Dropped into Macau and found the ferry terminal, and took that to HK's Kowloon on Tsim Tsa Tsui. Were supposed to meet our friend Dawn there, unfortunately she went to the other ferry terminal and obviously couldn't find us. Luckily when we went to our guesthouse (tom's guesthouse, not tom's NEW guesthouse, hahahaha) we met up with her and commenced the shenanigans.
Went out for supper, then began streetdrinking thanks to a local 7-11. Proceeded back to our hotel room where Dawn and I did some well-needed shotgunning before we all headed out to Lan Kwai Fong, the party district. At this point we were slightly crushed and wandered in and out of a few places - watched some hockey at a Canadian bar, some pints at an Irish, and I can't even remember what else. street drinking most likely. Tons of pics of that chaos.. the night ended with dawn getting out of hand and smashing a full beer on the floor thus getting us kicked out of a nightclub. This was probably for the best as we limped home and spoke to the ivory telephone (not me of course).
A fitting end to our epic journey - on the 17th it was HK - VAN - WPG for 14 hours in the air, although we did travel through time and land 3 hours earlier in VAN than we left HK.
So all in all:
Months gone: 7 1/2
Countries visited: 8
Country-encompassing tours: 2
Pictures: 1,267
Golf tournaments won: 1
New friends: 3-4 dozen
Memories: infinite.
Nights of carnage: can't remember
Money spent: way too damn much.
Thanks for reading, and tune in next time. Not sure when it'll be, all I know is that it will be.
If you havn't done so already..... TRAVEL!!!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Cambodia
Cambodia. This country is truly one of a kind, for all the wrong reasons. Well really just one - the Khmer Rouge genocide induced by the US carpet bombing near the end of the Vietnam-America war. We were here from the 12-16...
12: arrived via 7 hour bus from Saigon, e-visas worked flawlessly. Met Devasting Dave.. the tuktuk driver.
13: got up early, went to tuol sleng genocide museum as well as the killing fields. What a harrowing experience, I felt absolutely sick to my stomach upon hearing and seeing the atrocity remnants firsthand. See video on facebook of over 9000 skulls found in mass graves at the Phnom Penh killing field ALONE.
That night we went out, and Kayla pwned me at darts. My bum still hurts.
14/15: Took the first bus we could to Siem Reap (6 hours) , the site of the infamous Angkor Wat. We weren't allowed into the temples until 4:45 or we had to pay an extra $40 as that was the time that you could purchase a day pass for today and the next day inclusive. Were able to see Angkor Wat at sunset. Stayed that night in pretty much the sweetest guesthouse ever, the Siem Reap Guesthouse. They had EVERYTHING. Spent the next morning at the ruins as well (we have 230894 pictures), specifically of ta prohm and the bayon, and caught the latest bus we could back to Phnom Penh.
16: Flew from Phnom Penh to Bangkok, and were tagged with a $25 p/p departure tax. Thanks a lot, douchebags.. joining New Zealand and Cuba as the only airports i know with such a thing. Then flew BKK to Macau , we were flying AirAsia exclusively (crazy not to) and they only go to Macau due to the high cost of landing @ HKIA.
It also monsooned while we were there.. torrential downpours like clockwork at the same time every day.
12: arrived via 7 hour bus from Saigon, e-visas worked flawlessly. Met Devasting Dave.. the tuktuk driver.
13: got up early, went to tuol sleng genocide museum as well as the killing fields. What a harrowing experience, I felt absolutely sick to my stomach upon hearing and seeing the atrocity remnants firsthand. See video on facebook of over 9000 skulls found in mass graves at the Phnom Penh killing field ALONE.
That night we went out, and Kayla pwned me at darts. My bum still hurts.
14/15: Took the first bus we could to Siem Reap (6 hours) , the site of the infamous Angkor Wat. We weren't allowed into the temples until 4:45 or we had to pay an extra $40 as that was the time that you could purchase a day pass for today and the next day inclusive. Were able to see Angkor Wat at sunset. Stayed that night in pretty much the sweetest guesthouse ever, the Siem Reap Guesthouse. They had EVERYTHING. Spent the next morning at the ruins as well (we have 230894 pictures), specifically of ta prohm and the bayon, and caught the latest bus we could back to Phnom Penh.
16: Flew from Phnom Penh to Bangkok, and were tagged with a $25 p/p departure tax. Thanks a lot, douchebags.. joining New Zealand and Cuba as the only airports i know with such a thing. Then flew BKK to Macau , we were flying AirAsia exclusively (crazy not to) and they only go to Macau due to the high cost of landing @ HKIA.
It also monsooned while we were there.. torrential downpours like clockwork at the same time every day.
Saigon
Our last day in Nha Trang was definitely the most fun we had on the trip. We got up early and took a bus to the harbour as we'd booked a boat trip for the day that consisted of 4 different islands. We ended up getting a crew of crazy vietnamese who whipped out a bass drum halfway through and somehow converted it into a drum set, cymbals - toms - and all. We did end up getting to all the islands via their junk, and did some snorkelling as well as diving off the top of the thing and hitting their floating bar. I believe the word would be malarkey. Awesome time.
Took the night train to Saigon and arrived at 0430. After powernapping on a bench Stan, Kayla and I were off to the Cu Chi tunnel systems, an elaborate underground maze made by the Northern Vietnamese during the American war. They basically used this maze to guerilla pwn the Americans .. i could barely fit inside the tunnels so it's a marvel that the Vietnamese lived in them. No wonder the Americans lost. Also in saigon we discovered a mexican restaurant that served some of the best food we had on the entire trip. I kept the bus card... "Le Cantina".
On the 9 it was off to the Mekong Delta for a riverfront stay. This was a stellar part of our trip as well, it entailed a few hours on a boat crossing back and forth across the mekong, and a smaller set of trips throughout the islands. We were crusing above quite a few sunken American ships, pretty crazy to think of the warfare that was going on in that exact spot only 33 years ago. Stayed overnight in a French mansion, rocked some snake wine, played a card game called Backpacker, saw a rice making factory, brick factory, blacksmith, tile making, and a whole bunch more from a standard vietnamese lifestyle. Quite eye opening and very glad that we were able to go out to the delta as part of our tour.
That was the last night of our tour, so we went out for supper (which sucked) although on the way home a moto ran right into the bumper of our taxi, total force maybe 60 km/h . I was sitting shotgun and almost pissed myself laughing, the viet guy who ran into us was straight back up on the bike and gone. Maniacs. On the 11 Kayla and I went to the Diamond Plaza which is a 8 level mall with everything you could think of. We rocked some Pizza Hut and then played some pool/vid games and went to see Jumper, which was a great flick with another stupid ending.
to CAMBODIA !
Took the night train to Saigon and arrived at 0430. After powernapping on a bench Stan, Kayla and I were off to the Cu Chi tunnel systems, an elaborate underground maze made by the Northern Vietnamese during the American war. They basically used this maze to guerilla pwn the Americans .. i could barely fit inside the tunnels so it's a marvel that the Vietnamese lived in them. No wonder the Americans lost. Also in saigon we discovered a mexican restaurant that served some of the best food we had on the entire trip. I kept the bus card... "Le Cantina".
On the 9 it was off to the Mekong Delta for a riverfront stay. This was a stellar part of our trip as well, it entailed a few hours on a boat crossing back and forth across the mekong, and a smaller set of trips throughout the islands. We were crusing above quite a few sunken American ships, pretty crazy to think of the warfare that was going on in that exact spot only 33 years ago. Stayed overnight in a French mansion, rocked some snake wine, played a card game called Backpacker, saw a rice making factory, brick factory, blacksmith, tile making, and a whole bunch more from a standard vietnamese lifestyle. Quite eye opening and very glad that we were able to go out to the delta as part of our tour.
That was the last night of our tour, so we went out for supper (which sucked) although on the way home a moto ran right into the bumper of our taxi, total force maybe 60 km/h . I was sitting shotgun and almost pissed myself laughing, the viet guy who ran into us was straight back up on the bike and gone. Maniacs. On the 11 Kayla and I went to the Diamond Plaza which is a 8 level mall with everything you could think of. We rocked some Pizza Hut and then played some pool/vid games and went to see Jumper, which was a great flick with another stupid ending.
to CAMBODIA !
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Hoi An - Nha Trang
I don't know if it's that I'm too busy or too lazy, but this blog has not been kept up. Time to finish this thang.
On May 3 we headed to Hoi An, the city of tailors. As could be expected, we went out 'shopping', which for myself consisted of getting custom fitted for a suit (15 minutes, $55) and replicating my yellow button-up I purchased for $1 from vv back in the day. For Kayla it consisted of picking up a sweet green dress that looks amazing on her, a winter coat (?), and a few other items. Her friend Cheryl, a lawyer from the UK, picked up over a dozen things. I'm glad I let them do their own thing because I would have went mental doing that much shopping. The evening of the 3 we watched the Terminator trilogy, and the next day while the girls continued their shopping extravaganza I rented a moto for $3, ripped around and went to the beach.
The 5 and 6 were lax as well, we were in Nha Trang for the two days and pretty much just beached it. Would have been much crazier if our tour group were more of a party crew... again, we expected more.
On May 3 we headed to Hoi An, the city of tailors. As could be expected, we went out 'shopping', which for myself consisted of getting custom fitted for a suit (15 minutes, $55) and replicating my yellow button-up I purchased for $1 from vv back in the day. For Kayla it consisted of picking up a sweet green dress that looks amazing on her, a winter coat (?), and a few other items. Her friend Cheryl, a lawyer from the UK, picked up over a dozen things. I'm glad I let them do their own thing because I would have went mental doing that much shopping. The evening of the 3 we watched the Terminator trilogy, and the next day while the girls continued their shopping extravaganza I rented a moto for $3, ripped around and went to the beach.
The 5 and 6 were lax as well, we were in Nha Trang for the two days and pretty much just beached it. Would have been much crazier if our tour group were more of a party crew... again, we expected more.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Arrival in Vietnam
We arrived in Vietnam at 830 on the 28th and it look about an hour to get through customs. Our visas on arrival worked flawlessly with a $25 stamping fee.
Took a taxi to our hotel, he was quite nice and knowledgeable. Spent that day getting some rest before our tour briefing in the evening. Karin, our tour leader, was quite the spectacle... first off, she was Austrian and wasn't strong in English. She also didn't know any asian languages, at all... quite different from Jack, our Thai tour leader.
On the 29th we took off to Halong bay, took quite a few pictures which will be added to my picasa account shortly. stayed overnight on a junk, explored a cave, and played cards until about 2 AM. Stan, the Brit in the tour group, got angry when he didn't win and it was hilarious. The next day was another relaxed day in Hanoi, until Kayla lost her debit card - this left us with only both of our credit cards. Kayla was able to contact her mom for her pin and I fixed my issue as well.
The next day we went to a decent club (3-level) but can't remember the name. Also went to the army museum, of which I took another gaggle of pictures which i'll upload soon. Took a night train to Hue and spent the day in Hue looking at some temples (temple of tu doc) via a boat that we rented for the day to tour us around. There was a cool bar known as the DMZ bar (as Hue was part of the DMZ during the American war), where the walls are absolutely covered with writing and there was free pool. I turned on the TV that night to see the wings sweet colorado 8-2, so my writing was clear:
DET 8 COL 2, A'LA 2002.
Took a taxi to our hotel, he was quite nice and knowledgeable. Spent that day getting some rest before our tour briefing in the evening. Karin, our tour leader, was quite the spectacle... first off, she was Austrian and wasn't strong in English. She also didn't know any asian languages, at all... quite different from Jack, our Thai tour leader.
On the 29th we took off to Halong bay, took quite a few pictures which will be added to my picasa account shortly. stayed overnight on a junk, explored a cave, and played cards until about 2 AM. Stan, the Brit in the tour group, got angry when he didn't win and it was hilarious. The next day was another relaxed day in Hanoi, until Kayla lost her debit card - this left us with only both of our credit cards. Kayla was able to contact her mom for her pin and I fixed my issue as well.
The next day we went to a decent club (3-level) but can't remember the name. Also went to the army museum, of which I took another gaggle of pictures which i'll upload soon. Took a night train to Hue and spent the day in Hue looking at some temples (temple of tu doc) via a boat that we rented for the day to tour us around. There was a cool bar known as the DMZ bar (as Hue was part of the DMZ during the American war), where the walls are absolutely covered with writing and there was free pool. I turned on the TV that night to see the wings sweet colorado 8-2, so my writing was clear:
DET 8 COL 2, A'LA 2002.
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