Koh Samui airport is so dinky. Upon arrival, a small and colourful train-like vehicle takes passengers from the plane to baggage claim. Maeve & I decided to stay in BoPhut while on the island. BoPhut is a little fisherman's village on the north-east coast of Koh Samui. We arrived at our accommodation, aptly named Eden, to find orchids strewn over our pillows and pretty flowers adorning the shelves. It was a far cry from our pixie-pad living arrangements in Koh Jum. So, delighted with ourselves, we headed out for dinner. We found a pretty restaurant over-looking the sea. It was ever so rosemantic, soft ballad music, candlelight, orchids bringing a pop of colour to every table. We came to the conclusion that we were in honeymoon heaven. After a lovely meal we decided to skedaddle into Chaweng (or as we like to say "schwing, Wayne's World, party time"). Chaweng is the biggest town on the island. It is well known for its nightlife. Maeve felt it was quite like Ibiza. We found ourselves a bar on the beach that had low-lounger-like-seating. A man walked past and put a monkey on my shoulder and said we could pay to have our pictures taken with it. Maeve was so upset for the little monkey; she asked the man if she could buy the monkey and set him free, the man said 8,000 baht.... I guess everything has a price. I told Maeve that the monkey would probably run back to the man anyway; the monkey still cuddled his owner and held onto him for protection. It's sad considering the man is cruel bringing a little monkey out to loud bars when all the monkey wants to do is sleep.
The following day we came across (our soon to be favourite restaurant) The Happy Elephant. This restaurant is amazing, beautiful dark teak timber, intricate stained glass chandelier, and an abundance of elephant themed decor. The staff are so helpful, happy, and polite. We loved the restaurant so much we actually bought their t-shirt! (no kidding). There was an elderly Thai man singing Elvis songs in the restaurant. Maeve and I put in a request for a couple of Elvis ballads. We clapped and smiled after he finished each song. He was delighted with our enthusiasm. He then broke into the Roy Orbison classic, Pretty Women, and was pointing at us and smiling. After he finished his set he came over and thanked us as it was his first night singing in the restaurant. 'Ah! Bless!
For our activity, we joined a tour going to Angthong National Marine Park. We had an early start and the itinerary included breakfast on the ferry. Maeve was up, eyes open, walking around but she really wasn't awake. The women can't function without breakfast, it's like breakfast is her batteries and she needs some battery fuel before her engine fires up. Two croissants, a banana, and two cups of coffee and bing... Maeve was awake! We met a bunch of Kiwi lads on the boat, they were similar minded and just laughed and joked and took the piss out of everyone. It was 8am and the guys were a barrel of laughs. A German was on the boat drinking beer for breakfast with the full Bayern Munich strip on, he was a sure target for ridicule. It was a fantastic day; we kayaked, climbed a 500m vertical height, and snorkeled. Did I mention we climbed a 500m vertical height..... I'm not kidding it was so difficult and dangerous. We had to hang onto a rope the whole way to leverage ourselves up. The climb got increasingly difficult as we got closer to the summit. Thankfully, we made it in one piece and the view was phenomenal.
We were due to travel to Koh Phangnan for the full moon party but we discovered we could stay on Koh Samui and take a speedboat to the party. We loved our honeymoon land so much we decided to stay. Lucky for us we did, as we met the loveliest couple that evening. Luke and Vicky are from Brighton. We were seated next to them for dinner. Maeve & I had decided to try a carafe of Thai white wine. We got what we ordered and it was utter plonk. I said we'll just pretend that it was the Australian wine we ordered and pour this muck back in the carafe. Luke was sitting beside us laughing, seeing the brazenness of our actions. We got our Australian wine and from there we struck up conversation with our new buddies. We all decided to meet at The Happy Elephant (but, of course) for dinner the next evening and then catch the speedboat to the Full Moon Party in Koh Phangnan.
Showing posts with label Written by Amundo (traveling Amanda). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Written by Amundo (traveling Amanda). Show all posts
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Ho Chi MEAN City
The last night of our tour brought us to Ho Chi Minh City. The city was extremely quite when we arrived due to the Chinese New Year. The New Year was on Sunday 14th February, we arrived on Wednesday 17th February, and we were told that the city would not be back in full swing until at least Saturday 20th February. That's a heck of a lot of time off for New Year's.
Nevertheless, we were in high spirits after a fascinating time spent in Cambodia. Our group headed out for our final shin-dig. After a night of fun we decided to return to our hotel. Maeve & I were crossing the street (just outside our hotel) arm-in-arm, when a man on a motorcycle whizzed by us and pulled my bag from me. He yanked the strap so hard the bag snapped off me and sent me in a spin. We watched as the man drove off with my bag in hand, drama, drama, drama!! It was a really shocking thing to have happened and it really shook us up. My camera was in the bag so I was devastated to have all my pictures taken from me. Thankfully I had saved some pictures to Facebook so all is not lost. After talking to reception we realised things could have been a whole lot worse, she told us a story of a lady who had been dragged down the street by a motorcycle thief. We also met a man who had been pushed to the ground and had his tooth front teeth knocked out from a similar attack. Stolen stuff is better than broken Amanda or Maeve!!
So dusting ourselves off and picking ourselves us, in typical pixi-minx style, we decided to visit some of the sites. Ho Chi Minh City is quite cosmopolitan. There are some beautiful buildings and lush green parks. The traffic is bonkers, as pedestrians we are modes of transport in our own right. It's a game of dodge the moped, which are the predominant vehicles in use. Unlike Cambodia, it's compulsory to wear a helmet whilst driving a moped or motorbike. The helmets are quite cartoonish. Some of them are very Tin-Tin-esque or Penelope-Pitsop-like, there are even helmets in the shape of hats (a la Mary Poppins). All these quirky attributes helped us warm to Vietnam and we now leave with some fond memories (to hell with the Ho Chi MEAN motorcylce driver)!!
Nevertheless, we were in high spirits after a fascinating time spent in Cambodia. Our group headed out for our final shin-dig. After a night of fun we decided to return to our hotel. Maeve & I were crossing the street (just outside our hotel) arm-in-arm, when a man on a motorcycle whizzed by us and pulled my bag from me. He yanked the strap so hard the bag snapped off me and sent me in a spin. We watched as the man drove off with my bag in hand, drama, drama, drama!! It was a really shocking thing to have happened and it really shook us up. My camera was in the bag so I was devastated to have all my pictures taken from me. Thankfully I had saved some pictures to Facebook so all is not lost. After talking to reception we realised things could have been a whole lot worse, she told us a story of a lady who had been dragged down the street by a motorcycle thief. We also met a man who had been pushed to the ground and had his tooth front teeth knocked out from a similar attack. Stolen stuff is better than broken Amanda or Maeve!!
So dusting ourselves off and picking ourselves us, in typical pixi-minx style, we decided to visit some of the sites. Ho Chi Minh City is quite cosmopolitan. There are some beautiful buildings and lush green parks. The traffic is bonkers, as pedestrians we are modes of transport in our own right. It's a game of dodge the moped, which are the predominant vehicles in use. Unlike Cambodia, it's compulsory to wear a helmet whilst driving a moped or motorbike. The helmets are quite cartoonish. Some of them are very Tin-Tin-esque or Penelope-Pitsop-like, there are even helmets in the shape of hats (a la Mary Poppins). All these quirky attributes helped us warm to Vietnam and we now leave with some fond memories (to hell with the Ho Chi MEAN motorcylce driver)!!
Old McDonald had a farm e-i-e-i (SHUT THE F#CK UP) o!!
So our next stop was Chambok where we stayed with a local family. Fila, our guide, translated so we could communicate with the family. The family members that live in the house are a husband (aged 90), a wife (aged 80), and their daughter (aged 35). The couple have eight children in total, seven children are married and one daughter is unmarried. The family were so kind, friendly and cheerful despite a harrowing story of being chased out of their house by the Khymer Rouge. The elderly lady told us she had no idea how long they had to run for, she just remembers shots been fired and literally having to run for her life across rice fields.
The only daughter not to have married lives with them. The daughter admired our pale skin and said she disliked her dark skin. We told her that people use fake tan to get darker skin where we are from, and she said she'd love to make her skin lighter (nearly all the skin care products here have whitening agents in them) but she can't afford the cream. I think she feels if she had lighter skin she might attract a man to marry her. She is uneducated as the family couldn't afford to educate her. She was shocked when we told her it was a different time of the day where we were from, she had no clue of timezones, she's probably never seen a globe or a map of the world. The whole experience was so humbling. It just goes to show, us Westerners, have little to complain about. I have to say, I hope the Buddhists are correct in their theory on reincarnation. It's horrible to think that this is the only life these people will have and they will never have a chance of a better life.
On a lighter note, the sleep we had (or didn't have) in their house goes down as one of the weirdest sleeps of our lives. There was music blaring from a neighbours house until the wee hours of the morning and at 2:40am the cock-a-doodle-doos started. Then like an orchestra new animals decided to voice themselves and we had pigs, geese, dogs, cats, and of course the cockerel topped the whole symphony off. It was comical but kind of distressing. I woke up feeling abused from such a lack of sleep and Maeve felt like she'd been beaten across the head with a stick for about 20 minutes. At 6am we were up out of our beds to hike to a waterfall, we felt a bit like lemmings, we were confused about what had happened during the night (at Old McDonald's crazy ass farm) and how we'd come to be hiking at such an un-Godly hour. Thankfully we got to swim in the water below the waterfall and it made up for all the bizarre happenings of the night before :)
The only daughter not to have married lives with them. The daughter admired our pale skin and said she disliked her dark skin. We told her that people use fake tan to get darker skin where we are from, and she said she'd love to make her skin lighter (nearly all the skin care products here have whitening agents in them) but she can't afford the cream. I think she feels if she had lighter skin she might attract a man to marry her. She is uneducated as the family couldn't afford to educate her. She was shocked when we told her it was a different time of the day where we were from, she had no clue of timezones, she's probably never seen a globe or a map of the world. The whole experience was so humbling. It just goes to show, us Westerners, have little to complain about. I have to say, I hope the Buddhists are correct in their theory on reincarnation. It's horrible to think that this is the only life these people will have and they will never have a chance of a better life.
On a lighter note, the sleep we had (or didn't have) in their house goes down as one of the weirdest sleeps of our lives. There was music blaring from a neighbours house until the wee hours of the morning and at 2:40am the cock-a-doodle-doos started. Then like an orchestra new animals decided to voice themselves and we had pigs, geese, dogs, cats, and of course the cockerel topped the whole symphony off. It was comical but kind of distressing. I woke up feeling abused from such a lack of sleep and Maeve felt like she'd been beaten across the head with a stick for about 20 minutes. At 6am we were up out of our beds to hike to a waterfall, we felt a bit like lemmings, we were confused about what had happened during the night (at Old McDonald's crazy ass farm) and how we'd come to be hiking at such an un-Godly hour. Thankfully we got to swim in the water below the waterfall and it made up for all the bizarre happenings of the night before :)
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