New Photos - The Hellmouth!

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Are there any Swedes left in Sweden??

Just a query... Are there any Swedes at home? They all seem to be in Asia you see.... So many of them!!! Everywhere!!!!

Hue, Vietnam

1st proper day in Vietnam, don't think the last few days counted!!!

The weather is still pretty cool, I'd say about 20'c if that. Very overcast too. So refreshing! We can actually walk without breaking out in sweat!

 

Staying in a gorgeous hotel, just feel like spoiling ourselves for a few days. Soft bed, hot water and telly. Watching Bridget Jones tonight! Spent the morning watching news, BBC! Not that anything has happened really!

Off to check out the market in a little while too! Shopping! Maybe as it's a little cooler I need to buy a long sleeved top maybe, maybe, maybe??! The cone hats here are supposed to be the prettiest in the country too, so maybe!

 

Had lots of food today too, making up for the last few days of near non-eating! Tried banana pancake with chocolate too, mmm, yum! Million calories though!! Much needed!

 

Hellmouth, Buddha Park, Vientiene, Laos

IT WAS WICKED!!!!

THE MOST AMAZING THING WE'VE BEEN TO I THINK!

 

Will add pics soon!

Mmmmm...

Fav drink in Laos!

Team Vietnam - Fcuk Yeah!

OK..... So this is the story so far..... God damn.... Had such a nightmare day yesterday.... Where to start....

 

Alright, we were in Vientiene in Laos and were travelling to Vinh in Vietnam (very long journey, 300km maybe, a whole days travelling anyway). So we were getting a local bus firstly to Lak Sao (almost on the border) then changing buses. So got up at 4am, got ready and found a tuk tuk to take us to the station. Got there for a pretty good price, about $3. Anyway, found out by some random guy there that they don't leve from this station, but another one 10km away, and that he'd take us there for $8.... Not having much of a choice (at 4am you just go with the flow) we jumped at the back of his tuk tuk. (Thanks to Lonely Planet we went to the wrong station, need to rememeber to double check these things! Hard when the communication doesn't really run through!)

Got to the station at 4.55, bus leaves at 5... Now, in Laos you should be at station about 1 hour before the bus leaves to get a seat (they load so much in them, I think instead of moving-trucks they just catch the bus...). But we managed to get a seat! Wohoo!!! $5 each, which was OK. We shared the old bus with bags and bags of rice, flour, washing up detergent, lightbulbs, food, chickens (on the roof) and they even manged to fit 2 scooters in the aisle and the front, so not bad!! The driver insisted on playing hip hop on a very high volume too! Oh, fab!

 

Almost 8 hours later we reached Lak Sao, and had survived that leg pretty well.... So we were in this dusty town with 5 other girls (English Tasha, German Julia, Dutch Jets, Japanese Schkye and Owima), and got told there are no buses to Vinh... Hm... A tuk tuk driver wanted to take us to the border and said that we needed to get bus from there.... NO thanks! So we asked around some more, and found out that a bus was to leave in an hour, to Vinh, and all for $8. Great! The bus even left early so we were in good spirits!

 

Uneventful journey for a few hours (Col saw a Rhino under a house, but it might just have been a hallucination I  think!). Crossed the border, the guys were thorough but not as mean as I thought! We even got some pics of the Japaneses girls trying on their caps! Pretty funny thing to see!When I asked at the currency exchange if the did Visa Advances (we were a bit short of cash) the guy shook his head and said I was beautiful, hha ha, after 9 hours on the road I wonder what types they get to see, hehe! (don't think Col got this compliment either, only almost short changed by $10 - they try it all the time)

 

Bit later we stopped at a station (maybe 1/3 of way to Vinh) and the lady showed us a piece of paper,written in perfect English, saying due to low amount of passengers the bus was terminating here and that we were to jump onto another bus (which was parked just on the other side of the road, waiting for us) and that, of course, we didn't have to pay again. Hmm.. You can see where this is going right...

 

Few hours into this bus journey a lady demanded that we pay her $5. The next hour consisted of us trying to tell her (and this guy who spoke a little English) that we already paid for the whole journey to the other lady. Of course we had no receipt to show, and they kept saying "different driver" and wouldn't listen. We were all fuming. I was even shouting at this stupid man, and was so angry I cried (damn I hate that!). Luckily we were all together on the "we're not paying". We actually only had $2 left in total and some Baht (bit of a mess from the early morning tuk-tuks!), and it was extremely uncomfortable. And what does the driver do next? Oh, he decides to stop the bus in the middle of nowhere, there's rice fields as far as you can see, and we're just miles away... They demand money and we keep saying no... So they open the door and point at it... So we all get up, not caring, just wanting to get some breathing space, I don't know, just so fucked off that we just don't care anymore. All the others, including the driver and lady, are stunned, clearly all a trick to scare us into paying. Next things, we're standing with all our bags looking at our options (a horse and cart went by and I thought we could have hitched a ride maybe...) when the lady starts to usher us back in. Really poking and pushing us. The driver comes out and agrees we pay $1... So we get back on... We say we'll pay when we're in Vinh... The lady leaves us alone for a little while then starts at us again... We keep saying we'll pay in Vinh... It goes on and on and on and on.... Totally exhausting... So the driver stops in the middle of nowhere again...The guy who speaks a little English says it's 70km to Vinh....The driver is talking about Vietnam, Vinh, Vietnam....What? Gets the drawing back out... Keeps showing it to Col, we keep saying we understand but we've paid already...It goes on and on and on again... We decide to pay the damn $1 and hopefully get going again...Hmm... The busdriver takes that as paying for the journey we've had so far and still won't stop...

Jets gets completely mad and shouts at him, up close, right in the face "Give me my money back You M-F!" and then we get off the bus again. (She did so well, not a red head for nothing!!). I don't know, my head's spinning, we hadn't really eaten, just 2 croissants all day, so tired, so worn down... One of the Japanese girls got a slap around the head... It was all very weird... Can't remember... We got poked a bit by the lady again, trying to usher us back in... We were all fuming... Great first impression of Vietnam... They had locked the boot so we couldn't get all of our bags out...Col had to stand in front fo the bus stopping it from driving away with them... We had to get back on the bus, and somehow they left us without further hassle... They clearly gave up. They are such con artists it's unreal. So obvious they're all in on this bus scam.. So little you can do... But we stuck together and made eachother proud.

 

Got dumped in Vinh somewhere, had no real map... Found a very helpful girl who rang us a taxi to a hotel we knew about... We all crammed in and got to the place, oh, hot water and tv! What luxuries! A soft bed and comfy pillow!!! Oh!!! Had to go out straight away to find an ATM (Tasha had no money either), and quickly became Millionaires!!!! Ah! A quid is like 30 000 dong or something..! Got some dinner too, Rice and Tofu (first try of vegetarian dish was with sausage and chicken...We even showed them in Vietnamese both the word 'vegetarian' and 'no meat'). Got ripped off at the price too, but just too tired to care......

Had a lovely shower then watched a bit of JFK, then collapsed in bed... Which brings us to now- we're hanging around waiting for yet another bus, have to get out of this dump! Bought tickets and bus leaves in 1.5 hours. Hue here we come! Things can only get better! Oh, Internet is so cheap here! Wohoo! (Oh, it's cold and grey here too, rained yesterday, just one of those days eh??!)

 

No need to worry though family and friends! We only grow stronger! xxx

Vientiene, Laos Capital

Left horrible Vang Vien (Ibiza of Asia I think), and are now in the capital.

Not a great deal to do here, and it's very hot again so not much energy! My body can't cope that well with anything! Went to see a temple today and a copy of Arch The Triomphe (sorry Nora, my French is terrible). Laos was given lots of concrete from USA to build an airfield and they just built this thing instead!!! It even says on the monument that it's rather ugly looking when you get close enough to see it properly! We found it pretty funny though! Keep having to go back to our room for cold showers though! Hmm!

 

Tomorrow will be a trip to the market for some shopping and then we're off to THE HELLMOUTH!! True Buffy style! How wicked doesn't that sound??! Oh, and Col's gonna do some shooting too! Rifles and stuff I think!

 

The next day will be our 15 hour trip by bus to Vietnam I think. We'll have to leave at 4am or something like that... OH, grand!

 

Sorry, this is a load of crap, feeling a little too tired to write, but look at the new photos I uploaded just now! And, that Thunderstorm video I've been on about, well, it's too large to send so you have to wait for it : )

 

 

Photos from Thai Cooking School are in!

Check out www.CookInThai.com on 11\3 and you'll see us!!!

Made me laugh!

 

Check this one!

Vang Vien. Laos, 1st Tropical Thunderstorm!

Oh My Buddha!

What a night!!! Went from hot and sunny to thunderstorms with rain and wind like never before! The noise was deafening! Such an amazing thing to see, the whole sky was filled by lightening! The whole sky!!! And it went on for about an hour!!! And it came back later on in the night! Soooo cooooool !!! !!! I loved it, even t5hough it was a little scary! We were in a proper house, made out of brick so were ok. We had half thought of renting a bamboo hut by the river and am so glad we didn't!!! Hhaah! did a little video so hope to email it through maybe tomorrow!

 

Went "tubing" yesterday for about 4 hours. You grab a tube, jump into a tuk tuk which will take you upstream. Then you jump into the river and drift on down stream. As it's the dry season (despite last nights and this mornings rain) the water is really low and a bit slow. Can imagine it's a little more exciting in the wet season (ppl have drowned doing it apparently). Seemed like our fellow travellers just wanted to get pissed in the bars along the river though! A bit like Ibiza this place I think! Hahah! Not our thing really!

 

Supposed to head off to see some massive old caves today, but just waiting for the heavens to open up again!

 

Surived Route 13 from Luang Prabang to here, wohoo! Bit weird feeeling, lots of police with big guns here and there, but how do you know they're really police?!? The scenery was fantastic though and kept us busy! So mountainous we had to hold on most of the time so a bit of a long 6 hours!

 

Survived the slow boat too, but never again!!! My poor arse, so sore!! And I was sitting on a pillow!

 

Will add some pics and do some updates tomorrow when we should be in Vientiene (capital of Laos), where internet is cheeap and there's not a lot else to do (or so everyone tells us).

 

What happened at Eurovision by the way??Carola win? Oh, please!

Laos, Luang Prabang

Survived a 2 day boat trip down the Mekong River.... Almost froze to death.... And was almost bored to death by annoying English couple.... We have managed to 'get rid of them' now though.... He ehehehe....

 

Just uploaded some pics from elephant riding. looks just as lovely as it was. Mark, thanks for the pics.

 

 

WARNING

JUST READ IN SWEDISH NEWS PAPER ABOUT VOLCANO ACTIVITIES 500KM FROM THE THAI COAST.

 

Everyone in that area should be careful - so look out friends down south.....

Mango..

My favourite drink in Thailand is....

Cooking School!

Today we have had a great day cooking. We've learnt how to cook:

Fried Rice, Papaya Salad, Spring Rolls, Fried Banana and Yellow Curry (from scratch).

Eaten so much!!! Col did really well too, and we both really enjoyed it! Can;t wait to try it out at home, might be a little tricky to get hold of all the stuff though...Went to the local market and shopped for all our ingredients first, really good. Learnt what to eat and things to stay clear of! Tried lots of Thai fruit too, Dragon Fruit, Red Apple (what was it called again) and more! (Too tired to remember now!) All I know that all that trekking, working off all those calories, well they've been put right back!!! Oh, and I can almost walk normally again!!! Oh Yeah!!!!

 

Packing tonight, off to Laos tomorrow, have done as much as we could with Northern Thailand. Will miss it a lot! So easy here, much easier than at home! We're getting spoilt every day!!!

 

Oh, check us out on www.CookInThai.com and we'll be there smiling away!

 

 

Mountain Temple Tour on a Bike

Hired a bike for the day for the bargain price of 150 baht. As I've ridden before (just a feeew years ago) we decided that I'd better drive. After just starting off slowly and easing into itt, we got pulled over by a  police check point. They asked for driver's license which I don't have with me and said we'd be fined for that+ the fact Col wasn't wearing his helmet (no one here does..). He demanded money there and then, but we just insisted on going to pay at the police station (all the coppers are dodgy here I think). Anyway, we couldn't find the one that was supposed to be around the corner so took off to the mountains instead (not in hiding, honest!). Wat Prathat Doi Suthep (at 3000 feet) was our destination.

 

Drove about 15km on winding road (only had the slightest of accident when Col kind of had to jump off the bike, I take the blame for that one) leading up to the most gorgeous temple. There are over 300 steps leading up to it, and you have the most fantastic views from up there (only we couldn't see as too cloudy/misty). Spent a few hours in this peaceful place, lit some incence and candles and placed some lotus flowers. Truly amazing place.

 

Afterwards we had some lunch then drove down into town again. There we found a police station and were told  we had to go to the traffic police (miles away). Found the place ans paid our fine, only 200 baht for me not having a license! What an exhausting day!!!

 

Were meant to go and see some Thai Boxing in the evening but we were just to shattered so went for a long nice meal instead!

 

Our fine...Colin Gary...

 

Day 2, afternoon of FUN!

After lunch (dried up tofu with noodles and a yummy salty soup) we got ready for white water rafting!!! Ended up in country teams! heheh! The Dutchies cheated and took off before we even had our helmets on! That left us against the Froggies! We all know we had to let them get away or all their male pride would have diminished eh?!! We definately won the water fight though with truly is all that counts! Team Sweden had a really great tactic when it came to rougher parts! Hey, we're not scared, why go down this trixy part forward, when we stylishly could go backwards!!! Hahah! Couldn't stop laughing!!! We had such a nice time, just drifting down river, watching the most beautiful birds come down for a quick drink (or did they catch fish??!). Also I had completely forgotten how great Col is at rafting!!! All those times in France really had paid off I think! He was excellent at getting out of the boat and releasing us from being stuck (again). Think rafting is something I def wanna learn more of!! Another danger sport for my list then. (OK, there never was a Team Sweden, we were The Brits of course....Maybe next time..)

 

After all that excitement it was straight onto the next one! Bamboo rafting!!

 

We were on a raft with the Frenchies, who were forever falling in! So funny! I just laid down at the back and enjoyed the ride. Col managed to slip one leg between the bamboo sticks and got caught! Could have turned nasty, but he managed to free himself! Accident prone boy!!

 

Had to swim the last bit which was quite funny! Silly really!

 

Had such an amazing couple of days that will stay with us for a long time! Thanks guys for making it so cool!

 

 

Day 2 Trek Trek Trek

Woke up pretty early but had a nice relax in "bed". Col managed to leave Mark alone all night I think, or there's something they didn't tell me! Hahah! Had breakfast at 8 on the veranda, such a stunning morning! Had toast and egg, and some marmelade too, not all together though! And nanas! Yum yum for the tum!

 

Headed off shortly afterwards, it was getting hot! Got a little over 3 hours walking done, and most of it (as I remember it) was down hill.... Dangerous! So steap!! Was worried about falling off a cliff, but we all survived. Every step was painful for my poor toes, prefer uphill! My muscles were shaking and I had no control over my legs in the end. Col had a little fall, got some scratches and splinters, but nothing serious. Got all the gang helping eachother out (no one wanted to be a domino perhaps!). As we reached the bottom, and the waterfall we were all extreamly happy! So worth it all!! Had another dip, managed to get into the fall this time, felt like I dislocated my neck though (is that even possible!) from the power of the water! Hahah! Absolutely fantastic though! To top it off we had the whole place to ourselves too! From then on it was much easier, we wandered along the river, around it, over it, beside it. Really really pretty! And good fun as well!

 

We eventually made it back to civilisation...! Just in time for lunch!

Trekking Afternoon Day 1

The new gang consisted of Mark and Mike from the lovely land of UK, then we had the crazy Dutchie gang, Jeroen, Anne miekerd, Birgit and Marc. We also had three Froggies in the group; Christophe, Franch and Yann. Such a nice group after the first one! They were friendly and chatty! Really entertaining!

 

Sooo... We headed off into the mountains. It went up, up, up! I didn't mind too much, like climbing up! The scenery was really stunning too, which helped a lot. Amazing views the higher up we came. Saw some wild banana trees, some weird bugs and birds. Everywhere was so dry but they still managed to grow the most amazing cabbages on the hill sides! It looked great too! went through little villages, cute little kids running around everywhere, little chicks and piglets everywhere too. Oh, and puppies!! They were licking my legs! Uuuhh!

Came across a waterfall after about 40 minutes. Everyone was really hot and ready for a dive into the water. It was a wee bit cold but sooo refreshing! I tried to swim into the waterfall but the current was too strong. There were some Thai kids swimming there too which was nice to see. They were a little mad though, jumping off the top! Wish I was brave enough to do that! Maybe one day!

 

Then there was more walking, mostly uphill. When we were getting closer to the village where we were to spend the night, we caught up with a herd of cows on their way home. We got a little bit too close to them and Mamma Moo didn't like it (there were little calves there) and decided to charge us. Marc was closest and had to jump in the bushes to avoid her! My heart was racing, I thought he'd fall off the mountain!!! Luckily he only got a few scratches.

 

When we finally arrived in the village I didn't really care what it looked like. Was so exhaused! Typical fashion our house had to be the one the highest in the whole village! Such a cool house though! Looked pretty new and was very comfy. We all had little spreads on the floor which was our beds, you could see through the walls (which were made out of bamboo, like the rest of it too). Our guides got on with the cooking whilst we washed and rested.

 

After dinner, which was yummy indeed, we rested some more, watched the sunset from our veranda thingy, then got entertained by the village girlies (kiddies). They were dressed up in traditional style and did a little bit of singing. Hung around for a while outside than retired to the bedroom. Fell asleep to the sound of someone talking about weddings (or was I dreaming). Got woken up every so often by dogs killing eachother (?) and people sneaking to the loo. Otherwise it was oh so quiet! Really great experience, not at all like "Sleep In Heaven"!!

The adventure...Morning Day 1

Had a bit of a hard time getting up in the morning. Didn't get much sleep as our neighbours are a live venue and a crappy band started playing very loudly at 1am... The worst version of Smoke on the water I've ever come cross..! And I've heard some crap in my days!

 

Anyway, had to get up at 7.30am (good god!!), got ready, had porridge for brekkie and waited for our lift. Ended up at another guest house where we signed in and got into a pick up truck with a couple of Americans, Israeli, a Norweigan (Pia, the only normal one) and a Brit and his Thai bride...

 

Drove off to see the Long necks firstly. They were so pretty in their neck rings, but it was all a little weird. Our guide Moon couldn't really tell us a great deal about them,except they came from Burma and as they're not in Thailand on a legal basis they're not allowed to leave the camp. We did feel for them, felt like they were in a zoo... As the others in the group went off to ride the elephants, we had our lunch. Then hung around for a while, then hung around for a while, then hung around for a while longer (just in case really). Asked them about the caves we were supposed to see... They said 1/2 hour... As the others came back and had lunch, you guessed it,  we hung around for a while longer. As we were leaving we asked again if we were going to the caves and just got the reply "maybe tomorrow" and just knew we lost out on that one!

 

Eventually we reached another camp where the other 2-dayers were waiting for us (expecting us to be Dutch). Considering they thought it was our fault they had had to hang around all morning and lunch time waiting for us, they gave us a warm welcoming and the trip could really start.

Survived Trekking

Wohoo, wow, we survived!!!

Came back from the wilderness last night after 2 days trekking around mountains, did a bit of rafting (white water and bamboo), had lots of water fights! And elephant riding! Our lovely little baby Nelly!

 

 I can just about walk today, getting down stairs is the hardest! Can just about get down from pavements! Col's not as bad, but has more injuries (blister from stuff in shoe, bruise+cut from getting leg stuck between bamboo sticks on raft and a few cuts from slipping over...Can't remember what else! Too many to remember,eh?!)

 

Last night was just a matter of showering and going to bed. Got our lovely massive room back, bit lucky! Getting the normal backpacks back up the stairs from storage was what killed us off I think! Had some crisps for dinner, need to get some salt back into the body after all that sweating! And I don't even sweat (well, pre-Thailand anyway).

 

Will try to write some more about the actual trek, but think Internet time is up. At least you know we survived and are back in Chaing Mai : )

Buddhist Rituals

Gary,

do you know what these are?? Went to a temple and some people praying were shaking this until one fell out...Never seen it before...

Guess who..!!

Forgot to mention!!! Guess who we saw on our last night in Bangkok?!?!

My little bro Johan's mates Fredde and Simon and gang who've been travelling around the last few months!!! We were in the sam,e restaurant (cool corner, near khao san) and there they were!!! So funny!!! Had a chat with them and they were getting ready to head home to the snow!!!!!

It's a small world after all!!!

Chiang Mai Monday

Been a hectic day today. Sorted out visas for Laos and Vietnam, booked bus to the Lao border, booked a 2 day trek (too unfit for a 3 dayer!), picked up our washing, had a wonder to a market looking for a DVD player/TV thingy. They all were over 300 quid!! Unreal! We were looking forward to watching films in the evening (especially as all new releases are so readily available - even saw the Da Vinci code in the market last night - didn't even know they had finished making it!) Oh, well. Maybe we can pick one up in Bangkok!

 

Don't seem to be socialising too much with the fellow travellers, they're all weirdos! Everyone seem to needy or something, and we don't care much for the boring "where have you been, where are you going" thing... Actually, that would be a bit different, most of them don't even ask, just ramble on about themselves...! BOOOOoooring!!! Miss our normal (that's you) friends!

 

Got a bit of shopping done last nighgt at the big bazaar, got a pair of sunnies, taken me weeks to find a pair I like, very fussy (poor Col), and a little pressie for Sez! Ahhh! Was so exhausted on our way back I almost fainted! Had a bit of a wobbly belly and not sure what else! Feeling a biut better today though, hoping to survive tomorrows trek! (we'll be riding elephants, white water rafting and bamboo rafting!!! OOooohh! And see some long-necked people too!!)

 

Best check my online banking now though...! See how much I've managed to spend! Not too much I hope!!!

Phitsanulok + Sukhothai

Just a quick recap of our days between Bangkok and here (Chaing Mai).

Took train from BKK to Phi'Lok, stayed at a place called London Hotel, couldn't resist really! It was really lovely, around the corner from the river and the night market (great!).

The whole place had such a nice atmosphere, people jogging, giggling school girls, friendly shop keepers (nice surprise after BKK). We didn't see a lot of other westerners which was nice for a change. Had problems with veggie food though - none existant! Did have a glass noodle salad, which turned out to be noodles and chilli! Now I didn't see the chilli until my mouth had 3rd degree burns and tears were rolling down my cheeks!! Oh dear!!! Took quite a few hours to recover! Have had some good food since then though, people are very accomodating and will try to do anything for you.

 

We had a lovely daytrip to Sukhothai Historical Park the day before yesterday. Rented us a couple of bikes and cycled around this massive big area covered in temples and Buddha statues. Absolutely stunning! Lots of it is about to fall down which is a shame, but some temples do have a lot of caracter left. I especially enjoyed one which used to be a Hindu temple but had been converted to Buddhist. Lots of the carvings on the outside had been preserved and was very unusual looking.

 

Made friends with the guy who rented us the bikes afterwards. He was such a sweetie! He once caught a fish which weighted 36kg you know! We saw photo proof! He even sang to us! Cool dude!

Chaing Mai Sunday

We're now in lovely cool Chaing Mai! Arrived here last night after a 5.5 hour train journey (which was just a pleasure as we were in 1st class and had air-con, the only way to travel really!)

 

We're getting ready to go trekking, learn how to cook Thai style and maybe learn Thai massage...I'm all for just receiving the massage really! Were gonna have one the other night in Phisanulok but was just too hot ans sweaty.

 

Off shopping tonight too at the big night bazaar which will be a treat! I think one of the highlights on this trip will be shopping! I might just go a little craaazy, there are sooo many nice things! Will have to buy a couple of bags and fill up!!! Let me know any requests and I'll see what I can do!!!

 

Really like this place, everyone's so much more chilled compared to Bangkok. Not too many people harrassing you!

Will prob be staying here for a week or so

1 March

Nothing much going on today. Trying to arrange tickets to go North and Col did some shopping. Got some new t-shirts and flip flops and stuff. I got some cream for my lovely rash so won't look too weird from now on.

Gonna post some more pics now so have a look!