Livia & Tim's travels

Guets neus mal anderst

2010-01-03T10:09:00.011+07:00

kaum haben sich alle erholt von weihnachten, gehts weiter mit silvester!

doch zum glueck waren da noch ein paar tage dazwischen. einer dieser tage deklarierten wir als unseren date-day. ein tag nur fuer uns. zum guten glueck spielte das wetter zum ersten mal richtig mit und wir erwischten einige sonnenstrahlen.

das programm: manly!!!einer meiner wuensche hier bezueglich to do-list war zurueck kehren nach manly. wie es sich gehoerte, nahmen wir die ferry. mit mindestens 5000 anderen passagieren.

ganz ehrlich, es war sehr komisch zurueck zu sein. was vor einigen jahren mein voruebergehendes zuhause fuer 3 monate war , war nun "nur" ein weiterer ort. es fuehlte sich an, als ob ein lager zu ende geht und vor lauter lagerheimweh, man alleine zurueck ins leere lager kehrt. im corso war unser lunchloch verschwunden (bezueglich diesem wurde ich netterweise vorgewarnt), der foodcourt mit dem besten chicken advocado sandwich war weg und eines unser lieblings cafe ebenso. jedoch eine grandiose verbesserung stach in mein auge: moevenpick glace shop!!!

zum znacht dinierten wir in einem funky trendy japanischen restaurant zurueck in der city, in der naehe von darling harbour . es bezahlte sich wiedereinmal aus, einen localen boyfriend zu haben. als wir am abend zurueck kamen hatten tim und ich noch unsere private weihnacht, da wir zuvor noch nicht dazu gekommen sind, unsere geschenke zu besorgen.

silvester in sydney ist toll!

die leute muessen vor 3pm mit dem auto in die inner city fahren fuer das feuerwerk, da die polizei danach die strassen fuer die autos sperrt. so standen wir am morgen auf, und gingen "gemuetlich" mit hunderten von sydneyanern einkaufen. nach drei uhr bewegte und verteilte sich die masse in eine richtung eines parks. und so sassen wir, drinkend und essend bis mitternacht. um 9pm gab es ein kinder- feuerwerk und danach alle stunde eine kurze erinnerung mit einzelnen riesen feuerwerken, warum man eigentlich drinkend und essend im park sitzt . bis dann um mitternacht, alle leute aufgeheizt und voller vorfreude eines der spektakulaersten feuerwerke geniessen konnten.

und es war sogar warm genug, in kurzen hosen und pulli dort zu verweilen, obwohl es noch den tag durch regnete. kurz um: silvester in flipflops is awesome!!!

und heute sind wir beschaeftigt mit packen, denn morgen heisst es :

BULA FIJI!!!!

ich kann euch leider nichts versprechen; doch hoffe ich, dass wir einen weiteren eintrag in fiji bewerkstelligen koennen. aber wie ihr euch sicher vorstellen koennt, sind wir mit anderem beschaeftig:

erholen, ausspannen, am strand liegen, lesen, essen, segeln, erholen, ausspannen, am strand liegen, lesen, essen, segeln...(und immer so weiter) und das letzte mal sonne tanken, bevor es heisst, ab in die kalte schweiz zurueck.

und hiermit wuenschen wir euch alle ein frohes gutes neues jahr!

schoene weihnachten und prost

2009-12-28T08:37:00.014+07:00

hallo zusammen!

als erstes: merry christmas!!! ich hoffe ihr hattet ein schoenes und gemuetliches fest!

schon wieder ist eine woche vergangen. die zeit hier scheint doppelt so schnell zu vergehen, als noch in vietnam!

nach tim's kurzen shoppingcenter eclat sind wir am naechsten tag in die blue mountains

verschwunden. tim's freund ben und seine freundin alex haben uns dort oben verwoehnt. wir trafen uns im besten kafi des ortes und sahen von dort, wie die touristen busweise zu den three sisters chauffiert (felsformation) wurden. zu diesem zeitpunkt beschlich mich das touristenauflauff-feeling. doch ben, unser super local guide wusste natuerlich einen besseren spot welcher vorallem unter den einwohner bekannt ist. wir waren die einzgen dort und fuehlten wie die herrscher ueber den bergen.

zum znacht, ben und alex fuehrten uns aus ins beste local vor ort. es kam ein gewitter auf und wir sassen in 1. reihe. das lokal hatte eine glasveranda und wir konnten kaum die karte lesen, es war so spektakulaer! das essen war exquisit.

der naechste tag stand outdoor adventures auf dem plan! ben, ein begnadeter rockclimber, nahm uns canyoning nachdem wir ein camping zmorgen(organisiert und gekocht von ben) an einem anderen lookout genossen! das war vielleicht cool!das zmorgen und canyoning. er organisier

te uns neoprenanzuege, helme, abseiling sache und und un

d. so stellt euch vor: inmitten der berge, unten in einem kleinen canyon kraxelten wir dem wasser nach. die meiste zeit sahen wir den himmel nicht, da die felswaende so hoch waren und die baeume von einer seite nach der anderen ragten, gruener farn

verdeckte die felswaende. das wasser war eiskalt und wir musste

n teilweise durch pools schwimmen, oder ueber einen riesen felsen s

teigen und ins wasser springen, obwohl wir nicht wussten, wie tief es war. so ben, der groesste von uns, musste immer zuerst springen, damit wir sahen, wie tief es ist. so stand ich auf dem felsen, sollte springen und wusste nicht, wie ich das am besten anstellte. ben hatte das wasser um die huefte und ich wusste ich musste mindestens von 1.5m hoehe springen. ich hatte schon ziemlich schiss..ich sprang, in der hoffnung die knie nicht zu zerstoeren und landete einen halben meter vor ben, doch dort war es viel tiefer und ich verschwand komplett von der bildflaeche... ich erschrak so fest, sobald ich wieder ueber wasser war, etwas schreien musste.

was ich zu diesem zeitpunkt noch nicht wusste, war wie hoch das abseilen wirklich war! wir kamen zum end des canyon und standen zu oberst von einem wasserfall. es ging 35m das loch ab. zu diesem zeitpunkt wurde ich schon langsam zittrig, da ohne kondition, nur schon der erste part sehr anstrengend war. zum glueck war noch eine andere tour dort. (welche wahrscheinlich vor dem abenteuer den typischen zettel unterschreiben mussten, falls es zu einem toedlichen

unfall kommen sollte, sie nicht haftend gemacht werden koennen). die gruppe hatte 4 guides

und sie waren beinahe fertig. sie offerierten uns ihre seile zu benutzen, welche wir dankend annahmen. da ben nicht ganz sicher war, wie lang sein seil ist. tim ging als erster und ich danach. doch ueber die erste ueberhaengende klippe war so anstrengend, physisch, psychisch und emotional... so ben kam mit mir um mich mit worten zu motivieren doch weiter zu gehen. das ganze abseilen war so anstrengend dass meine muskeln zu zittern begangen als ich es dann doch schaffte. tim wurde etwas nervoes, als er mich von unten her beobachtete, und sogar einige kleine schreie hoerte meiner meinem spot her.

ich war so erschoepft, als wir losfuhren zurueck in die city, dass ich sofort einschlief.

weihnachten alles in allem war eine erfahrung wert! australier feiern weihnachten am 25. am morgen und starten mit geschenke auspacken, noch vor dem fruehstueck. das toent soweit ok, aber mit kindern startet dies ziemlich frueh, und so war es noch vor 8 dass die ganze familie versammelt war vor tim's mutter wiehnachtsbaum war. tim's nichte war so voller erwartung

und konnte kaum still sitzen, bis es soweit ist. nach dem champagner fruehstueck ging es dann weiter mit snacks und drinks bei freunden, danach gab es zmittag um ca. 5pm, mit drinks, natuerlich und und und....es schien als ob der tag niemals endet und alles was wir taten war essen und drinken. das wetter erwaehne ich hier nicht, da es nicht erwaehnenswert war. leider.

am boxing day findet jaehrlich die grosse sydney- hobart regatta statt. ich habe mir das als eine grosse outdoor party vorgstellt

mit viel sonnenschein und dass wir mit der ganzen familie west

den tag dort verbringen. doch leider hatte es auch an diesem tag geregnet und schlussendlich kamen tim und seine mutter mit mir..

wahrscheindlich vorallem aus mittleid... doch es hoerte auf zu regnen, der wind blieb und es wurde ein faszinierendes schauspiel, wie die boote aus dem harbour segelten. wir waren nicht einmal die einzigen.

ja und heute regnet es wiedereinmal, laut nachrichten hatte es sogar alle bushfires geloescht in der umgebung und ayers rock hat nun wasserfaelle (im ernst: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lazlmfplpU&feature=related ). aber abgesehen davon geht es uns gut. wir sind gestern unsere weihnachstgeschenke einkaufen gegangen. wir hatten keine zeit zuvor...

und nun hoffen wir auf wenigsten einen schoenen tag, wo wir nach manly fahren koennen mit der faehre und in alten zeiten schwelgen. und natuerlich hoffen wir auf einen trockenen und freundlichen silvester!

take care! und bis bald

g'day mates!

2009-12-19T12:41:00.007+07:00

hallo meine lieben!

nun ist es soweit und wir haben endlich einen ruhigen nachmittag. ein grosses sorry, dass wir euch so lange warten liessen mit dem neusten post.

wir sind in sydney!!! es hat uns einige zeit gekostet zu realisieren, dass wir nun wirklich suedostasien verlassen haben und wieder in etwas zivilisiertere breitengrade gekommen sind.

aber alles der reihe nach.

letzten sonntag konnten wir kaum warten, saigon wirklich zu verlassen. der flug war zu meinem leiden sehr unruhig und durchzogen mit turbulenzen. Kurz vor darwin war es dann am schlimmsten, doch ich blieb stark und behielt alles fuer mich. doch es war so rumplig, dass sogar einer stewardess schlecht wurde. fuer tim war es sehr schraeg, all diese leute um sich zu haben mit dem aussieakzent. alles in allem waren wir eine gute stunde zu spaeht. grund war ein zyklon ueber nordostaustralien.

in darwin war die grosse passkontrolle und tim konnte kaum glauben, dass ich als auslaenderin schneller durch die kontrolle kam als er. er hatte wohl nicht damit gerechnet, dass so viele australier nach hause kamen.

da die ganze passgeschichte schon in darwin von statten ging, konnten wir in sydney nur noch aus dem flieger stuercheln und da waren sie schon: tim's eltern. da ich eigentlich das naechste wc im fokus hatte, war ich dann doch etwas ueberrumpelt und unvorbereitet, zu diesem zeitpunkt schon seine eltern zu treffen. aber never mind, es war super und ich wurde allerliebst und herzlich willkommen geheissen und aufgenommen.

am abend war dann die ganze familie beisammen und natuerlich gab es ein bbq mit bier und wein.

am naechsten morgen fuhren wir 400km noerdlich der kueste nach um bei tim's vater und dessen frau zu bleiben. ja ich weiss, schnell 400km ist so ziemlich quer durch die schweiz. aber hier ist es just around the corner...

wir hatten wundervolle tage dort und genossen ihre gastfreundschaft, australien wildlife und den strand. ihr glaubt es kaum, wir haben schon duzend kaengurus (wilde), kookabarras, termitenhuegel, riesen echsen und eine meter lange schlange gesehen.

ich moegt euch wohl fragen, wie es ist, zurueck in sydney zu sein und ich muss sagen: es ist unbeschreiblich, verwirrend, schoen und super cool. einerseits scheint so vieles normal, doch sind es die kleinen dinge, an die ich mich nun wieder erinnere. ich musste feststellen, dass meine erinnerungen mit den jahren etwas verwischt wurden und die realitaet anderst ist aber nun, wo ich wieder da bin, erinnere ich mich wieder. zum beispiel die soundkulisse von all den voegeln. oder den geschmack von trockener heisser erde und all den eukalypthus baeumen getragen von starkem wind. sogar das rote P von der post.

und nun zum wetter: ihr glaubt es ja nicht. von 5 tagen, waren 2 gut! ja ehrlich! wir sind gelandet, 21 grad und regen!!! ich war so enttaeuscht dass ich tim dafuer verantwortlich gemacht habe. ich habe mich ausfuehrlich beschwert. die ganzen 9monate beim ersten mal hatte ich nie so fest gefroren, und nun 3 von 5 tagen waren so kalt, dass wir jeans anziehen mussten (es ist mir klar, dass ihr nun nur muede laechelt, aber tim erzaehlte mir lang und breit, wie gut das wetter um weihnachten hier ist...).

es ist aber sehr aufregend und lustig, all seine freunde und familie kennen zu lernen. es ist einfach anderst, mit locals um die haeuser zu ziehen,als als tourist, ohne jeden klu.

es kann aber auch tuekisch sein, zurueck im land zu sein, wo alle deine sprache sprechen, wie tim heute im shoppingcenter feststellen musste: er beschimpfte eine junge frau, schwanger, mit einem kleinen bueb auf ihren schultern umhertollend und einem einkaufswagen voll mit sachen, als sie zu uns in den lift steigen wollte, aber nicht parat war. die lifttueren oeffneten und schlossen, ohne dass sie wirklich hinein kam. da sagt doch tim in voller lautstaerke: 'oh just get your shits together.' ich habe ihn dann daran erinnert, dass ihn die leute hier verstehen koennen.

und leider weiss ich nicht, wann ich das naechste mal zeit habe zu schreiben, aber laut tim's agenda ist nur die erste woche so busy und etwas chaotisch. wir werden sehen. falls ich nicht mehr dazu komme wuenschen wir euch herzlich schoene weihnachten und ich bin sicher vor silvester wird es sicherlich...

g'day mates

Maths problems in Hoi An

2009-12-13T11:36:00.004+07:00

Napoleon Dynamite: I don't even have any good skills.
Pedro: What do you mean?
Napoleon Dynamite: You know, like nunchuku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.

This is as true today as the day it was first spoken.

I only have maths skills, which Napoleon doesn't mention above, as i think are kind of included in the computer hacking skills. Plus i don't really even have them anymore as i am on an extended holiday from working and i am getting older and my mind is disappearing very quickly. We needed some of my old maths problem solving skills in Hoi An.

Problem:

Young and cool couple (Livia and Tim) go to Hoi An to buy lots of cheap suits and other tailor-made things. They bought:

3 business suits with an extra pair of trousers for each suit
3 winter jackets (very warm and good ones)
1 dress
1 skirt
1 pair of sandles

...and it cost a total USD 400.

They sent it all home to Switzerland from Hoi An. All 18.5kgs of it and they sent it by airmail. (That's right Brigitte, 18.5kgs to pick up from the post office for us. Sorry! Thanks in advance)

Did they get a good deal if the postage cost $220?

Answer:

Very probably. At least we hope so.

In fact don't answer us if you think we paid too much.

Anyway, we look shit hot in all the new stuff we bought. We didn't want to send it home by ship as it might be too warm by the time it arrives for us to use any of it.

Hoi An is quite a famous place for buying tailor made clothes etc. We met someone earlier in the trip who told us she bought a European-Winter jacket here. We thought she was an idiot, but it seems we were wrong for once. This was the perfect place to get some great clothes. You could even buy fake Onitsuka Tigers.

In fact it was a great last place in Vietnam to spend our time and money.

The food was fantastic, probably the best in the whole trip. We ate things called White Rose. My favourite dish was squid stuffed with pork mince. So so good! I had to eat it on a few evenings too. Unfortunately a dish like this hangs around on your breath for the rest of the evening and most of the next day. Lucky Livia!

There was a beach only a 4km bike ride away. We both frantically tried to get rid of the last bits of un-tanned skin that we had. Mission Successful!

We could watch the sunset with a 20cent beer in hand. I could anyway and Livia could watch me.

The architecture is all French and it was surprisingly very nice. My only complaint today was that they built 50 tailor shops all in a row through the whole town. I felt this was not very clever. (For those who wanted more complaints about French Architecture, they can be found on my facebook page in the coming months).

Oh and lastly, the following situation happened to us almost every evening when we went for dinner:
We sit down in a local restaurant.
We order food and drinks.
Young waitress asks us the usual batch of questions; name, age etc...
Young waitress sits close to Livia and whilst looking in Livia's eyes, tells here that she is beautiful.

How does one react to this? Livia got very self-conscious and uncertain of how to reply, as you can guess. I thought it was quite funny to watch. Especially as it just kept happening day after day. So weird.

We had a top time in this town anyway.

Before that we visited a city not far to the north called 'Hue.' Another great town for food and fun.

The bus ride from Hoi An to Saigon was going to be an awesomely fun 24 hours. So for an extra $18 we took a flight again. We sat in the travel agency as the agent told us the prices. As she did, Livia and I both carefully looked at each other, hoping to hell that the other didn't want to save the cash and waste a day.

Such a good decision. Vietnam is just too big to see and do everything you want to do in only the one month they give you for a visa. Best not to waste the time on a silly bus ride.

Instead of sitting on the bus yesterday we visited the Cu Chi tunnels not far from Saigon for a little bit of Vietnamese history. This was one of the places of intense resistence of the Vietnamese against the Americans and the South Vietnamese Govt. There were over 200kms of tunnels built under ground by the resistence. We travelled through about 20ms before having had enough. Underground is not fun.

So, we are in Saigon now and have checked out of our last hotel here in SE Asia. It has been two whole months that we have been here now. While there are still good things ahead, it is a little sad to say goodbye to this part of the world. It is especially difficult to leave the humid tropical weather especially as there are Xmas decorations everywhere and carols are playing in almost every restaurant. It is a little bizarre. As an Aussie, i am quite used to having warm weather and Xmas occur together. However, when the locals wish you a Merry Christmas, they seem a little uncertain of themselves, as if it would be one of the first times they have said these words. This is a little bit special.

Tonight we fly to Syd-a-ney on a Jetstar flight. If all goes well with Jetstar, and they don't have another 6 hour delay, we will be in Sydney at about 1pm tomorrow. We are both really looking forward to seeing everyone there.

This will be the last blog post from me/Tim until we leave Syd-a-ney, as i don't think i will have any interesting impressions and my family and friends from Oz will be hanging out with us instead of reading the blog. So the gorgeous and eloquent Livia will be covering events in the Great Southern Land.

ciao ciao

Photos photos photos!!!!!!!!

2009-12-05T18:26:00.035+07:00

That's right; The title of this blog entry deserves 8 exclamation marks!

We are as happy to have photos to show you, as you no doubt are. Livia said to me yesterday that the blog is boring without photos. I am tempted to agree, except i have written the last few entries.

In any case, here they are.

Enjoy!

View from our Hotel in Phnom Penh

The gorgeous beach in Sihanoukville

First Sunset in Phu Quoc

Beautiful lagoon we went snorkeling in. Looks better from above than from under the surface.

After some Stugeron even Livia could enjoy

Come, Ladie, you want tuk-tuk. Very cheap. Today? Ok, tomorrow.

Tim: I have no clue what he and I are talking about here. Can you decifer it from my hand gestures?

Floating market.

Rice noodle production

Who knows why we walked 2kms to this 'monkey bridge?'

Parental supervision at its best

I love this girl!

Fairy stream in Mui Ne

Halong Bay in all its glory.

Traffic in Hanoi. Can you spot the old lady walking casually through the bikes?

Our guesthouse manager in Sapa

Livia is cold in this picture.

Almost seeing Sapa

2009-12-04T14:22:00.006+07:00

Hello again boys and girls,

This week we visited the highly praised town of Sapa in the north of Vietnam, only 30 kms from the border of China. We had been told many things about Sapa; That it was a beautiful, yet different, part of Vietnam. Almost a different country to visit. The atmosphere, the people, the language, the clothes.

We will just have to take their word for it as we could see none of it. Sapa is situated about 2000m above sea level and was built as a temperate retreat for the French when they were kings of Vietnam. The weather can be quite hot here in 'Nam and i can sympathise with the French here on this one. So they built this little town up amongst the clouds. Right inside the clouds in fact.

We had a lovely little room, and as cheap as we have had anywhere in Vietnam. It came with hot water and a balcony overlooking the valley and with an uninterupted view to the next mountain. Uninterrupted except for the clouds. We could see nothing. One the first day we could only just see the end of our hotel. Walking into town was a 'one foot at a time' adventure. On the third day Livia cried out in shock as we could see the hotel next door to us. Up until that point we could not have said whether it existed or not.

We decided not to do any walking/hiking tours as Livia and I do not do these things unless we can see something cool. Neither of us like to go hiking just for the sake of it. Rumour had it that there was a radio tower on a hill above the town where you could see a gorgeous view of the local landscape. Unfortunately we could not see the tower and therefore Livia did not believe it existed and it was probably just a trap for local tourists to be robbed.

Oh i joke and i complain yeah? Yeah, i know.

Actually, it was a gorgeous town, surrounded by rice terraces cut into the mountains. The local tribes are very different to the Vietnamese; in appearance, dress and manner. We still received the usual 5 questions:

Where do you come from?
What is your name?
How old are you?
Do you have any brothers and sisters?

and finally...

Buy something from me?

But somehow these were all asked with a nicer smile, and more charm. Don't ask me why they are more lovely up there, but they are.

As you might ask; Mountain town in the northern hemisphere in December. Is this a cold or a hot place to be? Full points for everyone in Switzerland who answered 'cold', but less points for our Antipodean friends who might have had to think about it. I felt that it was cold. Livia felt that it was bloody f*cking cold. For those of you who don't know her well, she is almost always cold. Those who do know her well will not be surprised.

She wore the following:

Warm socks
stockings

normal underwear

a thick t-shirt

a long sleeve t-shirt

warm trousers
a fleece (i don't know what this is, but she keeps saying this word)
a thick hoodie
a north face windsheeter
a scarf
my beenie
heavy hiking boots

She exclaimed: What the hell are we doing in a cold place? This was not part of the plan! And we even paid to get up there!

Livia: one thing I really liked up there: their tea. They have a Sapatea, based on green tea with fresh cinnamon and ginger in it. I loved it! It nearly made me feel that Christmas would be close...

In any case, while we didn't get to see much of Sapa, what we did see we liked.

We arrived in Hanoi at 4 am yesterday and spent today and yesterday chilling out and shopping. I love shopping near the end of any trip.

Tonight we take the overnight bus to Hue on the central coast of Vietnam. Hopefully it will be warmer...

The fearless Swiss girl, Halong Bay & the best Pho ever!

2009-11-29T18:54:00.004+07:00

Hi hi all,

As i mentioned before, we wanted out of Mui Ne quick sticks. Some friends of ours, Kristian & Erica, that we met earlier in Northern Thailand, were wanting to do a Halong Bay tour with us. This sounded like a good idea to us too. To those of you unfamiliar with the geography of Vietnam, Halong bay is in the very north, right next to China. Mui Ne is right down south, about 1500kms distant.

We woke up at 6:45 am to get the bus back to Saigon...yes, again... and then we planned to take a flight to make this two and a half day journey by bus take less than one day.

The bus was slow. Damn slow. It seemed to us to be driven by a blind old lady. Apologies to all the blind old ladies reading this. It wasn't though. What was his bloody excuse? The journey took less than 4 hours the first time we took this bus from Saigon, but on the return leg we were stuck on the bus for almost 6. Livia was a little stressed that we mightn't have time for emails and lunch in Saigon before we had to get to the airport. I started to speak really loudly about how slow and hopeless the driver was ( in much more colourful language of course), in the hope that he might hear, get the fear of the crazy tourist, and then start driving at the usual suicidal asian bus speed. This did not work at all. Livia's theory was that he was partly blind, or going blind, as every time a motorbike jumped somewhere in the front of the bus from the right hand side he slowed down. Doesn't he know the natural order of the road? Buses are at the top (especially a tourist bus) and that means that if a pesky motorbike with 6 people on it moves too slowly in front of him he is allowed ... no, obliged to run them over and keep moving without putting any pressure on the breaks. Apparently it was his first day and he wasn't aware of this rule. Or maybe his last and he wanted to enjoy every meter of it.

So we arrived in Saigon two hours later than expected, and went straight to the airport. "Sorry sir, but your flight is delayed 6 hours."

???

"We can give you a free meal voucher."

"But what are we expected to do until then?" Says Livia, who's anger is building again at this special local flavour of incompetence.

"I think maybe you could go get a coffee." Says the MANAGER of Jetstar in Saigon.

What does one say to this? F*%&%$g c*%ts at Jetstar, is what i wanted to say. We fly Jetstar to Sydney in two weeks, so if we are late Mum, you know who to blame.

So, we arrived in Hanoi at 2am and the town was dead. Deader than dead. A friend of mine told me that he prefered the relaxed and easy atmosphere of Hanoi to the frenetic speed of Saigon. Arriving at 2am with nothing open, no one on the streets and having to bash on the super-high-security doors of our hotel to get in was a little unexpected. I thought, 'Have we arrived in the Canberra of Vietnam?' (Sorry Em) It can't be! I trusted my friend who told us this place was cool. Fortunately, it just goes to sleep early. Not as early as I do, but earlier than Saigon.

Halong Bay was beautiful. For me (Tim, in case you can't tell by my writing) I thought it was the best place we had been so far on this trip, possibly on all trips i have made. Really, it was stunning. I wont describe it as i am not so good at that, so just type it into google and select images and you will understand. We spent one night on a junk floating on the water in the middle of a group of beautiful mountains. The four of us; Livia, Me, Kristian & Erica, had our own tour-guide and he was the most lovely guy.
-"And now for the after dinner schedule i will take you to a local Karaoke bar. Very good beer and Karaoke. Does this sound like something you would like?"
Definately not, for all of us, but 10 points for trying. Plus it was already 8:55pm and that meant we only had 35 minutes until Tim's bedtime. It would have been cutting it a little close.

We both felt a little sad to leave, but Hanoi has been a cool city for us to come back to.

I have never travelled with a proper girlfriend before, at least not one that i liked. What i have found on this trip is that i get more concerned for Livia than i would have liked. I try to make sure she is out of traffic and that people don't get too close to her. You know, all the usual crap from home, but with the added bonus of being in a country that is a little more dangerous than the safest country in the world. When you cross the street here (as i am sure Livia mentioned before) you can't wait for people to let you through, you just have to walk. I am familiar with this principle and have used it myself many times in the past. The difference here is that even though i know that no one will give us space, i look for it anyway. I stand on the side longer than i usually do looking. I need more space for Livia to be safe. When i find a space though, i look for Livia and usually find her on the other side of the road already, looking at me with either impatience or incomprehension.

Livia walks, and traffic gets the hell out of her way.

I love the Vietnamese dish Pho (pronouned Far). I loved it in Sydney, and it was a big influence on our decision to visit Vietnam. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is a big hot broth soup (Livia: bouillon) with onions, green stuff, rice noodles and half cooked beef. The heat of the soup is supposed to cook the beef properly. Simple enough, yet delicious.

I tried to get Livia to eat this earlier on our travels, but we didn't find much that was any good. Each country in SE Asia has a beef noodle soup, but no one does this as well as Vietnam. Our first night in Vietnam we had a fabbo Pho. We walked past a local restaurant, unsure of whether to enter or not, and the old man owner bolted after us with a menu in hand and wearing only underwear, screaming "English menu, english menu!" Who could resist the temptation? We stayed and were justly rewarded.

Our friends Erica and Kristian took us to the best retaurant for Pho here in Hanoi. I am sure everyone has their own favourite restaurant, but this is one of ours. It was called 'Pho' and that was the only thing on the menu....except beer. We loved it so much we decided to go back the next day for lunch. The problem was that the streets here look so different in the day time. One hour of searching was enough for us to give up. Fortunately we found it again tonight, and both of us are happy and satisfied customers. I am writing this blog on a full stomach from there, so if you laughed or enjoyed it at all, we can all thank Pho for the Pho.

The Romance of the Mekong Delta

2009-11-23T16:25:00.002+07:00

Ahh the Mekong delta, a place that appeared in my mind's eye as a green and fertile river delta. Fish aplenty with only a few local fishermen trying to catch them. This was of course pictured at dusk with homemade nets thrown out past the reeds. The silence only broken by the sound of a US military helicopter flying low, past a blood orange red sunset.

I have been told i have seen too many movies.

I am not sure what is more striking about the modern Mekong Delta; the fact that it is an industrial swamp or that tourists flock to it in droves. We spent two days here and we will never ever be able to get these days back.

Day 1:
-Drive 3 hours from Saigon through what seemed to us to be a continuation of the outskirts of Saigon. One motorbike repair shop after another.
-Arrive at Mekong town and get into boat. Cross the river in boat and go to local shops on the other side. Listen to horrible Vietnamese music which is even worse than Thai music. I thought i would kill myself if i ever heard music worse than Thai music, but fortunately i did not do so.
- Cross river again
-Drive 3 more hours to another Mekong town.

Day 2
- See floating river markets. This was an 'OK' thing to do. Not good, or fun, or worth 6 hours travel, but 'OK.' You don't need to see this.
- Visit a locally built river bridge (something i could have built when i was 15)
- Drive 6 hours back to Saigon

The icing on the cake was our guide, for good and bad. Our day-1 guide was a lovely old man who had great stories to tell and was even a translater for the americans from '65-75. I would have paid to listen to his stories in a bar for two days.
Our day-2 guide was a stressed out dude who took his aggression out on all the tourists. We had all decided over dinner that night, that if we saw him again in this evening we would have to murder him. Does it count as a conspiracy if more than 15 people decide to murder someone? At least he stopped the boredom.

I think in situations like this you have to just laugh and try and have fun anyway, as we did. There was a small possibility at one time that we were going to meet a friend here for this Mekong Delta trip. Both of us are so happy that she missed the fun.

If you are in Saigon and you have a few days to kill DON'T visit the Mekong. There is so much more to do....

...like ....

...go to the movies! Yes, you might be shaking your head at us, but going to the movies in a different country can be a real insight into parts of the culture that you wouldn't see usually as a tourist.

In India people sing, dance, and cheer or boo the characters on the screen (very fun)
In Thailand they stand for the national anthem before EVERY movie (very serious)
In Switzerland there is always a 20 minute smoke break half-way through the movie (very necessary)
In Australia there are the funky slide show at the start of each film (very old-fashioned)

...and in Vietnam they like to leave the cinema quickly. Ideally 15 minutes before the end of the film. Apparently they like starts and middles but not ends. First thing we noticed were the people next to us getting up, mobiles coming on and all of a sudden we were the last people sitting. I can offer no explanation for this. Please post a reply if you can offer one.

So right now, we are in the beach side town of Mui Ne. We decided to get here, see how we feel and then go from there. So we arrived, had lunch and booked our flights out of here. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ruth Gonzalez (my youngest brother's charming girlfriend) for the advice to visit this place. No, really, thank you Ruth. I know you said you had never been here, but that is no excuse. In fact we have both decided to do the exact opposite of what you have suggested from now on.

It is yet another beach town with no real beach. There is a concrete re-enforced beach where we are staying. Perhaps this is to stop the beach from disappearing or perhaps this is to disuade the Phillipinos from invading.

"We can see the beach Captain, but it looks far worse than what the guide book states."

" Is it this year's lonely planet?"

"It is captain"

"Give the book and binoculars here corporal....hmm....you are right. This is shithouse. Abort mission boys. Let's go home instead."

I am sure it would go something like that, except that they would be speaking Tagalog.

Nah, sorry Ruth. I reckon it would be much better if it was a sunny day, but it is not. Plus i like to make fun of you quite a lot and i thought this is about as public as it gets. Will she read this? Will she reply? Does anyone care in the slightest?

We will wake up tomorrow hoping for sunny skies, and then the following day fly north to Hanoi to see Halong Bay. Very Exciting!!!

Speak soon

Wie man eine Strasse in Saigon ueberquert...

2009-11-20T16:11:00.002+07:00

hihi,
wir fuehlen uns etwas schuldig, dass wir euch so lange warten liessen mit dem letzten eintrag. deswegen fuettern wir eure neugierde gleich zweimal an einem tag.

nachdem wir es tatsaechlich geschafft hatten, die insel zu verlassen, sind wir nun in der stadt von der wir soo viel verschiedenes gehoert hatten auf unserem weg...

alles hier scheint ein bisschen anders zu sein im vergleich zum restlichen land. es beginnt schon beim namen: wir versuchen meistens moeglichst volksah zu sein und den namen zu verwenden welche die einheimischen verwenden: saigon (dies wurde zumindest in unserer travellerbibel so beschrieben). da ist aber noch dieser andere name: ho chi minh city. so scheint es, wann immer wir von saigon sprechen, die einheimischen ho chi minh verwenden. verwenden wir ho chi minh, wechseln diese zu saigon. so fuehlen wir uns immer ein bisschen touristisch.

was definitiv gleich ist, wie schon im sueden von kambodscha, ist die kleidung der frauen und einigen kindern. so hatten wir das erste mal ein maedchen in ihrem pischi gesehen und dachten, wie suess. spaeter dann, sahen wir hunderte von frauen, welche alle in diesen pischi-anzuegen umherfuhren und in diesen zu leben scheinen. stellt euch vor, wir wuerden uns in diesen h&m- snoopy- hemd-pyjammas auf der strasse sehen lassen...wir benannten die frauen pyjama-ladies.

nun zum verkehr. wir hoerten schon: crazy und sowas wie: das haben wir vorher noch nie gesehen. so haben wir uns schon auf dem weg dahin psychisch darauf vorbereitet und erwarteten beide etwas aehnliches wie dehli...erleichtert konnten wir feststellen, es ist nicht ganz so schlimm.
nun stellt euch vor, in dieser 5.38 milllionen stadt bsitzt jeder min. 1 roller. doch auf einem roller hat eine ganze familie darauf platz. ohne witz. das beruhigende aber ist, trotz dem ganzen chaos, die helmpflicht wird eingehalten. so stellt euch vor: bei rot fuellt sich die ganze strasse bis zu 50m auf nur mit rollern! sobald die ampel umschalltet ist es wie beim pferderennen und die ganze rollerwelle kommt in gang. da es aber nicht so viele ampeln gibt, wird das ueberqueren der strasse zum abenteuer. hier einige tipps:
1. du entscheidest dich am anfang einer strasse, auf welcher seite du gehen moechtes und folgst dieser bis es nicht mehr weiter geht.
2. eine einfachere strategie um die seiten zu wechseln ist: du wartest, bis sich eine gruppe von schuelern (in uniform, nicht im pischi) vor dem zebrastreifen ansammelt (wobei der zebrastreifen eher so gehandhabt wird wie kindliche strassenmalereien) und folgst ihnen auf gleicher hoehe. bedenke jedoch, wenn du ihnen von der rechten seite her folgst, weil du denkst, es wuerde diese zuerst treffen, auf halber hoehe bis du dann dran.
3. fuer die schon etwas mutigeren: du suchst dir ein 'loch' im verkehr und beginnst langsam und stetig, in diagonaler richtung in die mitte der strasse zu gehen, bevor du den kopf auf die rechte seite drehst und das wiederholst. so wirst du zum teil dieses unaufhoerlichen flusses von verkehr. bezueglich umweltschutz will ich jetzt gar nicht erst anfangen. tragen alle fahrerInnen diese Masken, welche bei euch in der schweiz wohl gerade voll im trend sind, nur diese hier sind aus stoff und mit bunten verziehrungen.

und nun zum geld... was fuer ein bild: tim wollte einige dollars zu dong wechseln. so sassen wir in einem klimatisierten, voll modernen buero einer bank, alle angestellten blitzblank gekleided im deux-piece oder mit hemd und cravatte, und tim, aussehend wie ein clochard, braungebrannt, unraisert in einem bier-lao t-shirt und den voellig ausgelatschten flipflops... leider war fotografieren nicht erlaubt.
danach fuerten wir mehrere millionen spazieren im park. cooles gefuehl :)

nun wundert ihr euch sicherlich, was wir von saigon halten. ehrlich gesagt: wir sind beide hin und weg. nachdem wir es uns wie dehli vorgestellt hatten (mit dem motto: schlimmer als dehli kann es ja kaum sein, und wer dehli ueberlebt hat, ueberlebt alles andere auch) sind wir nun sehr positiv ueberrascht! obwohl dieser verkehr kaotisch ist bis in alle nacht, die ganze atmosphaere scheint irgendwie entspannt. man sieht viele alte maenner am strassenrand irgendwelche karten spielen (nein es ist kein skippo, ich hab's ueberprueft), oder motorraeder flicken, oder alte geschichten erzaehlen. oder was mich sehr erblueffte zu beobachten: du kannst mit deinem roller vor ein restaurant/fitnessclub/coffeshop fahren und dort steht ein junge, gibt dir eine nummer und parkt dein bike!!!
zur architektur schweiff ich auch noch kurz ab: die bauen ein zimmer, und dann der ganz grundriss 5stoecke in die hoehe! so hast du in der front ein fenster, eine balkontuer und dann kommt schon das naechste haus. ab dem 1. stock gibts dann auch noch einen balkon zum einzimmerstockwerk.

ja und morgen gehts nun fuer 2 tage ins mekong delta. bevor wir fuer eine nacht nochmals hier zurueck kehren. dies jedoch wird bestimmt nicht die letzte nacht in saigon sein...
so ich hoffe, eure leselust und neugierde wurde etwas gestillt...
vielen dank im voraus schon fuer eure kommentare! hebed eu sorg und bis bald!!!

Hell is a desert island with no way out...

2009-11-19T20:15:00.009+07:00

Exactly! That is how it was.

Sorry for the delay in writing to you all. It seems a week has passed without us noticing... except for the gentle email and sms reminders from our mothers. Not to fear folks, we have more to say here and we have been having a tip top time. So good infact that writing on the blog was the last thing on our list of things to do. Right down at the bottom next to cooking our own food and cleaning up our rubbish.

The reason we are so late, people, is that we have been on a very chilled little tropical island on the very south coast of Vietnam called Phu Quoc. I am not really sure if it is technically a tropical island as we didn't see the tropic of cancer nearby, but i shall guess and say that it is. This was the relaxed beach trip that both of us needed after 5 weeks of busyness and hassle. Beautiful sand (without sandbags), sun and crystal clear water so clear you can see 40kg fertilizer bags floating next to you. It was clear enough to read the brand! We sat in the sun and Livia browned very nicely, while my freckles have joined together to give me that almost tanned look.

My one problem with this place (yes, i had a problem with it, and yes, i will complain, as that is what makes this blog extra funny, so stop rolling your eyes) was that i ran out of books to read. Amazing,you say. How can this be so? I am not sure if i mentioned it here, but i definately did so on my facebook page before; there are no beggers in Cambodia (the last place visited before Phu Quoc), only children or mine-victims selling photocopied versions of backpacker mega-hit books. As we all know, i am a out of the closet supporter of copywrite piracy, but for some reason, everytime i saw these kids come up and try and sell a $2 book to me, i would chase them off with a stick screaming, "Go away you little wretches and do something useful with your time....like like...begging or something...!" Something like that anyway. I would have to even move past them slyly to get into the real bookshops to look at 100s of books that were far worse than the ones the kids were selling.

So, anyway, back to not having a book on Phu Quoc. This was the perfect place to read a book or 3 as you improve your freckle surface area. I had finished a great book on the ferry ride over to the island ('The Book of Dave' for those of you interested) and as i put it down i sighed to myself and said, "Fabbo, I shall exchange this book for another on the island and all will be well." What i did not know about Phu Quoc was that 80% of the tourists there are German and 10% are Russian. Every F@*&&*&g book was in German. There were no Russian books. I thought maybe i could try and read a Michael Crichton book in German...i mean, how different a word can 'dinosaurs' or 'killer gorillas' be in German. It turns out to be far too different for me. So alas, i had little to read. Paradise ruined (Livia: and why not share a ruined paradise with your girlfriend...so it can be ruined for her too..;) ) (Tim: Exactly, that is what a relationship is about)

Livia had some very good travel advice for me whilst on the island; When you know the menu back to front, it is time to leave. Truer words i have never heard. And indeed we did know the menu a little too well. It was definately time to get the hell out of there. Another day and we would not be smiling or relaxing on the beach. She was desperate to book a flight out of there early so we would not be stuck. I like teasing her when she is organised like this as i think it is a very Swiss thing to do. It isn't really though, and if she didn't do it and it were up to me, we would never leave. So, good work Liv! Two days before we were to leave we booked a ticket. Somehow we didn't give a deposit, and somehow we didn't get back to pick the ticket up on the day we said we would. We called them and we were going to arrive at the travel agents at 8:30am on the way to the airport on the day we were leaving at 10am . This was indeed cutting it close.

We checked out of the hotel and got into a taxi to grab our tickets and get the hell out of there. Our driver spoke no English and so called his friend who did so i could speak to him and tell him our destination and he could pass this vital information onto the driver. Genius! We stopped at the travel agents and i ran in. '2 Minutes man. ok? ok?' He nodded at that one. I ran in but somehow again the tickets were messed up. I could see Livia in the taxi across the street staring over at me and getting a little stressed. The travel agent had actually really screwed our tickets up and we had to get on a later flight that day...maybe. I told Livia this and then ran back to the travel agency to escape her anger.

When you travel with someone you really get to learn their bad sides and what makes them get very angry. On this trip i have learned that Livia hates idiots that stuff up our flights when we are trying to get off an island. Personally, i only get annoyed with lying, cheating, assholes. Idiots don't annoy me as much. We are all different and this particular combination is probably something that makes us a good team.

So yeah, i ran back into the store. The agent, who was very kind and very really trying his best to fix the situation, said to me, 'Oh, i think your wife. She is very angry.' I decided to exploit his fear of the angry white woman to the maximum. 'Oh, yes indeed my friend.' I smiled and put my hand up to Livia to indicate '5 more minutes' I then turned to my new friend and said, 'Mate, if we don't get off the island today, she will make our lives very difficult.'

'I understand completely my friend. I am working very hard so that this doesn't happen' Luckily for me he fixed everything and we could leave this paradise/hell. The angry beast slowly relaxed :)

Oh, stop complaining Tim! We were stuck behind a desk/ talking to annoying clients or cleaning bedpans at the time, while you were improving your tan and trying to read german on a tropical island. This is true, and it really is just a matter of perspective. But i shall always complain because i am now over 30 and i enjoy it.

Phu Quoc Airport. Wow, i never thought i would actually ever find an airport more crap than the one in Wagga Wagga, Australia (Livia: similar size of either Hobart 6years ago, or Ko Samui, for those who've been there). Instead of the usual alcohol that is found in 1litre bottles in airports all over the world (whiskey for the boys and Baileys for the Ladies), we had the option to buy the fish sauce the island is famous for. Now, don't get me wrong, we both love a bit of fish sauce in our phở ba, but it is not an option at an airport. The runway of this airport was very special too. While there were no planes landing, and sometimes when they were, there were guys on motorbikes riding along it. Rumour has it they were trying to get their fish sauce, and this proved the quickest route to it. I heard this rumour from a Vietnamese guy so don't believe it. I have decided that from now on, I will only believe rumours that I have started. A new rule for me.

You may be wondering why we flew out of this place. Flying generally takes the fun out of travel and personally i think it takes a bit of the romance out of it too. It is nice to look at a map and think that you travelled overland that whole way. I couldn't really care about the impact on local communities, i just think flying is lame and should be avoided at all costs.

The reason we did so was that we were ripped off so badly on the way there that we thought that flying was a cheaper alternative. The flights cost a massive 50 dollars/francs each. So, how were we ripped off...?

We took the southern border crossing from Cambodia into Vietnam. Don't take this one if you are reading this and have the choice. We wanted to as it was a new border crossing, it might be a little difficult and we wouldn't have to leave the lovely ocean for long. The rip-off/scam goes like this. Enter a town where you expect to take a ferry to Phu Quoc, friendly dude says there is no ferry but he can take you to a bus station to help you on your way. You agree, and he takes you all the way to the middle of nowhere outside town to where a bus comes along. The guys on the bus want $30 each or you will then be stuck in the middle of nowhere. Not cool. Meanwhile your friendly dude has disappeared. We learn from these things. In fact, we have never even heard of a scam like this one before. One should always respect a new and clever scam.

I shall now make fun of friendly dude for his unfortunate physical deformity. I don't usually do this, but as i mentioned before, lying cheating motherf*&^%s make me angry. He had about twenty (20) long hairs coming out of the middle of his throat on his adams apple. They spread around evenly to the distance of about 40cms each. This is quite long. They then waved around in the wind hypnotizing us into getting scammed (this is what we both firmly believe). The only way i can describe the hairs is by comparing them to a forest of Kelp in the ocean (seaweed/Seegras) swaying softly back and forward in the gentle ocean currents. At least i know he will never have children. This will be good for us all. Livia felt sick when i reminded her of this later and will no doubt feel the same when she reads this. True story.

Livia has politely asked that i make no more quasi-rascist comments on this blog and she is right to do so. Anyone who feels they are missing our with their abscence, will find the usual string of angry, quasi-rascist remarks on my facebook page. No one need miss out on the fun.

This was a longer post than expected, but it has been a while and there was much to say. We will try and make them more regular for you all. Next time Livia will give you impressions of Saigon. Sorry again for no photos. This hurts us just as much as it hurts you.

ciao ciao

Cambodia...and descrimination against Livia

2009-11-11T11:41:00.009+07:00

Hello All,

Well, where to begin. I shall not start at the very beginning as they always do that in The Sound of Music and this is not a musical. I shall start at...

Firstly, i think we should all give 3 big cheers for copywrite pirates. Nobody goes to Asia purely to pick up cheap copies of dvds or music, but it is certainly an item on the agenda for most of us. Here we have found shops where you can put movies/tv shows/music on a dvd or even on your ipod. There is even a chain store that does it here. So cool. I told Livia i was going out to do this, but i think she suffered from a case of 'i don't know what the hell he is talking about, but i will just say yes, no problem, anyway.' When i came back with something on the ipod (just to take the edge off the long travel times) she didn't believe me. 'What do you mean you can watch tv on your ipod?' When i showed her she squealed with delight. Like a kid in a candy store that has just discovered their new favourite lolly. I couldn't believe she had never known about this before....and she has the newest type of ipod.

And now... we are are in Sihanoukville on the south coast of Cambodia. I (Tim) have not seen the ocean for over a year and Livia hasn't since she went on holiday to Spain with her girls in June. I am still very jealous of this Spanish trip so wont discuss this any further. So, anyway, we were both very excited to see the sea. We could see it from the bus just before we arrived. We ran down to the ocean after dropping our bags off (not really this quickly, but it sounds good for the story) only to discover the beach was one big wall of sand bags. Ugly ugly ugly. This town has all the things needed for a very touristy beachside town, except a beach. It seems to have been washed away over the last 20 years of development. The only thing there now are bars wall to wall along the 'beach' lots of cries of ' Ladiiiiie, want a pedicure ladiiiie?' as well as lots of older western guys with their younger Cambodian wives. Not a pretty place. We are staying a little away from the beach at a more backpacker place with a better vibe. Livia still wants to swim in the ocean while we are here but i am steadily working on changing her mind.

So, we are staying in an English owned guesthouse here in Sihanoukville. One can purchase a greasy fry-up for breakfast and get oneself a pot of tea too. One of the things they welcome you with when you check-in is a free beer. Now this is the part of the story where we find Livia is discriminated against. As most of you know; Livia hates beer. I will admit this is one of her bad points, but i am learning to live with it. At least she never drinks mine at home. So she politely asked the publican if she could have something other than a beer. He politely replied that she could not. 'Don't worry love,' I chuckled, 'I'll have your beer. I luv it.' This little episode sent Livia into the worst kind of depressive/angry mood. If you know her well too you will know that this is not a common thing for her. Anytime there is an option for alcohol in this part of Asia it is most certainly always beer. When we both order a drink; me a beer and Livia anything else, i always receive my drink about 5 minutes before she does. When we travelling on the slow boat for two days in northern Laos there was no other alcohol than beer for sale. There was no softdrink for sale, there was not even any water for sale. Oh man, did this piss her off. Livia is truly a second class citizen/backpacker.

We are now both very conscious of this institutional discrimination against her non-beer drinking ways. So much so, that we both wait and watch after our food and drink is delivered to watch the descrimination in action. It makes me laugh a little big :)

Before our little adventure down to the south coast of Cambodia we visited the capital of Cambodia: Phnom Penh. Not a bad place i must say. We didn't stay long, only long enough for me to visit the sights that house all the reminders and evidence from the Pol Pot regime. Livia didn't come with me to see these as they really are not lovely places to visit. Fair enough too i say. The only thing i want to say about all of the things seen at the burial site and the museum is how normal these places look and how young the people that did these awful things were. The school (S21) which was the prison and torture chamber for the regime was just like any other normal looking high school. If you unfocus your eyes it could have been any school built in the 60s that any of us could have gone too.

Aside from this though, we both finally had a chance to speak to locals. Usually this kind of situation was clouded by someone wanting our money and just trying to chat us up so we use their hotel/retaurant/travel agency/tuk tuk. We both left each other for about an hour in Phnom Penh; me to go to get some pirated copies of Family guy and Livia to just chill out and watch the Independence day Fireworks. I think these conversations we had with locals on this night was one of the best experiences of visiting Cambodia. You never learn anything from visiting tourist sites. Cambodia is such an unexpectedly strange country for us, that i am not sure either of us have a hard idea of what we think of it yet. The people can be pushy, mean and agressive, but also kind, sensitive and shy. I supposed like anywhere really. There is a strange vibe about this place though and really, I am not sure we will be any closer to understanding this place more when we leave.

I think in the last blog Livia said that we were in Siem Reap which is the town next to Ankgor wat. Livia was lucky enough to randomly see two of the Physiotherapists from her work in Zurich there. So bizarre to see people you know in such a place. Siem Reap was a town we were both happy to leave by the end, but we both loved to visit Angkor Wat. We spent two days (along with thousands of other tourists too) trampling through the ruins of this ancient city. We both really thought it was fantastic. At one point though, Livia was beset with a horrible stomach cramps and almost had to disappear into the bushes. I told her that would be disrespectful and we must walk the 2 kms back to the proper toilets. Oh what a crap boyfriend i can be.

Aside from all of this news, we almost lost all the photos for a second time in Siem Reap. This time it ended with a happy ending and all the photos being saved. Unfortunately we have found that when we connect our photo cards to a pc in an internet cafe a virus creeps on just about everytime. So unfortunately there will be less photos for the blog for the time being. We will have some for you today as we have many of the photos on disc now, but only photos from a disc will we include in the blog. Sorry all.

Anyway, take care of yourselves. And please feel free to write on the blog anytime. Just between me and you, Livia is a bit sad none of her friends have written here (that means you!). Both friends and family of me have done so, but no friends of Livia. So please, take the time to write one of more of any of the below statements:

Tim, your writing is dull, we want to hear more from Livia

English is a stupid language! Go back to Deutsch or even Schwiizer Duetsch.

Tim, Stop being a crap boyfriend to Livia!

... or even one that you have made up yourself. Be creative.

I think Tina has kindly included instructions for how to make a post in one of the comments left on a recent blog; Hellou Cambodia

So we stay here in Cambodia for the next 3 days or so and then we move onto the last country before our Syd-a-ney trip: 'NAM!

More news from there.

Hellou Cambodia

2009-11-05T16:05:00.009+07:00

So here we are, in a new country, we both haven't been before...

Last night, we got here to Siem Reap, about 1am...all the streets were empty and dark. Defintiley not a 24 hour city as we expected it... but far more busy during the day...

At first it hit us and we found us both back in memories of India. Walking down the streets, Tuktuks everywhere, and after turning down 2 Tuktukdrivers, showing them how well we are on our own two feets walking down the street, the 3rd driver thinks, he gets us as his customers by shouting even louder and being even more agressive showing off his Tuktuk...

We expected Siem Reap (literal meaning: Thai Defeat), to be very touristy and westernised. What we didn't expect is, to be as much fascinated by the "other" tourists (mostly decades older, French, and very desperately looking for the 'real' Cambodian experience...with everything available being very organised) ...and the locals, I actually don't know, which was even more bewildering...

Looking for an ATM, we found out, we only can get out American $ . As a local, you can choose either USD or local money...but as soon as you choose English language in the ATM the choices are limited to one ...

The locals were asking us constantly if we wanted to pay in USD, or in real money... and as Tim started to use those terms as well within 12 hours, i was quite taken aback of how fast he picked up these terms... it took me quite some time (actually 'til we were both sitting in a bank) that I found out, the locals don't call their money "real money"and the tourist's money as USD, it's the Cambodian currency called RIEL... and how much you get for 100 dollars... i felt like Dagobert Duck (Scrooge McDuck for the English speakers), being able having a shower in our own money...

And as westernized this whole place is, not only everything is labeled by dollars (they mostly have their own exchange rate), we also found Ricola in a pharmacy! (For the Aussie- readers: it's kind of the Swiss version of Strepsils, exept that the Swiss are quite proud of it). (Tim: they are as proud of it as Aussies are of Vegemite)

And tomorrow morning, at 5am (!) we get picked up, by our Tuktuk driver, who takes us to Angkor Wat for Sunrise.. another adventure... what the Taj Mahal is for Indians, Angkor Wat is for Cambodians..

So soon, and hopefully with pictures, we can tell you more about it...

Take care you all...

(Sorry guys, once more troubles with the computer uploading the pictures...although we already chose them...but I don't wanne keep you waiting. This post has been in the pipeline since yesterday, but didn't find an accurate fast enough computer for the pics...)

Good and bad days

2009-11-02T18:12:00.004+07:00

Hi All,

We are still deep in the south of Laos somewhere amongst the 4000 islands. That sounds a little bit more cryptic than it really is. For those of you with an atlas set up next to your home pc, we are specifically on an island called Dong Det which is in the very south of the area called 4000 islands.

It has been a very magical time here actually and until this morning we had filled our days with SFA ('Sweet F--k All' to the non-Aussies). We have been lazing in our hammocks, been reading a few books and eating quite a lot. Life has taken a well deserved slower pace.

As you can probably tell from the title here, we have had a bit of a bad time. I will tell you about this first and then get onto the good and funny stuff afterwards....and don't stress, it all worked out in the end.

This morning, we started to write our blog entry for you all ( i hope you feel the guilt). We had just finished our breakfast of pancakes and weird tasting eggs. We sat down at the internet cafe and Tim started to go through the photos to pick out a couple of jumping pictures Livia had taken. However, no sooner than he could say, 'Gosh i look good here,' than he found the photos were deleted by our hightech PC. This PC had more viruses in it than the dogs at our feet had fleas. Oh crap i hear you say. Oh yes indeed. Three weeks of photos from Livia's camera had disappeard. What to do? Well, both of us have our own special way of reacting to a situation like this. One of us builds into a furious foreigner that attempts to put the fear of death into all Laos locals within a 100m radius, while the other kept tipping over the edge into tears. Now, i wont tell you who made which reaction, I will just leave you to guess. Anyway, the poor dude who worked in this place, who really is only qualified to collect money, called his brother on the mainland to come out and help us restore the photos. Fortunately he was successful. Yayayayayayay!!!!! And our photos have been kind of restored to where they were. We need some program called ACD See 9 or something similar. Bruno, do you have something like this around the house? So, 4 hours after we entered the internet cafe, the tears dried, the boiling blood cooled and we went home for a well earned beer and rest. We have our photos (sort of) and we both feel much better. Needless to say, this is why this post, and possibly the next few, will not have photos on them. Sorry about that.

Anyway, onto better things....have a pause if you would like to...

...when we arrived in Dong Det we all of a sudden had all this extra time to chill and think and I (Tim) started to ponder about dates and the calendar. I had an epiphany; we have an extra week of holiday in Asia! No Mum, don't stress, we still arrive in Sydney at the same time. No, there was a week i hadn't accounted for when i told everyone we were in Asia for 8 weeks. It is really 9 weeks! How cool is that! That is just like finding 500 francs (or buckaroos) in the pocket of the jacket you hadn't worn since last winter. Now, Livia's reply to this was that she already knew and had been telling me since we were in Bangkok. This is very possibly true. Two things here are very probable; she told me and i forgot, or i just wasn't listening to her in the first place. But which could it be? Oh well, no need to think too hard about it. We have an extra week!

In our time here we have visited The Worst Restaurant in the World! Indeed, it is true. I shall tell all. The other night we left for a nicer dinner and possibly a little earlier than other people in the town. We found one called the Regge Bar (yes, it is supposed to be Reggae). It was empty at the time and we all know that very wise old Chinese saying; Never eat at empty restaurant. But they were all empty as it was so early still. The place looked pleasant enough though, with a nice river view and quality furniture. The first thing though that seemed to be a little wrong was the family that owned the restaurant were seated in the corner watching Thai TV. If i haven't whinged about Thai TV or Thai music before, then don't worry, i am planning a full spiel on these horrors. Anyway, most restaurants that would want tourists to come visit usually play the usual repetoir of Jack Johnson, Bob Marley or Tracey Chapman. There was no Buffalo Soldier here! When we looked a little closer at the family we could see that both Mum and Dad were seriously stoned out of their minds. The kids were doing homework, but the parents were smashed. Now i know that being stoned and watching tv go hand in hand, but Mum was singing along to the crappy Thai music. It was then that we spied the 'Happy Pizzas' on the menu. We ordered some simply Laos food and with horror watched 12 year old boy go in the kitchen to make it. It was now that we were stunned. We can't leave, but we don't want to stay. The food came out to us and it smelled like rotten meat. No kidding. There is a horrible trick that parents in Switzerland play on the kids there to make them finish their food. They say to them, "If you don't finish your Fondue it will rain tomorrow." Livia thought that maybe we should just eat the rice but I reassured her that it will not rain tomorrow if she doesn't eat the bad food. We paid quickly, walked out the front door, and ran. That is the last we shall ever see of that land of horrors.

Lastly, i have a small thought to share with you. In all this time we have been relaxing I (Tim) have come up with a new coke commercial. What!? Yes, i have. I wanted to print it here so if/when coke steal it from me, I can take them to court and Livia and i can keep travelling for a long time. Anyway, i think it is pretty good. Imagine an outback ozzie guy working on the land. Cowboy hat on and sweat dripping all over him. He is hot, he is thirsty. He turns to the camera and says:

Coke; sugar, cold, bubbles, caffeine. What else d'ya want?

I like it. I think you can make it international too by just changing the outback guy to a tough but reliable and hard working guy/gal from your country of choice. Maybe a typical Graubunden mountain man. Anyway, that's my add.

We leave for Cambodia on Wednesday and will write from there.

Bye bye Laos

Much love to all of you from us

The back of beyond

2009-10-29T18:58:00.007+07:00

( fat gollum, but also a little whiter...)

So after our time in Vang Vieng we decided it was time to get a little bit off the beaten track, to ditch the tourist trail, to find the real Laos, to boldly go where no one has gone bef....ahh bollocks to that. We are not such wankers. Tim just gets really annoyed when he has to pay tourist prices. So rather than take the air-con mini van (6 francs) we headed to the local bus station to see what we could find. 3 Francs to the capital city Vientiane in the back of a ute (pick-up truck to those non-Aussies reading this). Sounded like a party to us. With the added bonus of friends Kristian and Erica we were rained on, drank dust from the air and also shared the ute with chickens in baskets as well as old ladies who luckily brought enough plastic bags to vomit for the whole journey. Actually, these old ladies were very sweet and tried so hard to hide their spew from the rest of us and to do it quietly. They were very dignified.

We are not certain about why on every trip there needs to be one or two chuckers, but it could be that some of the people here just don't have the practice of being in a moving car. Just a theory. If anyone has another please share it.

So after this first successful venture away from tourist buses we both thought we were ready for more. There was a very long bus ride to the very southern part of Laos which would have eaten around 19 hours of our lives. I know this sounds like the riotous bus of fun and adventure, but we both decided we would take it a little more slowly. It turned out to be far too slow in fact. We have spent the last 4-5 days or so traveling from Vientiane to Pakse by the local bus. We firstly intended to visit some impressive caves in the east of the country. It often helps to plan these things a little bit in advance (i.e. to read some or any information about where or what it is you want to do). We ended up in the wrong place by about 80 kms and spent the night in a bizarre town where there was much gambling and Patanq, as well as the most lavish jumping castle ever imagined. It actually looked like something our of a horror movie.

The next day we went to the bus station again. This time with a small idea of where we wanted to go. We ended up in yet again a most bizarre town. There were places to stay and such but almost no one spoke English or French. There was only a really annoying Laos guy who spoke any Swiss German worth a damn. But we didn't like the look of him as he had a twitch and wore a pink shirt. Livia doesn't like it when guys wear pink shirts. So we just spoke english all day to each other. We found a tourist office (3 guys sleeping on a floor and a dog) and asked about this cave thing. Sadly we were an hour too late and would then need to spend another 2 days in the town to see these caves if we wanted to. We didn't. Instead we discovered there was a waterfall (again!) where you can swim and cool yourself down. Only 3kms from the town! So we set out all happy and merry. 3kms is about 2 kms more than our agreed limit for hikes/jungle treks/marathons. However, as we had
little else to do we went for it. This was a fabbo bit of the Laos jungle full of elephants and giant trees. We even saw the elephant poo so it was all very authentic. We were also lucky to find no unexploded ordinance (bomb) as can often be a real bother when found treking in the Laos jungle.

Now, I have known Livia for almost 2 years and i can quite confidently say that she is one tough chick. She camps, she is a nurse (Krankenschwester!!!!) and she doesn't put up with rubbish from anyone...even me. On a scale of 1-10 of chick toughness, where 1 is Snow White and 10 is Xena i would put Livia down as around an 8. However this was really put to the test in the jungle as we came across quite a giant yellow spider. It was quite ugly and it moved very quickly. Very quickly towards us in fact. I have never heard Livia scream or seen her panic quite like this. It was really a new side to her not previously experienced.

I attempted to calm her with a very pompous, 'Oh relax love, it is only a spider. They eat all the flies, mosquitoes and other really bad things of the forest. It is a friend to humans. And whats more, it was probably more scared of you than you were of it.'
'Then Tim, why are you also standing on a boulder and scanning the ground for any more 8-legged movement?'

We will probably never know.

While we were in this village in the back of beyond, the arse end of nowhere, over yonder, or ...anyway....we had some great times ordering food. Some restaurants would have a dusty, folded up piece of paper with such delicious suggestions as Flied lice, prok with rice and Noodle Soup. Now, the noodle soup (or soodle noup as we prefer to call it now) is really pretty good here in Asia and i think Livia has developed a taste for it. One thing she does not like is having it for breakfast....or having it for breakfast when it includes shredded stomach meat. Perhaps the one thing she dislikes the most is the noodle soup without noodles. This is a particularly bland version of noodle soup. One might have thought a better name would have just been soup or boullion. Just my suggestion.

So yes, after 5 days we are now almost at the end of our Laos trip. We plan to spend around 3 nights or so chilling out in a place called 4000 islands. There will be no internet, quiet times, and much beer for Tim. Should be fabulous. We will write again soon

ciao

PS: sorry guys about the pictures...we had a battle with the computer and sadly gave in...but at least you have photos to look at ;)

Tubing in Vang Vieng

2009-10-29T17:46:00.015+07:00

Hallo meine Lieben!!!
Wieder mal etwas auf deutsch... :) obwohl hier wohl der richtige Moment waere, zu erwaehnen, dass man im Internet auch Uebersetzungsseiten findet.... (eine gute Kollegin von Tim hat dies mit dem 1. Post von Bangkok gemacht..)

Das letzte Mal haben wir euch ja versprochen, vom tubing zu erzaehlen in Vang Vieng!!!
Die Laosaner (oder so aehnlich, Laos Bewohner) wissen wie man Spass hat, und Spass verkauft...
Man nehme einen Fluss, einen alten Lastwagen Pneu, ein Tuk Tuk und ein paar Bretter, die man als Bar zusammenbastelt um Alkohol und Anderes zu verkaufen...

Lonely Planet weist hoeflich darauf hin, dass es zwar grossen Spass sei, zwei und mehr Stunden dauern kann , dass aber auch schon einige Leute dabei gestorben seien...Wie ihr wohl auf den Fotos erkennen koennt, eher nicht wegen natuerlichen Einfluessen (obwohl diese atemberaubend sind) sonder mehr von hochprozentigen und chemischen Einfluessen . Verteilen die doch tatsaechlich Schnaps for free, welcher die Flasche teilt mit ekligen Tieren wie 1000 Fuesslern oder Spinnen, nur um mehr "tubers" in ihre Bar zu locken...
Tim versuchte einen Shot, welcher er aber nur halb runter brachte.

Nach dem Eintrag von Lonely Planet war ich doch sehr erstaunt ueber die Seriositaet die die Vermieter in ihrer Garage voller Pneus vermittelten. Jeder Einzelner musste sich registrieren lassen, inklusive Passport Nr...(wahrscheinlich fuer den Schwarzmarkt, sollte man nicht zurueckkommen...) und Hotel. Auf jedem Blatt stand eine Nummer, die man mit wasserfestem Filzstift gross und nur auf die rechte Hand in unseren Zahlen und Laonesisch geschrieben bekam...ich war dann die Nr. 24 fuer die naechsten vier Tage, bis ich das Zeugs wegbrachte. Sobald man den Pneu zurueckbrachte, wurde man abgehakt und erhielt sogar Depot zurueck, aber nur wenn man diesen vor 6pm zurueck brachte...

Wir gingen mit Freunden zusammen um die Mittagszeit und es war grossen Spass! Der Fluss war ueberaschenderweise erfrischend und mehr oder weniger sauber. Die kargigen Felsen am einten Ufer und Wasserbueffel am anderen, einfach unglaublich. So sind wir mehrere Stunden gemaechlich dem Fluss entlang geschaukelt. Auch wir liessen uns ein paar Drinks nicht nehmen... bis wir die Rutschbahn entdeckten...also besser gesagt: Tim und Kristian... Beide ueber 30 wurden ploetzlich zu Spitzbuben, einander uebertrumpfend...
Keine Sorge: alle Pneus, alle Passports und alle Menschen sind heil wieder retour gekommen...

2009-10-25T17:23:00.012+07:00

Hello again.

I would say Sabaidee as the locals do but i think it is stupid and wont partake in their silly language which is almost as pointless as French.

All is well again with us and it has been quite some time now since the last blog entry...where to begin...

...i guess we should begin where we left off. Salmonella. What fun this funky little bug creates. Sure enough Tim's little experiments with street food allowed him to get a little more than his money's worth. On just about every night in Luang Prabang I (Tim) insisted on street food. It smells fantastic from blocks away, looks great, is cheap...the list of positives just goes on. So I tried Laos sausages, whole fish and the best thing of all; chicken. I am so pleased i am no longer a vegetarian. I think in Asia but outside of India the word 'vegetarian' is just a euphemism for 'idiot.' So anyway, we ate so much chicken on a stick (see my facebook profile pic if i didn't cancel your friend request). Livia begged to visit a restaurant on one night, to which i grudgingly obliged. However, for desert i thought some chicken might be good. Livia merely tried one mouthful the first night as she wrongfully believes i am her taste tester. Fortunately i wokegood and strong the first morning afterwards but with an empty belly that could only be satisfactorily filled by chicken 10 hours hence. The next night i moved onto fish...

Unfortunately the on the last day little salmonella bugs started tickling my tummy. Fortunately i had my little Krankenschwester and her big bag of drugs with me. I was sure the restaurant was to blame, but we will never know. We will never stop eating street food though.

In Luang Prabang we heard about some beautiful waterfalls where you can swim in the pool at the bottom...about 35km out of the village. There were several guesthouses, offering tours by a minivan. Our friends decided to do it that way, but we thought: noo that's too touristy for us. So we started looking for Tuk tuk's to get us there. It was actually harder than we thought. Most of them wanted much more, then this organised minivan... the cheapest was about the same price. So long story short, we ended up in the touristy minivan like our friends...

The surroundings of the waterfall though was worth it every sweating drop!!! It was soo beautiful, like out of a fairytale. The sun was shining through bamboobushes and the sound of the pouring water...amazing! I even made Tim climbing with me up to the top of it, were there was a breathtaking panorama!Later we had the refreshing swim we were longing for so desperatly the whole day... until a rivercarp started to nibbling on Tim's toe...

(pic:panoramic view from the top of the waterfall)

We eventually decided to leave Luang Prabang by Minibus. Cheesy and touristy we know. Both of us were not happy with the situation, but for 3 francs more and 2 hours shorter travel time, we would be stupid not to. One of the things that you miss out on when you take the tourist bus is all the local fun and activities. Something cool usually happens on the cheap and nasty local bus. This time we were lucky enough to have a Laos mother and 3 year old son in the mini bus with us. This proved to be sufficient for strange happenings. This little boy must have been asleep for the first 30 minutes of this 6 hour journey. The rest of us big hungover tourists really didn't notice him or his mum as we chatted away about everything and nothing. Sadly for the little boy, he woke up with a start and had to 'feed the possums.' (This is West Australian speak for vomit lots). Oh dear, the poor little dude. At one point he found himself in the vomiter's worse nightmare;having it come out both ends. His mum was such a sweetie. She even fashioned a kind of plastic bag beard for him which she hooked over his ears while she had a vomit. Such genius!

This little kid had so much rice and noodles in him that he filled bag after bag. This left us in a very rare situtation in Asia: We ran out of plastic bags. 'Impossible!' you say, "This story can't be true!'...we would have said so too, but both of us were there to witness and experience this together. The best thing about mum on this day though was when we stopped for lunch. She didn't want his poor tummy to be empty for the last 3 hours of the trip and so she filled it up with noodle soup, ice blocks and yoghurt drinks. This is the sort of combination of foods one would eat if they planned to throw up. I don't understand why she would do this, but she seemed to think it would be a good idea.

Now don't scoff or tisk at us for exploiting this poor child's behaviour for a little giggle. It was sad for him, but he wont read this and so allow yourself a little laugh. We arrived then in Vang Vieng.

We have since left there, but don't have photos to include for you and so this next part in the story will have to wait until next time. ciao ciao

Loving Nature

2009-10-21T14:19:00.007+07:00

Hello friends and family and other such people,

We are both happy and well and the trip is quite fun and as always there is much to report. Last time we left a post we were on our way to the Laos border.

On the way some things really changed and grew in Livia and my relationship. As the old man of the pair I had managed to stay up past 9:30pm the other night. We have set a rule that we are not allowed to go to sleep until 9:30pm on any night, no matter how tired we were. So at 9:31pm on one night recently i put my book down, grumbled a sleepy good night to Livia and fell asleep. Not long after...perhaps half an hour...Livia wakes me up by saying, "Tim, i think there are some bugs in our bed." And indeed she was correct. We were lucky enough to have not one...but at least 50 ants sharing our bed. Now i have never gone into this bed sharing business before as it really hasn't been my thing. I really would not have guessed Livia would have been into it either. But there we were sharing our bed with the local insect life. Does everyone try this when they travel? Please post something if you have and enjoyed it or not.

I really didn't know what to say to Livia the next day either. Is sharing your bed with strange creatures something to discuss or do i just pretend it didn't happen? Anyhow, the next night it was the same except with not just ants, but at least 10 or so different species of bugs. What a wild time you say! Indeed it was when you wake up in a wild fit with the feeling of 6-8 legs at a time crawling all over your legs and back. The following day i just had to say something to her..."Livia, sharing my bed with the local fauna is not my thing. I am sorry if you came here to do this, but it just isn't for me." She replied that she thought it was me that had invited them to our bed. Oh dear oh dear. What a kafuffle! Needless to say we have tried to make it clear to the local insects that they are no longer welcome to join us in our sleep.

On a more serious note... we are now in Luang Prabang which is the biggest city in northern Laos. There could even be close to 10,000-15,000 people here. Almost as big as Zurich! It is a stunning city and the people of Lao (Laotions? Anna please correct me) are incredibly lovely and smiley. When you walk past their shops and they ask you to come and buy something, it is done in a whisper and i would almost say that they are not even really trying.

To get here too we took the slow boat down the Mekong from the border of Thailand. This is an easy and chilled way to travel. Two days of it was certainly enough, but fortunately for me (Tim) they had much beer to buy....sadly no water though for Livia. We travelled past green forests and mountains...Livia would say they were hills, but she isn't writing this entry today so i will call them mountains...and lots of farms. Our boat was delivering important supplies to the local villages like blue refrigerators. Why blue i don't understand, but not understanding everything is what happens sometimes as a tourist.

We shall chill our here for the next few days eating street food such as Laos sausage and bbq chicken and river fish. I am going to eat the fish tonight and i can't wait. Our next entry could be about salmonella...but you shall have to read to find out.

(you can see the Lao Border and tiny little hut on the other side was the Thai Border)

As a final note we should mention the crap border crossing. We are sure that most border crossings in the world are also crap, but this time we decided to take the 'easy' option and pay everything upfront to get taken across the border. A big mistake! Not only did we get asked on many many occasions for more money we were kept in the dark about almost everything. Livia said she felt like we were going to be sold into slavery in a South East Asian people smuggling and prostitution ring. We are happy to report that this was not the case! And to just to top it off the border crossing was done in the pouring rain which is always helpful when passports etc need to be taken out of one's bag often. Isn't monsoon finished? Ahh nature.

Flight of the Gibbon...

2009-10-18T11:00:00.011+07:00

I can tell Tim's getting a bit old, just after his birthday... he mixed it all up about who lost their patience at the train station. I had to convince him to join me for the canopy adventure....

We got up at 5:45 (!), without breakfast (!) and headed to the jungle for a very cool yet bizarre day. We went on a 3 hour trip through the top of the rainforest near Chiang Mai. This is an ultra touristy thing to do but i think this has been the best part of the trip so far for us.

After Tim got over his first shock and started to manage his fear, he turned out, to have as nearly as much fun as me. it was an absolutly great feeling to fly trough the top of the jungle through massive trees and big bamboo bushes.

Livia, as you may know, is a little taller than most people back at home, but here in Asia, she is once again a giant Frau. As she came in to land on some of the trees after flying through the air she would need to be stopped by our humorous although quite small guide. On one such 'landing' she pushed him almost off the edge of the platform to the jungle below, and smashed her bum into the tree. Most of the rest of the people on the tour laughed heartily at poor Livia's expense while she frantically tried to hold onto the platform herself. We are sorry to report she has a big blue bruise on her bottom today :(

This morning we both had trouble to complete the simple task of walking down the stairs to breakfast.

Perhaps both of us are getting old?

...or maybe just Tim.

After we send this post we are now heading off to Laos and should cross the border tomorrow morning. We hope everyone is fine. Speak soon...
.

Bangkok to Chiang Mai

2009-10-16T16:28:00.009+07:00

Yo yo yo.

So we are still in Thailand. We are now in Chiang Mai in the North and we spent around 1 day (read: too long) in Auyuthaya which is just north of Bangkok. I don't care about the spelling of this town's name, it was too hot to care.

All is well for both of us however after my 2 years and Livia's 1 year away from travel we have forgotten some very important things:

1. That if i believed in a christian hell or heaven that i would believe that taxi drivers in Thailand have a special level of hell reserved just for them.

2. It is hot and humid here and if you are from Europe or 'Straya you will sweat a disgusting amount. I certainly have and in doing so have gone through all my shirts already in 5 days. Now the big question is, do i just throw them out or wash them? Which is cheaper?

(pict: Massive storm the previous night. Livia was very scared)

3. The boy dogs have their balls still. Really, it is amazing. I look at these boy dogs running sometimes and i wonder if their balls could snap off from so much dangling to and fro. And i have to say that they are far bigger than mine are too. Sorry, but no photos of this yet. Still to come.

Livia has forgotten:

Generally, that trains outside Switzerland do not run on time. It is possible that trains in Japan are often on time. but they are certainly not in Thailand.

Last night, as our train moved from the acceptable '1 minute late' mark towards the '2 minute late' mark Livia lost control. She grabbed the nearest glass bottle, broke it over a bald old monk's head and began to threaten the charming and polite guards on the station. She was screaming, 'I want my 30 baht (1 franc) train fair back!!!!' I lunged for her to hold her down to stop this international incident from escalating rapidly. Fortunately, the guard actually looked quite bored but still smiled at the both of us. Stupid farang. For the next 40 minute Livia went between quietly crying and me telling her the train would arrive any minute to her manic attempts to murder anyone involved in the railways in Thailand.

How will this story continue????

Will you still bother to read it if it does?

Bangkok

2009-10-14T09:40:00.000+07:00

Nach einer etwas holprigen Landung in Bangkok, einem sehr unhoeflichen Taxifahrer (er war etwas grumpy, weil wir nur mit taximeter fahren wollten) und Roomservice spaeter, haben wir langsam begonnen zu realisieren: wir sind gestartet in unser Abenteuer...

Aber ganz shanti shanti...das Hotel ist super, wie erwartet. Gestern wollten wir das Zugbillet organisieren fuer die heutige Weiterreise, erfuhren aber dass dies nur jeweils am selben Tag geht. Doch der etwas unromantische Spaziergang zum Bahnhof bei Regen, der Strasse entlang war nicht vergebens: wir haben dafuer das Billet fuer die Weiterreise im Nachtzug nach Chiang Mai organisieren koennen.

Am Abend liessen wir uns bei einer Thai Massage verwoehnen. Tim erhielt eine klassische Thai Massage und ich eine Thai Akkupressur Massage...habe diese Ausgesucht, in der Hoffnung, dass es weniger weh tut...falsch gedacht...der Masseur fand Punkte, die ich mir nie im Leben als schmerzhaft vorgestellt habe...

Zum Abschluss vom gestrigen Tag dinnierten wir auf dem Dach des Hotels im 25. Stock (open-air). Wir sind uns vorgekommen wie Koenige...

Und nun geht es in wenigen Stunden weiter Richtung Norden...

Ganz liebe Gruesse aus dem heutigen sonnigen Bangkok... Tim und Livia

Details about the trip:

2009-09-16T00:12:00.000+07:00

11.10.09 "Ladies and Gentleman, here speaks the captain, we're ready for taking off...."
12.10.09 Landing in Bangkok
Then we travel from Bangkok to the north of Thailand, crossing over by boat (Mekong) to Laos, further down to Cambodia . This will take about a month.
The second month we'll be hanging out in Vietnam (how cool is that?!? ) :-)
13.12.09 Flight from Saigon to SYDNEY!!! (landing on monday, 14.12.) Spending Christmas and NYE with family and friends.
04.01.10 BULA FIJI!!!! Spending some easy hours on the beach, sailing around some beautiful spots and enjoying our lifes.
13.01.10 Flying back to Sydney before we definitely have to say goodbye to Australia.
14.01.10 A long flight back home
15.01.10 Landing at lunchtime back in Zürich in freezing cold winter...

Countdown

2009-09-06T18:52:00.001+07:00

We are still in Zurich but already thinking of what to pack.

Timmy's dirty 30th and our farewell party are set for the 9th of October. Just before our departure on the 11th Oct.