Thus I went for a trek in the mountains around the touristic place (and thanks to the viet, quite ugly now) that is Sapa.
I really hesitated about going to see the hill tribes or not. I didn't wanna go to the zoo, I didn't wanna have a big impact, in short I dreamt. So with the two australian girl I met on the bus when I was sick, we took a guide and walked out of the city. We were far from being alone on the way, actually with many other groups like us. We did a "homestay", which was actually a proper one, but I felt like being in a hostel. The thing is that the village we've been too, is way too close to the city, and therefore already got the civilisation in. So people got drunk with locals and stuff like this, I had to keep cool cause that bothered me a bit, but I guess it's the price of a "low impact homestay".
So during these two days, I saw amazing places, specially when I split off the group in the first evening, and then went though absolutly authentic places, where I could obviously not take any pics, but I'm telling you, I have some amazing paintings in my mind.
However, one more time in Vietnam, I didn't feel confortable with the people, neither the viet, nor the western, nor the minority, but them it's for other reasons I tell below.
Then tonigh I just had my best evening in vietnam. I met an unbeleivable American man, arround 50-60 years old I guess, that married a Muong woman (one of the big minority group). He took me to meet sort of "expatriates" and other backpakers in Sapa, but real ones, not the one that go from Koh Phi Phi to Viangvien without stoping on the way, and without stoping drinking either. Then he invited me to eat with him and his wife. He acutally cook in his room, so I could eat real homemade food. I had a nice vegetable soup, bamboo, special cocoa-cofee-cinamon whatever drink, black sticky rice, stickycorn... etc. It was soooo great!
Then I could really understand all the problematic about Muong and other minority people with respect to the vietnamese people and the country's history. I won't tell this here, but it was one more time the occasion to think about existential problems!
Tomorrow morning I take to bus to Den Bien Phu. I hopefully get there tomorrow night. It's apparently the worst road of the country. A lot of people told me it was gonna be the adventure out there :)
Wednesday 28 July 2010
Around Sapa
Here are some the millions pics I took of the rice fields. I couldn't get bored of them honestly, that was just so beautiful down there.
This one is a stolen pic... That's one of the only pic I have with local people on..
This one is a stolen pic... That's one of the only pic I have with local people on..
Monday 26 July 2010
Summary
Ok, let's start with the extra day I had to spend in Hanoi. I really loved the first 24h there, but I have to admit that the city annoyed me a little bit the second day. I didn't have much else to do, it was rainning, I struggled a long time trying to fing somewhere where I could unload my pics and save them but without succeeding, in short I felt a bit stuck in the middle of one of the busiest place I've ever been to. I was happy that the owners of my guest house were really friendly so I could chat with them.
Then the day after I could go to Halong Bay. I had talked to a lot a people, vietnamese or western, that told me to take a tour to go there, unless I was ready to get ripped off and to spend a lot of time there, so I did so. I had to forget the idea of deep water climbing by the way, I would have needed a couple of weeks for that I guess.
The first 24h hours were nice. We were on a boat, 15 people. We were havings our meals on it, we could go swiming arround, kayaking etc.. And even if the harbour was full of boats, Halong Bay is big enough so that we were quite alone in the middle of all the islands. Landscapes were really amazings.
Then after a night spent on the boat, I started my day seeing the staff of the boat emptying the bins in the sea... well... hard to stand but you can't do anything on the moment. Then they took us on a big island, we had a short trek on the jungle, and then the tour got crap. Food got bad (that's probably where I got poisoned), that was full of tourists, although most of them were vietnamese tourists, and the nice people of my group left, so there were only loud and heavy dutch people, and a jumpy american couple. I split off the group for the afternoon cause they went to the most crowded place... I can't tell everything, but in short I was keen to go to the mountains.
So here I am, in the mountains, 1500m high. It's quite cold here, I'd say less than 20°, quite appreciable. Today I feel way better, so I'm off for a trek till tomorrow. I'll tell you about it later, I'm sort of in a hurry right now!
Then the day after I could go to Halong Bay. I had talked to a lot a people, vietnamese or western, that told me to take a tour to go there, unless I was ready to get ripped off and to spend a lot of time there, so I did so. I had to forget the idea of deep water climbing by the way, I would have needed a couple of weeks for that I guess.
The first 24h hours were nice. We were on a boat, 15 people. We were havings our meals on it, we could go swiming arround, kayaking etc.. And even if the harbour was full of boats, Halong Bay is big enough so that we were quite alone in the middle of all the islands. Landscapes were really amazings.
Then after a night spent on the boat, I started my day seeing the staff of the boat emptying the bins in the sea... well... hard to stand but you can't do anything on the moment. Then they took us on a big island, we had a short trek on the jungle, and then the tour got crap. Food got bad (that's probably where I got poisoned), that was full of tourists, although most of them were vietnamese tourists, and the nice people of my group left, so there were only loud and heavy dutch people, and a jumpy american couple. I split off the group for the afternoon cause they went to the most crowded place... I can't tell everything, but in short I was keen to go to the mountains.
So here I am, in the mountains, 1500m high. It's quite cold here, I'd say less than 20°, quite appreciable. Today I feel way better, so I'm off for a trek till tomorrow. I'll tell you about it later, I'm sort of in a hurry right now!
Hanoi pics
I woke up earlier than expected this morning so that I have time to unload my camera, save and post some pics :)
Internet is super slow so I can't upload a lot of them thought..
Halong, food poisionned, Sapa.
I'm in Sapa since this Morning. I was in Halong Bay the 3 days before.
The computer I have is bad, specially the keyboard, so I'll tell more later, probably the day after tomorrow.
In short: Halong bay was a mix of amazing lanscape and shitty tour.. I was happy to leave to the Moutains where I am now.
But yesterday night, after an afternoon spent in the bus from Halong back to Hanoi, I get in my night bus to go to Sapa, and an hour after the departure, I start to feel sick. I actually got food poisionned... It's not the best thing that can happen on a night bus with no toilets, for an 8 hours trip on mountain roads. So I can tell you the night was long and terrible at some points, but I made it through! I slept the whole day, and tomorrow I'm going for a two-days trek (hope I'll feel good enough, I just had an almost-normal meal, so it should be fine), that's why I'll write more afterwards, I'm going to bed now.
The computer I have is bad, specially the keyboard, so I'll tell more later, probably the day after tomorrow.
In short: Halong bay was a mix of amazing lanscape and shitty tour.. I was happy to leave to the Moutains where I am now.
But yesterday night, after an afternoon spent in the bus from Halong back to Hanoi, I get in my night bus to go to Sapa, and an hour after the departure, I start to feel sick. I actually got food poisionned... It's not the best thing that can happen on a night bus with no toilets, for an 8 hours trip on mountain roads. So I can tell you the night was long and terrible at some points, but I made it through! I slept the whole day, and tomorrow I'm going for a two-days trek (hope I'll feel good enough, I just had an almost-normal meal, so it should be fine), that's why I'll write more afterwards, I'm going to bed now.
Thursday 22 July 2010
Hanoi I love you
(even if I would have prefered to leave you this morning)
This morning weather was supposed to be good so that I could go to Halong bay, but then at the last minute the motorbike taxi came, and said they closed it. So I went back to my room and caught some more sleep! Thus today I'm resting, reading, learning a little bit more of vietnamese (hopefully) and watching the vietnamese TV.
Yesterday: visiting Hanoi
In the morning I walked down in the old quarter. The streets are just unbeleivable. The sidewalks are 100% occupied by whatever people selling/working or parked motorbikes, there are millions of them here. I had to learn how to cross the street: if you wait for the traffic to stop, you won't cross ever. So the best is to take a quick look to see if there are cars (cars thinks they have the priority), and if not then stop thinking and just cross the street. If you don't wanna get hit, there is only one rule: keep your pace. Like this motorbikes just avoid you and everyone's happy!
The old quarter is really charming. There are specialized streets, one with shops only selling shoes, one for glasses, one for chikens, one for tin boxes, one for furnitures etc etc.. The markets are really colorfull, and vietnamese people are very authentics. I think it's the place where I've flet the furthest from Europe. Viet people are not as nice as thai though, they actually often fake to be nice.
However I got really lucky yesterday again. After my walking tour in the old quarter, I went to the history museum to learn a bit more, cause I felt a bit ignorant about vietnam history, and a viet guy came to see me with his bike. I thought it was a mototaxi as usual so I kept on saying no, but then he was insisting, saying he didn't wanna make buisness and just talk with me. I was a bit afraid of a rip off, but we talked first on the street and he said he was studying international relations in Hanoi, he was in hollidays so he could show me the city! So that's what we did, he guided me to the museum first, so we talked about french colonisation, american war etc.. I think vietnam has been attacked by every country that could: China, Japan, Mongolia, Burma, France, US, Thailande... but they got so tough all the time that they kicked everyone out. We talked about the feelings vietnamese people have towards the different western countries, then I carried on to the communist party and he checked arround if there was anybody in the room, lowered his voice and said "this we can talk about later". Pretty surprising isn't it?
He took me to a very nice place for lunch, next to a lake, where we talked about Jean Sarkosy, Carla Bruni, the communist party in Vietnam, but also about him and his sexual obsession (that I won't detail here, but I can tell you, it's quite juicy). I had to pay the quite expensive meal, 10 times more expensive than what I usually pay, but I guess it was the deal, and it was pretty good: you had to make your own spring roll with fresh fish and other stuff.
Then he took me arround the city with his bike and back home. He tryed to get some money out of me in the end, but after some discussion, he harldy agreed that we were frends, so I only paid the gazoline. (Am I wrong?)
The quality of the food here is generally lower than in Thailand, but there are many more different things and tastes. I have to admit I really appreciate the bred, which is like back in France, and that used to be my basic food there. They also have croissant and stuff like this.. colonisation... colonisation..
My hostel is great, althought a bit expensive. I hope I can go to Halong bay tomorrow. Today is rainy but still hot.
This morning weather was supposed to be good so that I could go to Halong bay, but then at the last minute the motorbike taxi came, and said they closed it. So I went back to my room and caught some more sleep! Thus today I'm resting, reading, learning a little bit more of vietnamese (hopefully) and watching the vietnamese TV.
Yesterday: visiting Hanoi
In the morning I walked down in the old quarter. The streets are just unbeleivable. The sidewalks are 100% occupied by whatever people selling/working or parked motorbikes, there are millions of them here. I had to learn how to cross the street: if you wait for the traffic to stop, you won't cross ever. So the best is to take a quick look to see if there are cars (cars thinks they have the priority), and if not then stop thinking and just cross the street. If you don't wanna get hit, there is only one rule: keep your pace. Like this motorbikes just avoid you and everyone's happy!
The old quarter is really charming. There are specialized streets, one with shops only selling shoes, one for glasses, one for chikens, one for tin boxes, one for furnitures etc etc.. The markets are really colorfull, and vietnamese people are very authentics. I think it's the place where I've flet the furthest from Europe. Viet people are not as nice as thai though, they actually often fake to be nice.
However I got really lucky yesterday again. After my walking tour in the old quarter, I went to the history museum to learn a bit more, cause I felt a bit ignorant about vietnam history, and a viet guy came to see me with his bike. I thought it was a mototaxi as usual so I kept on saying no, but then he was insisting, saying he didn't wanna make buisness and just talk with me. I was a bit afraid of a rip off, but we talked first on the street and he said he was studying international relations in Hanoi, he was in hollidays so he could show me the city! So that's what we did, he guided me to the museum first, so we talked about french colonisation, american war etc.. I think vietnam has been attacked by every country that could: China, Japan, Mongolia, Burma, France, US, Thailande... but they got so tough all the time that they kicked everyone out. We talked about the feelings vietnamese people have towards the different western countries, then I carried on to the communist party and he checked arround if there was anybody in the room, lowered his voice and said "this we can talk about later". Pretty surprising isn't it?
He took me to a very nice place for lunch, next to a lake, where we talked about Jean Sarkosy, Carla Bruni, the communist party in Vietnam, but also about him and his sexual obsession (that I won't detail here, but I can tell you, it's quite juicy). I had to pay the quite expensive meal, 10 times more expensive than what I usually pay, but I guess it was the deal, and it was pretty good: you had to make your own spring roll with fresh fish and other stuff.
Then he took me arround the city with his bike and back home. He tryed to get some money out of me in the end, but after some discussion, he harldy agreed that we were frends, so I only paid the gazoline. (Am I wrong?)
The quality of the food here is generally lower than in Thailand, but there are many more different things and tastes. I have to admit I really appreciate the bred, which is like back in France, and that used to be my basic food there. They also have croissant and stuff like this.. colonisation... colonisation..
My hostel is great, althought a bit expensive. I hope I can go to Halong bay tomorrow. Today is rainy but still hot.
Tuesday 20 July 2010
From Krabi to Hat Yai, Kuala Lumpur and... good morning Vietnam!
I left Krabi yesterday morning, as expected, with a good and safe driver, that didn't try to screw me like last time. I stoped and change bus in Hat Yai, which is basically a big Thai bangkok-styled city, but I didn't see much of it of course. Then quite some time to go through the border with malesia and lot of burkas.
What I saw of Malesia from the bus: very organised and developped country. No scooters on the highways, huge fields of Palm and rice, still the nice karstic "mountains" that I like very much. Then after almost 15 hours bus drive during which I met a french girl who's teaching french in Thailand for 3 years and a girl from Chile who was arriving from Bangladesh, we arrived in KL. It's very big city and I just spent a few hours there. I met a very nice swedish couple at the bus station with who I shared the taxi to a cheap hostel. Then we took a walk in the city. Very modern, stuffy, busy and far into this westerno-asian style, but not in a nice way. In short I didn't like what I saw down there, and I even cracked and took my first burger after 20 days of thai food.
After a second short night in a row, I woke up this morning to go to the airport. There is one advantage in KL, which is that people speak english in the street, and when you're lost at 6.30 in the morning, looking for the airport, it's quite confortable. I tookthe monorail, took a last look at the petronas towers, go in a bus that was going to the wrong airport, changed bus to the right one, got very cold on the airport and in the plane, and reached Hanoi safely.
Then I honestly had the best minibus drive of my life, through Hanoi! I can't say yet if the driver had special skills compared to others, but it was really amazing. Bangkok was messy, and drviers crazy, with fancy vehicules and a lot of cars everywhere. But here are millions of motorbikes, driving in every direction, carrying one cubic meter of stuff on their back, and touching cars with their hands. People are crossing the street withouth looking, creating on island in the middle of the motobikes that avoid them without stopping. I saw a girl pushing here bicycle wrong way in the traffic, smile on her face, with the special vietnamese conic hat, trying to reach the other side of the street I guess... such a scene.
The city looks amazing, I love it, with the viet hats everywhere, and not much tourists, and such an atmosphere... I love it!
I'll post some pics later!
By the way I'm millionaire since few hours ^^
What I saw of Malesia from the bus: very organised and developped country. No scooters on the highways, huge fields of Palm and rice, still the nice karstic "mountains" that I like very much. Then after almost 15 hours bus drive during which I met a french girl who's teaching french in Thailand for 3 years and a girl from Chile who was arriving from Bangladesh, we arrived in KL. It's very big city and I just spent a few hours there. I met a very nice swedish couple at the bus station with who I shared the taxi to a cheap hostel. Then we took a walk in the city. Very modern, stuffy, busy and far into this westerno-asian style, but not in a nice way. In short I didn't like what I saw down there, and I even cracked and took my first burger after 20 days of thai food.
After a second short night in a row, I woke up this morning to go to the airport. There is one advantage in KL, which is that people speak english in the street, and when you're lost at 6.30 in the morning, looking for the airport, it's quite confortable. I tookthe monorail, took a last look at the petronas towers, go in a bus that was going to the wrong airport, changed bus to the right one, got very cold on the airport and in the plane, and reached Hanoi safely.
Then I honestly had the best minibus drive of my life, through Hanoi! I can't say yet if the driver had special skills compared to others, but it was really amazing. Bangkok was messy, and drviers crazy, with fancy vehicules and a lot of cars everywhere. But here are millions of motorbikes, driving in every direction, carrying one cubic meter of stuff on their back, and touching cars with their hands. People are crossing the street withouth looking, creating on island in the middle of the motobikes that avoid them without stopping. I saw a girl pushing here bicycle wrong way in the traffic, smile on her face, with the special vietnamese conic hat, trying to reach the other side of the street I guess... such a scene.
The city looks amazing, I love it, with the viet hats everywhere, and not much tourists, and such an atmosphere... I love it!
I'll post some pics later!
By the way I'm millionaire since few hours ^^
Sunday 18 July 2010
Krabi and arround
Today I rented a bike again, that's really the nicest thing to do to discover the surrounding lands.
I started this morning with a temps in the country side. Monks chants, temple ambiance, but more particularly a temple which was on the top of a cliff. 1247 steps to get there, and some of them were 40cm high, and quite narrow. Once I got up there, after having sweated like hell (maybe I hadn't sweated taht much before!), I was almost alone. Another farang wanted me to take pictures of him doing thai boxing move with the temple on his behind, quite funny, and a monk was there meditating. It was really quiet, the view was of course amazing, and I had the pleasure to meet a lot of monkeys on the way that were hoping me to give some food.
Then I went to the beaches arround, with amazing rocks everywhere on the way. The road was really nice and I was all the time fantasising about climbing there (which I know is widely possible during the dry season). I reached a couple touristic beaches, as well as some hidden mangrove and a sort of boat station where I watched a thai box match on the TV.
Tomorrow I leave early in the morning, and spend the day in the bus to Kuala Lumpur. I made a strategical mistake when I booked this flight but whatever, I just waste a day and probably few dozens of euros, not more.
I hope the video gives an idea..
What you can't see is big Buddha around which I turn while filming.
I started this morning with a temps in the country side. Monks chants, temple ambiance, but more particularly a temple which was on the top of a cliff. 1247 steps to get there, and some of them were 40cm high, and quite narrow. Once I got up there, after having sweated like hell (maybe I hadn't sweated taht much before!), I was almost alone. Another farang wanted me to take pictures of him doing thai boxing move with the temple on his behind, quite funny, and a monk was there meditating. It was really quiet, the view was of course amazing, and I had the pleasure to meet a lot of monkeys on the way that were hoping me to give some food.
Then I went to the beaches arround, with amazing rocks everywhere on the way. The road was really nice and I was all the time fantasising about climbing there (which I know is widely possible during the dry season). I reached a couple touristic beaches, as well as some hidden mangrove and a sort of boat station where I watched a thai box match on the TV.
Tomorrow I leave early in the morning, and spend the day in the bus to Kuala Lumpur. I made a strategical mistake when I booked this flight but whatever, I just waste a day and probably few dozens of euros, not more.
I hope the video gives an idea..
What you can't see is big Buddha around which I turn while filming.
Saturday 17 July 2010
From Phuket to Krabi
A lot to tell.
I thought I would only spend a night on Phuket, to take a look at a nice place or two, but then leave and avoid all the prostitution that's over expanded there. But on the first night I went to a thai restaurant (ok, so far nothing unexpected, that happens 2-3 times/day) and I got friend with the owners of the place! The sister of the owner had studied languages, so she spoke a really good english. I could talk about anything I was wondering. Prostitution, ugly hotels everywhere on the nicest islands, loads of tourists that just come here to get drunk for cheap price, thai people who don't care about the environment at all, red shirts, tsunami (she was on Phuket when it happened) etc etc. She told me the worst was thai people selling their lands to western people... seemed quite sad.
She was in hollidays so she showed me the small places she knew in Phuket, took me to nice restaurants, to a typical night funfair, etc. It was quite nice to go to thai places where I was the only farang, and thai people reacted a little bit differently when asked about something in thai, and not in english.
Thus I enjoyed my time there, sleeping in the old phuket town in this nice hostel. I also rented a bike on my own again, and enjoyed going through the traffic in the town! I went along the mangrove, up to some nice view points, and to a sea-gipsy village (written down gipsea on the official signs! that's best english mistake I've read so far). It was quite interesting to see it, even if I felt a bit embarrassed to go there just to take a look. They were quite poor, and they're actually stopping to be gipsy, and start to learn thai and to live with thai people.
The day before yesterday, I left early in the morning to go to Koh Phi Phi. I met a very nice belgium couple on the boat, and we went to the cheapest bungalows that where out of the city. We took a walk through the jungle to see isolated beaches and got back at the sunset time so that the owner of the thai bungalows there said we were a bit crazy.. it was a nice "trek"! (quite small and not challenging at all actually but still). We decided to go to the main "village" at night and as expected it was only english or australian teenagers, coming there to get totally drunk dancing on the beach, for the first time they could get off their parents. Once there, we thought we should either get back home or get drunk too. Since the shots were free we decided to take the second option: bad idea. Night was probably fun, but I don't remember much of it although I honestly didn't drink much at all.
On the morning after (hard one) we rented a boat with another couple from Netherlands. The guy took the five of us to Koh Phi Phi Lee, which is non accessible for sleeping, supposed to be protected. Some parts where then very very nice, with cliffs coming steeply into the clear water. We did some snorkling and then went to the famous Maya bay, where the 'Beach' was shot. Well, this was just disgusting, hundreds and hundreds of tourists, coming with these big and noisy modern "speed boats", taking pictures of themselves with hundreds of people behing them, hiding the beach. We hurried to leave and enjoyed the rest of our ride with our guide.
In the end I felt a bit sick on the boat, and it went much worse in the following hours. I went to take the boat to Krabi in the afternoon, but I was very bad, nauseous and very dizzy. I reached my hostel yesterday night and slept for 12 hours, I'm absolutly fine now! I guess the free shots of Phi Phi island were a bit customized.
Everything is getting cheap again and the food great. Tomorrow I'll take a look at the nationnal park, back in the inner land of Krabi. It's supposed to be very nice. I wanted to go to Koh Lanta, which is supposed to be tourist-less, but I won't have time: I have to leave on monday morning in order to be in Kuala Lumpur on the 20th for my flight to vietnam.
I thought I would only spend a night on Phuket, to take a look at a nice place or two, but then leave and avoid all the prostitution that's over expanded there. But on the first night I went to a thai restaurant (ok, so far nothing unexpected, that happens 2-3 times/day) and I got friend with the owners of the place! The sister of the owner had studied languages, so she spoke a really good english. I could talk about anything I was wondering. Prostitution, ugly hotels everywhere on the nicest islands, loads of tourists that just come here to get drunk for cheap price, thai people who don't care about the environment at all, red shirts, tsunami (she was on Phuket when it happened) etc etc. She told me the worst was thai people selling their lands to western people... seemed quite sad.
She was in hollidays so she showed me the small places she knew in Phuket, took me to nice restaurants, to a typical night funfair, etc. It was quite nice to go to thai places where I was the only farang, and thai people reacted a little bit differently when asked about something in thai, and not in english.
Thus I enjoyed my time there, sleeping in the old phuket town in this nice hostel. I also rented a bike on my own again, and enjoyed going through the traffic in the town! I went along the mangrove, up to some nice view points, and to a sea-gipsy village (written down gipsea on the official signs! that's best english mistake I've read so far). It was quite interesting to see it, even if I felt a bit embarrassed to go there just to take a look. They were quite poor, and they're actually stopping to be gipsy, and start to learn thai and to live with thai people.
The day before yesterday, I left early in the morning to go to Koh Phi Phi. I met a very nice belgium couple on the boat, and we went to the cheapest bungalows that where out of the city. We took a walk through the jungle to see isolated beaches and got back at the sunset time so that the owner of the thai bungalows there said we were a bit crazy.. it was a nice "trek"! (quite small and not challenging at all actually but still). We decided to go to the main "village" at night and as expected it was only english or australian teenagers, coming there to get totally drunk dancing on the beach, for the first time they could get off their parents. Once there, we thought we should either get back home or get drunk too. Since the shots were free we decided to take the second option: bad idea. Night was probably fun, but I don't remember much of it although I honestly didn't drink much at all.
On the morning after (hard one) we rented a boat with another couple from Netherlands. The guy took the five of us to Koh Phi Phi Lee, which is non accessible for sleeping, supposed to be protected. Some parts where then very very nice, with cliffs coming steeply into the clear water. We did some snorkling and then went to the famous Maya bay, where the 'Beach' was shot. Well, this was just disgusting, hundreds and hundreds of tourists, coming with these big and noisy modern "speed boats", taking pictures of themselves with hundreds of people behing them, hiding the beach. We hurried to leave and enjoyed the rest of our ride with our guide.
In the end I felt a bit sick on the boat, and it went much worse in the following hours. I went to take the boat to Krabi in the afternoon, but I was very bad, nauseous and very dizzy. I reached my hostel yesterday night and slept for 12 hours, I'm absolutly fine now! I guess the free shots of Phi Phi island were a bit customized.
Everything is getting cheap again and the food great. Tomorrow I'll take a look at the nationnal park, back in the inner land of Krabi. It's supposed to be very nice. I wanted to go to Koh Lanta, which is supposed to be tourist-less, but I won't have time: I have to leave on monday morning in order to be in Kuala Lumpur on the 20th for my flight to vietnam.
Monday 12 July 2010
wohooo, here are the pics!
A beach during the bike trip
idem, behind the hostel
Koh Tao, place where almost alone
Bouddha couché à Bangkok
Pleasant day and a little bit scary rip off
Yesterday I rented a bike to go arround in the small beaches of Koh Tao. I found really nice ones, even if I sometimes struggled a bit when the road became very uneven but then I could enjoy an incredibly hot walk to the beach, and enjoy even more a fresh drink. I had lunch in a very good (and cheap) restaurant. I founded really nice and relaxed places, and I really had a lot of fun driving the bike arround, getting some moving air along nice roads!
Then I had booked a "joint ticket", it's not for a smoke that makes you laughting, it's a ticket that's used for Taxi+boat+bus to take you where you have to go. It's suppose to be cheaper...
In order not to waste a day, I left with the night-boat at 21.00 yesterday night. The boat was OK, made out of wood and nicely rocking to get you asleep, I didn't see the super-sized cockroaches crowling on the roof so I slept all-right.
I arrived this morning in Surathani at 4.30, not 100% fresh mind.. Then thai travellers went on their own, and farangs like me were distributed among few tuk tuks. I was with two english guys going to a different destination. I was supposed to catch a bus at 5.30 in the monrning to carry on to Phuket but they first took us to a sort of bar and they said we had to wait till 7.30 for the bus. Well... 2h30 min waiting... nevermind. At 7 another tuk tuk came and took me to another bar without the two other english guys. Once I got there an Indian guy (that I found not nice right in the beggining) told me I had to pay again to go to Phuket, otherwise I would have to wait until 9.30. I didn't want to pay so after some negociations I said I'd wait, but I got a bit angry in the inside! Other people came and -thanks gos- an Australian couple ended up in the situation as me.
Then at 8.30 a minibus came, the driver talked with the Indian guy in thai and we finally get in, apparently to go to the bus. But after the 3 of us got in the car, the guy went back to the trunk and started doing stuff, till we understood he was probably taking a quick look in our bags! We started looking, he closed the trunk and we left. The guy drove arround the corner and actually got back to the place we were, talked again to the indian guy and we left again quickly. We -of course- started to worry and tryed to talk to the drive, but he seemed not to speak a word in english, and could only said, "10min, wait, 10min wait". After 5min wondering with the australian guy what was happening, we figured out the bus station was behind us and everything was going wrong. So I don't know where the driver was exactly taking us, but the australian asked in the very very very serious way to stop right where we were, and after few seconds trying ti argue, the driver did so.
Well, in the end we took a tuk tuk back to the city center and the bus station, bought another ticket, and arrived in Phuket at 4.30. I'm glad I wasn't alone! I only wasted some hours and 250B (7€), so it's not too bad. I think we've been very unlucky, and later on we actually heard that Surathani was famous for this sort of rip off. That's it!
Tonight I'm staying in a really nice place, nice staff, nice room, quiet, cheap internet, breakfast included, etc.. which i needed after 48h sweating without shower.
I'm trying to get some pics out of my phone.. but it doesn't work :-(
By the way:
-no need to worry mum and dad, I'm fine, it was just worth telling the rip off story!
-I said I had seen jingle on Kho Tao.. actually not, it was just tough forest :)
Then I had booked a "joint ticket", it's not for a smoke that makes you laughting, it's a ticket that's used for Taxi+boat+bus to take you where you have to go. It's suppose to be cheaper...
In order not to waste a day, I left with the night-boat at 21.00 yesterday night. The boat was OK, made out of wood and nicely rocking to get you asleep, I didn't see the super-sized cockroaches crowling on the roof so I slept all-right.
I arrived this morning in Surathani at 4.30, not 100% fresh mind.. Then thai travellers went on their own, and farangs like me were distributed among few tuk tuks. I was with two english guys going to a different destination. I was supposed to catch a bus at 5.30 in the monrning to carry on to Phuket but they first took us to a sort of bar and they said we had to wait till 7.30 for the bus. Well... 2h30 min waiting... nevermind. At 7 another tuk tuk came and took me to another bar without the two other english guys. Once I got there an Indian guy (that I found not nice right in the beggining) told me I had to pay again to go to Phuket, otherwise I would have to wait until 9.30. I didn't want to pay so after some negociations I said I'd wait, but I got a bit angry in the inside! Other people came and -thanks gos- an Australian couple ended up in the situation as me.
Then at 8.30 a minibus came, the driver talked with the Indian guy in thai and we finally get in, apparently to go to the bus. But after the 3 of us got in the car, the guy went back to the trunk and started doing stuff, till we understood he was probably taking a quick look in our bags! We started looking, he closed the trunk and we left. The guy drove arround the corner and actually got back to the place we were, talked again to the indian guy and we left again quickly. We -of course- started to worry and tryed to talk to the drive, but he seemed not to speak a word in english, and could only said, "10min, wait, 10min wait". After 5min wondering with the australian guy what was happening, we figured out the bus station was behind us and everything was going wrong. So I don't know where the driver was exactly taking us, but the australian asked in the very very very serious way to stop right where we were, and after few seconds trying ti argue, the driver did so.
Well, in the end we took a tuk tuk back to the city center and the bus station, bought another ticket, and arrived in Phuket at 4.30. I'm glad I wasn't alone! I only wasted some hours and 250B (7€), so it's not too bad. I think we've been very unlucky, and later on we actually heard that Surathani was famous for this sort of rip off. That's it!
Tonight I'm staying in a really nice place, nice staff, nice room, quiet, cheap internet, breakfast included, etc.. which i needed after 48h sweating without shower.
I'm trying to get some pics out of my phone.. but it doesn't work :-(
By the way:
-no need to worry mum and dad, I'm fine, it was just worth telling the rip off story!
-I said I had seen jingle on Kho Tao.. actually not, it was just tough forest :)
Saturday 10 July 2010
Koh Tao
To reply to this Swedish comment: the things I wouldn't eat are for exemple: huge amouts of pig nose, bugs (maybe this I'll try..), chily that you don't want to try ever again, all sort of small animals.. I forgot what others things I saw.
Well, here is a summary of my last 3 days:
I went from Hua Hin to Chumphon by bus early in the morning. I meet russian people again, but this time one of them spoke english a little bit. We shared the taxi and took the boat to Koh Tao. First my impression when we left the 'harbour', with no one on the beaches arround, was that I reached heaven. Then the boat was sort of empty. Then we arrived in Koh Tao, and there it was totally different. THe west cost, biggest one on the island from far, is almost only about buildings made out of conrete. People in the street are white people. The beach looks amazing but the water is actually very polluted. So I went further, again loosing at least 2L of water sweating. I finally found an old thai woman renting bungalows for a reasonable price. Well, it was OK.
Yesterday I decided to move out to the other side of island, but with my heavy bag I wanted to take a 'taxi'. After quite a search, I found two switz girls that accepted to share the taxi with me. Then 30min of incredible ride in the jingle, with quite a lot of moments where I thought the 4x4 would flip over on the roof. We finally ended up in a very nice place! We were alone with the owner of the place and her family, all thai. The water there was amazing so I snorkled (masque et tuba) for quite long, enjoying the colorful fishes and the corals. I even got attacked by a seagull that probably protected its nest, quite aggressive the beast! Moreover I felt very relaxed for my grant, it was good time.
I was planning to stay there for a couple of days. Unfortunatly the landlord tried to screw us quite a lot. She didn't say there wasn't water or electricity except between 23 and 5, when accpeted to run the engine cause the wires were broken up. Then she served a fish at night that was probably waiting in some petrol for a couple of weeks (humm hummm quite disgusting thing that was this fish ^^). So the two girls wanted to get back today and thus I did the same.
After some deep water jumping and snorcking, I headed back the main beach and I found back my nice bungalow with the old lady who quite smiled at me when she saw me back with my big backpack.
I think I'll spend tomorrow on the island, maybe walking to another isolated beach, but without my bag.
Sometimes it seems to be such a waste here that I feel guilty to be part of this tourism. This afternoon when I was looking for the internet coffee, I crossed a place where there was an open-air septic tank, awfully stinky. I could have puked there...
The worst is that some people don't even care or realise. And Thai people here, some are just bored and a bit hopeless (like my grandma bungalow owner a little bit), but some other seem to want to keep on going. I don't know if they are just blinded by money or what.
Well, that's not my state of mind 100% of the time, not at all, but it's scary sometimes.
I'll try to post some pics soon if I can.
Jérémie.
Well, here is a summary of my last 3 days:
I went from Hua Hin to Chumphon by bus early in the morning. I meet russian people again, but this time one of them spoke english a little bit. We shared the taxi and took the boat to Koh Tao. First my impression when we left the 'harbour', with no one on the beaches arround, was that I reached heaven. Then the boat was sort of empty. Then we arrived in Koh Tao, and there it was totally different. THe west cost, biggest one on the island from far, is almost only about buildings made out of conrete. People in the street are white people. The beach looks amazing but the water is actually very polluted. So I went further, again loosing at least 2L of water sweating. I finally found an old thai woman renting bungalows for a reasonable price. Well, it was OK.
Yesterday I decided to move out to the other side of island, but with my heavy bag I wanted to take a 'taxi'. After quite a search, I found two switz girls that accepted to share the taxi with me. Then 30min of incredible ride in the jingle, with quite a lot of moments where I thought the 4x4 would flip over on the roof. We finally ended up in a very nice place! We were alone with the owner of the place and her family, all thai. The water there was amazing so I snorkled (masque et tuba) for quite long, enjoying the colorful fishes and the corals. I even got attacked by a seagull that probably protected its nest, quite aggressive the beast! Moreover I felt very relaxed for my grant, it was good time.
I was planning to stay there for a couple of days. Unfortunatly the landlord tried to screw us quite a lot. She didn't say there wasn't water or electricity except between 23 and 5, when accpeted to run the engine cause the wires were broken up. Then she served a fish at night that was probably waiting in some petrol for a couple of weeks (humm hummm quite disgusting thing that was this fish ^^). So the two girls wanted to get back today and thus I did the same.
After some deep water jumping and snorcking, I headed back the main beach and I found back my nice bungalow with the old lady who quite smiled at me when she saw me back with my big backpack.
I think I'll spend tomorrow on the island, maybe walking to another isolated beach, but without my bag.
Sometimes it seems to be such a waste here that I feel guilty to be part of this tourism. This afternoon when I was looking for the internet coffee, I crossed a place where there was an open-air septic tank, awfully stinky. I could have puked there...
The worst is that some people don't even care or realise. And Thai people here, some are just bored and a bit hopeless (like my grandma bungalow owner a little bit), but some other seem to want to keep on going. I don't know if they are just blinded by money or what.
Well, that's not my state of mind 100% of the time, not at all, but it's scary sometimes.
I'll try to post some pics soon if I can.
Jérémie.
Thursday 8 July 2010
phd grant
I got my Phd grant! Just received a mail today! I'm super happy. I'm going in a place where I won't get the internet in the next day.
I'll write more afterwards!
Bye!
I'll write more afterwards!
Bye!
Wednesday 7 July 2010
Southward
I'm in Hua Hin tonight. I missed the bus stop but I finally got back to the city by bike-taxi.
I'm staying in a Tek hostel, pretty nice one. Food is amazing, sea food specially here.
I'll go to Ko Tao tomorrow.
[I'm was expecting my phd grant today, so I hope tomorrow..]
Good night!
I'm staying in a Tek hostel, pretty nice one. Food is amazing, sea food specially here.
I'll go to Ko Tao tomorrow.
[I'm was expecting my phd grant today, so I hope tomorrow..]
Good night!
Tuesday 6 July 2010
Getting alone tomorrow!
So Elsa and me spent the week end on Kho Samet. It's a small island, 3h30 by bus from Bangkok. It's a quite touristic place, cause all the people who spend only few days in Thailand in Bangkok can go there for the week end, like us. However, because of what happened with the red shirts, there is not much American or European tourists. I'm a bit lucky from this point of view. Hus it was mainly tourists from Asia, or the upper class of the Bangkok families who take a week end out of the city.
The island was nice and weather was obviously raelly hot. So I thought I shouldn't get in the sun and I wore a towel for the whole day, except when we went swiming twice.. well... it was enought to get sunburnt! (note to my sweet mother: it was the first and the last time here, I promise!).
Yesterday and today I travelled arround in Bangkok, after being annoyed by the irritated thai people in the touristic places, I got lost in few streets and markets, where thai always have their famous smile. I've been walking through food, flower, or whatever markets. There are damn big amount of evrything, including nice fruits but also some stuff I would never eat. I also visited some temples and museums.
Yesterday night we went to a restaurant with a thai couple that Elsa and another french girl knew from university, and I think tonight we'll go out with some french people that work here (sort of an expatriate ambience I guess).
Tomorrow I'll leave bangkok to go down to the south, towards the islands. I'm probably gonna go to Kho Tao. I'll try to dive and see by my own how it's going on on these island, between tourists attracted by heavenly beaches, amazing diving, 'end of the world' style, backpacker meetings, international/clubmed parties, etc etc..
I'm quite tired, I guess it's because of the climat and maybe still a little bit because of the jet-lag. I hope it'll get better when I'll be relaxing in the south, out of the stuffy but pretty amazing atmosphere of Bangkok.
I'll try to post some pics next time, but I don't take many anyway, I feel too weird about taking pictures of the people when they see me.
I'll keep you posted.
The island was nice and weather was obviously raelly hot. So I thought I shouldn't get in the sun and I wore a towel for the whole day, except when we went swiming twice.. well... it was enought to get sunburnt! (note to my sweet mother: it was the first and the last time here, I promise!).
Yesterday and today I travelled arround in Bangkok, after being annoyed by the irritated thai people in the touristic places, I got lost in few streets and markets, where thai always have their famous smile. I've been walking through food, flower, or whatever markets. There are damn big amount of evrything, including nice fruits but also some stuff I would never eat. I also visited some temples and museums.
Yesterday night we went to a restaurant with a thai couple that Elsa and another french girl knew from university, and I think tonight we'll go out with some french people that work here (sort of an expatriate ambience I guess).
Tomorrow I'll leave bangkok to go down to the south, towards the islands. I'm probably gonna go to Kho Tao. I'll try to dive and see by my own how it's going on on these island, between tourists attracted by heavenly beaches, amazing diving, 'end of the world' style, backpacker meetings, international/clubmed parties, etc etc..
I'm quite tired, I guess it's because of the climat and maybe still a little bit because of the jet-lag. I hope it'll get better when I'll be relaxing in the south, out of the stuffy but pretty amazing atmosphere of Bangkok.
I'll try to post some pics next time, but I don't take many anyway, I feel too weird about taking pictures of the people when they see me.
I'll keep you posted.
Friday 2 July 2010
D+1
Here it is, sweat, sweat, air conditionned, sweat, sweat, sweat, air conditionned so that I'm almost cold, sweat, humm sweat again... ahh night is coming, maybe it'll get a little bit fresher, actually no so sweat, sweat and sweat.
It's pretty hot and wet and polluted here. The air is so thick that you feel like you can touch it.
After a long non-spleepy journey, I arrive in Bangkok on time, get my luguage, talk and laught with the taxi driver (that I thought he was speaking thai to me, but actually it was just his english which was with a strong accent!). I reach the university, find elsa after a couple of student kindly showing me the way, and my day starts.
From Chinatown where you hear "falang, falang" (which means "white stranger") all the time, to the most touristic place in Khaosan, to a nice restaurant, going through the heavy traffic, avoiding the cockroach (les cafards) in the toilets (bigger than my thumb these bastards!), meeting some exchange students who are living here for a year, gettings beers and heading back to Elsa's place in Taxi with a sudden and very heavy rain. That's it, only few hours here but I'm already quite into it.
Tomorrow we're going to a close beach for the week end (Kho Samuet), so I should eventually get some sleep in order to wake up early.
Good night!
It's pretty hot and wet and polluted here. The air is so thick that you feel like you can touch it.
After a long non-spleepy journey, I arrive in Bangkok on time, get my luguage, talk and laught with the taxi driver (that I thought he was speaking thai to me, but actually it was just his english which was with a strong accent!). I reach the university, find elsa after a couple of student kindly showing me the way, and my day starts.
From Chinatown where you hear "falang, falang" (which means "white stranger") all the time, to the most touristic place in Khaosan, to a nice restaurant, going through the heavy traffic, avoiding the cockroach (les cafards) in the toilets (bigger than my thumb these bastards!), meeting some exchange students who are living here for a year, gettings beers and heading back to Elsa's place in Taxi with a sudden and very heavy rain. That's it, only few hours here but I'm already quite into it.
Tomorrow we're going to a close beach for the week end (Kho Samuet), so I should eventually get some sleep in order to wake up early.
Good night!
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