Creepy Crawlers....

Tonight I ate a spider the size of my hand, a grasshopper and a frog and since travelling I can now eat olives, tomatoes (I know its a miracle)and mushrooms!!!!
And Just so everyone knows spiders do NOT taste good :)

Im in Cambodiaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!

Well I have arrived safely in Cambodia...took a bus from Saigon this morning, paid extra for the special express bus with a toilet, however the roads were so incredibly bad that I was afraid the toilet would spill everywhere if i used it!! ha ha!!!!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE Cambodia, eventhough I've only been here 8 hours. Its very different from Vietnam...Im staying in a little room overlooking the lake with the mangiest shared bathroom i have EVER seen....but its only $3!!! I made sure that the first word i learned was 'it's too expensive'!!! which i've come to realize is the most important phrase you can ever learn in a language!

I read a book before coming here and it has changed how i look at life...its called 'first they killed my father' and if any of you get the chance you should read it. After reading that book I have so much admiration and respect for what the people in Cambodia have been through.


Well thats about it for now....I cant believe any of you actually read my last post..impressive, it was so long and really didnt make much sense!!!

Later, megs

31 people, a baby and a bicycle

Oh this past week has been jammed packed full of adventures...I am so exhausted and have so so much to write, but this would turn into a very long book if i wrote them all. I figure i must be manifesting all the mishaps just so that I have stories to tell and write in my blog!! In Hoi An I met up with Nichola and we decided to take local transport further south...but to do this we had to go about 1 hour north to Danang to catch a train....we stayed in Danang for a couple nights before hopping on the very local, uber slow train to another place off the beaten track, Quy Nhon. Danang was cool, no tourists, and lovely beaches...we hung out on China beach which was so amazing and the colour of the water turquiose blue...ahhhh, lovely. We had some hassles but it was nice being in a city that for the most part charges foreigners local price...we found a little alley with amazing side of the road food..and this is where we had most of our meals!! We ended up walking to the train station at 2:30 in the morn and on the way we were hassled by some lovely large scary stray dogs...luckily we made it safely to the station...hopped on the train for our 8 hour journey amongst hundreds of boxes and vietnamese people on hard bench seats....the first thing I saw when i got on the train was a man sleeping in a hammock (he had strung it up over top of the wooden bench seats)so funny. Met an amazingly creepy guy who probably had never seen another foreigner and thinks that we are all a tad skanky like in the movies.....eventually he took the hint, we had met him outside the train station while we were talking to a really nice taxi driver who wanted to practice his english...this taxi driver translated our story to this creepy guy who then on the train told another man about us and once the creepy guy left this man told the other people on the train and these people were the ones that we met at the cafe (that I write about later) who then told their family about us...(Im not sure if that made any sense, but it was my life story played out like a game of telephone) We met some other non english speaking people and we played '13' the vietnamese card game for hours!! I was in my glory! ....the reason Nichola and I decided to go to Quy nhon was because we had the bright idea to rent bicycles for 3 or 4 days and ride down the coast....we heard of barbaras on the beach, who apparently could help us arrange anything, however barbara was on holidays and she had some very useless staff who simply tried to rip us off and could not help us with anything we wanted to do..so we decided to leave at 12 the next day to a place where people could speak english....but first we set out with our bicycles to go and visit the leper colony, we walked out of our hotel and there at the smoothie cafe next door was the lady and her daughter who we met on the train, neither of whom spoke english...she invited us for a smoothie, introduced us to her sister and her husband, and then motioned that they wanted to take us around the town....they were so adamant that they took our bicycles and put them back in the hotel...so we hopped on the back of the motorcycles...3 people per bike and headed to the leper colony right by the beach, but first they took us down to the rock beach where we had professional photos taken and then back to the colony, where we had more professional photos taken!! So funny....next they took us for an amazing meal and then back to the hotel in time to catch a bus...they were so lovely and asked nothing in return...it was so amazing and they were so lovely and giving that Nichola and I both had tears in our eyes as we were saying goodbye to this lovely family! We had been having such a crap time...really I have not fought with so many people in my life as I have in Vietnam and everytime something is stressy something lovely always happens...we grabbed our luggage and went to the highway to hail a bus to Nha trang, beach capital of Vietnam...very touristy but we didnt want anymore hassels...now this 16 seat mini bus that we caught, by the time it was full had 31 people, 1 baby, a bicycle and a lot of luggage...what an adventure...we made it safely to Nha Trang, found an amazing new hotel overlooking the ocean and i got stung by another jelly fish...and this one hurt!!!
Wow Ive just wrote so much and most of it doesnt make any sense...but thats okay, its late and im off to bed and I think Im heading to Cambodia really soon!!!! Im ready for a new set of adventures :)

Beaches and Bikes

I am writing again...only because the internet is free and I have a few minutes before I go and find some strange local food for dinner!!! I am still in Hoi An....and am having a brilliant time....today I spent the day riding through villages and around the beaches on a bicycle...and as most of you know that this is a miracle...truly!!!! Today I rode in the middle of beautiful nowhere but also had to ride 4 kilometres with the thousands and thousands of motorbikes, bicycles and cars driving to the beach for festival and I am back safely in one very very tanned brown piece!!! This, along with eating and drinking sugar cane juice is what I've been doing the past 5 or 6 or 7 days?? When I come home I want to get a light pink granny bike with a big metal basket on the front (hint hint)....my granny bike here is blue and just not quite girly enough for me!! Tam bien, megs

Sunglasses and the Police and Korean movies

I contemplated whether or not I should write about my adventures the past couple days and I decided that although its been a bit of a shit time, its been an adventure and everything turned out lovely in the end!!! If you reading this to your children perhaps dont....as I had to tell a few white lies these past couple days!!!

A few days ago I lost my most precious travelling companion...my oh so expensive prescription sunglasses. I knew positively that I had had them at the hotel, so I searched everywhere, and asked everyone if they had seen them...no luck. So I first found an eyeglasses shop and ordered a really cool pair of 'police' sunglasses....contacted my insurance company and then headed to the police station to get a police report...otherwise travel insurance would not cover the loss. It is okay to lose something and claim it (but you still need a police report..and the police are loco here) I figured it would be easier just to tell them it was stolen from my bag while walking into the market (a wee little white lie)....the police however claimed that if it was not in the hotel room then it was not a robbery and therefore they couldnt help me. So I argued...really argued for about 1 hour, offered them money..no luck, and finally as I was about to leave realized that I should video tape it...so I sat back down, snuck out my camera, turned on the video, and started antagonizing the police officer again (actually quite a funny video)...I figured if he wouldnt write anything for me the least I could do was video it and send it to my insurance company....I walked out and headed to pick up my cool sunglasses....also no luck because they really had no idea how to add my prescription to sunglasses, they kept saying my 'yes yes your prescription, however it was not right....so I headed back to the hotel in quite a fowl mood....my roomate, Nikola was leaving so another girl, also Nichola was going to move into my room...but when we told reception that we were going to share they wanted to charge us 4.00 more, eventhough I was sharing before...ahhhhh sometimes they are so so crazy here...another 45 minute argument which ended in all three of us leaving the hotel...but before I left I went back up to the room and I moved the chair and out fell my oh so expensive sunglasses!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had a good laugh over that...all that work and hassle and they had been in my room all along....I had said to Nikola over the past few days "I just dont feel like they are gone" looks like they werent!!!!

Last night I went to the most amusing movie I have ever been to. A Korean movie...not sure the Korean name, but the vietnamese name was 'Say Tinh' where the main character speaks english and everyone else in the movie speaks Korean...over top of that was the loudest vietnamese voice over I have ever heard...Nichola sat with her ears plugged the whole time!!! It was in an old rickety theatre with wooden seats and birds flying around....and it only cost 60 cents and was Brilliant!!!

Auntee MayMay

Well for everyone reading my blog, my sister had a baby girl named Evalee Jane. She is so very lovely and her favourite colour is pink!!! I figured I must add her to my blog because I know, even though she hasnt told me, that my mother must be making this into a book and Evalee must be included!!! And when Evalee gets a wee bit older she can come travelling too...maybe in a couple months ??????

I am turning Japanese???

Every once in a while through out asia people have told me that I look like I have Chinese eyes, today however, a Vietnamese lady came up to me and asked me if I was from Japan!!! Hilarious....did she not notice my hair??? I am super dark now....darker than most Vietnamese girls...but still...anyways thats all...thought it was pretty funny!

Paradise

Today I lost my sunglasses and got stung by a jelly fish!!!!

Good morning Vietnam

For breakfast I had.....prawns with pork, pork rind, fish soup, fish and rice.....oh so many adventures in Vietnam this past 2 weeks. I could write a book!!! In the past 10 days I have ventured from Hanoi down the coast to Hoi An...a 450km journey that took me 32 hours in total, and only 5 hours of that was broken down on the side of the road (not to worry the 10, 12 and 14 year old boys fixed the bus)

I decided to venture off the beaten track and go to an area not mentioned in the lonely planet....Ha tinh. To get there I took the worlds slowest train and local bus. I arrived to find that no one spoke English and that they probably hadnt had a tourist there in ages. Felt a tad unsafe there so I took a local bus to Lang Co, another place without tourists.....the local bus was so funny....while the bus is driving down the highway one man holds on to the open door and hangs his body out of the bus hollaring at people on the side of the road trying to get them to come on the bus!! Not so safe!!

I arrived in Lang Co and found an amazing family run guest house. My room had a porch that overlooked the lagoon, and only 4 minutes in the other direction was the ocean. Paradise. The whole family was so amazing and treated me as one of the family.....fed me, took me out for seafood with their entire family, took me out on the motorbike, painted my nails, cut my hair (with the meat scissors and 1 cm turned out to be 5 inches...ahhhhhhhhhhh. They wanted me to stay forever! The only thing they made me pay for was the room...$5 per night! I spent my days sleeping, swimming, motorbiking, drinking coconuts(such a beautiful thing), playing cards....one night I went with Thuat, the son, and his friends to eat cat, crabs and to sleep on the beach! His friends cat was getting old so they decided to cook it, seriously....and on the beach there are sand crabs, we walked along the beach and just grabbed the crabs from the sand...we cooked them over the fire and at tonnes and tonnes of fresh crab and cat....Dont worry I refused to eat the cat! That morning I saw my first sunrise...Its hard to believe it was my first, but it was....I could have stayed in Lang Co for ages but decided to move on, although I may go back! I am now in Hoi An staying at a hotel that is fancier than any I've stayed in before....has a lovely indoor pool and free bike rentals!! Im only paying $3.50 as I met a girl from England to share with!! Hoi An is going to be trouble for me...the whole town is filled with tailors who can make ANYTHING...there are even shoemakers that can copy or make any design you show them....I must find a job here to afford that!! I went to a few tailors and told them that if they found me a job for a couple weeks I would buy lots of clothes :)

I've seen so many many amazing things in Vietnam...but one of the most fascinating thing I've seen was at the beach in Lang Co, each night while sitting at the beach small blue glow in the dark 'flecks' are washed ashore. If you touch them it feels like sand....but you can make prints, just like paint prints....however I have no
idea what it is so if anyone knows I would love to know!!

Wowzas thats alot to read...well I have more stories but I'll have to save those until I get home!!!! Hugs, love Megs