Shanghai

oi oi people. i’m in shanghai, the marmite of the east. i’ll say for the record that i love it, where others have hated it. the whole atmosphere is lively, but not in the way nanjing was. in shanghai you feel witness to china’s progress. in other cities i’d noticed the advancement and catching up with the modern standard of living, but here you can see the chinese leading it.

i’ll start on the first day. on friday i went to the shanghai museum, which was pretty good, but i think more impressive for chinese people because it was about specific things in the history. the part on calligraphy was really interesting because you can see the different styles through the centuries, but again, maybe better if you could read what the characters said. then you could compare the structure and methods of expression. the painting exhibition was a bit dissapointing. i didn’t see much variety through the styles and focus. i think in europe we’re spoilt for art exhibitions. saying that, i could compare it with the stuff i saw in beijing with the modern art. i think i prefer the modern style.
i met a few people and went out on the first night to a bar called M2. it was pretty high-end, so i felt a bit out of place rocking up in my shorts, sandals and saigon t-shirt. but the american guy we were with spoke chinese and has the gift of the silver tongue, and he got us a load of free drinks. whiskey and soda. bleurgh. it took us twenty minutes to carry him into the hostel at the end of the night. good bar though. in china the bars are more like clubs. and in shanghai the clubs are pretty good. we went to a place called Windows which was a lot cheaper and a bit more underground. i went there with some english guys, a different american and a chinese guy called Ming. he’s been great. helped us around the place and order food and stuff. in Windows they had a stage where people could get up for a dance. of course i went up for a bit, but i’m glad i wasn’t up there when three western guys stripped down to nothing. twice. the first time they got away with it. but i think the security thought it lost novelty the second time, and they got kicked out.

just like in nanjing, i should add that i’ve been doing touristy stuff too. on sunday i went to The Bund and Pudong area, where all the new buildings have been constructed. the three famous ones in the area are the Oriental Pearl Tower, the Jin Mao Tower, and the World Financial Centre. at the time of their completion, each has claimed the tallest buildings in China, and in some cases, the world. i found the real heart of shanghai development in this area. i took me twenty minutes to cross the road to these giants because of more construction happening. shanghai is preparing for Expo 2010. i don’t know what it is, but this city is a hive of activity because of it. i went up the Jin Mao Tower first, and went to the 88th floor. it was my first skyscraper and since the weather was quite good, you could see the city rolling on far beyond the horizon. after this tower, i topped the four hundred and something meters and crossed the street to ascend to the 100th floor of the World Financial Centre. really impressive building. i spent a good half an hour looking down at the Pudong area. it’s an architects playground. even the bank’s building have an unique style. we went to see the area at night from across the river. the whole area was lit up with lights, but you had to find the right spot to view it because more construction sites block the view.

today i went with Tiffany, Paul and Greg to the French Concession. there’s nothing to tell you when you’re there, and if you asked for directions to it you’d probably get frowned at, but you know when you’ve arrived. the style of houses is immediately recognisable as european, and the roads are lined with trees. and the clothing available is all to western tastes, but at eastern prices. shanghai is fashionable city. it’s kind of like london in many ways, but more excessive and outspoken.
this evening Ming helped me and Aaron order some toad for dinner. i’ll tell you now, i’m a fan. it’s an odd taste. a bit like fish. but there wasn’t much meat, as you can expect. after spending every trip to france determined to find frog’s legs, i’m glad i found something close on my first expedition to china.

don’t think we’re gonna do much tonight. probably have a few beers and watch a film. there’s a chinese girl in our dormitory who came with us to The Bund last night and i’ve been using my last chance to practice mandarin. but i want to get up early tomorrow to really have a go at the shops. plus there’s a park i want to check out. i should have a chance to write a final post at the airport before i set off.

see you all soon!xx

Lakes, markets and severe heat

hey everyone. greetings from hangzhou! again. i’ve actually seen it this time. i think the last time i wrote was my first day. i didn’t do much that day since i was still a bit spaced out from the mountain climb. basically went out to get some food and hid inside the hostel.

the next day was sunday, and i went into hangzhou proper. the city is famous for it’s lake that is parallel to the city centre. it really is a beautiful place, but i didn’t see a huge amount that day. it was ridiculously hot. i spoke to my friend from hangzhou that i had met on a train previously, and he said it’s the hottest part of the year. i’m not surprised, i was overwhelmed. it’s the first time i’d really felt overpowered by the sun since thailand when i was getting accustomed to the climate.

i walked around the lake and went up the leifeng pagoda, which was an interesting building but for odd reasons. it wasn’t old, it had been recently built over the ruins of the original one. they had the ruins on the ground floor which were roofed by a glass floor. as you go up one floor you get into the actual pagoda, which had glass elevators and steel staircases running up the inside. it was a complete change from the pagoda i saw in nanjing which was all wood and stone. but the view from the top was good. i paid to use one of those binoculars you can use to see into the city, which always run out too soon and you find yourself wondering why you bothered. being a tourist i guess it’s manditory to use stuff like that.

afterwards i went into town to find a store to buy some shorts because my trousers felt like salopettes in the heat. but i couldn’t find any, and at about one thirty i had to concede defeat and go back to the hostel because i had a headache and was getting moody. it’s hard to enjoy somewhere when the environment is making you feel the opposite.

on monday i wore my swimming trunks and flip-flops instead. good call. i went to the silk museum which was really interesting. i knew that silk was one of the integral parts of chinese history,but not to that extent. the volunteer guide who was practising english explained anything that was not explained in the captions, but my plan to wander about slowly until the hottest part of the day was foiled, and i was back out into the sun by noon. i came back to the hostel and met an american called ben and a chinese guy frank. frank is eighteen and is travelling china on his own after the university entrance exam. i think it’s called gao kao, or something similar. he’s the youngest guy i’ve met on my travels, and it was strange meeting a chinese person who wasn’t daunted by the idea of travel at a young age. most of the students i’ve met are surprised that my parents let me go travelling at this age. good call though. i went with ben and frank to get some bicycles and we rode around the lake area for a few hours. the lake grounds are very pretty. if you find a spot on one of the bridges that go over the lily marshes, or by the water, you can catch a breeze and chill out for a good while. we found several places that would be worth staying all day, and it’s nice to get away from the sounds of the city. but you can almost always hear a faint rumble of traffic. saying that, hangzhou is the cleanest city i’ve been to out here. not necessarily with the litter, but the air is much cleaner. you don’t have to wake up with a sore throat or pick weird black stuff out of your nose.

that night we went to a bar to see how the people of hangzhou let loose. i’m not sure we went to the right place. we just agreed when the taxi driver suggested a cheap bar. realistically i think he was getting commission from them or his brother works there because it was four pound for a small bottle of beer. but the novelty and comic value was well worth that. in the centre was a rotating podium where different girls would get up and perform. ashley, an american girl who joined us described it as a strip club that had nothing to do with sex. the clientele were middle-aged men and a few clueless tourists. the girls working there would get up on stage and pretend to sing karaoke while the staff shot confetti cannons at them and rose balls descended from the ceiling. one girl came and sat next to ben, and instead of offering anything explicit she taught him how to play a dice game similar to yahtzee. they had rave whistles too. and free nibbles. and massages in the toilet, which they would do while you were in front of the urinal. but they gave us a free beer and waved us goodbye when we left. we didn’t go to another bar.

yesterday me and ben went to the lingyin temple scenic area and wandered around, and i tried to find a place to stay or camp out so that i could see sunrise. but i don’t think it’s going to happen. i was considering taking my sleeping bag to the top of the mountain and man-up for a few hours, but i’m not that worldly yet.
we also went to the night market with michael from hangzhou, and he helped me and ben haggle for a few things. much more successful this time. no repeat of my disgraceful attempt in bangkok this time. got some shorts and sandals and other things for good prices. i was tempted to buy the entire repetoir of 24, but the realised i’d seen season one through six already, and i want to have a social life when i get back.

today has been a quiet day really. went to the lake and chilled out for a while, finished the crime novel i was reading, wrote my journal, and became another attraction for the lake tour buses that make regular circuits of the lake. it will be odd coming back to the UK and being a standard, boring face like everyone else. but this time i will say hello to every chinese person i see to try and balance it out for both nations.

next stop is shanghai. i’m interested to see what my view is because half the people who have been hate it, and the other half love it. i’ll do the next post when i’m there. it will one of my final ones!

inabit! big love xx

Mountain trekking

wheyy i’m in hangzhou! i’ve read a lot about this place, supposed to be really beautiful. and people i’ve talked to say it leaves a good impression. seems a good place to chill out for a almost a week before the busyness of shanghai. i also want to stay here for six days so i can get a real feel for it. i was in huang shan city yesterday, and i was in the area for four days odd, but because i climbed the mountain in the middle, i’ve been moving from place to place a fair bit.

the mountain was amazing. i headed out on thursday morning on a bus from the hostel at about six in the morning. we got there around half seven, and a chinese couple took pity on my confused face and let me tag along with them until we’d reached the walking area. we took a cable car up to it. i was on the eastern slope, and at that moment the mist and clouds weren’t too bad. it had stunning views. i don’t know what classes as a mountain range, but it must’ve been one. on the map it had names like “beginning to believe peak” and “monkey overlooks the sea peak”. i’ll be honest, for all the imaginative names i couldn’t pick out the animalistic features for beans. but it was no less incredible. i had to work to avoid the tour guides. they have portable speakers and are constantly shouting at people to move on from one peak to the next. i’m so glad i wasn’t with one of them. i find it strange that i felt closer to ‘nature’ and ‘the elements’ when on the Great Wall, a man-made object, than i did when i was on a mountain. but being so close to the precipice and being able to come within a few feet of a sheer drop wakes you up to reality.

i had to spend a night at the expensive hotel i.e 120 yuan/12 pounds for a dorm (im used to paying 40 yuan max) so i could see the sunrise, but it was well worth it. i got up at half four to gurantee my spot at Bright Summit. however i was slightly dissapointed to share my spiritual enlightenment with several hundred other excitable tourists. but i’ll let them off since a few of them saved my life by stopping me go over the edge in my eagerness to find a vantage point. sunrise was beautful. of course. the colours moved from a deep, translucent red, to a firey orange, and then to a strong sunburst yellow.

once it became too bright to stare at, most people went back to bed to sleep. but i seized my chance to have the mountain to myself and moved down the western side. all was quite on the western front. it was much more impressive too. the steep, almost vertical steps moved down through the mountain valleys and you could see the change in bare-faced granite peaks, to forested slopes. i met a chinese family on the way up the Heavenly Capital Peak, and stayed with them on the way down the other side. i was very popular after speaking a little bit of mandarin. its official, that the people of the chinese nation now have more photos of me in china than i do. my favourite was “hey boy! i take photo with you!”.

i got down to the bottom of the mountain and went to the glacier boulders. since i hadnt had room in my bag for a towel, i had my first shoulder under the cold mountain water, under a boulder. but i couldn’t handle the cold for long, so instead of smelling ‘mountain fresh’, my natural body odour and the spring water combined to create ‘fresh-water fish’ scent. afterwards i got the bus back into the city, booked my bus ticket to hangzhou, and then went downtown.

downtown huangshan city is cool. it has one famous street called lao jie, literally, ancient street. and down there you can find most of the tourists, domestic and foreign. i’d been there a few times so i went to my usual dumpling spot, and then wandered amongst the standard tea shops and artifact shops.

but i have to rush. internet is running out and this american couple i met on the bus here want to get some food.
i’ll write soon!

loves up!xx

Nanjing

hello, hello people. I’m in Nanjing right now, and i’ve managed to grab the good computer at the hostel. people in hostels are really nice, open-minded people with much to share, until you threaten to infringe on facebook time or skype time.

i’ve been here since wednesday, and its been as different a few days from Tai’An as Beijing to Tai’An. They have several universities here that have many foreign students, so not being the centre of attention on the street is a nice change, but also a little disappointing i’ll admit. i got here on my first night after a long train journey and was starving for something that wasn’t a pot noodle with boiling water from the train’s tap. i asked some american people and Carly pointed me in the direction of a place that did mexican. i cast my thoughts back to how i felt a bit guilty when i’d last had it in Vietnam, but also why i’d got it in the first place. after dinner got chatting with a German guy called Toby. he mentioned there was a spot round the corner that did a beer for 3Yuan (30p), so we went on to there. my trip out to get some food and head back for an early got slightly remanaged. i was there until half four chatting with some guys from Tanzania and the Sudan and the Congo, and other African countries. it’s been a good spot to go for a drink and meet all kinds of people. last night there was a south african, canadians, americans with feathers in their hats, mongolians, chinese, and of course Marty the socially inept Slovenian. i listened to his obnoxious ranting for about two hours as he told me what ‘the real kung fu’ was, the ritual of tea, and why he hated the southern English people. bit of a tosser really. but it was interesting to see how someone is after they travel around the world for 15 years. i’ll be back in July i swear!

Nanjing also has stuff to do in the daytime i should probably add, and i have been doing that. on thursday i went to the city wall and walked around. it was nice to get up into the breeze and away from the slightly oppressive air on the streets. the smog is a bit overpowering here sometimes. the sky stays the same colour pretty much 24 hours, only getting dark when i evening has proper set in. maybe i’ve just been unlucky. but kevin and others say they miss the stars. aside from the dirty air, nanjing is my favourite city so far. it’s vibrant, lively, and doesn’t have the strict, set structure feel that beijing had. the people seem easy going, and the student population always helps.

since nanjing has been the capital for the chinese on several occassions for long periods of time, it also has heaps of history. today i went to the nanjing massacre museum which is built over the 10’000 body mass grave. it really is a period in human history that people should know about. especially western people. i’d only heard of it before i came here. the museum told the story that is literally quite hard to believe when you’re faced with photos, witness statements and bones instead of just numbers on Wikipedia. but the museum tour ended on a positve note, outlining the good relationship China and Japan share now, and a park with monuments and gardens devoted to peace.

tomorrow i think i will go to the Zhongshan area. it’s a big park, and that will be a real decider for me since i loved the parks in beijing. im not decided whether to leave on sunday or monday because i might be squeezed for time in the HuangShan area. i’ll go out tonight and see what happens. i don’t want to be late because i might be forced to drink more. i’m no longer allowed to ask for beers or cigarettes; “don’t ask daniel, just take”. absolute geezas. if i lived here for one or two months, apparently i might allowed to buy beer. i’m geniunely considering it.

i’ll write soon! schaboi! xx

Tai’an province – a place of overwhelming hospitality and lots of rain

well, it’s been an odd few days. odd in a good way i’ll add. leaving Beijing, i did want to get out of the comfort zone that the olympic games had created, but i wasn’t sure what to expect. i spent my last day or two in Beijing going to the art district and the Tibetan monk’s Lama Temple. the art district had some amazing work, and the Lama Temple was a large and beautiful plot of land full of people paying respects. i didnt think the temple was going to be that big, but as with so many other places in Beijijng, it still managed to create a peaceful bubble in the middle of a busy capital city.

i got the train down to the Shandong province from Beijing on Sunday. the train journey was about 6 hours long, but it went pretty fast because i got chatting to some of the passengers. i was reading my book, ‘the man in the iron mask’ , and i spotted the guy opposite me if he spoke english (in chinese of course) and he said he spoke a little. i said i spoke a little chinese and we had a conversation about where i was going and stuff. then we played cards and i taught him and two others ‘Go Fish’, and he taught me a game, i can’t remember the name of, but it means something to do with what you call the people who rent land off the farmer. so i got his email and i’ll probably drop him a message when i get to Hangzhou.

when my train was supposed to be coming in to the station i get my bags and stood by the door. the train was late by about an hour (fair enough since it cost less than 8pounds to go the width of some countires), so i got into a convo with a girl by the door. with my basic Mandarin, and her remembering some English from school days, we got to me staying near her university. at first i was a bit wary, but definitely glad i went along with it. we got a taxi to her uni which has a little village kind of place next to it. she haggled for me to get a cheap room, and paid for me to eat that night. the room is pretty basic, but it was about 2pounds so, no complaints.

i’d mentioned i wanted to climb Tai’shan, so she picked me up the next morning and we headed off. it was raining. quite a bit. i wouldn’t have gone up the mountain in that weather, but im glad we did. the mist was something else. when we got to the top, you couldn’t see 5 feet in front of you. the temples and stone scriptures just appeared out of nowhere when you walked up to them. it took about five hours to get up, and three hours to get down, so its good training for the next mountain i want to tackle which is several hundred metres higher and harder to climb. i had some very warm calves.

the students i’ve met out here have been great. the boy who’s taking me around town today is called Shan Bin, and the girl is Yangfei. i’ve been literally shocked at how nice they’ve been. they’ve insisted on paying for the meals, the bus transportation, this internet, the beer, and yesterday Yangfei bought me a stone pendant from the mountain. it’s odd thinking that im chuffed if someone buys me a beer in england (even thought i do appreciate that, so dont stop by the way), when the only thing i’ve been allowed to open my wallet for here is the entry to the mountain.

im going to Nanjing tomorrow i think. i want to spend a good few days there since there is lots to see, and it’s supposed to be a nice city. i’ll write again some time soon. Shan Bin is going to show me around the uni campus and then we’re going into town i think.

inabit!x

The Great Wall

hello everyone! i still can’t get onto my blog, so Dad is posting them up for me. you can’t even search for the word blog. apparently it happened in the past month or summin. what an ache.
i got into Beijing on friday which was a couple of days earlier than I’d originally planned, but there’s loads to do here so it’s all good. when i was on the plane they give you a health sheet asking if you’ve had headaches, sore throats or stomach trouble in the past six weeks. after seeing the quarantine zone and hearing they keep you there for a week, I neglected to mentioned I’d had them all in the past six hours. got off the plane and had to wait for my taxi driver and i struck up a conversation.i deduced that he was from Hebei province, was concerned whether i was cold from the air-con, and that not practising Mandarin for seven weeks had really taken it’s toll.

on the saturday i did the classic tourist in Beijing thing and went to Tienanmen Sq and the Forbidden City. it wasn’t astounding, but it was still really cool. you had to create the excitement for yourself if you see what i mean. met a Finnish guy and wandered around the grounds, and then went to Jingshan Park which is directly north of the palace. it had pagodas on top of the hill and you had a view of the entire city. Beijing is massive. i think the population is 15 million, and the buildings just roll on past the horizon. but it’s really easy to get around. the subway is two times easier than the LDN tube, three times cleaner, and fifty times cheaper. 20pence to go anywhere in the city? balls to your 5pound for Zone One. they put so much work into it for the Olympics, and most of the signs have English translations. saying all this, it did take me three hours to find my hostel on my first night. it’s easy to ask for directions, but hard to hear the result. i just settled for picking out “left” or “right”.
i’ve also been to see a few parks here. the parks are probably my favourite things inside the city. the summer palace is only 10-20 minutes for the buzz of the city, but it’s completely secluded. you can’t hear the cars, the air is suddenly cleaner, and there is a massive lake slap bang in the middle. you can tell why the emperors and empresses were fond of their standing. the temple of heaven park comes in a close second after the summer palace. it’s much less touristy. more older chinese people and they’re practising Tai Chi or just monging out. monging out being a well known part of eastern tradition of course. there was a rose garden too, and many different types of trees. a good place to write my journal and have a nap under a tree.

went to the Great Wall yesterday. i didn’t want to go to Badaling because it’s really touristy and loads has been renovated. after reading in Lonely Planet, and after Ben’s recommendation, i decided to go to Simatai. it’s further out and has fortunately been neglected for a lot of the restoration work. i got up at about half four to get a public bus to city on the outskirts of Beijing province. a guy came on to the bus and said “Simatai?”. i didn’t have much of a choice so i got off. i doubt even the Mongolians had as much hassle as i did getting to the wall. after getting shouted at by the taxi driver’s friends and being shown rudimentary maps that involved lines, arrows and three digit numbers, i settled for paying 27 quid to get dropped off at Jinshanling and for the driver to wait for me at Simatai while i did the 10km walk from one to the other. it was well worth it. we drove to Jinshanling which is in neighbouring Hebei province, and i began my walk across the border along the Great Wall. i agree with Nixon, but think he was understating when he said “this is a great wall”. i was absolutely gobsmacked. even though i wasn’t talking to anyone i was quite often stuck for words. it was hard to believe i was walking on bricks that had been laid down a couple of hundred years ago, on the foundations that had been laid down by a dynasty even older than that. the wall changed from completely flat, to almost using your hands to climb up, to employing the help of two old women to help you down from a tower. apart from these locals trying to sell ice water and t-shirts, i was alone on the wall for two hours of my trek. and even then only met two or three other small groups on the way. all in all, it was smashing. and I’m not sure how I’m going to top it.

today I’m going to the train station to book a ticket to the next destination. i want to go to Tai’an which is at the foot of the Tai’shan mountain, the holiest of the five Tao peaks in China. with any luck i’ll climb that and hang around that area for a few days. the plans are a bit hazy right now, but i want to spend a good while in the Anhui province which is south of Tai’an, and west of Shanghai. apparently it’s got beautiful scenery and some villages and towns that are more hidden away from the rapid development of the country, and another mountain i’m thinking of tackling. i’ll write more if i can find another place with free internet. the Great Wall took a big chunk out of my budget.

lots of love people!x

hanoi = achey toes and sore shoulders

its the end of vietnam! we’ve been here for two weeks and its been wicked. definitely coming back sometime. mr pitt, you were right. but next time, allow more thân two weeks and probs check out the north-western area.

last time i wrote was in nha trang yeah? after that we got an overnight train to danang and got a taxi straight from danang to hoi an. hoi an is beautiful. not really been westernised. you can tell from the home-made vodka. the train ride itself was eventful enough. it was a sleeper cabin with six beds. me, jake and maddy already taking half of those, but there’s always room for two women, thrêe more children, and another man. one hour through, the youngest child wet himself. phat laugh. but it was better than the sleeper bus from hue to hanoi which was also 12 hours, but three times worse.

after hoi an we went to hue which is in the centre of vietnam. oldschool capital. we rented some mopeds on the sunday and cruised around the citadel, and almost ran over a small boy on a bike which resulted in a minor crash. didn’t have to pay for the bent up licence plate on the back of jake’s bike however. was chuffed about that, even though my toe still hurts.

we arrived in hanoi on monday and stayed in the hottest room ever, which doubled up as a prison because they locked the door, meaning we couldn’t go buy water, meaning i had some well weird dreams. we booked a tour to see halong bay, which is one of the most beautiful places i’ve ever seen. we went kayaking around the islands and dove off the boat, and at night it was a clear sky and i saw five shooting stars. coủntêd ‘em and all.

last night we went to bia hoi corner, where you can get a glass of beer for 16pence. three sterling pound and twenty pence for a pint of stella in england? where are you now? then we went to a bar for a lock in and i have to say that i was very, very drunk. getting up this morning was a dark time for me. but since its our last day we soldỉered on to be active. went to an ìndoor market and had a play on a 100% guniune iPhone. then we went to a french cafe for some cracking monch. after that me and maddy did summin a lil’ different. i’d planned to do it in china, but the guy who did it was chinese, and i wont be seeing jake and maddy for a while, so i got a tattoo here. it’s actually nice! ít’s the chinése character for ‘ice’ (ya get me Twitch? ) and it’s pronounced ‘bing’. so, fun for all the family. i’ll pủt up a photo soon enough.

anyway, this keyboard is doing my nut in since it throws in vietnamese letters all the time, and jake is waiting for us in the hotel. i’ll write after i’ve touched down in beijing.

nuff love!xx

south west vietnam. a place of wonder and scam-artists

alwight people. found a hotel that has free internet, and signs warning you to keep your windows and doors locked. seems like good advice considering the money exchange people are even in it for the dollar. we’re in a place called nha trang which is roughly 10-12 hours north of saigon. today we went for a massive wander around and saw a huge white Buddha on top of a hill. also went to a photography gallery which had some really good work in it. i’ve just eaten an amazing steak and chips baguette for about 80p. good day in all.

after saigon we got a bus to mui ne beach (not a spelling mistake), and in the morning went on a tour of the local delights. the sand dunes were wicked. grabbed some plastic and sledged down. enter sandman. then we went to a mini canyon, and saw the fishermans village. that was cool. bare fish. bare eels. bare smells.

by the way, i’ve got so many photos and videos that i can’t really be bothered to upload them all while im out here. its not just that, but it would take ages and the usb connection doesn’t fit my connection. so i’ll do them all when i get back and you’ll have a whole new range of media to laugh at.

tomorrow we’re going to hoi an which is “a place of unique historical charm”. get cultural. do some walking around with a pensive look on the face. getting the overnight train there which should be good. get some local vietnamese whiskey for the journey. after hoi an we’re going to hue which was the capital long time ago. i think 1000 years ago. after that we go into the north to see hanoi and halong bay.

so that’s a run down of the vietnam tour. i’ll keep in touch about the details and how it goes.

inabit!xx

in ho chi mihn city with painful calves

i’m gonna be really cheesy…

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!

got into saigon yesterday in the evening and wandered around trying to find a hotel. after a while we managed to find one with a big bed, nice shower, and a widescreen TV for $15. between three of us. absolutely smashing.

today we went for a looong walk around the city. went to the market and got a t-shirt. mine says saigon, and jake’s says good morning vietnam. and you can definitely see through them, and they’re a bit dirty. we went to the ‘reunification palace’ which i guess was built after the revolutionary war. i say i’m guessing, because we were too cheap to actually get a tour so we pottered around. also went to a zoo and saw loads of animals. obviously. saw an orangutan shaking a boy’s arm and i was a bit concerned he might break it in half.

the city is crazy. like, crazier than bangkok. the mopeds and cars dont really make and effort to let you across. they slow down, and if you’re not out of the way, screwin.

tomorrow we’re going to see the Cuchi tunnels. i think they’re the ones that the Vietcong used. either that, or some geezer having a laugh. but it says in the brouchure you also get to shoot an AK47 if you buy the bullets. gutted chris if i’ll use a gun before you!

after this place im not sure what the plan is. we need to look for train prices and stuff, but we’re gonna head up the coast. we bought a lonely planet guide for vietnam in bangkok so we’ll just have a read and see what happens.

lots of love to my people at home!xx

back in bangkok. got loads to catch up on.

fair enough i haven’t written on here in a few weeks (laura). but the internet on the islands was extortionate, and the internet in the jungle was non-existent.

jungle trekking was really good. we only went on two real treks, and they were only about two hours each. me and jake were expecting some breakback mountain action, but we were a bit dissapointed. but we stayed in a villange/hill/hole-type-thing for a good few nights with our jungle guide Pod. (iPod, without the ‘i’). we showered under some waterfalls too which was refreshing to say the least. got some good herbal essences style photos. when we first arrived there we went swimming in a lake. i was trying to keep my head above water because it was still water and all that, but i think i failed because my ear hurt for a weeks after. that, and the altitude, and the loud music on koh samet probably didn’t help. we went around in the back on pick-up trucks and i felt like a badman.

koh samet was without a doubt one of the best weeks of my life. aside from the obvious, we got a beautiful beach and a wicked nightlife. we ate at a place called Ploy Bar every night and they had a fireshow at the same time each evening. the first time we were wide-eyed and well impressed. the nights after that they got a bit repetitive, but only really because of the music. (the whistle song about four times in twenty minutes?) on james’ birthday they taught me and him how to use the fire sticks. i could do the spinny thing, and could bring it around my back a bit, but it kept hitting my elbow and shoulder baldes. ballache. james was much better. and they brought him up that night to have a go with them on fire. on the first day of koh samet we went on a banana boat which is much harder than it looks. we also went to a beach further down the coast and some h’wicked milkshakes. i only write about them because they were manmazing.

the last day leaving everyone was really sad because we had to ditch a day early to get to koh pah ngan. to add to emotion, the hotel owner said i hadnt paid for my laundry and forced me to pay again. to all those at university, how does seven pound for a bag clothes sound?

but then we went down to the full moon party….

oh mate…

intense. madness does not describe it. im sorry tom parker if i sound like a holiday rep, but it was carnage. absolute carnage. must’ve been close to sic thousand people on the beach. the buckets were cheap and the you could pay 10 baht to use the toilet, or get your sandals rancid by going in the sea. my sandals still smell like battersea dogs home. there were about 12 rigs all playing loads of different music. rock, drum & bass, weird techno, euphroria, sped-up breaks and other stuff. the geurns were spectacular.

me and jake just spent the last 3 days on koh tao chilling out, playing cards, reading, catching up on the journal and eating some well good food. regaining some lost sleep and all that.

going to vietnam tomorrow. probably have cheaper internet there. i’ll try and keep regular updates this time. hold the fort in the UK!xx

p.s havent got time to do photos now. or vids. but i will do soon. im sure the ones on facebook will keep you entertained until then