It is stronger than what you see, 24/7 in Viet Nam you hear horn of scooter trucks cars and buses!!! It is incredible none stop. The reason for it is simple: they do not use rearview mirrors nor indicators, so the only way to know the presence of a vehicle behind is to listen to its harmonious 'horning'// Xin chau!! There you go, I am in Viet Nam, and this country has really little in common with Cambodia.... We arrived in Ho chi Minh or Saigon as a start to discover a new world;;; Ho chi minh is facinating it is the exact picture of a city developping economically at an enormous speed in a chaotic way, where the state seems to lose slightly the control, buildings grow around like mushrooms, over 3 millions scooter fly like mousquitos in the streets with no traffic light to organise the jam. On the first day I almost got killed 4 times just trying to cross the big avenues running and stopping to avoid the scooters!! a bit stressful/// but thanks to an email from my uncle I managed the next day to have no problem anymore when crossing::: the technic is to walk slowly but with constant speed, this way, the scooters can anticipate your movement and avoid you without any problem;;; sometimes you see old granies like 90 years old crossing this way peacefully while you start praying for her<<.
How strange it is to see this city and its economical development and at the same time the flag ( a yellow star on a red flag), or other flags showing the sickle and the hammer. The contrast is absurd and finds its meaning in the history of the country of course. It is thank to the communists that Viet Nam is a free nation:: So the communist leader Ho Chi Minh is a national hero even if the whole political and economical systems celebrate every second capitalism. In Saigon I visited the war museum and saw all the atrocities the french and then the americans did to the people of this country, that was awful, I don't think I will ever be able to understand war.... but that is just me.... Anyway after a few days of intense cultural visits we went ( I am still travelling with Jono the irish) to a waterland:::: at the entrance we bursted laughing seeing the crowd going to the park,,,, the oldest one were maybe 11!! hahahah well it was fun inside anyway... no comments..
After that we left Saigon to go to the north and stoped first at Nah Trang.>> I was meant to stay there only one day but as we arrived and saw the diving possibilities for soooo cheap,,, I finally ended up staying 4 days to do my SSI advanced course and to admire the underwaterworld. Absolutely beautiful!! and I felt a bit of narcosis (like a little buz from alcohol you get when diving deep because of the azote in your blood) at 32 meters,,, really cool I loved it!! I can only recommend it to everyone... it made me even think of the possibility of becoming divemaster;; because that is a pretty nice job isn't it??
The next stop on the north ride to Hanoi was Hoi an, a beautiful city on the cost with fantastic beaches, and amazing taylors:::: yes yes very cheap taylor mean I had to let them make me a suit, but as they could basically do anything you want from Hugo Boss to Channel or copy any style>>> I decided to design my own suit and shirt heheheheheh. I designed an asymetrical suit with a colar on one side only hihi and it is longer on one side than the other with chinese buttons::::>>> I really enjoyed the process and the result is not too bad// I'll show you when I'll be back! it is good fun!!...
We arrived today in Hue and will take the night bus tomorrow for Hanoi as I am a bit on a time pressure now with the time I used for diving etc. I hope I will still be able to see everything I wish in Viet Nam as north Viet Nam is supposed to be amazing, but it might be tricky.
Hanoi, sa ya
read me there
segunda-feira, 30 de julho de 2007
segunda-feira, 16 de julho de 2007
Angkor toujours
haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa I just lost a massive post,,, blooody hell I am pissed off////
Anyway, how many people do you think fit on a scooter?? nono my friend /// ijn Cambodia you can put up to 6 people haha,, or you can put a living pig on its back or a bed or a full kitchen hahaha. I love it I could make a photo series just on them.
I arrived on battambamg for my first day in Cambodia and went to visit the 3 main temples around on a bike with a really cool driver, who was jealous of my beard as everyone would look at me and mime the beard on their face before laughing like mad...> big successs I tell ya. Cambodians are really specials, always friendly and happy ( well that how they look like anyway) and they can speak about the khmer rouge with no emotions. Nip my bike driver, told me about his killed parents as he was 7 as if he would tell me that it might rain tomorrow.... Tragedy is everywhere it is surrounding you in Cambodia. You lose happyness when the kids guiding you through the temples explain you what happened in this school or this temple 30 years ago:: "'you walk on bodies, if you were working to slow because you havn't eaten for a week, they would kill you'',,,, you start realizing and get some nausea watching the sites... money is missing,,,,, the places are in a rough state, it is truly disturbing!!
After that I went back to Battambang on a bamboo train,,, and that was reallyyyy cool not comfi though... a bamboo train is made of 2 pairs of wheels one board of bamboo, one external motor and a rope to link the motor to the wheels. They build them and unbuild them as needed.. there is of course only one rail so if someone is coming in the other direction one needs to unbuid it really quickly before the collision/// hahah great fun. The day after I went to a cooking class as a good frenchman.... epa interesting to see the teacher buy the food from the market::: are you sure you want to buy that beef with all the flies??>> yeye no prob... ok chef. We cooked an Amok, a lok lak and a soup:: I was the only student who finished all his meals ... yeh no comments ///it is not me// after that as I was a bit hungy I went to a special market to eat some snake hahaha... that was a great market from far it looked like various fruit and vegetables,,, from close it was frogs, grasshoper, cockroach and snake/ you can imagine the size of my smile,, hihi delicious!!
Teh following day it was time to reach the highlight of Cambodia >> Siem reap the base to reach the amazing Angkor Wat!!! I took the river boat and met on board and english girl 'Marion' and an irish guy 'Jono' who were the base of the Cambodia travel team. Cambodians have really shit boat direction technology,, to turn they use 2 strings pulling onto the propeler,,, yeh right we ended up crashing into the riverside at each curve and got a few braches in our face,, but always good vibes, it is part of the trip!!
Finally, we arrived in Siem Reap and got ready the following day to go to the marvelous Angkor Wat... first day for the sunset unically,,, and we started to understand what ''they talkin abou''', it was hard to go out of the river of tourists everywhere but as soon as the stream was gone >> splendide!! We went to 4 of the main temples out of hundreds. The temple of the women with its raffined hand work of the 10th century, Byron with its massive faces sculpted in the stones, Ta prohm the tomb raider temple... imagine Angelina Jolie walking hahahah// well taht temple is gorgeous as it has been left in the state it was when it had been discovered there are trees everywhere it has got the adventure factor to it wowuououw. and of course Angkor Wat the biggest religious building in the world///// fabulous!! a few hundreds pictures later I was absolutely nacked!!
After that we went to a complete different region in Cambodia:: Ratanak Kiri to explore the nature side. Krati on the way to see the river dolphins :: they are really weird, round faces, they look like hypopotamus.. and then Bunlung, final destination. In bunlung there was no ATM so we had to srvive on the dollars we brought with us,, it was really short when I had to pay everything I had eaten but we made it. There we did an unforgetable day :: elephant treck!!! waterfalls, and volcanic lake. Elephants are soooo cool... not really fast I must say as they stop every 10 seconds to eat on the way, but so elegant and controled. at the start I thought I would get sick as it feels like on a crazy boat going fron left to right but as it stops ll the time no prob. It was amazing because we were the only ones going through the forest,, following the path << I am jocking Elephant make their own path through bush rivers etc. nothing stops them.. loved it!! After this long day I had to get a massage of course...heheheh and I had by far the most amusing one! I entered a random wooden house where a shield 'massa' was written. no english was spoken so the communication was a bit difficult with this old women without teeth... anyway, I laid down and she started, as she was doing my leg, a man started doing my back and the little brother wanted to do it as well, so she told him to try my other leg,,,, I had soon the whole family on my back, laughing in Kmher, with the grandma taking piss on me what a laugh but not really relaxing, the child was just doing everything wrong on my poor leg and I couldn't say anything// god what an experience // genious!
We went afterwards south to the Capital Phnom Penh or Ping pong as I call it because I always forgot the name and we went today to see some more horors of the Khmer Rouge s21 and the killing fields;;; you get goose bumps from the horror, everyone is silent watching the classrooms were the tortures were commited or watching the trees with still bullet marks or knifes cut on their trunk... very hard for the nerves. Tomorrow I should go to see the grand Palace and other things more joyful,,, in two days I am crossing the border to discover Viet Nam..
Saigon Ho chi minh, sa ya
read me there
Anyway, how many people do you think fit on a scooter?? nono my friend /// ijn Cambodia you can put up to 6 people haha,, or you can put a living pig on its back or a bed or a full kitchen hahaha. I love it I could make a photo series just on them.
I arrived on battambamg for my first day in Cambodia and went to visit the 3 main temples around on a bike with a really cool driver, who was jealous of my beard as everyone would look at me and mime the beard on their face before laughing like mad...> big successs I tell ya. Cambodians are really specials, always friendly and happy ( well that how they look like anyway) and they can speak about the khmer rouge with no emotions. Nip my bike driver, told me about his killed parents as he was 7 as if he would tell me that it might rain tomorrow.... Tragedy is everywhere it is surrounding you in Cambodia. You lose happyness when the kids guiding you through the temples explain you what happened in this school or this temple 30 years ago:: "'you walk on bodies, if you were working to slow because you havn't eaten for a week, they would kill you'',,,, you start realizing and get some nausea watching the sites... money is missing,,,,, the places are in a rough state, it is truly disturbing!!
After that I went back to Battambang on a bamboo train,,, and that was reallyyyy cool not comfi though... a bamboo train is made of 2 pairs of wheels one board of bamboo, one external motor and a rope to link the motor to the wheels. They build them and unbuild them as needed.. there is of course only one rail so if someone is coming in the other direction one needs to unbuid it really quickly before the collision/// hahah great fun. The day after I went to a cooking class as a good frenchman.... epa interesting to see the teacher buy the food from the market::: are you sure you want to buy that beef with all the flies??>> yeye no prob... ok chef. We cooked an Amok, a lok lak and a soup:: I was the only student who finished all his meals ... yeh no comments ///it is not me// after that as I was a bit hungy I went to a special market to eat some snake hahaha... that was a great market from far it looked like various fruit and vegetables,,, from close it was frogs, grasshoper, cockroach and snake/ you can imagine the size of my smile,, hihi delicious!!
Teh following day it was time to reach the highlight of Cambodia >> Siem reap the base to reach the amazing Angkor Wat!!! I took the river boat and met on board and english girl 'Marion' and an irish guy 'Jono' who were the base of the Cambodia travel team. Cambodians have really shit boat direction technology,, to turn they use 2 strings pulling onto the propeler,,, yeh right we ended up crashing into the riverside at each curve and got a few braches in our face,, but always good vibes, it is part of the trip!!
Finally, we arrived in Siem Reap and got ready the following day to go to the marvelous Angkor Wat... first day for the sunset unically,,, and we started to understand what ''they talkin abou''', it was hard to go out of the river of tourists everywhere but as soon as the stream was gone >> splendide!! We went to 4 of the main temples out of hundreds. The temple of the women with its raffined hand work of the 10th century, Byron with its massive faces sculpted in the stones, Ta prohm the tomb raider temple... imagine Angelina Jolie walking hahahah// well taht temple is gorgeous as it has been left in the state it was when it had been discovered there are trees everywhere it has got the adventure factor to it wowuououw. and of course Angkor Wat the biggest religious building in the world///// fabulous!! a few hundreds pictures later I was absolutely nacked!!
After that we went to a complete different region in Cambodia:: Ratanak Kiri to explore the nature side. Krati on the way to see the river dolphins :: they are really weird, round faces, they look like hypopotamus.. and then Bunlung, final destination. In bunlung there was no ATM so we had to srvive on the dollars we brought with us,, it was really short when I had to pay everything I had eaten but we made it. There we did an unforgetable day :: elephant treck!!! waterfalls, and volcanic lake. Elephants are soooo cool... not really fast I must say as they stop every 10 seconds to eat on the way, but so elegant and controled. at the start I thought I would get sick as it feels like on a crazy boat going fron left to right but as it stops ll the time no prob. It was amazing because we were the only ones going through the forest,, following the path << I am jocking Elephant make their own path through bush rivers etc. nothing stops them.. loved it!! After this long day I had to get a massage of course...heheheh and I had by far the most amusing one! I entered a random wooden house where a shield 'massa' was written. no english was spoken so the communication was a bit difficult with this old women without teeth... anyway, I laid down and she started, as she was doing my leg, a man started doing my back and the little brother wanted to do it as well, so she told him to try my other leg,,,, I had soon the whole family on my back, laughing in Kmher, with the grandma taking piss on me what a laugh but not really relaxing, the child was just doing everything wrong on my poor leg and I couldn't say anything// god what an experience // genious!
We went afterwards south to the Capital Phnom Penh or Ping pong as I call it because I always forgot the name and we went today to see some more horors of the Khmer Rouge s21 and the killing fields;;; you get goose bumps from the horror, everyone is silent watching the classrooms were the tortures were commited or watching the trees with still bullet marks or knifes cut on their trunk... very hard for the nerves. Tomorrow I should go to see the grand Palace and other things more joyful,,, in two days I am crossing the border to discover Viet Nam..
Saigon Ho chi minh, sa ya
read me there
sexta-feira, 13 de julho de 2007
14 juillet:::: national day!!!
Suite aux plaintes exprimées récemment par plusieurs membres de ma famille de n'´écrire ce blog dqns une langue qui n'est pas ma langue maternelle, me voilå amené å faire un petit paragraphe en français, la date du 14 juillet s'y prêtant parfaitement. Aprës les merveilles d'Angkor Wat (que je ne manquerai pas de depeindre prochainement), me voilå aujourd'hui rendu dans un endroit bien moins touristique:: la région de Ratanak Kiri. Cet endroit paradisiaque se trouve au nord du Cambodge et n'est accessible que par une route (enfin plutøt un chemin) en terre que le bus empreinte pour une bonne période de 6 heures dans la boue, la gadoue. Mais cela en vaut la peine, c'est formidable, les cambodgiens sont vraiment trës accueillant, toujours souriant et relax, et la nature aux alentours est splendide>> le vert des champs de riz, le rouge de la route, le ciel qui varie d'un bleu intense au noir des nuages chargés de pluie de mousson, le brun des riviëres,,,la poésie des karaokes (hahahah). Hier, la journée a commencé par une expérience inoubliable>> ballade de 2 heures å dos d'éléphant!!!/// ils ne sont pas rapides, mais tellement élégants et sereints, chaque pas est maîtrisé et posé avec calme. L'unique son qui émane est celui de leur trompe arrachant des feuilles toutes les 10 secondes pour se rassasier. Sur le chemin, comme partout au Cambodge tous les enfants font des signes de la main en criant avec un large sourire: "hellooooo", c'est três sympathique; j'ai même vu une mëre apprendre å son bébé å faire hello aux touristes, on se sent bienvenu/// hahah quand je pense aux étrangers qui viennent en France, ce serait tellement inimaginable mais rigolo de voir les gens dans la rue faire des signes en criant "hello",,, hahah ce serait génial!!. Aujourd'hui c'est le 14,,, notre fête nationale, et en ce pays ancienne colonie française je ne chante pas la marseillaise haut et fort mais la freudonne doucement;;; je regarderai ce soir le resumé du tour avec une pensée émue. Voilå pour la session "french". A bientôt.
sexta-feira, 6 de julho de 2007
bangkombodia
Finally Bangkok after a long bus trip watching films translated in Thai and some crazy karaoke that the whole bus was following appart from me, that was fun everyone was singing very low, so you could see the lips of the people singing watching the videos of couples of singers walking in a supermarket or other interesting scenarios.... I arrived under a very strong monsoon rain and decided to take a taxi to reach Koh san road tourist street of Bangkok::on the map it looked really walking distance>>> well that is where I understood that Bangkok is reaaallly big >> it was definitely not walking distance it was extremely far;; I loved it because the taxi driver didn't speak any word of english so he was explaining me everything in Thai,,, difficult communication so I replied with a few 'crap' hazardly spoken and silent smiles. Bangkok, is a dense city pretty aggressive;; polution, population;;; but still a very interesting mix. It is easy to get lost in different areas and have some local food the way the locals have it //////// do you think you know what spicy food is?? well I'll bring you to a place to get a real dragon throat..... oh my godddd....>>> fire out of my mouth and water out of my eyes""'fantastic. There are some amazing temples::like the equivalent to the vatican for thai buddhist: Wat Phra Kaeo ;;; I start to understand a bit more of buddhism, it is passionnating.. I went properly out to beds superclubs in a tuktuk [ three wheels motorbikes],, which of course tried to bring us to another place he brought us in the middle of nowhere in a dark street in front of a prostituts bar and said: "it is here".. superpub .... yeh right my friend..... that is the moment were you know you need to get out of the street, but you know as well this tuktuk is your only hope to get out/// so you have to use a lot of diplomatie to make sure the driver is not calling his friend to organise you a surprise party... after 20 mins of long explanations we finally aggred to pay him another 20 baths [ he wanted 200 more] and he finally got us there. The club was nice very beautifully designed but a bit expensive coinsidering it was closing at 2 in the morning... at some point the guy who I met in the hotel who came with me disappeared and I never found him again,,, hope he is fine;;; but I met a group of french and went to an after party in an apparently illegal underground club::: very good fun.
After a few days I left for a new country >>> cambodia.... youhouhouho. I wanted to first go to Battambang before Siem Reap in order to see other temples before Angkor wat.... The minivan pikked me up at 6.40 in the morning in my hotel.... at 8, we were still in Bangkok picking up some other people,,, I had a ticket from Bangkok to Poipet at the border,,,, around 12 we arrived at a cafe where we were meant to make our visas,,,, but that is not the border is it??? nono the border is about 10 km from here>> you have to take a scooter with your backpack and my two other bagsto go somewhere else to get a tuk tuk and of course I had to pay the two different drivers yehyehe..... then I had loads of propositions to make my visa but decided to make it myself at the border and that was a very good decision [I ended up saving some money and beeing faster than the others waiting for their visas ::::: youhouhouhou]] at the border I met two americans who explained me that they were wortking for a NGO helping children when they returned from prostitution to get another job.... apparently, everyday trucks filled with children from 4 to 12 years old cross the border from Cambodge to go to Thailand to please the sex tourism [sold by their parents or uncles or neighbours]... the stories horrified me and I understood that Cambodia was a bit poorer than thailand.... Indeed,,, I always wondered how it would be to drive a car on the moon or on mars; well now I know;;;; the roads in Cambodia are like potatoes fields.... the highway is a departemental road.... I think this country is the poorest I have been so far in this trip. It beats Bolivia. Anyway, I got droped in a weard bus station, but :: nono today no bus ... only in the morning.... only taxi.... hahah how many people can you put in a small toyota... >>>>wrong,, 3 at the front and 5 at the back,, so I was with four others at the back for three hours,,, all very friendly but noone spoke any of the language I speak .... there was this girl next to me who kept on looking at me a [white boy with a beard]]] that is something pretty strange for them I understood afterwards,,, when I looked at her she did some bizarre faces which I interpreted as smiles.... very funny all her gesture were very spontan not at alll lioke what I am used to normally in our society everything is so controlled. It was great to see. After a while I felt good in this car I suddenly had this coccon feeling and did a nap probably on the shoulder of the man next to me...hahah anyway I finally arrived in Battambang... PS:::: ououhouh I forgot an important detail in Bangkok,,,, the day before leaving, I was exhausted and I decided to do one more massage,,, I went in a salon,,, foot massage of course follow me I arrived and it wa a ladyboy to make the massage haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.... I was so glad I said foot massagea and not full body oh my god.... but even foot massage::: there is always a bit of legs massage and they come pretty high,,, I couldn't relax at all I let you imagine...hahahahah.. Anyway I liked Bangkok and I'll be back in August for a few days before flying to Myanmar.
Cambodia,, sa ya, read me there
After a few days I left for a new country >>> cambodia.... youhouhouho. I wanted to first go to Battambang before Siem Reap in order to see other temples before Angkor wat.... The minivan pikked me up at 6.40 in the morning in my hotel.... at 8, we were still in Bangkok picking up some other people,,, I had a ticket from Bangkok to Poipet at the border,,,, around 12 we arrived at a cafe where we were meant to make our visas,,,, but that is not the border is it??? nono the border is about 10 km from here>> you have to take a scooter with your backpack and my two other bagsto go somewhere else to get a tuk tuk and of course I had to pay the two different drivers yehyehe..... then I had loads of propositions to make my visa but decided to make it myself at the border and that was a very good decision [I ended up saving some money and beeing faster than the others waiting for their visas ::::: youhouhouhou]] at the border I met two americans who explained me that they were wortking for a NGO helping children when they returned from prostitution to get another job.... apparently, everyday trucks filled with children from 4 to 12 years old cross the border from Cambodge to go to Thailand to please the sex tourism [sold by their parents or uncles or neighbours]... the stories horrified me and I understood that Cambodia was a bit poorer than thailand.... Indeed,,, I always wondered how it would be to drive a car on the moon or on mars; well now I know;;;; the roads in Cambodia are like potatoes fields.... the highway is a departemental road.... I think this country is the poorest I have been so far in this trip. It beats Bolivia. Anyway, I got droped in a weard bus station, but :: nono today no bus ... only in the morning.... only taxi.... hahah how many people can you put in a small toyota... >>>>wrong,, 3 at the front and 5 at the back,, so I was with four others at the back for three hours,,, all very friendly but noone spoke any of the language I speak .... there was this girl next to me who kept on looking at me a [white boy with a beard]]] that is something pretty strange for them I understood afterwards,,, when I looked at her she did some bizarre faces which I interpreted as smiles.... very funny all her gesture were very spontan not at alll lioke what I am used to normally in our society everything is so controlled. It was great to see. After a while I felt good in this car I suddenly had this coccon feeling and did a nap probably on the shoulder of the man next to me...hahah anyway I finally arrived in Battambang... PS:::: ououhouh I forgot an important detail in Bangkok,,,, the day before leaving, I was exhausted and I decided to do one more massage,,, I went in a salon,,, foot massage of course follow me I arrived and it wa a ladyboy to make the massage haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.... I was so glad I said foot massagea and not full body oh my god.... but even foot massage::: there is always a bit of legs massage and they come pretty high,,, I couldn't relax at all I let you imagine...hahahahah.. Anyway I liked Bangkok and I'll be back in August for a few days before flying to Myanmar.
Cambodia,, sa ya, read me there
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