Hello,
This is Laura writing to you. In answer to questions regarding what I do after Ashley goes to sleep, I would like to answer as follows. Those of you who know me know that, for many years, I have harboured a desire to become a professional boxer. In Australia, unfortunately, the boxing industry is owned by capitalist pigs and features an extraordinarily strong gender bias. In Vietnam, what with it being a communist country and all, neither of these exist. This means that I have finally been able to pursue my dream. Each night I go out and take part in a boxing match. Most nights I win. This should not surprise those of you who have seen me at parties rolling up my sleeves and making you feel the muscles in my arm.
yours,
Laura Butterworth, M.D
P.S
You may notice that I now have "M.D" after my name. I recently became a doctor. Please consider me for your next medical emergency. I charge very reasonable rates.
P.P.S
If you do not believe I am either a boxer or a doctor, I will beat you silly, then I will use my doctorate skills on you to fix the damage I've done. And then you'll have to endure the shame of admitting you were wrong on both counts. Ha!
Now here's the Baron's post;
so today we actually went and visited aid projects. we were collected at 8am by our minibus and everobliging apheda host, sharon. he had managed torearrange our schedule slightly to allow for the dayto begin with a quick trip to see a waxen ho chi minh,which we had been unable to do yesterday to greatdisappointment. i did not feel the need to queue up,get ordered around by vietnamese men in militaryuniforms in order to get my glimpse of a dead body, soi stayed on the bus. those who went, including laura,were greatly thrilled with what they saw.from there we began our journey to a province about 90minutes from the city. on the way sharon briefed uson the projects run by apheda in vietnam, which waspretty fascinating. they're currently running aprogramme for victims of agent orange (who are largelyactually 2nd and 3rd generation victims, who suffer anarray of disabilities), programmes for HIV Aidssufferers, a corporate social responsibility programme(which sounds amazing), a revolving loans programmeand lots of vocational training type things.we began by visiting an amazing complex, run by anamazing woman is part of the women's union. her workwas recognised by the government and they gave her alarge sum of money with which to build an awesomecomplex, from which they run vocational trainingprogrammes, and which also has dormortries to allowparticipants in the training programme to live theirduring their training. after explaining theprogrammes to us and answering lots of questions, theypresented us with an array of gifts, including localsweet foods, and embroidered bags produced by thecentre.they then took us to see some of the trainingprogrammes. the first class we visited was a group ofabout 30 young people (aged 15 -26) who were beingtrained in embroidery. the work they produce at theend of their training is amazing - large lengths ofcloth for korean kimonos. the programme producesproducts contracted by companies, so they dont sellthe end products themselves. one of the girls who hada disability had been trained their, but then wasstaying on to work their, and was saving $15 US amonth to send back to her family. the students werelovely and tolerated our intrusive questions well. wethen sang them Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree(clearly that wasnt my idea!) and then sang us a songabout liking being at school. it was pretty awesome. several of the students had disabilities or healthissues. the programme ensures that jobs are availablefor the students at the end of the programme, orassists them to work from home if they need to. Thetransition to employment is 100% except with the youngpeople with disabilities (72% success) some of whomare prevented from working by health issues.from this room we went next door to what is usually acrochet class. today there was only one girl, who hada disability thanks to her father being a soldierduring the war. when i say crochet i dont meanscarves and doileys, they make entire garments toorders from manufacturers. the cardigans and dressesthey'd made were really amazing. this girl talked tous a bit about her training at the centre - her familylives only 2km from the centre so her mother drivesher to and from work each day as she is unable todrive due to her disability.having talked to her the staff then decided to presentus all with one these amazing crocheted cardigans,which take 2 days to complete each. the awful part isthat there not necessairly something any of wouldwear, or at least not laura or i. it was a reallybeautiful gesture, and there were many tears.from there we visited a group who were being trainedin polishing gems. when i say gems, i probably meanfake gems, all that diamante type stuff. it was quiteamazing witnessing the process of shaping andpolishing these little sparklers.unfortunatley by this time the tailoring class hadgone to lunch, but we had a brief look at their classrooms and i actually got quite sentimental aboutindustrial sewing machines.this was our cue to head to lunch too, where wefeasted on the most enormous feast i've ever seen. which given that last night we had a vegetarian indianbanquet, is truly saying something! the mostimpossible amounts of local dishes just kept rollingout, with a special range for the four vegetarians. quite amazing.after a lengthy amount of time eating, we then headedback to say our farewells to the those we'd met in themorning. from there we headed to a nearby HIV Aidsclub, which has a number of members in the area whoeither have or are related to someone with HIV. theprogramme director told us about the club, whichoperates as a support group, and also seeks to raisecommunity awareness and overcome discrimination. several of the club members were there, including oneman who has HIV, who explained to us that antiviraldrugs are not an option for HIV sufferers due to thecost. by the sounds of things they stuggle tomedicate the associated simple illnesses that arecommon amongst sufferers. an older lady told us shehad lost her son to aids a few days ago. he hadbecome addicted to drugs, and had sold all thefamilies possessions to feed his habit, leaving themwith nothing with which to support him when he becameill... it was a very emotional experience.having had a very moving and mind opening day, wenaturally needed to stop for some shopping on the wayhome, and visited a village famous for its ceramics,where i bought some very adorable and frighteninglycheap bits and pieces.the bus ride continued, with the group deciding theyneeded to sing union songs, and then rewrite one suchsong to be about solidarity with APHEDA. i told youthis was going to be a noisy two weeks. Sharon didsing us a nepalese song (his native country) which wasquite impressive.and now i'm back and really need to go to bed, astomorrow we get picked up from the hotel at 4.30am tofor our flight to hue. arghhhh.and then the riding begins.maybe i should just come home now!
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Monday, January 8, 2007
The people united will never... stop shopping
An Introduction from Ianto
Once again the Baron has asked me to post online for her because she is feeling lazy and appreciates my introductions. I've been trying to convince her and Laura to have a "Laura and the Baron" New Year's celebration at some point in the weeks after they get back, possibly blurring in with yet another Sophie Green and Ianto Ware Birthday Bonanza, but she doesn't seem too keen on the idea. Who would have thought the Baron would ever turn down a chance to kick up her heels and engage in a social activity!
Anyway. In this post the Baron and Laura make a failed attempt to visit the embalmed body of 'Uncle Ho' and she talks about taking some photos of her in her much discussed Credit Agricole hat. Unfortunately, Credit Agricole have not included Thor Hushovd as part of their team in this year's Tour Down Under. However, I'm sure the Baron would ask me to point out that Cyril Dessel will be part of the AG2R team. And Baden Cooke will be leading the Unibet.Team - who have just been granted their pro tour license. I'm not really sure why the Baron hasn't mentioned this in the below post herself. I'm sure she meant to.
yours,
Ianto Ware
***
So last night the group trip officially began. thepeople from APHEDA vietnam welcomed us, and gave us abit of an overview of whats happening, and we met ourtour guide who will be accompanying us.we went of our itinerary for today - the ho chi minhmosaeleum, the temple of literature, and a cyclo tourof the old quarter. the clarification of "cyclo"rather than "cycle" was a great relief to those of uswho've come to fear the old quarter traffic. and aneven greater relief to those of us who are petrifiedof getting on a bike again. the group was, as was tobe expected, somewhat roudy throughout the meeting - ipredict two of the noisiest weeks of my life await me. we then went on to dinner at a very pleasantvietnamese restaurant, where large portions of thegroup began the evening with margaritas. i stuck withsprite, as i have been feeling a little under theweather (not tummy wise, just headachey) and as usualleft quite early after dinner. i'm feeling a littleout of my depth surrounded by such hardcore unionists,and find myself in the position of wanting to defendthings i dont necessairly believe because i feel likethe left side of the argument is so heavilyrepresented. anyway, it will be an interesting twoweeks.today we stuck to the itinerary, heading off in a minibus to the ho chi min complex. there was greatdissappointment at the announcement that as it ismonday the mosaleum (i really cant spell that) wasclosed, and so whilst we could walk around thecomplex, we would not actually get to see uncle ho'sembalmed body... personally i wasnt tragicaly upsetwith this reprieve, but others are now trying to workout a way to get back there at 7.30 tomorrow to seethis worthy site. we did see many other large andsignificant buildings, and, to satisfy my insatiablereaders, i even took a myriad of photos of me in thehat. however, still the downloading remains an issue,so you will have to wait a little longer for a montageof me, credit agricole, and the highlights of southeast asia.our tour guide quickly realised that he had an unrulytribe on his hands, who are far more likely to becomeengrossed in the souvenir shops than the actualcultural experience at hand. i'm not sure uncle howould approve of our wanton consumerism in his name.from ho chi minh we went to the temple of literature. this temple got a high rating from laura and i whohave a new system of temple ratings based solely onthe availability of chocolate icecreams.from here we went to lunch. our tour people took usto a very lovely, if somewhat expensive by hanoistandards, restaurant. in the interests of upping thevegetarian representation on the tour, and avoidingmercury poisioning, i'm attempting to eat vegetarianfor the next two weeks - a challenge when i've gottento the point of eating fish or seafood twice a day.after lunch we spent an hour meeting with some peoplewho are sort of from the government, sort of from theunions here. to be honest much of it went over myhead, but they spent an hour discussing with thegroup industrial relations and the union movement invietnam, and its challenges, which are of course goingto be significantly aggravated by vietnam joining theWTO.from here we were given our one hour (read 45 minutes)cyclo tour of the old quarter, which was verypleasant, if somewhat too late to be of as muchinterest as it would have been had i done it a weekago.which pretty much brings me to now. oh ,andyesterdays freak out about internet costs proved justhow out of it i was - when the lady told me 10 perhour, she meant 10 000 dong, not $10US, which worksout to less than a dollar an hour. arggh.ok, so now its time for me to rest up before anothergroup dinner. apparently tonight we're going to avegetarian indian place mmmmmm.
Once again the Baron has asked me to post online for her because she is feeling lazy and appreciates my introductions. I've been trying to convince her and Laura to have a "Laura and the Baron" New Year's celebration at some point in the weeks after they get back, possibly blurring in with yet another Sophie Green and Ianto Ware Birthday Bonanza, but she doesn't seem too keen on the idea. Who would have thought the Baron would ever turn down a chance to kick up her heels and engage in a social activity!
Anyway. In this post the Baron and Laura make a failed attempt to visit the embalmed body of 'Uncle Ho' and she talks about taking some photos of her in her much discussed Credit Agricole hat. Unfortunately, Credit Agricole have not included Thor Hushovd as part of their team in this year's Tour Down Under. However, I'm sure the Baron would ask me to point out that Cyril Dessel will be part of the AG2R team. And Baden Cooke will be leading the Unibet.Team - who have just been granted their pro tour license. I'm not really sure why the Baron hasn't mentioned this in the below post herself. I'm sure she meant to.
yours,
Ianto Ware
***
So last night the group trip officially began. thepeople from APHEDA vietnam welcomed us, and gave us abit of an overview of whats happening, and we met ourtour guide who will be accompanying us.we went of our itinerary for today - the ho chi minhmosaeleum, the temple of literature, and a cyclo tourof the old quarter. the clarification of "cyclo"rather than "cycle" was a great relief to those of uswho've come to fear the old quarter traffic. and aneven greater relief to those of us who are petrifiedof getting on a bike again. the group was, as was tobe expected, somewhat roudy throughout the meeting - ipredict two of the noisiest weeks of my life await me. we then went on to dinner at a very pleasantvietnamese restaurant, where large portions of thegroup began the evening with margaritas. i stuck withsprite, as i have been feeling a little under theweather (not tummy wise, just headachey) and as usualleft quite early after dinner. i'm feeling a littleout of my depth surrounded by such hardcore unionists,and find myself in the position of wanting to defendthings i dont necessairly believe because i feel likethe left side of the argument is so heavilyrepresented. anyway, it will be an interesting twoweeks.today we stuck to the itinerary, heading off in a minibus to the ho chi min complex. there was greatdissappointment at the announcement that as it ismonday the mosaleum (i really cant spell that) wasclosed, and so whilst we could walk around thecomplex, we would not actually get to see uncle ho'sembalmed body... personally i wasnt tragicaly upsetwith this reprieve, but others are now trying to workout a way to get back there at 7.30 tomorrow to seethis worthy site. we did see many other large andsignificant buildings, and, to satisfy my insatiablereaders, i even took a myriad of photos of me in thehat. however, still the downloading remains an issue,so you will have to wait a little longer for a montageof me, credit agricole, and the highlights of southeast asia.our tour guide quickly realised that he had an unrulytribe on his hands, who are far more likely to becomeengrossed in the souvenir shops than the actualcultural experience at hand. i'm not sure uncle howould approve of our wanton consumerism in his name.from ho chi minh we went to the temple of literature. this temple got a high rating from laura and i whohave a new system of temple ratings based solely onthe availability of chocolate icecreams.from here we went to lunch. our tour people took usto a very lovely, if somewhat expensive by hanoistandards, restaurant. in the interests of upping thevegetarian representation on the tour, and avoidingmercury poisioning, i'm attempting to eat vegetarianfor the next two weeks - a challenge when i've gottento the point of eating fish or seafood twice a day.after lunch we spent an hour meeting with some peoplewho are sort of from the government, sort of from theunions here. to be honest much of it went over myhead, but they spent an hour discussing with thegroup industrial relations and the union movement invietnam, and its challenges, which are of course goingto be significantly aggravated by vietnam joining theWTO.from here we were given our one hour (read 45 minutes)cyclo tour of the old quarter, which was verypleasant, if somewhat too late to be of as muchinterest as it would have been had i done it a weekago.which pretty much brings me to now. oh ,andyesterdays freak out about internet costs proved justhow out of it i was - when the lady told me 10 perhour, she meant 10 000 dong, not $10US, which worksout to less than a dollar an hour. arggh.ok, so now its time for me to rest up before anothergroup dinner. apparently tonight we're going to avegetarian indian place mmmmmm.
Sunday, January 7, 2007
sunbathing anyone?
Another Introduction from Ianto
In this post Ashley finally addresses the topic of her hat, proving that 'people power' can still produce a reaction. Otherwise the below post is predominantly occupied with talk of boating and the weather. If you enjoy these topics, I predict you will enjoy the post.
yours,
Ianto Ware
***
So we have returned from halong bay, and moved hotels to be with the cycling crew. new hotel has only one computer, so i've found myself an "internet cafe" from which to do internet things. Its actually a travel agent, and when i walked in i checked the price, being aware of the potential for rip offs if this recaution isnt taken. however, i think she said $10 an hour, and yet i sat down anyway.... hmmm... oh well whatever. to its credit its the nicest, fastest computer i've used in weeks, and i actually get on to the blog! hoorah! no more intros from ianto... even if they probably are more entertaining than my actual posts.
before we begin we need to get into this hat issue. firstly, i still love my hat. to me its just an amusing green cap with a smaller brim than normal, so i have no issues about wearing procycling gear. its not like its made of lycra. secondly, in cambodia it was largely too hot for such a small brimmed hat and i got myself a wide brimmed hat that i wore more than the promised cap. hanoi has been cold and therefore hatless. HOWEVER, tomorrow the cycling begins, and the hat with come to the fore. i do have some pictures with the hat, although not as many as i would like. and in case you havent all realised this yet, there's clearly not going to be any pictures posted til we get home.
so, to halong bay. ridiculously early morning, forced to leave the bulk of our luggage tucked behind some stairs in a hotel we've never stayed at... which has all worked out ok.
minivan carried us out on the 3 hour trip to halong city, with some commentary from a pleasant guide, stopping half way at what i will simply call a tourist barn. a place set up particularly to capture the tourists half way between hanoi and halong.
arrived in halong, and had the interesting task of clambering over another boat to get to ours - all survived without mishap. our group of 12 sat down on our boat to await lunch, with plenty of picture taking of the 100 odd chinese junk tourist boats all jostling to get in and out of the quay thing... eventually we departed, halong bay is pretty amazing - if you dont know what it looks like, google it - but there are 2000 of these small islands in a 100km area, so its one of those things where it just keeps going forever... very scenic and quite cold. stopped at an island thingy that contained a massive, extremely *cavernous* cave, with lots of strategic lightly, and assurances that its the most beautiful cave in halong. it was very nice.
somewhere in there we had a pleasant lunch on the boat too, and met a lovely english couple who we chatted to throughout, although we were nearly overcome by jealously of their 3 month travel adventure...
we travelled on to a beach, where another boat was anchored, with a large group playing a game of soccer, laura and i were just commenting that one of the soccer players must be called ashley, when we realised it was actually one of our cycle crew calling to me from the beach - and so we spent a pleasant hour catching my with several of the group, and enjoying watching a highly competitive game of strictly boys only soccer...
back to our boats, for more crusing around, a pleasant dinner watching the lights of the other boats anchored in the harbour twinkle in the distanct, before laura and i continued tradition and i went to bed while laura stayed up to befriend the rest of the boat.
now, all of this was very nice. Except it was FREEZING. the cold was fine during the day, we rugged up and sat on the roof to see the views, but upon going to bed and discovering we each had one thin blanket, things became a bit pained. i slept in my pyjamas, with my clothes over the top and my towel thrown on top of my quilt and still froze all night. pity really, cause everything else was lovely. and to think we'd envisiaged swimming and sunbathing. oh well.
anyway, more cold cruising and eating this morning, lunch in a hotel back at halong bay, and the bus ride home. all reasonably uneventful really. tonight, we have dinner with the cycle crew, and tomorrow we're supposed to be cycling the city. which is probably good, because the fear of the traffic is drowning out my fear of the physical pain of riding.
probably should stop before i spend all my money on the internet...
In this post Ashley finally addresses the topic of her hat, proving that 'people power' can still produce a reaction. Otherwise the below post is predominantly occupied with talk of boating and the weather. If you enjoy these topics, I predict you will enjoy the post.
yours,
Ianto Ware
***
So we have returned from halong bay, and moved hotels to be with the cycling crew. new hotel has only one computer, so i've found myself an "internet cafe" from which to do internet things. Its actually a travel agent, and when i walked in i checked the price, being aware of the potential for rip offs if this recaution isnt taken. however, i think she said $10 an hour, and yet i sat down anyway.... hmmm... oh well whatever. to its credit its the nicest, fastest computer i've used in weeks, and i actually get on to the blog! hoorah! no more intros from ianto... even if they probably are more entertaining than my actual posts.
before we begin we need to get into this hat issue. firstly, i still love my hat. to me its just an amusing green cap with a smaller brim than normal, so i have no issues about wearing procycling gear. its not like its made of lycra. secondly, in cambodia it was largely too hot for such a small brimmed hat and i got myself a wide brimmed hat that i wore more than the promised cap. hanoi has been cold and therefore hatless. HOWEVER, tomorrow the cycling begins, and the hat with come to the fore. i do have some pictures with the hat, although not as many as i would like. and in case you havent all realised this yet, there's clearly not going to be any pictures posted til we get home.
so, to halong bay. ridiculously early morning, forced to leave the bulk of our luggage tucked behind some stairs in a hotel we've never stayed at... which has all worked out ok.
minivan carried us out on the 3 hour trip to halong city, with some commentary from a pleasant guide, stopping half way at what i will simply call a tourist barn. a place set up particularly to capture the tourists half way between hanoi and halong.
arrived in halong, and had the interesting task of clambering over another boat to get to ours - all survived without mishap. our group of 12 sat down on our boat to await lunch, with plenty of picture taking of the 100 odd chinese junk tourist boats all jostling to get in and out of the quay thing... eventually we departed, halong bay is pretty amazing - if you dont know what it looks like, google it - but there are 2000 of these small islands in a 100km area, so its one of those things where it just keeps going forever... very scenic and quite cold. stopped at an island thingy that contained a massive, extremely *cavernous* cave, with lots of strategic lightly, and assurances that its the most beautiful cave in halong. it was very nice.
somewhere in there we had a pleasant lunch on the boat too, and met a lovely english couple who we chatted to throughout, although we were nearly overcome by jealously of their 3 month travel adventure...
we travelled on to a beach, where another boat was anchored, with a large group playing a game of soccer, laura and i were just commenting that one of the soccer players must be called ashley, when we realised it was actually one of our cycle crew calling to me from the beach - and so we spent a pleasant hour catching my with several of the group, and enjoying watching a highly competitive game of strictly boys only soccer...
back to our boats, for more crusing around, a pleasant dinner watching the lights of the other boats anchored in the harbour twinkle in the distanct, before laura and i continued tradition and i went to bed while laura stayed up to befriend the rest of the boat.
now, all of this was very nice. Except it was FREEZING. the cold was fine during the day, we rugged up and sat on the roof to see the views, but upon going to bed and discovering we each had one thin blanket, things became a bit pained. i slept in my pyjamas, with my clothes over the top and my towel thrown on top of my quilt and still froze all night. pity really, cause everything else was lovely. and to think we'd envisiaged swimming and sunbathing. oh well.
anyway, more cold cruising and eating this morning, lunch in a hotel back at halong bay, and the bus ride home. all reasonably uneventful really. tonight, we have dinner with the cycle crew, and tomorrow we're supposed to be cycling the city. which is probably good, because the fear of the traffic is drowning out my fear of the physical pain of riding.
probably should stop before i spend all my money on the internet...
Friday, January 5, 2007
Money? What's Money?
Another Forward to Today's Post
The Baron was once again unable to post and has thus asked me to post on her behalf. Today's post is predominantly about the things Laura and her have been able to buy for discount prices, including a vast array of cultural commodities and glasses for Laura's eyes. The Baron also briefly details turning 27 and generally wandering around. Apparently she spent most of the day at a boxing match, watching a wide array of athletes from every age, race and gender category beating each other senseless. She doesn't talk about this till right near the end, so you'll need to read the entire post to make sure you don't miss out on it. It really is most enthralling.
Also, you will note there is still a distinct lack of talk about her hat. I realise I may seem to be harping on this point but believe me once you see Ashley wearing said hat you'll understand why.
yours,
Ianto Ware
***
so tomorrow morning we're heading to halong bay, whichhas been heralded as amazing and awesome etc. as wewill be cruising about on our VIP boat tour overnight,we presumably wont have internet so i thought i'dbetter catch up to where we're at now.yesterday was a very quiet day as laura continued toexperience a range of symptoms, for which we wereunable to determine a cause or cure, although in thenend bed rest and cable tv did the trick. we hadattempted to visit the women's museum in the morning,but a combination of it being freezing cold, us beingunder dressed, laura experiencing stomach cramps, andthe museum being largely closed for renovations, meantthe trip was a bit of a let down.having returned laura to her bed i spent another dayout wandering the old quarter, which if i didnt feellike i was in constant threat of being bowled over bya motorbike, would be one of the best things i couldpossibly hope to do. i wandered through the streetfresh food market, which strangely, inspite of beingoutdoors, and involving lots of butchering meat onwoven mats on the ground, felt surprisingly clean andenticing. the seafood is kept in large tubs eitherfull of ice, or with pumps where the seafood is stillalive. it has so much potential to be gross, butreally isnt.last night i went out to celebrate my 27th birthdaywith dinner at a local vietnamese restaurant. thefood wasnt as fantastic as i'd hoped, but i was kepthighly entertained watching the staff dote on a frenchfamilies baby, which was amazingly well behaved, andquite enjoying being passed around the restaurant. icame outside and discovered a small french patisserienext door, so bought myself a mini chocolate moussethingy and a plain looking butter cake for laura(because of her stomach being dodgy, not because i'm abit meany) and went back to the hotel to eat thesetreats while watching yet more cable tv.today laura was bouncing back so we decided to make itto at least one of the 5 museums we'd orginallyplanned on going to and went to the museum ofethnology, which was well set up and quiteinteresting. we then taxied back to spend theafternoon completely laura's shopping list - after 2days of lying in bed she had a pretty clear idea whatshe wanted. i'd also come across a street full ofshops selling glasses (the seeing variety) so lauraspent some time agonising of the vast array, whichincluded some interesting dated 2nd hand numbers, ofwhich laura naturally chose a pair. at $15 US withlenses, who can blame her. she also managed to chooseanother pair of prescription sunglasses, which at $20US were again a pretty amazing deal. Those of uswho've witnessed laura lose her glasses for days at atime should hopefully find things much easier into thefuture...laura's list also included DVDs.... so we returned toa place we'd found the other day, where lauraconsidered by the complete set of every series ofeverything thats ever been on. The guys sales pitchwas largely the more you buy the cheaper it gets...which is all well and good in theory... and somewhatof a trap... someone how i too became caught up in theexperience, and started deciding i too needed to buydvds, in spite of the fact that i've never bought advd in my life at home....the guys sales pitch was also largely about the "newtechnology" which means you can get 10 times as muchstuff on each disc, therefore meaning an entire seriesof a show is one disc - so much better for our excessluggage!! each disc was therefore at a starting priceof $10 US... which roughly equates to the $1 a discprice thats popular in Saigon for the oldtechnology... yet when you're buying 5 seaons ofsomething, still works out to $50... so the guyconvinced us that if we bought all 29 discs we wereconsidering, he'd do us a super deal of $6 a disc, andthus we'd get away with all of them for the bargainprice of $176 US. for reasons we both now stuggle tocomprehend we agreed to this. damn visa cards. so inow own the entire 5 seasons of six feet under. whichi've never seen a single episode of, but am takingeveryones word i will love. I also own 12, yes thatsright 12, seasons of ER. For those of you doing themath you will have noticed that i bought more dvdsthat laura, who gotta a wider array of programmes, buti wont spoil her surprise by telling you what. Shedid resist getting the entire buffy, even with thebest ever spelling mistake on the cover whichproclaimed it to be the story of "Buffy - the VampireSlaper"we then journeyed off in search of warm clothing,having discovered that not only is it damn cold here,but that its likely worse in halong bay. Somehow thisbecame a reason for laura to buy an old school adidastracksuit in black with gold trim, with a Missy Elliotlogo thing on the back. apparently this isntshamefully hideous and is infact seriously cool. i'mnot convinced. meanwhile, i bought a very plainpurportedly lacoste mens tracksuit, in pretty much thelargest size they had. these people are tiny. or i'mvery fat. either way.another pleasant dinner, this time as a place"casablanca" with entertaining bob marley music and aterrible looking american movie which i concluded mustbe called "beverly hills cops go to miami and getattacked on the beach by ninjas". Amazing.so our stay in hanoi may appear to have lacked anyserious cultural experience, but i say we've justfocused on culture for sale - besides, we're doing abunch of that cultural stuff with the bike group.oh, i should give recount the background to our halongbay saga... so i'd read that there were a range ofhalong bay tours on offer, from super budget to superfancy... i immediately encountered this when the firstplace i asked were charging $120 per person, while thesecond place were charging $30.... i've asked at somany places in the last few days, and every time itsbeen the same -- either super cheap or superexpensive... when all i really wanted was midrange...so finally it dawned on my yesterday that maybe ineeded to ASK about whether places had more expensivetours... this was a pretty weird concept, going insomewhere and saying, "i know you can give me thispackage for $30, but could you give me a package ofessentially the same things but let me pay $60 forit?" Anyway, this is basically what we did today...and so the lady got out her VIP tours brochure. whichbasically appears to involve chucking a few extrasuperlatives in to the descriptions... when asked toexplain the difference between the budget and the vip,the lady assured us that on the budget everything wasvery cheap and on the VIP "everything" was better...so we'll have to wait and see if we've just paid twicethe price for the same tour, but hopefully it will allwork out for the best... will keep you all updated.
The Baron was once again unable to post and has thus asked me to post on her behalf. Today's post is predominantly about the things Laura and her have been able to buy for discount prices, including a vast array of cultural commodities and glasses for Laura's eyes. The Baron also briefly details turning 27 and generally wandering around. Apparently she spent most of the day at a boxing match, watching a wide array of athletes from every age, race and gender category beating each other senseless. She doesn't talk about this till right near the end, so you'll need to read the entire post to make sure you don't miss out on it. It really is most enthralling.
Also, you will note there is still a distinct lack of talk about her hat. I realise I may seem to be harping on this point but believe me once you see Ashley wearing said hat you'll understand why.
yours,
Ianto Ware
***
so tomorrow morning we're heading to halong bay, whichhas been heralded as amazing and awesome etc. as wewill be cruising about on our VIP boat tour overnight,we presumably wont have internet so i thought i'dbetter catch up to where we're at now.yesterday was a very quiet day as laura continued toexperience a range of symptoms, for which we wereunable to determine a cause or cure, although in thenend bed rest and cable tv did the trick. we hadattempted to visit the women's museum in the morning,but a combination of it being freezing cold, us beingunder dressed, laura experiencing stomach cramps, andthe museum being largely closed for renovations, meantthe trip was a bit of a let down.having returned laura to her bed i spent another dayout wandering the old quarter, which if i didnt feellike i was in constant threat of being bowled over bya motorbike, would be one of the best things i couldpossibly hope to do. i wandered through the streetfresh food market, which strangely, inspite of beingoutdoors, and involving lots of butchering meat onwoven mats on the ground, felt surprisingly clean andenticing. the seafood is kept in large tubs eitherfull of ice, or with pumps where the seafood is stillalive. it has so much potential to be gross, butreally isnt.last night i went out to celebrate my 27th birthdaywith dinner at a local vietnamese restaurant. thefood wasnt as fantastic as i'd hoped, but i was kepthighly entertained watching the staff dote on a frenchfamilies baby, which was amazingly well behaved, andquite enjoying being passed around the restaurant. icame outside and discovered a small french patisserienext door, so bought myself a mini chocolate moussethingy and a plain looking butter cake for laura(because of her stomach being dodgy, not because i'm abit meany) and went back to the hotel to eat thesetreats while watching yet more cable tv.today laura was bouncing back so we decided to make itto at least one of the 5 museums we'd orginallyplanned on going to and went to the museum ofethnology, which was well set up and quiteinteresting. we then taxied back to spend theafternoon completely laura's shopping list - after 2days of lying in bed she had a pretty clear idea whatshe wanted. i'd also come across a street full ofshops selling glasses (the seeing variety) so lauraspent some time agonising of the vast array, whichincluded some interesting dated 2nd hand numbers, ofwhich laura naturally chose a pair. at $15 US withlenses, who can blame her. she also managed to chooseanother pair of prescription sunglasses, which at $20US were again a pretty amazing deal. Those of uswho've witnessed laura lose her glasses for days at atime should hopefully find things much easier into thefuture...laura's list also included DVDs.... so we returned toa place we'd found the other day, where lauraconsidered by the complete set of every series ofeverything thats ever been on. The guys sales pitchwas largely the more you buy the cheaper it gets...which is all well and good in theory... and somewhatof a trap... someone how i too became caught up in theexperience, and started deciding i too needed to buydvds, in spite of the fact that i've never bought advd in my life at home....the guys sales pitch was also largely about the "newtechnology" which means you can get 10 times as muchstuff on each disc, therefore meaning an entire seriesof a show is one disc - so much better for our excessluggage!! each disc was therefore at a starting priceof $10 US... which roughly equates to the $1 a discprice thats popular in Saigon for the oldtechnology... yet when you're buying 5 seaons ofsomething, still works out to $50... so the guyconvinced us that if we bought all 29 discs we wereconsidering, he'd do us a super deal of $6 a disc, andthus we'd get away with all of them for the bargainprice of $176 US. for reasons we both now stuggle tocomprehend we agreed to this. damn visa cards. so inow own the entire 5 seasons of six feet under. whichi've never seen a single episode of, but am takingeveryones word i will love. I also own 12, yes thatsright 12, seasons of ER. For those of you doing themath you will have noticed that i bought more dvdsthat laura, who gotta a wider array of programmes, buti wont spoil her surprise by telling you what. Shedid resist getting the entire buffy, even with thebest ever spelling mistake on the cover whichproclaimed it to be the story of "Buffy - the VampireSlaper"we then journeyed off in search of warm clothing,having discovered that not only is it damn cold here,but that its likely worse in halong bay. Somehow thisbecame a reason for laura to buy an old school adidastracksuit in black with gold trim, with a Missy Elliotlogo thing on the back. apparently this isntshamefully hideous and is infact seriously cool. i'mnot convinced. meanwhile, i bought a very plainpurportedly lacoste mens tracksuit, in pretty much thelargest size they had. these people are tiny. or i'mvery fat. either way.another pleasant dinner, this time as a place"casablanca" with entertaining bob marley music and aterrible looking american movie which i concluded mustbe called "beverly hills cops go to miami and getattacked on the beach by ninjas". Amazing.so our stay in hanoi may appear to have lacked anyserious cultural experience, but i say we've justfocused on culture for sale - besides, we're doing abunch of that cultural stuff with the bike group.oh, i should give recount the background to our halongbay saga... so i'd read that there were a range ofhalong bay tours on offer, from super budget to superfancy... i immediately encountered this when the firstplace i asked were charging $120 per person, while thesecond place were charging $30.... i've asked at somany places in the last few days, and every time itsbeen the same -- either super cheap or superexpensive... when all i really wanted was midrange...so finally it dawned on my yesterday that maybe ineeded to ASK about whether places had more expensivetours... this was a pretty weird concept, going insomewhere and saying, "i know you can give me thispackage for $30, but could you give me a package ofessentially the same things but let me pay $60 forit?" Anyway, this is basically what we did today...and so the lady got out her VIP tours brochure. whichbasically appears to involve chucking a few extrasuperlatives in to the descriptions... when asked toexplain the difference between the budget and the vip,the lady assured us that on the budget everything wasvery cheap and on the VIP "everything" was better...so we'll have to wait and see if we've just paid twicethe price for the same tour, but hopefully it will allwork out for the best... will keep you all updated.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Hello Hanoi
A Forward to Today's Blog Post
from Ianto Ware
Hello,
The Baron has asked me to post today's blog post for her because she was unable to do so from the computers accessible to her in Vietnam. Let me take this opportunity to provide a brief synopsis of the following text;
In today's post she depicts her arrival in Vietnam, which involved a somewhat tumultuous taxi trip before moving onto the quintessential themes contained in earlier posts - Laura going out and getting drunk and having adventures whilst Ashley goes home and has a nap. Notably, she does not provide any pictures of her wearing her much talked about Credit Agricole cycling cap, despite large scale public pressure. There are two probable reasons for this. Firstly, she is ashamed of showing herself wearing a pro-cycling promotional garment after giving me so much shit over the years for wearing bike clothes. Secondly, she is building the suspense before finally producing a mass of pictures. Let's hope it's the second.
Also, there are a number of typographical and spelling errors in the below post. I include these so as to retain the original sense of 'character' behind Ashley's writing.
Oh, also. Today is Ashley's birthday. Happy Birthday Baron!
yours,
Ianto Ware
so after a leisurely half a day of sitting outsidereading our books and sipping on chocolate shakes, weheaded to phnom penh airport - some of the craziestairport security i've seen in that you're not allowedinside the airport without a ticket... anyway, foundme some australian cadbury chocolate in the duty freeshop, which was awesome before our flight to hanoi,stopping briefly at the airport in laos.. which isnext on my list of places i want to go, although notjust because of the quality of the airport shops...landed in hanoi, where once again someone was waitingwith a sign with my name on it. piled into the vanwith one other guy who i think was vietnamese. thedriver had a mobile call so apologised to us beforetaking the call, and actually sat in the carpark whileon the phone without starting the car. "wow" i'mthinking "what a sensible driver" fatal lastthoughts.the traffic system of cambodia ie everyone do what youwant and try not to hit anyone else, has just aboutreached breaking point with the far higher levels oftraffic in hanoi. plus the ratio of car to bike hasgone back in favour of the cars, which seems to makethe critical difference, from goodwilled workabletraffic to horn blasting nightmare traffic.it appears that there is a special language of trafficin hanoi. on the highway in from the airport, theleft lane was largely reserved for the motorbikes andslow trucks, while the right hand lane was for thecars, fourwheeldrives etc. therefore when our driverwanted to overtake someone he would indicate (inspiteof the fact that there was a barrier stopping him fromactually changing lanes into the oncoming traffic) hewould then tailgate the car in front, whilst honkinghis horn repeatedly and flashing his lights -presumambly the car in front is supposed to find a gapin the endless trail of motorbikes and swap into thatlane, allowing our driver to progress one more carspace and do it to the next car...once in a while, just to mix things up a bit, ourdriver would overtake someone using the other lane...naturally no indicators were required for this pieceof manouvering...the honking of horns appears to be used to mean"you're in my way" as well as "you're not in my way atthe moment so just stay over there while i take youover" and "i'm about to enter an intersection withoutlooking to see if theres any traffic coming so stayout of my way" and "i'm about to break a road rule" aswell as "hey look at me i'm going real fast" and just"hey look at me". basically what this means is thatthere is so much continuous honking that no oneactually pays any attention to any of it. its a lotscarier crossing the road here than it was incambodia. anyway, we made it to the hotel, and up the manyflights of stairs to our 5th floor room, beforeheading out to a nearby cafe where we'd told somefriends of lauras we would be in they were free - itwas their last night after spending about a monthtravelling through cambodia, vietnam and laos.i'll leave it laura to give you the details of thatnight, except to say that when they were all startingtheir third cocktail, i bailed and went home to bedNYE all over again...lets just say that when laura came home she wasntoverly well... maybe its the food... anyway, she spenta portion of yesterday resting close to the bathroom,while i went for a wander around the old quarter...its a pretty amazing place - a street of shoes shops,shops just everywhere really... and specialising inthe stragest things. anyway, i went back and gotlaura for a late lunch, before we continued to wanderthe old quarter... we were trying to make it to amuseum, but that kind of failed... something whichlooks increasingly likely to repeat itself today.we attempted to find the main market last night,having read that it was open to 10, but this doesntseem to be the case, nevertheless the streets remainpretty fascinating on their own... we found a lovelyplace for dinner,with some delicious desserts (ah thefrench) before staying up far too late watching badamerican tv on cable...anyway, we really should get today under way - themuseums here also do this crazy shutting for two hoursover lunch thing, which really impinges on our plans,when we dont get going until right about the time theyshut.we dont seem to be able to access the blog at themoment, so i will get ianto* to post this, but we mightnot be able to read your comments for a while...
*I have entrusted Ianto with our blog password because he really is a top fellow. I'd just like to thank him for being trustworthy enough to post this for us. I know he won't misuse our password because amongst his many virtues perhaps the second most notable is his trustworthiness. His most notable virtue is, of course, his immense humility. He is, without doubt, the single most humble person I have ever met, and indeed I do not believe I will ever meet anyone more humble. He's just outrageously humble. It really is most alarming.
from Ianto Ware
Hello,
The Baron has asked me to post today's blog post for her because she was unable to do so from the computers accessible to her in Vietnam. Let me take this opportunity to provide a brief synopsis of the following text;
In today's post she depicts her arrival in Vietnam, which involved a somewhat tumultuous taxi trip before moving onto the quintessential themes contained in earlier posts - Laura going out and getting drunk and having adventures whilst Ashley goes home and has a nap. Notably, she does not provide any pictures of her wearing her much talked about Credit Agricole cycling cap, despite large scale public pressure. There are two probable reasons for this. Firstly, she is ashamed of showing herself wearing a pro-cycling promotional garment after giving me so much shit over the years for wearing bike clothes. Secondly, she is building the suspense before finally producing a mass of pictures. Let's hope it's the second.
Also, there are a number of typographical and spelling errors in the below post. I include these so as to retain the original sense of 'character' behind Ashley's writing.
Oh, also. Today is Ashley's birthday. Happy Birthday Baron!
yours,
Ianto Ware
so after a leisurely half a day of sitting outsidereading our books and sipping on chocolate shakes, weheaded to phnom penh airport - some of the craziestairport security i've seen in that you're not allowedinside the airport without a ticket... anyway, foundme some australian cadbury chocolate in the duty freeshop, which was awesome before our flight to hanoi,stopping briefly at the airport in laos.. which isnext on my list of places i want to go, although notjust because of the quality of the airport shops...landed in hanoi, where once again someone was waitingwith a sign with my name on it. piled into the vanwith one other guy who i think was vietnamese. thedriver had a mobile call so apologised to us beforetaking the call, and actually sat in the carpark whileon the phone without starting the car. "wow" i'mthinking "what a sensible driver" fatal lastthoughts.the traffic system of cambodia ie everyone do what youwant and try not to hit anyone else, has just aboutreached breaking point with the far higher levels oftraffic in hanoi. plus the ratio of car to bike hasgone back in favour of the cars, which seems to makethe critical difference, from goodwilled workabletraffic to horn blasting nightmare traffic.it appears that there is a special language of trafficin hanoi. on the highway in from the airport, theleft lane was largely reserved for the motorbikes andslow trucks, while the right hand lane was for thecars, fourwheeldrives etc. therefore when our driverwanted to overtake someone he would indicate (inspiteof the fact that there was a barrier stopping him fromactually changing lanes into the oncoming traffic) hewould then tailgate the car in front, whilst honkinghis horn repeatedly and flashing his lights -presumambly the car in front is supposed to find a gapin the endless trail of motorbikes and swap into thatlane, allowing our driver to progress one more carspace and do it to the next car...once in a while, just to mix things up a bit, ourdriver would overtake someone using the other lane...naturally no indicators were required for this pieceof manouvering...the honking of horns appears to be used to mean"you're in my way" as well as "you're not in my way atthe moment so just stay over there while i take youover" and "i'm about to enter an intersection withoutlooking to see if theres any traffic coming so stayout of my way" and "i'm about to break a road rule" aswell as "hey look at me i'm going real fast" and just"hey look at me". basically what this means is thatthere is so much continuous honking that no oneactually pays any attention to any of it. its a lotscarier crossing the road here than it was incambodia. anyway, we made it to the hotel, and up the manyflights of stairs to our 5th floor room, beforeheading out to a nearby cafe where we'd told somefriends of lauras we would be in they were free - itwas their last night after spending about a monthtravelling through cambodia, vietnam and laos.i'll leave it laura to give you the details of thatnight, except to say that when they were all startingtheir third cocktail, i bailed and went home to bedNYE all over again...lets just say that when laura came home she wasntoverly well... maybe its the food... anyway, she spenta portion of yesterday resting close to the bathroom,while i went for a wander around the old quarter...its a pretty amazing place - a street of shoes shops,shops just everywhere really... and specialising inthe stragest things. anyway, i went back and gotlaura for a late lunch, before we continued to wanderthe old quarter... we were trying to make it to amuseum, but that kind of failed... something whichlooks increasingly likely to repeat itself today.we attempted to find the main market last night,having read that it was open to 10, but this doesntseem to be the case, nevertheless the streets remainpretty fascinating on their own... we found a lovelyplace for dinner,with some delicious desserts (ah thefrench) before staying up far too late watching badamerican tv on cable...anyway, we really should get today under way - themuseums here also do this crazy shutting for two hoursover lunch thing, which really impinges on our plans,when we dont get going until right about the time theyshut.we dont seem to be able to access the blog at themoment, so i will get ianto* to post this, but we mightnot be able to read your comments for a while...
*I have entrusted Ianto with our blog password because he really is a top fellow. I'd just like to thank him for being trustworthy enough to post this for us. I know he won't misuse our password because amongst his many virtues perhaps the second most notable is his trustworthiness. His most notable virtue is, of course, his immense humility. He is, without doubt, the single most humble person I have ever met, and indeed I do not believe I will ever meet anyone more humble. He's just outrageously humble. It really is most alarming.
Monday, January 1, 2007
farewell cambodia
so what laura forgot to mention in the recount of her new years eve was the three hours of shopping hell that proceeded this outing... because foolishly i suggested that new outfits might be in order for new years... this suggestion occured about 5pm. however the hotel staff quickly confirmed that the market would be shut.... however they then tell me the shopping centre is open to 8pm. so we rushed off in a tuk tuk to the cambodian version of a shopping mall. which was pretty entertaining for the first hour. by the second hour my enthusiasim had some what waned, however lauras ability to actually make a decision appeared to have been left back in the hotel and only returned with the impending closure of the shops. oh well, eventually we made it out. apparently when the shopping centre opened a couple of years back the security guards had to teach people how to use the escalators. awww.
so obviously i slept through new years, one of my preferred ways of seeing in the new year. i did wake up at about 12.30 and begin to question what i was thinking letting laura go out on her own, but fortunately she walked in soon after, before i'd actually begun to call people in australia to ask them at what point it would be reasonable for me to panic.
today started pretty late, with another late breakfast before a day of not much. went to the main market, but i think we're actually beginning to reach market saturation point. having said that i bought a number of green turtle objects and jewellery... oh well... went up to wat phnom, the temple which contains the story of the naming of phnom penh... phnom means hill, penh was some woman who found something washed up on the hill... buddas i think it was.... this particular wat was surrounded by a small park area... full of MONKEYS. laura was a model of lara croft style strength and resilience, walking through the monkey park and even stopping to take pictures of the monkeys!! we found our way make to the hotel via an irish pub of sorts... i managed to fall asleep again briefly before we decided to check out the much talked about foreign correspondents club and their half priced happy hour margheritas. laura seems to feel its her mission to introduce me to cocktails. anyway, it was a nice place to sit on the balcony and watch the people along the riverfront, before heading to a nearby khmer restaurant for our last cambodian dinner... more amok, and some delicious fish in palm sugar...
we've bought a lot of random books from street kids in the last few days.... including a camodian lonely planet and a vietnam lonely planet. we probably dont need them, and they are just photocopied fakes, but they're handy, and for $4 they're probably worth it, at least for the kids if not for us. anyway, we have big plans to come back.
so now to try and get all our stuff into our bags. we suspect we will be shopping for a large extra bag in the morning. excess baggage here we come!
so obviously i slept through new years, one of my preferred ways of seeing in the new year. i did wake up at about 12.30 and begin to question what i was thinking letting laura go out on her own, but fortunately she walked in soon after, before i'd actually begun to call people in australia to ask them at what point it would be reasonable for me to panic.
today started pretty late, with another late breakfast before a day of not much. went to the main market, but i think we're actually beginning to reach market saturation point. having said that i bought a number of green turtle objects and jewellery... oh well... went up to wat phnom, the temple which contains the story of the naming of phnom penh... phnom means hill, penh was some woman who found something washed up on the hill... buddas i think it was.... this particular wat was surrounded by a small park area... full of MONKEYS. laura was a model of lara croft style strength and resilience, walking through the monkey park and even stopping to take pictures of the monkeys!! we found our way make to the hotel via an irish pub of sorts... i managed to fall asleep again briefly before we decided to check out the much talked about foreign correspondents club and their half priced happy hour margheritas. laura seems to feel its her mission to introduce me to cocktails. anyway, it was a nice place to sit on the balcony and watch the people along the riverfront, before heading to a nearby khmer restaurant for our last cambodian dinner... more amok, and some delicious fish in palm sugar...
we've bought a lot of random books from street kids in the last few days.... including a camodian lonely planet and a vietnam lonely planet. we probably dont need them, and they are just photocopied fakes, but they're handy, and for $4 they're probably worth it, at least for the kids if not for us. anyway, we have big plans to come back.
so now to try and get all our stuff into our bags. we suspect we will be shopping for a large extra bag in the morning. excess baggage here we come!
Funniest new years ever.
So as I think ash has explained yesterday we met some kids over lunch who told us where apparently the best party in town was happening for NYE. It was a club called sparks. They suggested we meet them back at the cafe and head there that night.
After dinner and our staple jug of $2 beer we headed to our room to get partied up. Ash soon realised she couldn't keep her eyes open after our exhausting day so I was left with the dilemma of do I go out and party or take my sleepy head to bed?. After about 20 minutes of contemplation I of course decide that it would just be wrong to be in bed before midnight on NYE and head out.
I had a chat to the dudes in our hotel and they assure me I'd be safe at Spark but suggest that I get a driver to take me there and back. This cost $9 which is about 2 weeks wages here but I figure it's less than a cab ride at home. My driver was one of the dudes from the hotel who we've come to know quite well so I felt pretty safe. We drove across the city in a very swanky looking black merc. We arrived at spark and the driver dropped me out front and explained that he'll wait in parking lot for my return, feeling a little bit like Paris Hilton, I got out and joined a queue out the front.
As I get to the front of the queue the door person, who has a big looking gun strapped to his back, asks me for Five dollars. I hand over my Five bucks and am issued with a feathered masquerade mask, a pink fibre optic torch and two tickets. I'm then ushered to an area for a bag inspection and body search. This actually makes me feel better as I hope it means no one else inside is packing anything. I'm told I have to leave my camera behind at the desk, ohhhh this seems wrong but I can hear the party and just want to get inside, what the hell you only live once eh....
Inside is less like a club and more like a mini version of the entertainment center. There's a big stage decorated by neon lights with screens either side which are showing star wars with Khmer subtitles. There's a boy band on stage all dressed in white adorning an amazing array of bling singing a pumped up version of happy birthday that went for 10 minutes. It was one of the funniest and most surreal things I've ever seen, I was laughing out loud. Hundreds of Cambodian kids are at this thing and there really getting into it. Then 20 or so birthday cakes appear from somewhere in the crowd and are placed on tables on the edge of the dance floor. A table of lovely kids that I'm standing near gesture for me to blow out the candles. Sensing my confusion they explain that in Cambodia on New years everyone becomes a year older, so apparently it's my Birthday! (It's ok mum, you can shower me with gifts when I get back).
After chatting to the kids for a while I make my way to the bar. As I stand there trying to work out how and what to order one of the waiters comes up and asks for my tickets. I hand them over. he tries to explain something but unfortunately we can't understand each other. He then returns and hands me a can of Guinness and a straw! Again I find my self laughing out loud. I'm going to finish 2006 drinking Guinness out of a straw in a Cambodian night club dancing to happy birthday the mega mix! Brilliant!
I quickly find a new group of pals to hang with and we chat while Cambodian boy bands and beautiful pop diva's grace the stage and play us their hits. one of the highlights was when the guitarist from one of the bands brought his scooter on stage and played guitar whilst burning up and down the stage on his scooter....I did happen to notice his guitar wasn't plugged into the amp but I wasn't going shatter the illusion for my new pals as this really excited them!
As it neared midnight you could feel the antisipation building in the room. I decide to leave new pals and head to the front of the stage to be amongst all the excitement. Just before midnight the diva's and boy band sensations all come on stage together. The overwhelmingly excited crowd joined the stars in the count down and welcomed in the New Year. Hundreds of balloons fell from the roof as the stars performed a melody of pop songs in Khmer. I realise this when I hear the unmistakable melody of lovely lady lumps!
The stars then gesture to the crowd to join them on stage. I'm dragged to the stage by some very snappily dressed gals and guys and we dance up a storm together. With Streamers glitter and balloons still falling from the roof and snap's "I've got the power" playing I wonder how the night can get any better.
We eventually clamber off the stage and I head to the bar. I spend a good 10 minutes trying to order a vodka and tonic, I end up with some weird looking cocktail but what ever it is it's fantastic. Next on stage is a troop of break dancers. There ages range from about 8 - 20 and they are wearing matching doo rags (is that the right term gem?). They are amazing; this is the best break dancing show I've ever seen. A guy next to me tells me he thinks these kids should be in bed by now as they will not learn anything at school tomorrow.
Next up is the "fashion show". Not a lot of fashion was shown but lots of scantly clad women and more boys in doo rags. After the fashion show back to more dancing, several more versions of happy birthday and a jingle bells remix...hottt.
The snappy dressed crew invite me to dance with them. After a while I decide it's time to head back before ash starts to worry. As I bid the snappy dressers farewell what starts playing...oh yeah people you guessed it my main man JT!! Sensing my delight snappy dressers pull me back to the dance floor for more dancing. Oh what a night!
Eventually I break myself away from the dance floor and head back to find my driver..la de dah! One the way home I think about what a bizarre day it has been. I started the day at the killing fields looking a hundreds of skulls of Cambodian's brutally killed by the Khmer Rouge and ended the day watching hundreds of young Cambodians partying up a storm celebrating the New Year. Not that this makes everything ok, because it obviously isn't, but it gives me some hope.
Happy new year everyone! Lets get rid of our stupid government this year people. Here's to a great 2007!!
Lauz
xxxx
After dinner and our staple jug of $2 beer we headed to our room to get partied up. Ash soon realised she couldn't keep her eyes open after our exhausting day so I was left with the dilemma of do I go out and party or take my sleepy head to bed?. After about 20 minutes of contemplation I of course decide that it would just be wrong to be in bed before midnight on NYE and head out.
I had a chat to the dudes in our hotel and they assure me I'd be safe at Spark but suggest that I get a driver to take me there and back. This cost $9 which is about 2 weeks wages here but I figure it's less than a cab ride at home. My driver was one of the dudes from the hotel who we've come to know quite well so I felt pretty safe. We drove across the city in a very swanky looking black merc. We arrived at spark and the driver dropped me out front and explained that he'll wait in parking lot for my return, feeling a little bit like Paris Hilton, I got out and joined a queue out the front.
As I get to the front of the queue the door person, who has a big looking gun strapped to his back, asks me for Five dollars. I hand over my Five bucks and am issued with a feathered masquerade mask, a pink fibre optic torch and two tickets. I'm then ushered to an area for a bag inspection and body search. This actually makes me feel better as I hope it means no one else inside is packing anything. I'm told I have to leave my camera behind at the desk, ohhhh this seems wrong but I can hear the party and just want to get inside, what the hell you only live once eh....
Inside is less like a club and more like a mini version of the entertainment center. There's a big stage decorated by neon lights with screens either side which are showing star wars with Khmer subtitles. There's a boy band on stage all dressed in white adorning an amazing array of bling singing a pumped up version of happy birthday that went for 10 minutes. It was one of the funniest and most surreal things I've ever seen, I was laughing out loud. Hundreds of Cambodian kids are at this thing and there really getting into it. Then 20 or so birthday cakes appear from somewhere in the crowd and are placed on tables on the edge of the dance floor. A table of lovely kids that I'm standing near gesture for me to blow out the candles. Sensing my confusion they explain that in Cambodia on New years everyone becomes a year older, so apparently it's my Birthday! (It's ok mum, you can shower me with gifts when I get back).
After chatting to the kids for a while I make my way to the bar. As I stand there trying to work out how and what to order one of the waiters comes up and asks for my tickets. I hand them over. he tries to explain something but unfortunately we can't understand each other. He then returns and hands me a can of Guinness and a straw! Again I find my self laughing out loud. I'm going to finish 2006 drinking Guinness out of a straw in a Cambodian night club dancing to happy birthday the mega mix! Brilliant!
I quickly find a new group of pals to hang with and we chat while Cambodian boy bands and beautiful pop diva's grace the stage and play us their hits. one of the highlights was when the guitarist from one of the bands brought his scooter on stage and played guitar whilst burning up and down the stage on his scooter....I did happen to notice his guitar wasn't plugged into the amp but I wasn't going shatter the illusion for my new pals as this really excited them!
As it neared midnight you could feel the antisipation building in the room. I decide to leave new pals and head to the front of the stage to be amongst all the excitement. Just before midnight the diva's and boy band sensations all come on stage together. The overwhelmingly excited crowd joined the stars in the count down and welcomed in the New Year. Hundreds of balloons fell from the roof as the stars performed a melody of pop songs in Khmer. I realise this when I hear the unmistakable melody of lovely lady lumps!
The stars then gesture to the crowd to join them on stage. I'm dragged to the stage by some very snappily dressed gals and guys and we dance up a storm together. With Streamers glitter and balloons still falling from the roof and snap's "I've got the power" playing I wonder how the night can get any better.
We eventually clamber off the stage and I head to the bar. I spend a good 10 minutes trying to order a vodka and tonic, I end up with some weird looking cocktail but what ever it is it's fantastic. Next on stage is a troop of break dancers. There ages range from about 8 - 20 and they are wearing matching doo rags (is that the right term gem?). They are amazing; this is the best break dancing show I've ever seen. A guy next to me tells me he thinks these kids should be in bed by now as they will not learn anything at school tomorrow.
Next up is the "fashion show". Not a lot of fashion was shown but lots of scantly clad women and more boys in doo rags. After the fashion show back to more dancing, several more versions of happy birthday and a jingle bells remix...hottt.
The snappy dressed crew invite me to dance with them. After a while I decide it's time to head back before ash starts to worry. As I bid the snappy dressers farewell what starts playing...oh yeah people you guessed it my main man JT!! Sensing my delight snappy dressers pull me back to the dance floor for more dancing. Oh what a night!
Eventually I break myself away from the dance floor and head back to find my driver..la de dah! One the way home I think about what a bizarre day it has been. I started the day at the killing fields looking a hundreds of skulls of Cambodian's brutally killed by the Khmer Rouge and ended the day watching hundreds of young Cambodians partying up a storm celebrating the New Year. Not that this makes everything ok, because it obviously isn't, but it gives me some hope.
Happy new year everyone! Lets get rid of our stupid government this year people. Here's to a great 2007!!
Lauz
xxxx
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