The Cambodian Children's Fund

The PEPY ppl were lucky enough to be invited to a special performance put on by the Cambodian Children's Fund in Phnom Penh, funded and run by Scott Neeson, a sort of Australian who used to be a film exect. The CCF is a shelter/school for around 120 kids who are either orphaned, abandonned or abused. See the website on what they do http://www.cambodianchildrensfund.org/

There were traditional Khmer dances which were just pure cute and enlightening, but also most poignent for me was the story of Srey, which is a true story of one of the students which she wrote herself - of the story of being born to a drunk father and gambler mother who makes them go through the rubbish dump and pimp for money. They get robbed by gangsters but finally gets sent to Scott's school where they found sanctury and education. It was a truly moving story because the actor/director/writer actually cried real tears on stage and made the rest of the childre and rest of us cry on the spot. All the children share pretty much the same story and they have been in really dark tragic places I could never imagine in my entire life. A lot of the girls barely 13 or 14 has been forced into prostitution and many many of them had not gone to school for a day before they went to the CCF.

Their generosity was so overwhelming - after the performance we got to mingle a bit with the kids & teachers. They were really curious about where we were from and what we did, etc etc. THey dressed in simple and clean uniforms and held our hands and asked our names. I had twenty kids one time surrounding me wanting to climb onto me. I let them play with my camera and they took some crazy photos. They tought me some Khmer like how to count and names of fruits. We shared a fantastic evening of dancing (break dancing & acrobats from the kids) they gave us lei leis of jasmine and orchids, it was just so warming. There's so much hope here, so much happiness. I have overwhelming admiration for not just Scott but the many many people - Cambodians and foreigners making a difference here. 18 months ago most of these kids were pretty much living just like in Srey's story - on the streets in a dark corner wishing that they weren't there.

When we walked out of the school and into the night there were more children in rags asking us for money and food. To think that there are only 120 of them here being protected and nurtured, educated and loved, and that there thousands and thousands of them still out there alone, struggling, cold, hungry, in dispair - I feel that the light at the end of the tunnel is still really far away.

S21 & The Killing Fields

One of the first places we visited was the S21 prison in Phnom Pehn. It was a former school which was turned into one of Pol Pot's most nortorious torcher chambers between 1975 - 1979. It was the largest detention and torcher centre in the country, where more than 17,000 people, whether intellectuals, outright opponets of Khmer Rouge, students, and Khmer Rouge's own members accused of dissent, were sent to before being trucked out to the killing fields (15 kms outside of PPN) to be executed and buried in mass graves.


It was not hard to imagine that Cambodia has just experienced a traumatic and tragic period - where peace was only delivered less than 15 years ago. Victims of landmines fill the street, often dragging themselves in dust, uncomfortable wheel chairs, begging for just a little bit of money or food just to get by. Families are still grieving and looking for their loved ones lost 20 years ago, no traice, no sound, no bodies. Landmines still litter the country side, both those planted by the Khmer Rouge and the Americans - these weapons are blind - they don't just target enemy soldiers, but any one that steps on it - children, animals, bus load of people.

Being in the S21 (Security Prison 21) torcher chamber was really quite disconcerting. The rooms are empty except for a bed, bench or a few instruments used for torchering, to remind the visitors of the horrid emptiness of a victim''s existence - nothing but yourself, your pain, the sound of your own body being cut apart, and the laughter of the perpetrator. There were still splatters of blood on the ceiling that was not able to be scrubbed away. Being in here, in the rooms and walking the corridors makes the hair at the back of my neck stand up. This place glooms with death even after 30 years.

Other rooms displayed the mugshots of the prisoners that were once detained in S21. Many of them are Khmer Rouge's own supporters. You can tell the high ranking ones by the clothes or scarves they wear. Some pictures are of dead bodies that have already been torchered to death. The KR take their pictures so that they can find their escaped families and persecute them later. I found it so disturbing that most of them looked much younger than I am. Pairs and pairs of eyes stairing at me, in dispair, disillusionment, hopelessness. There are other rooms that offered more sense of hope - artists that have experienced this create their own impressions of their pain, but also forgiveness and recovery. Those that have tried to move on from this dark past tells of their road back to peace and teaching their children about the past. In the last room there was a shelf displaying many skulls. A loop of paper cranes folded by Japanese students like the ones that I saw at the peace dome in Hiroshima hangs on the handles, wishing the Cambodians long lasting peace. I burst out crying when I saw this - why can't people learn from anything??? How could people do such things to each other when they have flesh and bloody themselves?

Its hard to imagine that this peaceful, quiet and tranquil space in the middle of PPN was a former death camp. The afternoon was sunny and the courtyard adorned by beautiful frangapania trees. Thirty years ago around here PPN was a dead city - the majority of the population evacuated to the country side - and banned from fleeing the country with the threat of huge lines of landmines around the Thai and Vietnamese boarders. No body would have heard the screams from s21 in the middle of the night. Except maybe the other prisoners and those that did the torchering - but I doubt that they'd hear if that is what you hear every minute of the waking hour. If hearing meant that you believe what you are hearing is the sound of another human being just like yourself.

We traced the journey of a prisoner that would have been executed - after walking through the former torcher rooms and prison cells, down the stairs that the prisoners would have taken, we drove through leafy villages and to the Choeung Ek village, the so called "Killing Fields" where the remains of thousands of people have been recovered from mass graves - except we haven't been torchered and starved for weeks, we sat on an airconditioned bus and not bound to other bloodied prisoners on the back of a truck, we saw the day light and was not blind folded, and our lives was not so easily disrespected and disgarded.

Behind the shrine that was erected to remember the dead, there were hundreds of large holes in the ground, now grown over with grass, where plots of mass graves were found, and bones recovered - either returned to the victims'families if they were identified, or kept in the stupa with all the other bones. Victims were made to crouch down on the edge of the grave, beheaded or shot in the head and they would fall straight in. Plots carried up to 700 bodies at a time. There was one where most of the victims were women (often naked) and their babies. There was a tree beside that grave where the Khmer Rouge soldiers would bash the babies'heads against and throw straight into the grave. Our guide was almost trembling when she told us about this grave. But she says that after 14 years of coming here with people, she has put her fears behind her.

The so called Killing Fields lie just 15 minutes outside of PPN - but in fact there were killing fields all over the country - mass graves were first discovered and recovered 10 year ago, but many of them out of the main centres are still being found. Now there are village children playing around the mounds. I wish that the children buried underneath could be doing the same. During the wet season the area gets flooded and after this bones still surface every year. Some bones is right next to the surface and you can see its outline on the dirt. Clothes that the victim wore are still half in the dirt and half out on the surface. There is a good number of plots that have been cleared out, but there are actually many many others behind the closed off area that the Cambodian gov hasn't got to - they think that these few are enough to remind the current generation of the mistakes of the previous, and because they do not want to disturb any more graves - or is it because they simply don't want to have to remember any more?

Phnom Penh

When we left Bangkok at 5am in the morning it was pouring down with rain and half the stuff in my luggage was soaked. So I could not believe that Phnom Pehn was full of sunshine and dead heat when I arrived.

Here me, Emma and Jo met up with some of the PEPY volunteers for a few days of touring in PPN before we head to Siem Reap to meet the rest of the group.

It is such a leafy city - much smaller than I thought it would be, not very many high rises and lots of open spaces and wide roads. Its obvious that it is a lot more impoverished than Thailand. Laos was "poor"in the sense that they didn't have great hunks of material wealth, but not the sense of desperation shown here in Phnom Pehn - housing is really really fun down, and environmental degredation is so widespread. Every corner there is a begger, mainly children who says in English "Need One Dollar for School" and points at the food you carry. They stay out till late at night, often 12 or 1 am still out looking for money and food. Some of them just simply sleep on the streets. The tuk-tuk drivers too, they even sleep in their vehicles.

The local markets were not crowded but much more basic than those in Thailand. but I was really pleased that many of them spoke better Mandarin than English, so I was able to communicate quite well, to Emma and Jo's jealousy. It is a circus here but a different circus - meat and fish is diplayed in the hot sun, and so is ïnteresting"cuisine such as barbequed snakes, cooked giant black hairy spiders, cochroaches and grasshoppers.

To be really honest, being fresh off the boat I didn't feel particularly safe here as we get approached quite a bit by beggers and tuk-tuk drivers targetting foreigners who actually yanks the corner of your clothes and often cry in front of you. Oh, and a guy with a big bathroom scale came up to us wanting to weigh us in exchange of money - urh, no... But every time I say "no"/ "te"a sense of guilt come rising up my chest - what the hell am I doing here with my full belly, clean clothes and comfortable bed in their country when they have hardly anything - how could I say no? but how could I stop every 2 minutes and give to every person? How do I stop being mobbed and how do I keep safe? How do I morally justify why I am here, supposedly understanding their way of life and not give anything back? What do they do with the money I give them? Who do I trust?

After talking to some of the other travellers and expats it seems like a lot of the beggers particularly children are controlled by either their parents or an older leader whom takes their money away at the end of the day anyway, often for alcohol and gambling, and this encourages the kids to continue to beg on the streets instead of going to school. It is much better off giving the kids some food because you know that they stay fed and they benefit directly - ironically many of these kids don't end up wanting the food you give them because its not food that they want... money is what they have been taught that makes this entire world spin around, particularly in this chaotic and merciless city.

This is really crude but I think this is a micro-version of aid - the donor countries give give and give, the recipient country gov takes it, keeps most of it for itself and a tiny wee bit dribbles down to the real ppl the donors thought they were helping. The majority of the population stays poor (while the govy ministers gets rich), which encourages the donors to have to keep giving cos the money's not particularly effective.

Christmas in Bangkok

Christmas in Bangkok is like Chinese new year in Auckland. Its not really something the locals care too much about except for the excuse to make even more money off the tourists and the excuse to drink even more excessively.

I have always been a Christmas skeptic, but I suppose its a bit like my atheism which toned down to agnosticism as I age and become less idealistic. Hey, I am not going to turn down the chance to be intoxicated just cos that's suppose to be wrong.

On Christmas eve, Emma and I met up with Jo and Rachel, two JETS from japan who are also in BKK, and Malin the Swedish chick I met in Lao. The evening started with singha beer and a collection of weird snacks we picked up at the markets - rice caramel crackers, fish cakes, roasted broadbeans coated with chilli powder, fried dough, etc etc. And that crazy drinking game the kiwi chicks form halong bay taught me.

By the time we made it to the seafood restaurant with live crustaceans displayed on ice outside, the Khao san area was already packed with tourists and Thais out for a good time. Soon we were in tears, not for the diners sitting in the corner by themselves with their The Darvinci Codes, but the overpowering chilli the chefs tend to sprinkle by the handfulls in everything they serve - mainly to make you order more beer. It really is a circus out here - other than the usual street vendors with pad thai and fruit, and the massage shop ladies, there was a little Thai boy selling endangered birds (10 fits into a small bamboo cage), a little French boy who's parents are obviously oblivious to the fact that he is annoying all the diners with his remote controlled bat-mobile, a man in santa suit cycling around the street with a tuk-tuk decorated with white pipe cleaners and xmas light to resemble a giant snow queen vehicle belting out xmas carols - 20 baht a pop for a ride. And the indian magicians that can tell you exactly when you'll meet the man of your dreams, how much he'll make, when you will have your first child and whether you're in line for that inheritance.

The rest of the night was debaucherous mixture of 7-11 beers, crazy Thai pop music and toilet ladies telling you that you've gone into the men's toilets. And a bit more of being mistaken as Japanese. I've heard enough of AISHITERU for now.

The morning was quite nice - another hot sticky day in Bangkok. Emma has not emerged from her recovery but I was keen to get back into the curries (while I make my xmas phone calls) - an open air smorgasbord in the shallow ally way beside the guest house which has over 20 curries to choose from, at 25 baht a plate with free grayish ice water (which I have sworn against after seeing a pile of ice being transported on the back of a truck, no containers or covers, just dripping out onto the road and straight into the ice machine...). Nothing beats chilli on a day like this!!

We dragged our hangovers all the way to the Chatuchak weekend markets in the afternoon where we met up with Jib - whom i haven't seen for 10 months. Its one of the biggest markets in the region, over 20,000 stalls and as it was the end of the year it was packed with ppl. I can't believe this is the middle of the winter cos the heat alone makes your eyes blurry, let alone doing this while you just had xx amount of singha beer the night before. The warehouses where half the stalls are is like a big rice cooker and it was impossible for girls of our delicacy could really handle. We ended the day with, you guessed it, KAREOKE! To my surprise, the Thais aren't really that into kareoke, most of the clientele are ex pat Japanese. But thanks to Jib who is also a kareoke junkie we found a fantastic place in Asoke, and just drowned ourselves in song for the rest of the evening. i really missed doing kareoke with Emma, we just know each other too well - we are like kareoke soul mates - the words and the melodies just gel and together amd belt out like poetry. We created a big monster that the Asoke residents (particularly those with children) would be glad to see the back of.

This is probably around the 80th time I did "My Way" - about time I lost count, really.

Roaming Bangkok

Its soooo wonderful to see Emma! Its been a whole year, yet it felt like I was just with her yesterday, we could talk all night, about anything, about everything. I was pretty sick of travelling alone, and there's nothing better than having Emma right here constantly reminding me that we need more phad thai and beer.Bangkok is slightly on the mad side. The first thing I saw hopping off the bus was an elephant in the middle of the street performing some sort of elephant trick. Unable to find my guesthouse I asked a motorbike-taxi driver for directions - he cut me a cheap deal and offered to take me there. I stupidly hopped on with my 17kg backpack on the back of his very very small motocycle, thinking that it would be just down the next ally way. Instead we went on a little excursion through the main street circling around cars at the red light and running right through it!! Then he wedged between two gigantic buses in the narrowest space with my huge backpack (I thought that if one of the straps was caught on something we would both be meat pies right now) but phew cutting it fine hasn't killed me just yet.

Emma and I moved to Kao San Rd after a night in Siem Square as its dirt cheap there for accom and just handy to everything. But yeah its a condensed version of everything wacky about Thailand and tourism, see previous post. We've been exploring different parts in and around Bangkok in the last few days, and sampling thousands of interesting food. We have been on all sorts of transportations of different form, speed and costs that really made our minds boggle.

Stuff we've been doing:
Floating Markets
a touristy kind of water canals where traditionally the locals load up their row boats with all kinds of goodies to sell to houses built right on the waters.

Kachanaburi - Bridge over the River Kwai
This is the so called "Death Railway" - The Thai-Burmese railway which thousands of Allie POW were forced to build by the Japanese in WWII, obviously in hideous labour conditions and about 1 in 4 POW out of about 10,000 ppl died whilst building this railway. The Bridge over River Kwai is only a small part of this, but links the railway quite strategially and was bombed several times during the war to stop Japanese advancement into Burma etc etc. Made into a movie, given the household whistle tune, and naturally graduates into a tourist town and a museum.

Tiger Temple
a wild life sanctury set up by monks initially rescuing orphaned tiger cubs, now they have all sorts of animals, I got to pat a tiger, that was pretty cool.

Aruttaya - The Acient Ruins
I'll update on the history soon - but yeah, this place is awesome we had such a fun day there all except being conned by the Thai Railways bureaucrats...

Night Markets & China Town
Where you find the coolest kids and best food in Thailand.

Siam Square
Where more hip youngsters hang out in big shiny shopping centres, lined with boutique shops and upmarket labels. We walked straight into a full blown argument in a Chinese dry-fruit shop in the middle of Siam Square. The customers weren't happy with their bargain and the owners were pissed off that they cursed the shop. Saliva and figer pointing flying around, there were sweat and tears and the whole footpath is gorking at them. I've always hated conflicts but watching one is so much fun - just like watching the Taiwanese Parliament - its almost a fetish.

Thai Massaging
Apart from Emma not being able to walk the next day, it was an overall pleasant experience.

Khao San Road is

Asthetically lacking in Appeal - Best pad thai ever - Cheap and nasty - Decadent - Ethnically diverse - a total Freakshow - Guiness in an Irish pub - a Home - I've just bumped into someone from school - Jocks galore - Kolydiscope - Like sydney except asians are europeans - i am Morally confused about whether to pay 300 baht for a fake student id which would set me up till when i am 60 - Nah, don't - Oooooh! esspresso! - Packed with PeoPle - Quick thrills - Rest upon a canopy with a heavy duty earplug - Spicy deep fried locus on a Stick - Twentyfour seven round the clock party party party - Underestimated by very far - Very premiscuous- Warm up and Warm down for the West - Xmas deco more potent than harrods - You can do what ever the hell You like - in this Zoo

Bangkok is

Adorned in gold - Beggers line the streets - Culinary Paradise - Dusty - Ecclectic - Filthy (Filthy rich) - Game enough for anything - His majesty's pics framed and worshiped on every wall - Innovative - they still think im Japanese - Kinky - Lleyton hewitt is huge here - Monkeys - No rubbish bins - Old fat white men cuddling young thin thai women - Planned and rigid - Quite happy to sleep any where, an alley way, back of a billboard, top of a car, behind the cashier - Religion is also huge - Straight boys wear make up - just like Taipei or Tokyo - U can eat two bags of paw paw for breakfast every day - Vanity - a Wat built in every block - seXually perverse - Young and hungry - Zen will always be found in your corner

Down with Diarrhoea

On our way home on the trek just after lunch I knew I was in big trouble. I had really severe pains in the stomach and vomited out everything. Then started dry renching. I couldn't drink any water without spewing it out but it was hot and I had to bring myself back to Luang Prabang with 2 hours of walking to go. Thank god Boon Pon carried my backpack for me and I managed to stumble home. That evening I had really bad diarrhoea and had bad fevers as well.

I am not all that suprised really, given that up in the tribe we stayed at I saw dogs and pigs drinking out of the dish-washing water... I would be fine if I was a Hmong, but I am just a delicate little thing straight from Canberra...

According to the Lonely Planet 30 - 50% of travellers get diarrhoea withing 2 weeks of beginning their trip. So I don't feel like such a loser anymore. A "rite of passage" I suppose. (OMG did i just say that??). I am getting by with the gastrolyte, and a barocca I traded off with an Australian (with a gastrolyte) whom upon learning that I was from NZ asked me if I was Maori.

Am feeling a lot better but will probably stick around in Luang Prabang an extra day rather than head down to Vientien straigh away - better safe than sorry.

Journey in the Jungle

An old colleague called Alan Cockrall from my international relations days at Vic Uni was a part-time soldier and had returned from a Jungle Warfare training camp from Australia. Him and his mates referred to the jungle as "the J" - as if the jungle was something man could conquer, take-over, manipulate... win-over

On Friday 16th December I hired a guide/translator from a nearby village called Boun Pone, a gorgeous soft-spoken tiny young man half my size for 25 USD a day. We set out from Luang Prabang on boat, and went up the Mekong for about 20 mins, starting our trek (or tramp as we know it in the Sth hemisphere) from a small low land Lao village. The landscapes changed dramatically as we ascended towards the Puluangdai Mountain. First it was all rice paddies and grass, but then the bush became thicker and larger vines grows about.

We walked past a few villages of different ethnicities - 30% of Lao's population are made up of hill tribe ppl. Around this area they are maily Hmong and Kmous, whom have been quite politically rebellious in the past towards the Lao gov. One of the first place we stopped was at a low land Lao village and school - a shack made up with wooden panels. There were about 20 kids, on a break playing. Boun Pone knows the teacher (in fact he know every body) and I was able to mingle with the kids a little and that was pretty fun. One of them had to bring a baby brother to school, maybe cos her parents have to work during the day? I've seen this all on Global Village but when I am actually here it is really quite gob smacking seeing how little they have and get by with. They didnt' have any paper and the kids used chalk and blackboard as their school books. There were these buffalos that just walks into the playground in the middle of the day. Not all the kids in the village went to school - one 4 or 5 yo was helping his grandmother carry a bunch of firewood home. In the villages there's no electricity, and the water is from nearby stream. They have hundreds of animals running around, mostly poultry, pigs and dogs. Doesn't seem like there's much to do there or at least not this time of the year after all the harvesting's done - most of them are sitting around the fire having a chat, its pretty easy going.

Its full moon week, so there were drumming from nearby tribes. Muddy river, snakes (one of them as thick as my wrist) , buffalos, long blade like grass, all it needed was a B52 bomber flying ahead to complete the Apoclypse Now picture, or an Indiana Jones movie. Except I'm not in a studio, no make up artists to wipe off my sweat, and can't blame the director or the agent for roping me into this cos I brought it all upon myself... it was bloody tough, with a good 8 hours uphill on the first day. Particularly when the bush is quite thick and having to get rid of the grass in the way. Its quite a common path for the Hmongs that live at the top of the mountain going to and from town, but from the two days there I have not seen a single foreigner.

Late in the afternoon we finally arrived at the top of the mountain - I was about to die of exaughstion by then. It was intriguing to find these two huge villages on the top of this mountain in the middle of no where. Why they chose to live up there at the first place was a mystry to me. But they've been doing it for thousands of years and they seem find it fine. Out of my request Boun Pone organised for us to stay at a smaller village where there's less chickens and ducks - with the chief's (or Big Man, as BP calls him) family. The Big Man is called Jueh and his Hmong tribe village is called Mopblai village - over looking thousands of layers of mountain, protected by the jungle. There were vine gates preventing wild buffalos from intruding into their tribe land and tampering with their sticky rice.
Some of the women were in traditional Hmong outfits, but most of them just wore simple clothes like the Laosians. The only thing that had "electricity" was this rice shelling machine powered by diesel. The housing was simple straw houses - on the ground, not like on stilts like Lao or Vietnamese. The Big Man had 12 kids and quite a few grandkids, they share a bigger house that had an enclosed bedroom with a huge board where the entire family sleeps together - how they manage to have sex is quite another matter... My bed was a "storage" area above a whole bunch of pumpkins and squashes. Boun Pone brought dinner material with him and cooked seperately to the Hmongs - not quite sure why but I thought I'd ask later rather than being insensitive. But the Hmongs gave us some of their food as well that was pretty plain but nice. The Big Man smoked a big bong (opium??) and played a fun instrument which i'll get a pic of soon. They were quite happy for me to take photos, and upon seeing the image in the camera they break out in surprise and laughter.

I had a chat with the Big Man via Boun Pone about his village, what they do etc etc. Next week is Hmong New Year (damn im missing it) where they will probably slaughter quite a few pigs and dogs for the feast. New Year is the one and only time of the year you can chose a partner and get married - harsh! Big Man tried to marry me off too - he says he'll find me a nice Hmong boy. I explained to him that I already have a boyfriend and anyhow I don't think i'll be getting married any time soon, I'm too young (25). Big Man chuckles and tells me that Hmong girls get married when they are 14 or 15, but if they are not good looking they don't get married till they are 30. Sarcasm exists in Hmong??

Other things of interest:
- they treat their own illnesses - hot water does the job most of the time, but if its serious they have to walk 6 hours through the jungle to Luang Prabang for the nearest hospital!!
- Big Man used to be a police man during "the war" but he decided to come home to the village cos he's got too many kids to look after
- They've seen plenty of brits, americans and japanese, but I am the first Taiwanese and first New Zealander they have ever seen.

Dinner was at 6pm and they all went to be at about 7.30pm - lack of light I suppose. They then get up at 4am in the morning to do various things around the village like collecting veges and kill pigs. I wanted to see them kill pigs but I slept in (thanks to my 33 decible earplugs).

to be continued...

Laos

Laos is a breath of fresh air - literally!!

It was so nice touching down here after leaving smoggy and cold Hanoi behind - its like SUNNNNSSHHHINNNEEEEE!!!! bit like being in Cairns or Suva after being in Melbourne... Its just so clean and fresh here, green and mountainous I LOVE IT!!

Its almost tropical here except its further up north. I am in the "ancient capital" of Luang Prabang, this crazy middle sized village of a mixture of village ppl, hippy backpackers, beer cafes and hill tribe ppl. Most of the town is actually UNESCO listed as well, lots of monks walking around and doing drumming for the full moon at the world heritage temples. Soooo trippy! Lots of ducks and chickens walking around - as in, not on a plate, and am not sure if I am completely safe. ppl here are lovely, so much less pushy and easy going, feel so chilled out and relaxed after the mad rush in Hanoi.

I made the ride in from the "airport" with a bri-ish couple and a muslim looking Sweed, in the back of this cargo truck - which is really much more fun than the no-seatbelt taxis in Vietnam. My guesthouse cost me 4 USD a night, score! Went out to loose my Lao-beer virginity pretty much straight away with the charming bri-ish at the side of the Mekong river. It was really really yum actually, draught like and just easy to drink. hence my total tipsyness right now. yeeeaaaayyyy! Had a snack opposite this crazy Wat (temple) full of monks, at a one-week old cafe run by an aussie girl and her Lao partner. So its kinda fushion Lao-international food. Woooh the green chilly made me cry. Have promised to put her on the Lonely Planet chat room for a discount on the food.

I will be going on a two day trek first thing tomorrow, taking the "easy route" as my guide doesn't think i am up to the hard route, WHAT EVERRRR!!! as if Lance Armstrong comes here all the time. Will be sleeping with ducks and chickens as well - as in, in the next room, which isn't what I would prefer for a Friday night in the middle of bird flu season, so will try my hardest to avoid..... mmm come to think of it its a bit freaky maybe I can try get out of it...

Wow. Can't believe I'm here.

Hanoi #2

I am quite enjoying my last night in Hanoi.

I had my first (and hopefully not last) Vietnamese hair cut this afternoon, ITS FANTASTIC!! it lasted like 2 hours and I had three ppl working on me - one washing and massaging, one styling, and one on blow dry and straightening. It really was art for them every strand was like carefully carved out. I didn't think that I would ever need straightening in my life, but man it did wonders. I made friends with the washing massage girl, she has just moved down from HaLong City and has relos in Canada, and wants to master hair dressing so she can start her own business there. But I probably won't keep in touch with the girl that did the blow dry, she made it smoke... nevertheless man I feel like a million dongs (ie about 75 bucks). But in actual fact it costed me about $4.50... I was feeling a bit fluy this morning but now its completely gone thanks to that head massage and blow dry!!

Had just done my last shopping at the night markets - traffic chaos seems so much more bearable at night and the markets seems to glow. Its the evenings that I feel Hanoi really comes to life. I am going to miss this smorgasboard for sure.

My last day was spent doing touristy things like visiting Uncle Ho himself at his muloseum. It was quite a sullen affair and it really did actually move me seeing him there. He didn't actually look real, as in, most of him is wax anyway, plus with the lighting he glowed in the dark and was some where between spooky and tacky. But with all due respect it was a fantastic experience being able to visit him, and being inspired by his life stories etc etc. Full rant to be inserted when I get to Taipei - my guesthouse lobby isn't exactly the most stimulating place. The presidential palace was really like a Soviet time vaccume, concrete, cold and lots of red flags. All the romantic notions are there except every time i accidently stood on the grass or walked away from the straight line drawn out on the ground some uniformed guard beeped at me with a whistle. Inside Uncle Ho's ex home, a fab garden was well kept. The large crowds of American Vets argued with the guide about their version of history. Everyone's got their history I suppose. I feel like me and my generation of travellers there just take it way too light heartedly...

The locals really have grown on me - I have already set my sister up with the night time receptionist - she doesn't know yet, he's sending through the diamond ring in the new year.. The day time receptionist is a cool lady called Lan who majored Russian at uni, but ended up using English for her jobs instead, she took me to this corner store for noodle soup for brekkie and is just a big sweety..Last night the guesthouse host The took me out for Kareoke, I mean, how could I refuse? It was a complete sensation the Vietnamese are just so into their ballads its not a joke. Seems to be less reserved than the japanese particularly with the dance move add ons - without being particularly drunk. My kareoke binge the night before on the boat had been dominated by West Life and Jeran Jeran(?) so when I talk about Sinatra I mean it. This mad photo they took of me hoarding the mike with the locals reluctantly drinking away. Actually feel a bit sad to leave these crazy folks now. But certainly not the Taiwanese Mafia, hope they rot in hell.

I suppose I did bite off more than I could chew in Hanoi, and did it - myyyy - wayyyy.

Halong Bay

Ironically Michaela and I ended up being picked up on the same minivan to go to the coast, a bit of a bonus since we won't be able to meet up in Laos after all. On the same group as us there was 3 kiwi girls my age, an Italian, german couple and an older japanese guy who lives in Taipei. So I related to like half of them.

The ride to the coast was very interesting. It took a good 3 hours through the country side. The Vietnamese country side has quite similar landscapes to the Taiwanese country side, ie plants and trees and shacks. But of course its a lot more dustier and you can tell that ppl have really really poor housing and level of environmental protection and hygiene compared to the cities. Not many motorbikes, mostly they ride bikes or horse carts. If they do have motorbikes they carry crazy stuff by doing more with less - a few guys had two or three dead pigs roped up together at the back. Another one had really really huge polyesterine boxes three times the width of his bike. Don't know how they manage.

Communist propaganda lined along the street coming out of Hanoi and we discussed how fantastic it is that there's not MacDonald's in Vietnam. But that BP and Caltex was probably necessary since Vietnam doesn't have any oil fields. There's lots of Taiwanese investments here I can tell by the Chinese names on the plaques on the factories that litters across the stretch of road. In fact at the guesthouse I am staying at there are about 5 or 6 Taiwanese men trying to find Vietnamese wives and asking me to translate pick up lines for them. I told them I was too busy.

The dock was fascinating - lined up with old school house boats catered to ship in/out the masses of foreign tourists wanting a glimps of this wonderful bay. Woo hoo we're at the beach!! Hugged Mickey and Celia good bye and headed off on our floating guest house for the next two days.
It really was sensational, World Heritage Listed sites do not lie. Beautiful and endless islets and bamboo boats fills the water. Every islet was a different size and shape. Its quite cold and cloudy, so there were different layers of islets with differnt shades, and just adds to the mystry of this place. Halong means descending dragon. Legend has that this female dragon descends to earth for a visit and fell in love with its beauty, and decides to stay forever. So it flapped its gigantic wings and tail and created thousands of channels and holes as she slows down into the sea. I feel like I've come home to NZ - the serenity, calmness, the breeze. Yet this is so Asian, and got this really ancient feel to it. Certainly a huge contrast to my last big sail on the Rainbow Warrior where the wind was at 40 something knots and 5 - 6 meter swells.

We had a few stops on some of the bigger islands, exploring a few limestone caves, hills, and a bit of kayaking. My kayak partner was Omuchi San, the Quiet Japanese, whom saved my life a few more times than I'd like to remember. Later he even tought me how to take photos properly - he is the Japanese rep of Olympus Cameras in Taipei - same co. that produced my shoddy camera - must be pretty shocked at the way I am treating his prized possessions...

My dorm room is pretty snaz, well, its a boat cabine but its just so retro. Flax made bed and wood carved wordrobes. And not so crash hot water that goes cold quite a bit at our end cos the boat is tipping towards the other side. I am sharing it with Kristie who has been travelling for about 6 months through US, Europ and SEA and is so much more street wise than I am. Made me realise the bargains I scored aren't bargains after all... dammit.

The evening was spent drinking cheap beer and searching endlessly for a decent kareoke/DVD to put on. I now have a brand new drinking game from the kiwi chicks to corrupt Canberra. The oddest line of the evening was from the Quiet Italian Alexanddro who wore speedos earlier in the afternoon, at just 8 pm : "Shall we have an orgy?". All the girls break down in laughter and he just sank into a hole till Jimmy Rogers came on.

Lots of other boats in the same bay that we docked, and I fell asleep in the dim lights and the smell of incence and bamboo. I am so glad I decided to stay over night onboard, a day is just not enough, and this really is a unique experience.

Hanoi #1

Got into the worst possible start to the trip. Michaela and her mum are no where to be found. They didn't stay at the guesthouse they said they will be staying at and where I'm suppose to meet them at. Was told by the staff that they did book but never showed up the night before. FUCK!#$%##$@

Left wondering around Hanoi alone, checking out every caucasion face I come across (ever 5 mins) hoping I could find them. Hanoi's Old Quarter is made up of criss crossed narrow streets full of small shops and street stalls selling everything imaginable. Most of the building are 2 story french looking ones, beautiful plants hanging out the sides. Its almost Vietnamese Tet (new years) so lots of lanterns and red envelopes and special food on display. Motorcycles, bikes and cyclos hooning by at the speed of lightening, beeping horns like mad making it a chaotic ensemble of air pollution and noise pollution. Was offered a bike by the lovely guest house ppl (who gave me lunch cos I was almost in tears) but I turned it down, perhaps wisely. How could I compete with these naturals? I feel like I am being run over by a thousand Road Runners and Kayotes chasing after each other. Found asylum at the Hoam Kim lake with the Tortoise pagoda. Apparently giant tortoises has lived in there for hundreds of years, and only rarely pops up for a breather in the autum. And has the habit of doing so on Vietnam's national day (2 Sept, day that Ho Chi Minh passed away) So its quite auspicious to spot it when it does come up. No such luck today.

In the evening I attended an elaborate and fascinating Water Puppet show (traditional vietnamese theatre which puppets "perform" on a stage made with water) its scenes mainly of folk stories and show cases traditional agrarian life and Vietnamese wild life. Go the mating bird dance!! After returning to the guesthouse I finally got hold of Michaela. It appears that we have all been completely and utterly scammed by this con artist who posed as the guesthouse manager when she and Celia arrived late the night before. Saying that the guesthouse is full he took them to another family run guesthouse(with a on the spot commission) and promising that he will give me a message saying where they are. Yeah right. But only till Michaela got my distressing email later in the afternoon. God I am so pissed off right now!!!!!!

anyway look its all a learning experience. But it means that our schedules aren't matching up - ie we booked out Halong bay and Laos travels seperately due to us not being able to meet up nor knowing when we would. This is really shit!##$#$^%$% I feel so cheated! This has really ruined my day and Michaela and Celia's days too. Oh well. Michaela did give a good earbash to the other hotel's manager and got some refund.

I am not going to let this ruin my time here, so am pulling out that plan B and C outta the bottom of the backpack.

Home For The Night

I am in serious trouble. Jet lagged and about to hop onto another one in a few hours. I can really see myself falling into the lake in Hanoi today from lack of sleep. Its 4am and I am blogging for goodness sake!! And I am cutting it fine - cos I only just heard from Michaela whom I'm meeting up with today in Hanoi then travelling onto Laos with - she couldn't get access to her hotmail for a week. I even had to do up a plan B and C, but pheww.

Landing into Taipei tonight was really emotional for me. Flying in between the mountains encircled in mist and the city lights. This is my backbone, place where I stem from, where I get my courage, my "mana". And the run way and the terminal that many times removed me and now reconnects me.

I am in my aunt's apartment in Taipei - my fam picked me up from the airport for dinner at home but I ended up staying the night here instead of going back to the hotel they arranged. Cos there's nothing like BEING home. Nothing has changed since I was here 2 years ago, or 4 years ago or 10 years ago. I still relate to all of them as if I just saw them yesterday, they know all about me and I know all about them. The books I used to read as a kid is still on the bookshelf (or in the toilet) with the same pages dog-earred, and the same scratches and marks are on the wall and the floor. My five little cousins are slightly taller and slightly louder but they are to me like I am to my uncles and aunties - still the bloody baby they brought home from the hospital!!

My grandfather looks really well, he's hit 80 this year but seems like he's done well and not aged too much at all. Apparently they kept my visit a surprise so he was a bit tripped out but remained composed when I crashed through the door. Complaining about how the Vietnamese are barbarians so don't ever look for trouble with them and asking me where my dad was cos he hasnt' called. "On a boat probably." I said. The 14 year old cuz who created a bit of trouble this year by giving out the family number to strangers she met over the net has just had a MULLET done. Not the urban mullet or the french mu-lay, but the full-on Bowie. Its pretty much like she stole it from his dressing room from Labrinth. Or the pineapple farm. As soon as I broke down in hysteria at the sight of it the whole family started ganging up on her about how pathetic it is ("see - even your kiwi cousin who has terrible kiwi dress sense says that") and how she really should get a refund or re-cut. Probably not good idea...

It feels sooooo nice to be home - even just for the night. Stocked up on my favourite stir fry and gossip, jokes and hugs, slept under the mosquito net. I feel so much confident about going to SEA, just cos I've had the reassurance from my family that they have confidence in me. And that should anything happen to me I know that I was loved and always will be loved. I feel so lucky to be Taiwanese, and part of this chaos and beauty.

Koala Republic

Seems like I'm always at Sydney bloody airport. Feels like I know this place back to front cos I've spent too much time here - its just like the local mall. But worse. Nervous people, metal detectors, coaarrfee, duty free, and smell of burnt meat from Mackers.

Today ALL the service ppl at Mackers are teenage muslim girls in full on black burkas, v interesting. Given that most of what they sell at this time of day is bacon mcmuffin. as long as you don't eat it i suppose its ok. Else where in the food hall I see a Thai family woolfing down some krispy kremes, caucacians slurping wonton soup and pacific islanders picking on sushi. I love it! Yesterday I was pumped full of vegemite on toast, wedges with sour cream, tequilla shots and home made pizza. That should set me up for a while eh.

Koala Republic is a brand of aussie merchandice, from tinned macadamias (at $15 a pop for a coke size tin), camel jerkeys, mini bag of tim-tam & vegemite care package, black liquorice (tho as a kiwi i know that its from Levin), and toxic looking sugar coated fruit rolls. They hike the price up and target tourists cos they are tourists. Next to the Koala Republic shelf a row of stuffed toy kangaroos and wombats sits there adoringly. Made in China. Which the Chinese tourists will buy back to China.

They say as they jet off: "Bye for now, Koala Replublic".

My New Flatmates

For I am king and I am content.
(Top: Milly; Bottom: Shiner)

My trip

2.5 more days to go - very exciting, I'm sending the link of this blog out to my mates in a day or so - so the following is a bit of an intro on what I am planning to do.

In Cambodia I’ll be visiting the PEPY ride school, whom I have been a volunteer fundraiser with this year. They are a group featuring cyclists biking around teaching kids that its important to respect mother nature and live in harmony with her. http://www.pepyride.org/ What will I be doing? I will be spending some time in the area understanding the environment, checking out exactly what I've been fundraising for, and get to know the locals a bit, sing to the kids, painting a mural, check out the solar panel PEPY put in, dig vege patch, that type of stuff. It would be very short but hopefully I'll take a lot in as well. I spent most of 2005 doing fundraising in Australia to support PEPY, and I can't wait to see this dream come into fruition.

In Vietnam and Lao I will be a general pest and one of those annoying overweight tourist that complains about the heat and the feather in my noodle soup and that kind of stuff. Doing a bit of mucking about, and hammocks and you know, spiritual therapy. Hopefully I will be meeting up with Mickey (a mate from Canberra) and her mum. Then I will be spending Xmas in Thailand with the lovely Emma who is flying in from Japan and joining me in PEPY, and some good old girl time with Jib, who currently works for the ADB in BKK. She's a mate I had met in Canberra whilst doing our Masters degree. In Taiwan I will be eating a lot and sleeping a lot and spending time with my grandfather and ever growing brood of cousins. I will then go into pre-hybernation mode and load up for lunar new year (this year its 29th Jan). Back in Canberra February. Maybe.

So that's a quick wrap, and I am sure you'll get many details in the next few months of posts. Bon Voyage to me!! Email me or leave a comment on the blog, but I have a feeling that I'll only get to it every 3 or 4 days at most.

p.s.

This is a quick schedule:
10 Dec - Sydney to Taipei (Meeting up with my family when I transit for the night. Get a bit of hug fix)

11 Dec - Taipei to Hanoi
12 Dec - 15 Dec - Hanoi, Ha Long Bay
16 Dec - Hanoi to Lao boarder
17 - 18 Dec - Lao
19 - 20 - Chiang Mai & North Thailand
20 Dec - arrive Bangkok
21 - 26 Dec - Bangkok & surroundings, maybe a few islands
27 Dec - 30 Dec - Phnom Penh
31 Dec - 6 Jan - visiting PEPY project near Siem Reap, Angkor Temples
7 - 12 Jan - Saigon/HoChiMinh City, Mekong Delta
12 Jan - 2 Feb - Taipei
??? Sydney - Canberra.

Woo hoo!

Pics from 2005

Some pics from the stuff that I've been doing this year...

1) Sailing in Pittwater, north of Sydney (March, May, July, September)
2) A short visit back home to NZ for Jeremy & Anna's wedding (May) (Mt Ruapehu, Me and the wedding party - J& A, Jeremy's bros Ben & Craig, me and Kathryn & Braedon)

3) Sailing on the Rainbow Warrior, down East Coast of Australia from Sydney to Melbourne, and through Bass Strait, a pretty rough stretch of water. (August)






4) Completing the Canberra Times Fun Run for the second time, I came about 1200th out of about 2000 people, but I did beat my personal best by about 3 minutes... 5) Going to the AusAID ball
6) Climbing "The Castle" overlooking Pidgeon House Mountain, New South Wales - I was a bit chuffed on the summit cos it was honestly the most physically challenging thing I've done all my life. (October)




















6) Visiting my flatmate Peter's family farm near Melbourne. (November)

7) Walk Against Warming in Canberra, part of the global day of action against climate change (December)