South Laos & Cambodia
February 27th: A travel day to Vientiane where we immediately hopped on another bus to Thakhek. That's where we had a 2 day motorbike trip to the Khonglor cave and back! The first 105 km were absolutely boring but it was a good exercise to get used to the gears (I'm a pro now!!!!) ... the next 81 km were absolutely gorgeous. Of course we had some trouble with the bikes: First the chain of Karen's bike broke down ... luckily we were close to a village and found a mechanic. Then my bike had battery problems, but now I'm also a pro at starting the bike manually. Even with all those troubles, we've made it to Khonglor and visited the beautiful cave first thing in the morning ... after some breakfast of course :)
Back in Thakhek, we took a bus to Si Phan Don, also known as 4000 Islands ... we had to take the night bus which had AMAZINGLY HUGE seats ... unfortunately there were no seats available for us :( ... so we tried to steal some ... but that didn't work. We got stuck on a plastic chair in the alley for 3 hours before some seats became available.Next day we arrived in Don Det (one of the 4000 Islands) where we chilled for the next 5 days. We slept 2 nights on the Sunset side and 2 nights on the sunrise side. We read, I swam in the Mekong, we ate, we slept and that's about all we did. Oh, and I also went to the Lao hairdresser ... NOT a good idea!
On the 6th we travelled back to Pakse because we had a flight there on the 7th to go to Siem Reap in CAMBODIA. That's where we had the greatest guesthouse EVER, if somebody is going to the temples of Angkor Wat, you must stay at the ‘Golden Mango Inn' (Thanks Angie & Thomas for the great advice). The first day in Siem Reap we visited the temples of course (which are G O R G E O U S), the second day was shopping/donation day: first I donated some blood at the children's hospital, we bought some souvenirs there and we donated some clothes. We went eating at Haven which is a training restaurant & sanctuary for young adult orphans in Cambodia and then we did some shopping in (of course) some shops that support local creativity. At night we took the sleeping bus to Phnom Penh. We were amazed when we saw we had the best beds of the whole bus (upfront) and in the end we almost didn't sleep because we were that scared (being upfront). We arrived in Phnom Penh were Karen had arranged the ‘Suite' of a boutique Hotel in the centre of town .... NICE ... vely nice! Phnom Penh is really a nice city to visit but we started to get excited by our next destination ... first a bus to Sihanoukville where we had to spend 1 night before we could take our boat to Koh Rong Saloem .... You can also call it LAZY BEACH!!!! And that's what we did there for 4 days ... being Lazy! Well we also did some snorkeling there and we took the 20 minutes jungle walk twice to go to the White sand beach at the other side .... The most beautiful beach I've ever seen!
On March 16th we had to go back to the mainland .... Snif ... but we did spend one more day at the Beach. Again we got a great tip for the guesthouse (thanks again Angie & Thomas) being Mushroom point: Our room was a mushroom (duh), with a round bed and the bathroom was also a mushroom .... Smurf was very happy there!
And this was Cambodia: Loved it but unfortunately we only spend 10 days here. People are again soooo nice, women are dressed in their pajamas :). It's a country that suffered big time in the past but they keep on smiling! I'll come back!
North & Central Laos
We've crossed the Thailand-Lao border by boat on Thursday Feb 16th and immediately got introduced to LAO Time ... They're absolutely not in a hurry no matter what and thus it took us ONLY 2 hours to get our Lao visa! Then we tried to find a bus to Luang Namtha. We paid the bus ticket at 2 PM, we caught he minivan at 4 PM. Again: Lao Time. Consequently we arrived in Luang Namtha in the evening where we met Andy (again an American ... what do these Americans like about us?? ) and arranged to go on a trekking together the next day.
Our guide was HAK. We started the trekking by going to the market to buy the food for lunch. We went on our jungle trek where we had a fish BBQ together with all the stuff from the market. We finished the day being invited at Hak's Home.... or let's say his parent's home. What a crazy experience: the whole family was there, they had this kind of ceremony going on to call the good spirits for his daddy who had lost one (out of 32). We were all gathered around the table, the ceremony master mumbling something and reading the chicken (that was a few days old); we all had to eat a piece and Lucky Me, I had a piece of the liver ... miamie ... well I arranged the cat to enjoy the other, bigger part of it! The funny part of the ceremony was the drinking part: They served this homemade Lao Whisky (Laolao) of star fruit all night long ... eventually we achieved in actually seeing some dazzling stars
On Saturday Hak invited us to his best friend's wedding . We put on our nicest clothes - meaning our cleanest trousers and flip flops - , got picked-up at 11 AM and experienced the craziest wedding EVER!!!! When we arrived, we first had to greet the whole family and then the drinking and eating part starts. The whole afternoon is about that: drinking, eating, drinking, dancing, drinking, drinking,.... Let me tell you more about the drinking ... it's special ... You're not allowed to drink what you want whenever you want to ... No, no ... somebody at the table pours out the beer (with ice), gives it to you and you have to drink it ad fundum, give back the glass, he pours out a new one to give to your neighbor who has to drink it ad fundum too and so it goes on and on and on the whole afternoon ... until they decide it's time to drink the Laolao (whisky) ... ai ai ai ... with the same ritual. We call this Binge drinking; they call it ‘a wedding'!! The whole town was soooooo drunk and we were a little too. So that made the dancing part easy ... They have 3 dances, which are absolutely childish and of course we got invited all the time ... which was a good way to escape from the drinking part!
Next day we were a little less funny to be around, but that was a travelling day: 4 hours to Udomxai - 4 hours waiting there and another 3 hours to Muang Kua, where we arrived in the evening - looked for a guesthouse - had some dinner, went to bed and slept like babies.
The following destination was Muang Ngoi Neua ... a little piece of heaven ... it's magnificent up there. It's a small town, surrounded by jungle and rice fields, only reachable by boat, no cell phone connection, no internet, no roads. Sooo quite and absolutely gorgeous. We found ourselves a guest house on the riverside and chilled there in the hammock, went for a hike in the nearby caves and villages ...
Wednesday we took the boat again to Nong Khiaw ... it was a 1 hour boat ride that took us 30 minutes longer because we had to charge some monks on the way, some chickens, some ducks, etc etc ... 500 meters before we arrived, the boat broke down. We almost had to peddle. We arrived at 11 AM, exactly when the bus (the busstation was 2 km further) is supposed to leave to Luang Prabang ... Thank God for Lao time for once!!!During the bus ride we arrived at some roadblock where you had a big caterpillar working ... thinking we would be blocked there for 30 minutes, Karen & I decided to walk back to town for about 300 meters to buy some food as it was 1 PM and we were very hungry. Being at our shop, a local guy on a motorbike arrived with Andy on the back: ‘Girls, if I were you, I would hurry up, I don't think it's going to take a long time before the bus leaves again' ... Thanks Andy! We immediately headed back to the bus without buying anything ... when we came behind the corner we could see the caterpillar working but NO bus ... we ran hoping Andy would have stopped the bus and lucky us: the bus was waiting behind the next corner ... Everybody was laughing, especially the Lao people ... Why would you run when you have Lao Time ?!?! We actually started loving the principle of Lao time as from that moment.
We arrived in Luang Prabang ... what a lovely and chilled-out city ... we walked around. Had some lunch/dinner and went to the Night Market to check out what souvenirs we can buy. The 2 following days we spent there we did some biking, visiting the temples, visiting the Waterfall and organizing the following days of our trip.
On the 25th of February we left Luan Prabang (‘Pang Pang Pang' according to Karen, who does not achieve in memorizing the slightest name but can recall the color of the T-shirt of a complete stranger passing by one day) in the early morning to go to Vang Vieng ... which was absolutely not our kind of place. It's packed with young (yeah yeah, we're getting old) party people who seem to be drunk all day long. The only exercise they get is tubing and watching Friends or Family Guy on the big flat screens in the local bars. No wonder nearly 22 people find death in this place every year. Again....Karen found us a nice little guesthouse across the river where it's peaceful and quite ... Oef!
On the morning of February the 26th we said goodbye to Andy ... he travelled with us for 9 days! He's an easy going guy who never complains and never takes any decision either ... good for us because we like to take all the decisions :) After 9 days we were also glad to be on our own again. We visited the area around Vang Vieng by mountain bike. It was a dusty, bumpy road so we were glad we had those mountain bikes ... but we were even gladder to give them back!
Again a travel day to Vientiane where we immediately hopped on another bus to Thakhek. That's where we had a 2 day motorbike trip to the Khonglor cave and back! The first 105 km were absolutely boring but it was a good exercise to get used to the gears (I'm a pro now!!!!) ... the next 81 km were absolutely gorgeous. Of course we had some trouble with the bikes: First the chain of Karen's bike broke down ... luckily we were close to a village and found a mechanic. Then my bike had battery problems, but now I'm also a pro at starting the bike manually. Even with all those troubles, we've made it to Khonglor and visited the beautiful cave first thing in the morning ... after breakfast of course :) Later we headed back to Thakhek.
Now we're going South for a few days & after that Cambodia !!!!!!
Thailand
Well, it's been a while since I wrote but no worries: me alive and kicking in Thailand!
Wednesday 01/02: We left Yangon in the morning for Bangkok ... The first stop we had at Bangkok's airport was 'Starbucks' - when we arrived in the city we went to 'Burgerking' - we met with Jean-Jacques and went to an Italian Restaurant to have some red wine .... It's good to be back in Thailand or let's say a country with looooots of ATM's, Wifi, cell phone network, Western food & drinks where they accept credit cards ;) On Thursday we had a lazy day at JJ's apartment where we watched some chick flick movies all day long. Our last day in Bangkok was running from the post office to the Spa (for waxing) to another Spa for massssàààààààge while deciding where we would head off next.
Our first stop was Ayuthaya, ancient capital city with some lovely ruins where we rented a bike on Sunday to cycle around town. After that we went to Sukhothai, again an ancient capital city where again we cycled around the ruins (they where gorgeous). We travelled to Mae Sot (village at the border with Burma) where on Wednesday we took a pick-up truck to go to Mae Sariang. Yezza ... A 6-hour drive in the back of a pick-up truck! We had better ways of getting from point A to B but we survived. That's where we met Darlene from the USA and we ended up travelling together for 5 days. Our friend Darlene was travelling by herself and for the record, she's 67 years old. We also met Sophie (with fake boobies and without any sense of humor) & Mathieu from Belgium with whom we went hiking for the next 2 days.
11.02.2012 Happy Birthday Christophe & BONNE ANNEE SARAH !!!! I hope you guys enjoyed your day more than we did because we had a 6 hour bus ride to Chiang Mai which was extended to 7.30 hours because the bus couldn't pass to the 2nd gear after lunch. When we arrived, we checked-in in a dirty hotel where the girl/boy (?? - that happens a lot here) at the reception was not even nice to us. In the evening it all got better: we went to the Saturday market to do some shopping and we ended our day with a beer and a massssàààààge!!!!
On Sunday we first found ourselves a lovely new guest house, walked around Chiang Mai, spent a lot of money while shopping and went (back) to the Sunday market. When we got bored of shopping Darlene wanted to go back for Beer & massssàààààge ... she loved our way of travelling ;-)
Monday we said goodbye to Darlene and we went to 'Yasmine Hill Lodge' a little bit outside the city .... It was almost Valentine day and we treated ourselves to 2 days of sunbathing at the pool. I even got a Valentine present. Lovely :)
And this brings me to Today 15/2/2012 where we spent another day on a bus ... again a broken one (this time it was the AC) and we arrived in Chiang Khong at the Laos border ... we went for a last massssàààààge!!!!! Well.... Let's say, the last one in North-Thailand :)
Tomorrow we will be crossing the border .... Laos, here we come!
Myanmar (Burma) - Part 2
Hallo
Hier ben ik weer! En het was weer gezellig de laatste dagen ... wat hebben we zoal gedaan: Na Hsipau zijn we richting Pyin Oo Lwin gegaan, we hebben weeral een bus moeten nemen om 6u 's ochtends. Daar hebben we Marie-Lou ontmoet, een amerikaanse die absoluut niet kan zwijgen ... echt geen seconde ... (nog erger dan Karen - ja, dat kan!) We zijn dan ook weer zeer snel vertrokken richting Kalaw. Om daar te geraken hebben we eerst in een 'Shared Taxi' gezeten: je wordt met 4 in een auto geduwd, je kan amper bewegen, en dat moet je dan 3uur volhouden ... Geef mij dan maar de bus, al dan niet met de geur van paardemest en tomaten onder je voeten. Ook moesten we onze taxi ‘sharen' met een soldaat (sowieso gene kado gezien het heersende regime hier). Aangekomen in Mandalay moesten we blijkbaar nog een bus ticket kopen want we werden niet aan het busstation afgezet maar aan de busmaatschappij (deuh - dat had ik dus lekker fout begrepen). Anyway, we hebben nog snel ons ticketje gekocht (de laatste 2 plekken op de bus, op de achterbank - gesjellig....) en zijn nog op tijd (met de rammelende pick-up) aan de bus geraakt ... Yezza!
Om 2u 's nachts kwamen we toe in Kalaw. Gelukkig hadden we onze guesthouse verwittigd en kregen we een kamertje onder het dak (precies een gevangeniscel). We hebben 2 dagen in Kalaw rondgehangen, hebben een lekker Nepalees restaurantje gevonden en een super gezellige bar ... een echt café, zoals wij die kennen waar de eigenaar Myo enkel rum serveert ... en alleen maar rum, wat wil zeggen: rum & water, rum & soda of rum & cola ... en Karen vraagt natuurlijk ...een Gin Tonic
Dan 3 dagen trekking met Oezo, onze gids - Solène, française & féministe tot in de kist - Mathilde, française en opéra zangeres - Sala, français (arabe), contrôleur de train en geweldig grappig - Tom, français et très discret & Alvaro, from Venezuela. We hebben in 3 dagen 61km gestapt (de blaren bewijzen het). De eerste nacht hebben we bij de locals in een dorpje geslapen, enfin .. we hebben geen oog dichtgedaan, het was zo'n 3 graden buiten en de muren van het huis zijn in bamboo ... maw met verluchtingsgaten. Koud, vermoeiend maar wel zeer sympathiek en dus nu in het geheugen gegrift. De volgende dag zijn we nog andere Belgen tegen het lijf gelopen, Thomas (van Great Mountain Fire, Belgische Rockband ... en nu allen een cd gaan kopen aub
Op vrijdag hebben we weer een dagje rondgehangen ... we waren wel net iets actiever dan de dag ervoor. We hebben onze bus naar Yangon geregeld, de boot voor zaterdag, de fietsen voor zondag en jeuj we hebben WIFI gevonden!!!!!! Alleen moet je weer hééééééél vééééééél geduld hebben!
Zaterdag hebben we van zonsopgang tot zonsondergang op ons bootje op Inle lake gezeten ... we hebben de dorpjes bezocht op paalwoningen op de Lake (SUPER), de klassieke route MET bijbehorende souvenirwinkels: de sigarenfabriek, de zilversmid, de goudsmid, de paraplumaker, de wevers, de pagoda's, de ‘jumping cat' monastery (echt debiel), de madammen met de lange nek (absoluut oninteressant) en noem maar op. Het was wel een aangename dag.
Zondag was dan DeCaDeNTie-dag .... het einde van de reis in Burma is nabij ... we hebben ons ongeloofelijk goed aan ons budget gehouden en kunnen ons vandaag wat extra permitteren ... dat hebben we dan ook gedaan. We zijn met onze gehuurde fiesten naar de wijngaarden gegaan om de lokale wijnen te proeven en om daar te lunchen: de wijnen zijn eigenlijk niet te zuipen maar het was wel leuk om wijn te drinken. Samen met de lunch kwam onze rekening uit op 14€! Daarna hebben we op een leuk terrasje een Iced coffee & Iced tea gedronken voor een dikke 5€ en voor 's avonds hebben we ons een luxe restaurant gevonden waar we de Shan suggestie menu hebben genomen MET een fles rode wijn (we hebben op veilig gespeeld en we hebben Franse wijn genomen ... decadent hé) en dit alles heeft ons 46€ gekost (een maandloon voor de meeste Burmesen) ... maar wij hebben wel héél lekker gegeten! Na een dodoke, een ontbijt en een beetje internet was het tijd om te vertrekken. De Pick-up stond klaar en was al overvol, dus wij hebben het ritje tot aan de bushalte OP HET DAK doorgebracht, heerlijk. Daarna een 14 uur durende rit naar Yangon waar we om 5u30 zijn toegekomen.
Dinsdag, de laatste dag van januari en onze laatste dag in Burma. Het enige transportmiddel dat we nog niet hebben genomen is de trein ... and I LOVE trains ... dus hebben we de ‘roundtrip' rond Yangon gedaan. Een 3 uur durende rit die ons van Yangon Centraal naar .. jaja .. Yangon Centraal bracht (en dit na 14u in een bus te hebben gezeten !?!) ... maar wederom een magisch moment met de locals!
Dit was Burma ... een apart land ... het land waar de meeste pagoda's staan, waar er overal puppy's rondlopen (so cute), waar vrouwen en ook mannen hun gezicht versieren met Thanakha, waar veel armoede heerst, waar de tijd is blijven stil staan en waar de mensen verlegen naar je glimlachen maar zooooo ontzettend lief zijn!!!
Now let's go to Thailand !!!
Myanmar (Burma) - Part 1
Sunday 8/1: Karen & I took the early flight from Bangkok to Yangon. Our taxi was there at 5am, we were at the airport at 5.30am and we still had to run through the airport to catch our flight at 8am. We arrived in Yangon thinking that our driver (Karen had arranged one) would pick us up at the airport but no one came. We took a taxi to the city but without any reservation we had to walk for 1 hour from guest house to guest house to find ourselves a room. We booked our room in the garden guest house (never found the garden), it was in the centre of the city on the 5th floor and it was a dirty old room with AC tough. We walked around in the city, stopped for a coffee break in a tea house (or better: some chairs on the side of the street). After only 3 minutes we were surrounded by smiling men with red teeth (from the betel nut). We got introduced to the strange local cuisine while we went for lunch in a small restaurant where no one spoke English. We pointed out at what our neighbor's were eating to order. Back to the guesthouse our driver was waiting for us so we discussed our itinerary or the next 24 days ... Unfortunately it was not 50 USD/day as we were told but 100 USD/day ... so after some discussion we decided not to take the driver and jump with both feet into our Burmese adventure by local transportation.
Day 95: We woke up in our dirty little room, had breakfast and went to the bank to change some US dollars into Kyat ... we took the bad bills to the bank and they refused those, you have to use recent bills, no folds, no stamps, no stains, no writing marks, no tears ... no whatever or they don't take it. I only had a 100 dollars bill refused but for Karen it was 260 dollars ... so we tried the black market ... which is absolutely illegal ... that's why I'm writing this from our prison cell ... daddy, can you please call a lawyer ... I'm kidding ;-) ... but we did change our money on the black market and heard later on that an Australian tourist was imprisoned for 1 year after changing his money there ... oops. The exchange rate was less interesting but it was the only way to change the money. We sat on the side of the street drinking coffee (so you're doing something illegal and you still have to pay for the coffee to look like you're doing nothing wrong), they came with the bills and while they were counting them they asked where we came from, bla bla this, bla bla that, just so we would not focus anymore on the bills ... well, you know me, that didn't work ... I counted the bills myself. Karen was handling the dollars and at one point a 100 USD bill disappeared ... you know her as well .... it didn't work either ... we were not moving until the bill reappeared by magic. Anyway in the end, we changed the money, left and I had a purse full of Kyat. Later that day we went to our new guesthouse, which is absolutely lovely and visited the Shwedagon Pagoda in the afternoon ... gorgeous!
Tuesday 10/1: We had a chill out day at our guesthouse ... hiding the money everywhere in the bags, arranging our daily budget ... Which is kind of necessary as there're no ATM's in this country and we can only rely on the dollars we brought. Also because Karen is coming from Australia & New Zealand, she thinks everything is soooo cheap ... when I'm thinking that it's a little bit expensive ... Don't worry, we finally agreed on a budget! Then we had to make Karen's bag to shrink because ... it's HUGE and as we don't have our car and driver, she needs a smaller bag. Later that day we took a bus from Yangon to Bagan, an 11 hour ride in (what we would call) a karaoke bus. It was kind of amusing in a way.
Wednesday 11/1: We arrived at 3 am in the morning and we were picked up at the bus station by someone from our guest house ... we slept until 11 am. After some lunch we rented 2 bikes to wonder around Bagan (the 2nd biggest archeological site in Asia) ... it's wonderful!
Thursday 12/1: After some Burmese breakfast (Fish Noodle Soup) our Horse cart was waiting for us for a day trip around the temples. We just went from one to the other temple and we were amazed every minute of the day. At lunch time we went back to the market of old Bagan to eat with the locals, to have our sweets and our pineapple. After lunch, back on the horse cart for the afternoon and we finished with the sunset. But there were soooo many people at the same spot + there were some clouds ... we just ran away, back to the horse cart to drive us back to our guesthouse.
Friday 13 Happy Birthday Marraine - Happy Birthday Laurence!!! Day 99 !! Wake up at 5.45am for our morning in the Hot Air Balloon!!! It was absolutely GORGEOUS and really exciting as we both never went into a hot air balloon. First they picked us up, we had some decent coffee, the safety briefing and hopla ... in the air!!!! After 45 minutes we landed and got some Champagne (which was very welcome of course), croissants and banana bread. Back to the guest house I took a nap and we had a chill out afternoon.
What an exciting day !!!!! Saturday 14/1 it's day 100 of my trip and I'm spending it on a 12 hour boat trip from Bagan to Mandalay!!!
In Mandalay we're sleeping at the Peacock Lodge, a family run guesthouse where everyone is soooo nice. Today we did some sightseeing: the monks having lunch, U Bein's Bridge, Mandalay Hill, Kuthodaw Paya and Shwenandaw Kyaung. Let's start with the monks: It's at some monastery where you have hundreds of monks lining up to have lunch. People come to see the lineup, then the monks take some rice & bananas and after that they sit down to eat ... wow ... people do come to see this ritual ... we think it's a bit stupid but what we liked is that one monk came to talk to us. We asked him if they don't mind that people come every day to see them eat... well no, they don't care because they're used to it for the past 13 years. After that we went to the U Bein Bridge, it's the world's longest teak footbridge, one of Myanmar's most photographed sites and it's absolutely gorgeous ... and funny because Karen is afraid of heights :-) !
Mandalay Hill is a 40 minutes climb to the top to see the city. And when you finally get there, you're not allowed to take pictures unless you pay a camera fee, which we didn't. On our way down, some local women laughed at us, being shy and talking to each other ...and then finally asking if we want to go on the picture with them ... Of course we do!
Our taxi driver was supposed to take us back home but he stopped at 2 more sites, another Stupa and another monastery (ok, a teak one) but we're being a little spoiled so both sites took us 5 minutes to visit.
In the evening we went for dinner somewhere in the streets, the restaurant we chose was an almost only guy restaurant, but we chose that one because there were at least 3 women present. We ordered some rice with whatever, we have no idea what we were eating but it was not good. The Myanmar food is actually disappointing (especially if you compare to neighbor Thailand) ... but it's cheap.
Next day was a travel day from Mandalay to Hsipau (try to pronounce that name). We woke up at 5 am (we're getting up earlier than when we have to go to work) - the taxi driver was there at 5.20 and took us to the bus station where our bus was leaving at 6am. This time we were travelling with a local 'Cargo' bus. Let me tell you what that is: It's a comfortable bus ... NOT ... with only 5 rows of seats, behind the seat there're bags, boxes, food, bikes ... whatever ... under the seats there're boxes with (we think) tomatoes and in the path between the seats too ... It's a smelly, smelly bus .... And we loved it!!! It was a 6 hour drive with no possibility to take a nap because of the bumpy road .... but spending time while listening to music and being lost in your own thoughts, it's priceless ... even in an uncomfy bus. It makes me realize how happy I am and that I really miss my family and friends ... yeah, I'm being a woos again.
We arrived in Hspiau and stopped for some lunch. Checked-in in our new Guest house (Mr Charles guesthouse - way too expensive for what we've got) and talked with the local tour guide for our next day trekking. In the evening we went back in the streets for some dinner and we just found the loveliest place: it's run by young boys who don't speak English at all. The food was delicious. One guy pronounced the word 'chicken' and we just said 'Ok 2 please'. It's kind of a local steamed hamburger ... Nice. Then we saw what our neighbor's were eating: pointed it out and said we want the same, a delicious deep fried pancake with beans ... then we wanted one with sugar as a dessert and later we saw this cake-ish thing on our other neighbor's table and ordered that one too: it was similar to a ‘franchipan' but so much better ... the cost of that evening was 1100 Kyat, the full 1,1€ for the both of us!
Trekking day with our tour guide SAI (easy name to remember): We had a 5 hour walk, with 1 tea break and 4,5 hours were only uphill ... which was a bit boring. We did arrive in a lovely hill town where we were spending the night. First we had some lunch, then we rested for 1 hour and then we went for a walk around town. The kids there were amazing: they wave to say hello while saying ‘bye bye'. We took a lot of pictures of them. Unfortunately we had a stress moment when we saw the army. I looked at one and thought he had a nice camera hanging from his shoulders until I realized it was the barrel of his gun. They were following us a bit and we didn't dare to take anymore pictures. Later on they left. This small hill town was the highlight of the trekking. They have no electricity, no running water (except for the pump at the beginning of the village), the kids were playing with whatever they found, they are dirty as hell but oh so cute!!! We had dinner in the same house and before we went to bed, we had a look at the sky and we've never seen so many stars ever .... It was amazingly gorgeous!!
Wednesday 18/01 We walked back to town when our guide wanted us to go through a steep road around the lime stone rocks, ok, no problem ... we walked in the fields, on a sand road, back in the fields and Karen misplaced her foot and fell on the floor ... nothing badly, just a small fall ... and then our guide overreacted by being overprotective ... he was really being soooooooooo careful. The only thing he was saying was: Don't be afraid, be careful, don't be afraid, come on, don't be afraid, yes easy, don't be afraid, don't be afraid ... he was getting on Karen's nerves and I was laughing every time he said: don't be afraid!
We chilled in the afternoon and went back to our little street restaurant in the evening where we had great food for 0,8€ ... LOVE IT!
A special message to Pierrick: I know I talk to much about food ... but it's such a big part of the trip and such an adventure ... and you know me, I just love it :-)
Dubai & Bangkok
Zaterdag 24/12 dag 79: Op kerstavond zat ik bij mijn zusje in Dubai samen met mijn papa & mama ... 't is super om iedereen terug te zien. Ik heb daar ook de allerbeste kerstcadeau allertijden gekregen: mignonnetjes noire de noire van Côte d'Or ....en dit van mijn super schatten Oscar & Maurice ... en natuurlijk ook van Pierrick & Aurélie ... DANK U DANK U DANK U !!!! De dag erop was het groot feest in de tuin met de vrienden van Séverine die achterbleven in Dubai ... de ganse namiddag eten ... lekker BBQ'en en en en er was STEAK op 't menu (!!!!!).... toch wel iets dat ik gemist heb. Dan hebben we nog 2 dagen rondgehangen met de papa en de mama alvorens die terug naar België gingen. Onze familiale trip naar thailand was helaas afgelast maar Séverine had nog steeds nood aan een aantal dagen weg te zijn uit Dubai dus hebben we een uitstapje gedaan naar Fujeirha. Daar hebben we 2 nachten in een *****hotel geslapen (uiteraard niet op mijn kosten, dank u Séverine) met véél te véél russen en véél te véél animatie : Yoga, volleyball, morning stretching, enz . .. daar deden wij natuurlijk niet aan mee. Wij hebben genoten van zon, strand & massage. De weg van Dubai naar Fujeirha was super mooi, tussen de rotsen & bergen in de woestijn, een aanrader.
Zaterdag 31/12 dag 86: Voor de verandering, een dagje strand maar vandaag was dat samen met Larissa & Gary, Olivier & zijn vrouw ... supergezellig! Tegen 16u gingen Séverine & ik naar huis om ons volledig op te maken voor de laatste avond van 2011. We hadden afgesproken met haar Belgische maten op één of ander appartement. Daar was er een lekker buffet en véél Champagne ... het probleem is dat als het feestje om 18u begint dan ben ik zat vooraleer het middernacht is. Na het eten met de Belgische vrienden zijn we naar onze andere Belgische vrienden gegaan (Lala, Gary, Olivier & Co) op de Palm Jumeirha (ge weet wel, die sjieke palmboom in de zee). Het was super tof, geweldig hard gelachen maar wel moeilijk om middernacht te halen (wie begint er nu een feestje om 18u ?!?). We hebben naar het vuurwerk gekeken en zodra die gedaan was: hopla, taxi in, naar huis en bedje in.
Zondag 1/1 dag 87 > HAPPY NEWYEAR .... een dagje in de zetel ... met een kater en een Whopper van Burgerking, zaaaaalig (de whopper weliswaar, niet de kater)
Maandag was niet echt zo verschillend van de dag ervoor, Séverine & ik hebben in de zetel gehangen totdat het tijd was om af te spreken met Larissa!!! We zijn naar een bar gegaan, hebben daar gegeten, we hebben voornamelijk goed gelachen. We zijn niet te laat gaan slapen want de dag erop begint er een nieuw avontuur: Thailand (allé, enkel Bangkok voorlopig)
03/01: Ik moet toch wel eventjes melden dat ik dankzij mijn zusje ... voor de eerste keer in mijn leven ... in BUSINESS heb gevlogen ... man, man, man ... dat zou ik snel gewoon kunnen worden ... HEERLIJK! Eerst ben ik toegekomen in de aparte check-in hall, dan heb ik ontbeten ik de business lounge. Het leuke is, je mag iedereen voorsteken bij de boarding. Dan kom je in het vliegtuig en hopla ... daar was mijn glas Champagne al (om 9u 's morgens) ... heerlijk!!! En wanneer je aankomt, de eerste bagages die op de rol staan: de business bagages. Ok nu stop ik erover want het zal nog effe duren eer ik dat terug zal meemaken .... THANK YOU SISTER!!
Bij mijn aankomst in Bangkok, ben ik zo snel mogelijk de kamer gaan zoeken die Karen voor ons had gereserveerd in Lampu House. En daarna ..... massage ... dit is het meest fantastische aan Thailand: een massage van 30 minuten kost hier een dikke 2,5€ .... genieten!!!! En dan is Karen tegen 1u ‘s nachts toegekomen ... jeuj ... vanaf nu gaan we samen op stap!
Woensdag 4/1: Vandaag beginnen we onze dag met chillen, eten, bijpraten en een beetje wandelen op Khao San Road ... en daarna was het de grote hereniging van Karen en haar zusje Ellen & Tom die ook mee mocht aanschuiven aan tafel (de vriend van Ellen) We hebben de hele dag in hetzelfde café gezeten, we hebben veel gebabbeld, veel gegeten, veel gelachen en nog meer gedronken. Tegen 1u heb ik moeten opgeven en ben ik zatjes in mijn bed gekropen.
Helaas moesten we donderdag vroeg opstaan om naar de ambassade van Myanmar (Burma) te gaan voor onze Visum, we hebben daar 2u kunnen aanschuiven om de documenten in te dienen, daarna zijn dan gaan rondwandelen in Bangkok: Flowermarket & Chinatown. Het meest fantastische aan Bangkok is de eet-cultuur: overal, maar dan ook overal zijn er eetstandje, de geuren zijn fantastisch en het smaakt allemaal overheerlijk. Met Karen heb ik een goede ‘partner in crime' gevonden, zij wil alles proeven ... Ik ga ni klagen, ik vind het super! In de namiddag mochten we terug gaan aanschuiven aan de ambassade voor het afhalen van onze Visum ... en wat een file!!! De rij was gigantisch lang en het ging eeuwen duren totdat Karen door had dat er iets niet klopte ... zij heeft op haar manier de ganse rij voorbijgestoken en hopla, na 2 minuten hadden we onze Visums. 's Avonds zijn we rustig iets gaan eten & drinken en we zijn vroeg in bed gekropen.
Vrijdag 6/1: Weer een dagje Bangkok met véél eten aan de straatkraampjes, wandelen in de oude stad en shoppen. 's Avonds hadden we afgesproken met Jean-Jacques Despert, die ik zo'n kleine 10 jaar niet meer heb gezien. We zijn ook Sam en Tim tegen het lijf gelopen (Karen's reismaatjes van Australië) en we zijn weer in den drank gevlogen met als gevolg dat ik er zaterdag spijt van had ... en ik was niet alleen ... we zijn dan maar filmpkes gaan zien in de zetel van Jean-Jacques ... ook leuk natuurlijk.
Nu beginnen aan een nieuw avontuur: BURMA ... we zijn wel 3 weken telefonisch niet bereikbaar en internet is blijkbaar een grote frustratie dus ... see you in 3 weeks!!!
Sri Lanka - beaches, hill country & ancient cities
There's not much to say about my last days in Hikkaduwa: I hung out with Dylan, Steph & Luca. My days were pretty much the same with: eating - sleeping - surfing - slackline - reading and I liked it!
From Friday (09/12) to Monday I was in Mirissa, where I met Sean, we hung out together for 2 days! I went Whale Watching, saw a moon eclipse, talked a lot with Sean while it was raining and we visited Weligama.
After the beaches it was time to go to the Hill Country. I started in Ella and stayed there for 2 nights. You remember the noodle story? I'm still travelling with one ... well not anymore!!!! I finally had my last noodle dinner in Ella! There I walked up to Little Adam's Peak, had a ‘Shiro dhara' treatment (it took me 3 showers to get the smell out of my hair), took a Sri Lankan cooking class ... or let's say: I watched the chef making 9 different curries and explaining to me what he was doing and I didn't touch anything ... but I will get the recipes and I could taste them all ... my god it was way too much so I shared my dinner with a total stranger.
On Wednesday I took the train from Ella to Nuwara Eliya. It's a beautiful ride along the mountains, the hills, some villages, some waterfalls....the views are amazing. There were no seats left so I sat on the floor by the door ... it was great until it started raining ... a little less fun. In Nuwara Eliya there's absolutely nothing to do except shopping so that's what I did. I bought myself a new sweater (like the one I lost in Goa), treated myself with some ‘Fererro Rocher' just because of the nutella in it. Oh yeah, there's also a Tea factory you can visit.
After Nuwara Eliya I took the train to Kandy, again I find there's not much to do. I walked around the lake, visited the temple of the sacred tooth Relic (I was allowed to watch it for half a second) and after 5 weeks I still manage to get ripped off somehow, damn! Well, I did find a nice Tuktuk driver that took me to the buddha statue on the hill, the Millennium Elephant Foundation and the Sri Lanka dances. While driving he stopped to buy me some corn and a coconut that we ate along the road.
I think the hill country is lovely, too bad the weather was not good while I was there ...
Next on my program: The ancient cities with Dambulla, Sigirya, Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura (and yes, I can pronounce all these names). In Dambulla (a series of rock caves with paintings, temples and Buddhist images) I met Erik, Belgian but living in Amsterdam so that makes the most horrible Belgian/Holland accent. Anyway after the caves we went to Sigirya together and climbed the famous rock. Next day I went to Polonnaruwa ... it's a lovely place with ruins of the Royal Palace, some temples, a huge stupa, an ancient monk university and much more. It took me 3 hours to visit the place by bike. The next morning I took a bus toAnuradhapura where it was difficult to find a decent room. I had to go to 5 different places before I finally found one! It was raining, raining, raining the whole day so instead of visiting the place by bike, I took a Tuk Tuk. I have to say that I'm starting to get a little spoiled ... I've seen so many temples & stuppa's that I'm not easily impressed anymore. So the tuk tuk driver took me to a sight and sometimes after 10 seconds I was back in the tuk tuk thinking: been there, done that, what's next!
The ancient cities were lovely but again to bad it rained so much ... so it's time to go to a place where there's less rain .... Back to Hikkaduwa !!!! (just for a few days)
20.12.2011 (Gelukkige verjaardag Mauriceke !!! dikke knuffels aan mijne lieve schat) First I have to get there; it was a 12 hour journey from Anuradhapura to Hikkaduwa. I left at 9 am and I arrived at 9pm. I had to stay 1 night at Sunny's before going back to the best place in town: Richard's sons Beach Villa. It was so cool being back there, lots of locals were greeting me, being surprised I was back, asking where my boyfriend was (I think they meant Dylan), telling me to come to their party, etc ... So from Wednesday till Friday I did like I always do there ... absolutely nothing!! On Thursday & Friday I even had company because Erik (the Belgian guy with his strange accent) joined me in Hikkaduwa.
It's time to leave Sri Lanka ... I was supposed to go to Thailand but there has been a change of plans .... Let's go to Dubai !!!
Merry Christmas Everyone !!!
Sri Lanka - .... well .... eum .... some more Hikkaduwa
Monday:Lazy day & Cadeautjes Dag: Nick & Daphne are packing up their stuff and we get all ‘de restjes'. One special for me is all the anti-mosquito stuff: the repellent, the plug thing and the incense. I also get the hangover medication ... why would they give that to me?!? THANK YOU!!! Mathijs is also leaving and he gave me his music speakers (!?!) ... THANK YOU!!! Should I be happy people leave?
I have a new Hero: LUCA .... He killed my bathroom cockroach ... I saw it, he actually tried to safe it but killed him instead ... you don't hear me complain!! The poor guy is almost deaf because of my screams.
Day 54:I woke up early to go to Galle, to change my flight at Sri Lankan Airlines. I can do it for free!! Yipie!! So now I stay another month in Sri Lanka ... me likiiiie! Back in Hikkaduwa, we all went surfing again but let's say: it was not a good day for me. At night, Steph - Luca - Dylan and I went for dinner & beers at Budd's ... we played some cards.
Wednesday:We had this huge Sri Lankan Breakfast with coffee, juice, bread, string hoppers, egg hoppers, curry, dhal, coconut Sambol & fried eggs. This fills you up, you can't imagine ... next time I was hungry it was at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. After breakfast we came back to Richard's sons for a nap in the hammock ;-). No surfing for me today because I have these small injuries that are not healing well, they're a little bit infected and every time I go into the water, it's getting worse. It was raining in the afternoon so I spent my time watching some episodes of Dexter season 2.
Day 56: I started my day with Banana Chocolate Pancakes but honestly, I rather have a spicy Sri Lankan breakfast now. David came to our guesthouse: David is a Canadian artist who paints, he will be here for 6 months and he needs some models ... as we're doing absolutely nothing here ... we can do some modeling. Steph was the first one to pose and while he was doing her portrait, I fell asleep and I ended up having this huge nap during almost 3 hours. When I woke up, David invited us all to have spaghetti at his place. He's renting an apartment here with a fully equipped kitchen. Dylan and I went to town to buy some vegetables (because David only had tomato sauce and mushrooms and he thinks the market is way too far to go by foot). After shopping we stopped at Bill's for a little chat and we got our next dinner invitation for Sunday night!!! Are we popular or what???? After some internet, we went to David's place. I think he invited us not just to eat there, but also to cook. When he saw us arriving with bags full of vegetables he immediately showed us around the kitchen, telling us: If you need anything just let me know ... Yeah right .... But I admit I enjoyed it, I haven't cooked in 2 months!
Friday:Early wake up for my daytrip to Colombo. I have to go to Immigration to extend my Visa. It took me 2 hours and 45 minutes to get there by bus, 2 Hours to get the Visa. I also took the opportunity to go to a big pharmacist (one who's not charging me with tourist prices) Funny fact is that it is just a sales man in the shop, not a ‘pharmacist'. So I ask for some healing cream, he says: Betadine. No, I don't want Betadine because it's not working until now, I want something else, something stronger. He says: Betadine! Yeah, well, in the end I've got the cream I needed. I walked back to the train station, took the train again ... I love that train... and the bus back to Hikkaduwa! I stopped at Bill's for some coffee, I walked all the way down to get my laundry ... and now it's obvious I've been here for a while because the locals are greeting me, asking how I'm doing, telling me: 'I saw you at the bus station this morning; where did you go?' The tuktuk drivers tell me: 'You're always walking miss, still need no tuktuk?'
After laundry I went for dinner with Steph & Luca and then for a drink with Dylan. I asked him if he'd missed me today and he answered: How was your daytrip to Colombo?
Oh, I also went for a beer at the pizza place. We never go there because it's way too expensive ... and it was an expensive beer (2€) but it was so worth because they have free Wifi and I can catch this Wifi in my room !!!!! It took me 2,5 weeks to find out! OK it's not the best connection, but it's cool anyway!
Saturday 03.12.2011 (Happy Birthday Aurélie!!!) After a huge breakfast again, we came back home and enjoyed ourselves with the 'slackline'. It's a rope between 2 trees and we try to walk on it. It's a good exercise for your balance, something we do need while surfing. It was fun: Luca, Steph and I could barely walk on the rope; Dylan was jumping on it. Later we all went into laziness mode ... again! In the afternoon, Steph tried some surfing, I still don't go in because of the small injuries. In the meantime, I tried to get better at the ‘slackline' ... and yes! I'm a natural!! ... but I'm not jumping ... yet! Saturday is beach party at Mambo's ... so I danced on the beach, not on the dance floor ;-) What a strange evening: One Sri Lankan old man said he loved me like 20 times at least; another young Sri Lankan boy was seducing me, it was cute though, he's 22 ... but then, there was this desperate Austrian guy who just grabbed my ass ?!?! Lucky for me, Dylan was just passing by so I introduced him as my boyfriend (I'm only allowed to use this excuse twice)
Day 59:After brunch we went back surfing ... my injuries are still not ok but they will heal when I'm visiting the hill country. I can take the waves, I can stand on my board ... I just can't do both at the same time ... and surfing is exhausting when you're hung-over. In the evening we went for Prawns & Fish on the BBQ at Bill's. A lovely evening!
Monday 05.12.2011 (Happy Birthday Sébastien !!!) Waw, day 60 of my trip, I've been on the road for 2 months now ... time flies when you're having fun!
It was another regular day in Hikkaduwa: fell asleep in the hammock, didn't go surfing because the waves were not big enough and I'm almost being a pro at the ‘slackline'. I can walk from one side to the other. The next steps are walking backwards (!!), turning (??) & jumping (??!!?? ... yeah right). At night we had music, food & drinks around the fire on the beach .... And we ended up in the sea for night swimming (and no, we did not go for skinny dipping, you dirty minds!).
Ok, I think it's time to move: maybe another day or 2 and then I'll be on the road again! (where did I hear this before?)