Sydney

Well, the asia leg of my travels is over now and I'm now in Sydney. Everything's worked out really well so far here. We both really like the city. We've fixed up somewhere to live and both have jobs starting this week.

Our first few days in Sydney were rough enough because of the lack of sleep on the flight and then staying in hostels was pretty tiring. We found a great apartment in the city centre on Wednesday and we're now moved in. We're sharing with 2 Irish and 2 French. They're all very friendly. It's one of those big apartment buildings with cool views.

We were also pretty lucky to line up jobs so quickly as well. I got a job with a web development company called Amnesia doing pretty much what I was doing at Newmedia in Dublin. It's a 6-month contract. Delighted about it. Jo got a HR contract with the Medtronic office in Sydney (same company as she worked for in Galway).

Really like the city as well, though we haven't got around to much sight-seeing yet. Lots of nice shops, pubs and restaurants. It's a very clean city, which makes a nice change from Bangkok etc! We met up with a couple of friends who are in Sydney at the moment - Jo's friend Orla from Donegal and her boyfriend John from Longford and Sinead who was in college in Galway. Felt good to meet people from home.

Starting work tomorrow morning which should be interesting. No work in the last two months has spoiled me a bit! Hope everyone's in good form at home. Be in touch soon.

Ko Pha-Ngan

I've done a lot of moving since the last post. We're now in Ko Pha-Ngan, an island in southern Thailand. Been here for about 3 days so far. It's nice here, but very quiet.

After we left Ho Chi Minh, we went to Cambodia and spent about 4 days travelling through - seeing the ancient temples at Angkor along the way. That was very interesting to see. Wasn't that impressed with Cambodia apart from that, to be honest. It's a lot poorer than Thailand and Vietnam, and therefore a lot more underdeveloped - the roads etc are shockin'. The people there seem to resent foreigners (even me) a bit as well.

We had quite a nasty 24 hours of bus travel after we left Siem Reap in Cambodia! It took about 10 hours to get to Bangkok and then another night bus south which took +12 hours and then a 4-hour ferry to the island we're on now. A bit crazy doing it all in one go, but we're getting short on time now in Asia. Going to Sydney on Monday week. Time's really flying.

Gonna spend the next week sitting on the beach, reading and drinking Snickers Milkshakes. Indeed.

Biking it to Saigon

We arrived yesterday in Ho Chi Min (Saigon) after 3 days of traveling across the country with motorbike guides (calling themselves "Easy Riders"). It was great fun. The drivers were experienced and very good. There were four of us traveling: Me, Jo, Dan and Sarah, so there were 4 bikes and each of us had a driver/guide. It was a lovely way to see the countryside.

On the first day, we went from Nha Trang to Dalat, the drive to which is amazing. There's a great new road that winds up around mountains and you get spectacular views for hundreds of miles around in some parts. The drive was about 3 or 4 hours. The scenery around Dalat was good, waterfalls, lakes and so on. At the moment, it's the Vietnamese holiday season and a lot of native people visit Dalat (partly because it's cold). The town itself is a bit tacky with a lot of bad market stalls etc.

The next day we made the journey down the mountains to a small beach town called Mui Ne. One of the main attractions there are massive sand dunes that people slide down. Unfortunately I was feeling pretty sick after a dodgy omelette I had for lunch. What we saw of the town was nice, it's a fishing town and the seafood was very fresh and cheap. We had a good laugh with the guides who were anxious to try out their English phrases. "Aw right, mate!", "Why not?!!", "Gorgeous, mate!".

Then yesterday, we made the 5-hour journey from Mui Ne to Ho Chi Min. This went smoothly enough, the traffic got busy as we got near to the city, but the drivers were very careful so we weren't worried too much. After 3 days on the back of motorbikes, we were all walking like John Wayne.

After we checked into our guest house and said goodbye to our guides, we went to meet up with Dave and Moninne, who we were traveling with earlier and had a good night out. Resting up today, and hopefully going to do a good bit of sight-seeing tomorrow. Hope you're all fine and dandy.

Hi, my name is ________. Nice to meet you.

We just spent the morning helping out at an English school for Vietnamese children. It was good fun. The first class was teaching the alphabet and simple sentences to young kids and afterwards teaching prepositions to teenagers. Their level of English was impressive.

At the moment we're in a coastal resort town called Nha Trang. It's pretty nice here, but a bit manic as they're starting a big summer festival here tomorrow. Since my last post we did a good bit of travelling in Vietnam. We got an overnight train to Hue, a small sleepy enough town about midway through the country. It was nice and relaxed there so we stayed 2 nights there, visiting a cool citadel. Also enjoyed watching 3 back-to-back Star Wars episodes on cable TV!

We then travelled to a place called China Beach, which is near the city of Danang. Think it was probably the nicest beach I've seen yet. It stretches for about 30km. We stayed at a great guest house called Hoa's Place, run by a nice man (surprisingly) called Hoa. Unbelievably cheap for food, accommodation etc. He was very obliging, organising flights for us to Nha Trang (where we are now).


We've been travelling with 2 other couples since we left Hanoi. Dan and Sarah from London and Dave and Moninne from Mullingar/Dublin. Getting on really well with them. The Irish couple are just on holidays for a few weeks (heading back next Monday) so they're going to Saigon tonight, whereas the rest of us are travelling for 3 days to get there. Hopefully we'll see some cool stuff along the way.

Strangely, since I left Hanoi, I've been unable to view my blog in any of the Internet cafes I've been in. As you can see, I'm able to log in and write them but I can't view it, or any comments. Weird. Maybe I said something offensive! Can't view Spoiled Metropolis' blog either. Anyhoo...

Halong

Back in Hanoi after a 3 day trip to Halong Bay. I'm wrecked now but it was really good. Of course, I'm sunburned as well! The trip was really cool, saw some amazing views - the bay seems to stretch for many miles with hundreds of small islands dotted around. Very odd place, looks like someone sprinkled a lot of massive rocks over the water.

On the trip we visited a brilliant cave, no less. Parts of it looked like you were on the moon (no, I'm not drunk). The cave entrance was pretty high up so we got a lovely view of the surrounding islands from there.


We stayed on a small island for 2 nights with the group. There was pretty much just a beach, the bamboo bungalows we stayed in and a bar/eating place. The rest of the island was mostly rock and trees. The beach was beautiful and it was cool that it was just the group staying there so it was quiet during the day. We got on well with the people that went. There were 3 other Irish on the trip, a fella from Galway, one from Mullingar and a girl from Dublin. An English couple we met were really nice as well, it was good to meet people that had been in the other parts of Vietnam as we knew little about where else to go etc.

Today we went to the Prison Museum in Hanoi, which was worth going to. It was fairly biased but what can you expect?! It seemed a lot more anti-French than anti-American for some reason. They were very quick to point out that the American POWs were allowed to play volleyball and were given Flip-flops by the Vietnamese government. Sounded like a great time! It was interesting to see John McCain's uniform on display there.


We're heading away from Hanoi tonight on a train down to central Vietnam, to a city called Hue. Another big train journey. The next major destination is China Beach which is about 4 hours from there. I really liked Hanoi, we didn't really get to see as much as we wanted, in terms of museums, attractions etc. I'd love to come back sometime.

I love the smell of Starbucks in the morning...

Yay, we're in "Nam". We arrived last night in Hanoi and are staying at The Hanoi Backpackers' Hostel. Sounds like the right place. It's really nice here. The city is beautiful, really more scenic than I expected. It's more like a European city with all the tree-lined streets and statues of Lenin etc. I can't get over how many scooters are ripping through the streets. At any standard traffic light there is usually more than 30, often with whole families aboard! Last night we saw someone carrying about 15 plants on the back of his scooter. Pretty impressive.

Today, we went to try and see the Ho Chi Min Mausoleum but it wasn't open. The man himself is on display apparently embalmed. Tomorrow we're going on a trip with about 5 or 6 people we met at the hostel to Halong Bay which is supposed to be a great place to visit. That's for 2 nights/3 days. Really looking forward to seeing a beach! When we get back we're gonna hopefully spend a couple more days in Hanoi and then travel down the coast of Vietnam. Don't really know what to expect there but I'm sure it'll be good! Hope you're all in fine fettle.

"Ooh-La-La, my buddha!"

Writing this one after a few days in the jungle. Lots happened since the last post! Last Thursday we got a train through the night from Bangkok to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. It was a bit gruelling but at least we had fold-down beds to lie on for the 15 hours. I really like Chiang Mai, it's much cleaner and way less hectic than Bangkok, lots of nice bars and restaurants and a cool night market. We spent Friday and Saturday just walking around looking at stuff, more temples, shops etc. Watched the FA cup final in The Chiang Mai Saloon.

On Sunday, we started our three-day trek in the jungle. It was completely enjoyable, one of the best things I've done. I had more exercise in those 3 days than I have had in 6 years. Up hills, down hills, across rivers etc. The first day, we went bamboo-rafting down a river. A bit scary when I was knocked off by a branch, what with not being able to swim and all, but they fished me out very quickly! We stayed that night in a mountain village with farmers and all their hogs and roosters.

Yesterday we spent more time in the village and did some more challenging hill-walking which was a lot of fun when you get into it. We then had a really good night with great food cooked by the guide and lots of beer which led to a ridiculous game involving a black frying pan called "007 Bang!". All the people that we went on the trek with were really sound, a few Americans, Norwegians, Indonesians, Canadians and an English fella.


Today we did a couple more hours of walking and then after a nice lunch went elephant riding. It was quite a mad feeling being up on one, feeding it bananas, but by the end we were feeling kind of bad about it. The elephants don't seem to be treated great by some of the guides. Anyhoo... "I had my fun and that's all that matters".

Loved the trek, but I'm delighted to be back in the city now after a nice shower and cup of tea. Probably heading out a bit later if I can still work my legs. Hope all is well at home.