallant efforts of a few brave english guys avoiding the jelly fish. it was a fun day, considering it was NOTHING like what we expected and we only visited two islands instead of four.

the next place we wanted to go was called Hoi An. its an ancient city that is part of the UNESCO world heritage listing, which meant that we could only get there by bus. we booked some tickets and found out that it would be an overnight bus. this will be interesting i thought. we got on the weirdest bus i have ever seen! it had these sort of bunk beds, and if you were on the bottom you basically were on the floor, but in this little pod. i knew there would be a problem for ross when my feet touched the end quite easily.. when the bus took off and we were fairly sure no one else was coming on, we went to the seats at teh back, which were basically 5 seat-beds in a row, but with no feet restrictions. everyone else though it was better but still damn uncomfortable, but i loved it! its was so cosy and it felt like a wicked little cubby! i thought it was also awesome that every bump we went over - and there were A LOT - we all got lifted two feet off the bed and then thrown back down. no one else thought this was fun... weird, i know.

the one thing that i didnt like along with everyone else was that the toilet was bolted shut, and the sign said 'to please make your journey pleasant, to not use the toilet for no smell' or something very similar.. this was going to be a VERY long 11 hours.. by about 2 hours in, everyone was about to wet their pants, and everyone asked to stop. the bus driver said we would in 10 minutes. three hours later, we stopped. i do not know how i held, every bump felt like someone punching my bladder. the toilet we stopped at was worse that my worst nightmare of a toilet, but i was so glad to see it i nearly cried. everyone got back on the bus looking very, very satisfied. Hoi An turned out to be really nice. very beautiful, and we tried to make the most of our short time there. we then got a short bus ride to Hue, which was a largish city, but not too crowded. we went to the citadel, which is an ancient imperial city that is basically a lot of ruins. we were able to walk through them, which was really cool. the next day we headed to hanoi by plane (which, thankfully, had a toilet) because we were running out of time fast!

we decided to escape the chaos of hanoi and headed out to halong bay for a day trip. you know those places that everyone talks about and says you have to go there and you think they're going to be overrated? well halong bay was so not overrated. it was absolutely amazing. we got an awesome lunch on the boat and all sat in silence as we passed the first islands. it was spectacular. we got to go kayaking and went into this grotto that the boat couldnt fit through, and there was only our kayak, gael and ross' kayak and one other in the bay. it was magic. we headed back to the boat for some more island sight seeing before heading to a cave. it might not have been as spectacular as some that we have in WA, but our caves certainly couldnt compete in the disco department. there were neon lights EVERYWHERE!! there were lots of 'oohs' and 'ahhs' and giggles from the gaggle of japanese tourists in front of us.

i need to tell you about anges incident at the caves. basically, i was walking along, minding my own business, when i heard a slight "agh!" followed by a rumbling sound. the rumbling sound was ange falling very fast and very awkwardly towards me down a big flight of stairs (i found out after that she looked so awkward because she was trying to save the camera..) i went "ange!" and, of course, saved the day by catching her head right before it smashed into a rock. i dont want to brag or anything.. a medal would be enough..

it wasnt that bad. it was totally a controlled fall and i knew what i was doing. i would have been fine without the head catch. whatever.

we headed back to hanoi and had a final dinner with ross before he left for the airport at six the next morning. we spent the day wandering around eating icecream and drinking coffee; we didnt want to do any more tours!

tony montana, monty python and tricky ricky

well. catching the plane from KLs LCCT (low cost carrier terminal) was certainly an experience. after being pushed, shoved and given the evil eye we managed to make it to the check in counter, only to have a malaysian woman beg us to check her bag on for her. we all freaked out a bit but managed to check in without her luggage. after a little bit more pushing and shoving we managed to get on the plane, only to have the worst plane ride ever! we thought we were going to crash when the pilot aborted landing and circled around. ross sat there laughing at us three girls clenching hands and looking grim.

we made it out of the airport in one piece and were bombarded with 'taxi, taxi, you want tuk tuk?!?!?!' luckily i had booked our guesthouse ahead and they had organised for rady to pick us up. he beckoned for us to follow him and we followed him to his motorbike driven carriage, better known as a tuk tuk. it was awesome to see phnom penh on the back of a motorbike! we got to the guest house and it was so nice to see a clean, tidy and inviting place. we settled down for a beer at the bar ($1 happy hour special) and met our bartenders tony montana and monty python. the guys were awesome, and totally hilarious.

the next day we set off with rady for the city tour. the first stop was the tuol sleng genocide museum. it was possibly the most harrowing experience of my life. the worst part was seeing all the photographs of the people held in the prison and seeing the cells they were kept in.

we then headed out of town to the choeung ek killing fields, which was also awful. all the graves are now just holes in the ground, and i couldnt believe how many there were. it was awful to read what the khmer rouge did to their people, but it is good that the government now acknowledges what happened and encourages rememberence.

after such a depressing morning, rady took us to the russian markets for some lunch. we were all still a bit shocked, but after some coffee and lunch we were ready for some shopping.

the next stop was the national palace. when we got there it was closed, but was opening up later so we headed to the shooting range instead. ross and jess decided to fire AK 47s, while gael and i decided just to watch.

we headed back to the palace, but it was still closed (we later found out that the thai prime minister was visiting AND jackie chan was in phnom penh as well, but not at the palace) so we headed back to the guest house for more happy hour beers. we wanted to go to siem reap the next day and ricky, the receptionist, said he'd help us get bus tickets. when i went to get them he informed me he'd also booked a guest house in siem reap for us! all my hard work was done.

cambodia is one of those places that you get a good feeling about and then the feeling just keeps getting better and better. the people are really what makes it, they are some of the sweetest, kindest, most hard working people i have ever met. the whole time we had in cambodia was awesome. like ange said before, the guest house was an absolute gem and ricky and the boys were hilarious!

the day we went to the killilng fields was really weird. at the fields and the torture camp we were wrecks, and the mood in the tuk tuk afterwards was very very grim. the markets were ok, totally crazy, and then later in the afternoon we went to the shooting range. i decided to have a go, mainly because i didnt think i'd ever have the opportunity again, nor might i want it.. i shot an AK47 which i thought i'd be awesome at because it was my favourite in one of the games on my nintendo 64. i was totally wrong.. it was so powerful that we had to sit on a chair, and after i had marks on my shoulder. afterwards i was shaking like crazy, mainly because i had to hold it so tightly, and also because i was scared out of my brains. it was weird, i wasnt scared because i felt unsafe, but i was really uneasy with the whole situation. i think i was just a tad too emotional.

after that we were driving home and rady (our driver) said that we were near his house and would we like to see it. we said we'd love to, and he drove us down his street with a huge grin on his face. when we got there, his wife and son were there and we got to go in and meet them and have a chat - or a few words, because we couldnt speak khmer and they could speak a little bit of english. rady told us how he built the house himself and how he has three other rooms at the back that he rents for $30 a month. as we were leaving ross banged his head on the door and they thought that was the most hilarious thing in the world! when we got back on the tuk tuk, i called out that rady was the best driver ever, and they all beamed and rady was so proud he couldnt stop smiling. it was crazy that we went from feeling so low to feeling really heartwarmed and happy, all in one day.

we got into siem reap at 2pm the next day. once again there was a tuk tuk waiting for us (thankyou, ricky!) who took us straight to the guest house. hok, our driver, said he would pick us up at 4.30 to take us to angkor wat for sunset. it was amazing! we walked up this massive hill and then climbed up a temple to watch the sun set over siem reap. we were pretty excited to see angkor wat at sunrise as well, so we headed back to go to bed early.

when the alarm went off at 4.30 i'm pretty sure everyone hated me, but getting to the temples at sunrise was so worth it. they were absolutely stunning! and, because it was so early there were hardly any people around as well! at one point jess and i were completely alone in one section of the temple. it was magic. we decided breakfast was in order, so we headed back to the tuk tuk to get our driver to take us to a restaurant. he insisted that we go to the next temple, and there was no arguing with him. when we got there it turned out there was some food vendors, but not what we expected! we spent the next few hours exploring the temples, which was amazing. around lunch time we drove out to the floating village and were going to take a boat tour, but were way too exhausted to sit in a boat in the sun for two hours, so we headed back to the guest house instead.

the next day we braved the 6 hour bus ride back to phnom penh, before an overnight stopover (and another visit to ricky and the boys) before crossing the border into vietnam.

i forgot to mention this really cool night we had, we went down to the river at dusk, and there was this big group jumping around and we realised they were doing aerobics!! its was so cool. the river bank was all nice landscaped gardens and there was lots of dancing and kids playing and people playing badminton and couples having picnics. it was really nice.

ps... check out this video of ross joining in the aerobics... totally awesome! xx

who's too tall for asia?

we got into KL late saturday arvo. the taxi driver dropped us off at the front of the petaling street markets and with a final 'watch your pockets!' he sped off. we walked through china town avoiding the vendors selling dvds, watches and handbags and found our hotel - smack bang in the middle of all the action. luckily we couldnt hear any noise from the markets or we wouldnt have got any sleep! we dumped our bags and headed out for a quick bite to eat and got shepherded to a table out the front of a food court. we got tiger beers and settled in to a yummy chinese meal.

on account of me having been to KL before it was my job to be tour guide (or dictator as ross would say) and i was a bit worried about showing jess, gael and ross all the sights in such a short amount of time. the receptionist at our hotel suggested the hop on/hop off bus, so on sunday morning we set out to do that. we stopped at the orchid gardens and the bird park. i wasnt to keen on the idea of the bird park and after reading the sign saying 'largest free flight walk in avery in the world' we decided to give it a miss. we had quick photo stops at the palace and merdeka (independence) square and the commentary on the bus made my job much easier!

our next stop was the petronas twin towers. ross was especially impressed with the architecture, and after craning our necks to see the top we headed into 'suria klcc' the six level shopping mall next door. we were all very excited about the shops there, and you realise how little perth really has. we split up (ross to the toy stores, jess to the sports stores, gael in search of a new wardrobe) and went crazy for an hour or so. the next stop was the telecom tower. we bought tickets to get to the top and were all happy to see there were not only free water bottles, but an F1 simulator, animal park and pony ride included with the price. we took the elevator up to the top of the tower and i impressed jess with my knowledge of all the buildings. little did she know i was reading it off the guide above the windows... KL has some awesome architecture, so we took lots of photos of crazy buildings.

once back at the bottom of the tower ross and jess spotted a flying fox. that was added to the list of to do's for the arvo, but we headed to the F1 simulator first. we walked in and straight away they told ross he was too tall to fit in the car, so he had to wait outside. jess and gael did it, and they said it was terrible to make him feel better. we headed up to the flying fox and jess, gael and ross each had two gos. i chickened out and was the bag holder and photographer instead.

we were all too heavy for the pony rides (max weight was 50kgs) so we went to the animal park.we saw lots of snakes, spiders and reptiles. after being thoroughly creeped out, we headed back to the bus and the next stop: KL convention centre and aquaria.

the aquarium was the best aquarium i've ever been to. we walked in and my jaw dropped and it didnt go back up until about an hour after we'd left! it was a maze of the most stunningly beautiful aquariums i had ever seen. there were huge tanks and tiny tanks, all of them so carefully looked after and all of the fish were so healthy and happy. they used aquariums of all shapes, one was even a huge cylinder that went from the floor to the second story ceiling and you walked up stairs around it to get to the next level! we spent a long time in there, careful to make sure we didnt miss a thing.

the next day we went up to batu caves. its a humungous rock from a distance, and an even bigger one close up. obviously. it was pretty hot and only got hotter when it started to rain. we had to climb over 200 steps to get to the entrance, and as we were walking up them about 10 monkeys were swinging their way backwards and forwards between us, probably hoping we would give them food. we reached the mouth, and i realised that they werent caves like i think of them. it was more a huge cavern. the sheer size of it was unreal, and because it is a worship ground, there were a couple of ceremonies going on. i was a little disheartened because they were selling stuff up there in stalls, and i felt bad that it was our fault that their place of worship had become a tourist attraction. that being said, they didnt seem to mind.

we had a little rest in the afternoon, as you do, and then set off to Times Square. the reason we were going there was because it has the largest indoor amusement park in the world, through three stories of the 11 stories of shopping centre. WHAAAT?!!? it was so wicked. it was the best looking theme park i had ever seen. i started to think that the malaysian people certainly know how to do something properly. so me and ross were uber excited, and we got to the front....only to find out ross was too tall to go on the rides. to rub salt in the wound, we could see the main rollercoaster that went all through the whole place, AND had an upside down loop the loop! so ross had to go shopping with gael, for shoes that they didnt ever have in his size, while ange and i went on the rides. WHICH WERE AWESOME!! except for then i got on a ride i knew wasnt a good idea called the dizzy wizzy, and i got reeeealy sick, tried to ignore it, got on a ride that spun even faster, was so deleriously sick i couldnt stop laughing hysterically the whole ride, and then had to leave and lie down on a bench with a lemonade feeling sorry for myself and trying not to make a scene by projectile vomiting the contents of my lunch.

after i felt a bit better we had dinner in a district called Bukit Bintang, and then caught the monorail home.

today we fly out to cambodia. well, in about 3 hours. wooo!

hopefully ross isnt too tall for the aeroplane!!

rice paddies, kjangs and bintang kachills

we decided not too book accommodation for ubud until we got there, which jess was a bit worried about, but our sing ken ken (no worries) attitude prevailed and we set off with half a map, a full bottle of water the trusty toyota kajang. after selecting the worst radio station we could find (think 100.1 curtin fm but much, much worse) we set off in the general direction of ubud. with my awesome navigational skills we managed to stick to the road until it left the map. after that it was all guess work and we were all on the lookout for signs. when there were no signs we guessed and found our way to Goa Gajah temple. we were all inappropriately dressed, according to the street vendors who tried to sell us numerous sarongs. we got to the entrance and were handed sarongs along with our tickets. i felt bad about not buying sarongs off the street vendors but i didnt feel so bad after realising they lied to us!

once inside a guy approached ross and started chatting, explaining about all the temples. us girls wandered off, but ross being the super nice approachable (dare i say gullible) guy that he is got stuck with the guide who tried to rip him off afterwards.

once back on the road we realised we had been travelling in the wrong direction, and once we turned around we promptly found ourselves in the heart of ubud. gael had the lonely planet guide ready looking for cheap accomodation and we headed for a nice looking hotel. when we got there they told us the price was double what the lonely planet said and we were a little disheartened. we set off down the street looking for other hotels and they either had no air con and no fans and no pools or were way too expensive. by this stage everyone was grumpy and we headed for the centre of town where ross and gael had stayed last time. we pulled up out the front of a small hotel and decided that we were staying there and that was that. turns out the place was cheap AND had aircon and a pool. we set out to a warung (restaurant) for dinner and went to bed early.

the next day we spent walking around ubud looking in markets and artsy shops. we had the most awesome lunch at a tiny warung overlooking the rice paddies. it was run by a family and they were so lovely! jess, gael and i went for manicures before dinner and sat by the pool. ross was the only one game enough to go swimming; it was green and getting greener by the day. we went for dinner at another warung. all the food here is so good you can go anywhere and get a great meal! we were a bit bored with ubud and we had one more night before we headed to mu, so we decided to get up early with ross the next day to watch him surf and head back to legian. we were all in bed by 9pm for a 5.30 start.

the alarm went off early and i walked outside the room to find a coffee waiting for me on the verandah. ross had run across to the circle k (like 7/11) and got us all coffee to help get away on time. we packed into the car and were off before the sun came up.

it was awesome to be able to see bali wake up. so far we had only seen the touristy aspect, with lots of vendors pushing in our faces saying 'you look, you buy!' we drove past the morning markets and got to see the balinese buying their veges and meat for the day (i will forever have an image of a chicken losing its head). we were heading to pererenin - the beach ross showed us earlier. he said he knew where he was going, but we still got lost and asked the guy in a circle k which way to go. he said left, so ross went right. when we got to the dead end ross admitted he was wrong and we went the way the circle k guy said and ended up at the beach. we had an awesome breakfast overlooking ross surfing. after waiting the required 20 minutes between eating and swimming we braved the beach. the waves were massive (i'm sure theres a more technical term that ross would use but they were pretty freaking big) and we were scared of getting hit by rocks and surfers so we didnt stay in that long.

after ross had had his surfing fix we headed back to legian to the lumbung sari, where we stayed before. we checked in and had nanna naps before heading to seminyak to do some shopping. we were all running low on clean clothes and decided it was cheaper and easier to just buy a few more t shirts! after yet another nice dinner we settled in for the night ready to head to mu's and a few relaxing days.

we left for Mu's late afternoon, and all of us were pretty happy to have had another night at the Lumbung Sari. we had a driver take us to Bingin (which is where Mu's is) which was about half an hour away. i started to wonder just where and what Mu's was, when we were off the road and driving down a tiny beaten track, seemingly headed for nowhere. we eventually pulled into a little driveway, unloaded our things, and walked through a little gate. this was the last of the littles.. the whole place opened up before our eyes, and we were looking at a beautiful grassed area with palm trees and frangipanis, followed by a pool that seemed to fall right into the ocean. i was so amazed that i was speechless. as we wandered through, i was marvelling at the biggest of all the 'huts' or bungalows, and to my surprise, we stopped there and the man put our bags down. it was ours!! we were then greeted by a balinese lady dressed in a beautiful sarong and she gave us welcome drinks that was actual homemade lemonade.. mmm!

its really hard to describe our bungalow. it has the most amazing structure, and every part of it has been hand made but using the wood and bamboo of bali and nothing is squared off or altered. its two stories and completely open. the showers are basically under the stars, with a few strategically placed walls and screens. the furniture is the most beautiful handcrafted wood, and everything you look at makes you wonder how someone could have done that by hand.

so as we were walking around Mu, i was oblivious to something that was barrelling towards us. we turned at the sound, and this huge labrador bounded up to us. she was followed by a more regal dog who strutted around, and then a slightly plump sausagey dog. the labrador - who is my favourite- is called Manise, which means sweet in balinese. a few times a day she rumbles along and wreaks havok on all the guests. she is wicked to hang out with, she reminds me a bit of Stolly, who i miss like crazy.

so we spent an entire day the day after we got here doing absolutely nothing. ooh i forgot, the dinner that night was AWESOME! everyone sits at a big table and all the balinese ladies had been cooking all afternoon. i know because i saw them. we had millions of satay sticks with delicious beans and rice and salad. i ate 13 satay sticks, and thought i had done pretty awesomely, untill ross counted his, rather discreetly, under the table. he whispered the number to ange because he didnt want all the other people to know he was a glutton, and ange then repeated in a big shriek 'TWENTY SIX?!?!?!' yep. he doubled me. bastard.

so we did nothing but read the day after that, but when the sun was going down we headed to the beach and down the cliff face and ross got out the fireworks he had bought at the supermarket and we fired them all into the night. dont worry mum and catherine, they were only little ones! and we are trained profesionals! for dinner we had delicious fish and a pesto pasta. thankfully all of the meat is always on separate plated, so gael and ange dont have to worry. the dessert was icecream with pure raspberry sauce...all right!

today we got up early and had another complimentary breakfast which consists of: a bowl of fruit salad, a chocolate and plain croissant -the owner of Mu is french- homemade bread with eggs however you like, coffee or tea, paw paw and pineapple jam -ange loves the paw paw- and a freshly squeezed juice of your choice. its awesome. after breakfast me and ross decided we needed to check out something called the 'flying fish' we had to get a ride out to a different beach, where they do all sorts of things like paragliding and jet skiing etc. we hopped on our backs in a large blow up boat like thing, and looked at each other in excitement and fear. a little balinese guy who had the minute before asked all three of us girls to go out with him, got on and the speedboat that our boat thing was attatched to took off. we were going along thinking oh yeah this is wicked, and then the boat we were lying in took off into the air!! it was massive!!! ross was going mental with excitement and we flew higher and higher, the only thing stopping us from flipping being the tiny balinese boy who was crawling all over the back keeping it stable. its was so much fun!

sorry for such a long blog, we've been having so much fun here! gael and ross are really awesome to travel with and we have all been having the best time together :)

hello dahling, nice hair dahling!

we're on holidays! finally! woo hooo

we got in to denpasar early on wednesday after a nightmare surrounded by screaming babies in all directions flight. ross picked us up from the airport and we (and by we i mean our driver) navigated through crazy bali traffic back to our hotel. we had banana pancakes for breakfast (jess will tell you more about them later) before heading off to explore legian. ross is pretty brown and therefore hassled less by the locals than us translucent aussies. he also spoke enough bahasa to not only impress us but haggle as well. we had nasi goreng for lunch and some ice cold bintangs.

on thursday ross hired a car (mainly for surfing) and drove us to tanah lot. there are temples on the cliffs and one was on an island that you can only get to at low tide. we watched a few people crossing when the tide was coming in and i dont know how they managed it with long white dresses and baskets on their heads! after tanah lot ross wanted to show us his favourite surfing beach so we packed in to the car and went off.

after some wrong turns we were completely lost. the road we were on dropped into the ocean and ross was still pretending to know what he was doing. we stopped the car, got out and ross realised that we were exactly where he wanted to show us and he had been parking a kilometre down the beach for no reason. we decided to celebrate this with a drink at the restaurant there (bintang of course) and had dinner.

ok well ange has left probably the most important element out. the food. the food here is so delicious and amazing that i can't stop eating so you should all expect to see me rolling home instead of walking in eight weeks time. firstly the banana pancackes, of which we have consumed horrendous amounts are delicious! and they are so simple but i can guarantee we couldnt make them the same. i actually just ate one about 20 minutes ago.

another one of my favourites that we have eaten lots here is the nasi goreng. we have tried lots of places but my favourite is at this tiny little place around the corner from where we are staying. its run by a family and they are so lovely, as are most of the people on this island. anyway, the food there is unbelievable and i cant believe that we can eat till we might explode and pay less than a beer would cost at a pub back home.

the third day we were here we decided (on cams advice) to go white water rafting. oh my god it was so much fun!! we had to go on a bus ride for about 2 hours and then we were all suited up with life jackets and helmets - which was so exciting because it meant there might be danger- and we went down all these steps. and they werent just normal steps. there were hundreds and hundreds and they were really steep and they were in the middle of a jungle and there was no guide in sight. at the end we were very relieved to see the guides at the bottom having a smoke and waiting for us, but when we stoped everyone couldnt stand properly because our legs were shaking like crazy from the stairs! anyway, we sat in the raft got some instructions and were on our way.

the river is absolutely beautiful. i was a little bit worried about getting the water in my mouth but then he said, FORWARD!! and gael - who was sitting in front of me - went forward very enthusiastically and sprayed a whole load of water in my face. this was hilarious and i didnt die on the spot so i figured it was ok. lucky, because the rapids were crazy awesome! we even went under waterfalls and at the end we went super fast over some rocks and ross fell on gael and gael and ross both ended up in the drink. it looked like heaps of fun so we all jumped in and floated the rest of the way down the river with our life jackets.

one little end note, i forgot how much they like blonde hair over here. i think they also like that i am a lot bigger than most of the girls here. i feel like my name should be helga. and that i'm a giant from the mountains.

they LOVE jess!! LOVE HER!! and they think i am a boy. boo.

there is so much more to write but i'll write it next time because we are about to get ready to go to ubud and we need to pack the car.

yesterday we went to geger beach and hired a canoe. we went swimming to cool down and realised the water is just as warm as the air. we chilled out on the beach drinking bintang and tried not to get sunburnt. for dinner we went back to the ombuk cafe (at ross' favourite surfing spot) and ate lots of yummy food.

i've been really impressed with ross' driving; the roads here are hard to navigate, AND he seems to know where to go, even when he's lost and it takes us two hours to get there.

after ubud we go to mu's resort near uluwatu for some relaxing before heading to KL and then cambodia.


xx


ps. this internet is really slow, and we have to check out so we will add photos in next time.

the jewel of italy, last stop: verona!

apologies for the lateness of the blog... we're home and havent had time, sorry!

we originally werent going to go to verona, but after hearing that ms basini (our old english teacher) had cousins there we thought it would be cool for a last stop. we got to verona at 12.30, rang roberta and sara (the cousins) and they said to meet at 2pm. we had to get to the camping and back, so we caught the bus (which was supposed to take 20 minutes) and were still on it at 1.50. hmmm. we had got the right bus in the opposite direction! and it didnt help that the driver stopped for two cigarette breaks AND the ticket inspectors wrote out tickets for 75% of the people on the bus. we got off the bus and looked up in dismay to see 300 stairs leading to the campsite. we powered up them, and now have rock hard calves. when we got to the camping at 2.20 we were met by a topless guy with dreadlocks. he was quite stoned and took half an hour to explain where everything was in the campsite, and we kept trying to say that we needed to go and could we check in later. we finally convinced him we had to go and caught a taxi to meet roberta and sara. we met them at the arena, which was like a mini colosseum. they took us to a cafe and they gave us a really nice book on verona. sara had highlighted everything we should go and see, which was fantastic. they took us to see some roman ruins, juliets house and the tower. sara convinced the guy on the desk to let us all in for student prices. i dont know exactly what she said, but it worked! from the tower we had a fantastic view of verona. they all had gardens on the roof! after the tower we went to check out the arena but it was the only day ever that it had closed early. 'you MUST see inside!' ordered sara. we made plans to go visit lake garda on the saturday and parted ways.

we got back to the campsite and picked up our bags. we found our way to the rent-a-tent (did i mention we left our tent on the train from sorrento?) and set up camp. we have a knack for picking campsites with awesome views, and once again we could see the whole city.

on friday we set off to explore verona. 

we went to the arena, which was very impressive. they still use it today, which is cool. we also saw castelvecchio, the bridge next to it and everything else there is to see. when we told sara and roberta about our exploration they exclaimed 'mumma mia!'

saturday was one of the best days that we have had on our whole trip. we had agreed to meet roberta and sara at the roman theater, as they were taking us to see the lake. we set off early morning in order to get a good part of the day there as it is about 40km away and the roads were clogged up with people doing the same as we were. after many vineyards and a few very tight corners, the scenery unfolded to a huge beautiful blue lake. it was like when you are heading towards the horizon and then you finally see the ocean. i was amazed, because when i picture a lake, i picture a dark murky sort of thing.. on commenting this thought to sara, she tutted and said that i was thinking of a billabong. the lake i'm talking about is Lake Garda, and it is the biggest lake in italy. it is pure crystal blue, and stretches as far as the eye can see, with huge mountains surrounding it and small villages dotted along the way. 

the town we stopped at was called Malcesine and was so beautiful. there were no cars allowed in the streets and it was an intricate maze of cobblestone. we went to a restaurant for lunch which overlooked the lake and the mountains behind. we had the nicest lunch, and ange and i had brought along our italian book , so we had many a comical conversation. for the most part, sara translated for us. she is really good at english, and it made us feel a tad ashamed that we only know english. we got talking about movies, and sara pointed to the mountain across the lake and said that that was the tunnel that there will be a huge car chase and accident in the new james bond movie coming out. knowing that i was at THE lake that they filmed james bond made my day.we wandered the village for the rest of the afternoon, seeing the castle with its breathtaking views, eating delicious gelati, and even seeing the smallest street in italy - it really was tiny. on the way home sara invited us out to dinner with them that night, and they dropped us off at the camp ground and roberta and her husband picked us up at 7.30. roberta had asked sara to tell us that she doesnt know any english at all. 

the car ride to the pizzaria was full of very animated conversation, half in italian and half in english. it was great! and we reckon that roberta is pretty good at english, she just needs some confidence in herself, because we managed to have a long chat with them about perth, and roberta could understand a lot of the individual words, as we could in italian. they absolutely LOVE perth. it was great talking about home with people from the other side of the world who loved it as much as we do.we arrived at the pizzeria which is in the heat of what they called their swan valley. it was a stunning view over the vineyards. we were greeted by roberta and sara's mum and dad, and saras husband and kids. they even wore perth t-shirts :)

 we learnt that ms basinis mum and sara and robertas dad (they are brother and sister) were born in the very place that we were eating at. we had the best night, with lots of laughing and lots of trying to explan things with oversized hand movements, and great pizza. they taught us sayings like 'vedi napoli a poi muori' which means 'you see naples and you die', which ange thought was hilarious. in return we taught them australian phrases like 'bloody oath', 'fair dinkum', 'woop woop' and 'higgeldy-piggeldy'. there were only a few pronunciation problems with the last one.

we were so chuffed that they had only just met us, but it felt like we had known them for ages. its hard to find people like that, and we are so grateful to have met them.

the next day we set off for paris. it took us two trains to get there, and we crashed in the hotel that night. we snuck out the next morning to get crepes for breakfast before checking out, and headed to charles de gaulle. the plane was delayed by half an hour to london, and then we nearly missed the plane from london to singapore because no one (qantas or british airways) would check us in. BA finally decided to open the flight for us and we ran through two terminals to get there. at singapore the flight was delayed by two hours (the longest delay we have had - thank goodness it was the last flight we had to take!) but we decided the best airport to be stranded at is changi. we had massages, showers AND got a free meal! we love singapore!

we got in to perth and were greeted by australian accents(!!) only to find that someone else had picked up jess' bag. we waited in customs for an hour before realising, and the airport delivered it the next day. so now back to the real world, but we'll leave you with a few favourites:

- icecream: stockholm soft ice (or mjuck glajss - pronounced mucus)

- pizza: rome, pizzarius (soooo good, and you choose how much you want!)

- meal: anything prue cooked!

- city: berlin, by far!

- country: sweden

- trains: ireland

- people: germans, irish, swedish

- day: there was a few - budapest, scootering the amalfi coast and lake garda

- morning: paris after a hideous train ride. go des Champs-Élysées in peak hour traffic!

- night: (s) dancing at the seine in paris, dinner in verona, dinner with kelly and prue, full sunlight at three am in sweden and sitting up with jon and fee at the caravan.

- 'oh my god the worlds going to end' moment: getting on the train from berlin to paris. jess will never let me forget it.

and many more, the list goes on...