Cambodia - Phnom Penh

18th July - To Phnom Penh

We had the option to catch a bus at 7am, but agreed on a lie in and instead caught the one at 12.30.  It was one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made.  I have never been so hot in my whole entire life, the bus had no windows and had broken air conditioning so it was literally like an oven.  It was really full and the seats were plastic.  With in seconds I was drenched with sweat dripping off the end of my nose and down my neck.  My clothes were saturated.  I actually don't think that I get this hot in a sauna. I was actually wringing out the cloth that I was using to mop my face and with in a couple of hours, my fingers and toes were all wrinkly, like when you have been in the bath or a swimming pool too long.  I couldn't believe it, I was certainly too hot to read or even think, I spent the whole journey sitting forward in my seat panting like a dog and mopping my sweat. Can you imagine putting up with this for a six hour journey from Kampot to Phnom Penh?  I hope that I will never have to experience something like that again.

When we arrived in Phnom Penh seeing the tuk tuk drivers gathered around the door made me so angry.  I got off the bus as quickly as I could and shouted and swore at the tuk tuk drivers to get out of my way.  I just couldn't control my anger, the conditions on the bus really had made me hot headed.  The last thing I needed is hassle and people in my face trying to take me here there and everywhere.  I couldn't control my bad language and even threatened to hit a few.  Luckily they got the message pretty quickly, left me alone and we all boarded a tuk tuk and headed off to a guest house that the English couple I had met recommended.  The cool air of the open tuk tuk was what I needed to calm me down and we arrived at TAT Guest House optimistic and excited.

The place was clean and friendly, but a little more expensive than we would have liked but we had heard such horror stories of the places by the river (with rats etc) we opted to stay there anyway.  I was delighted t have a cold shower and then head out in to busy Phnom Penh.  As I am sure you know Phnom Penh is Cambodia’s capital and is virtually flat, with hardly any high rise buildings (lets hope it stays that way)

We found somewhere to eat along the busy waterfront, throbbing with enterprise and energy. I had a rather dry Khmer chicken curry. After dinner we had a wonder around and looked at some amazing and grand looking palaces that we wanted to go back to the next day and also some rather sad scenes.

There is so much poverty everywhere you look. It is hard not to look at people over 30 and wonder what they experienced during the Khmer Rouge.  Inevitably, people are still effected, and will be for generations.  Some of the scars are even evident as I sat eating my meal: roadsides still pot-holed and strewn with rubble and many beautiful building are ruined beyond repair. There were kids selling books and victims from land mine accidents everywhere asking for money.   Some people in this country really do have a tough time. I found it difficult to imagine the city evacuated just 30 odd years ago. It made me very sad, but also makes me realise just how lucky I am.

19th July - Kat's Birthday.

Had a really good day today, Kat turned 23 and wasn’t too happy about it so Jenna and I did our utmost to cheer her up.  First of all we went to the 'Russian Market', it was fantastic, filled with the most beautiful things.  A rich girl could go quite crazy in there, a poor girl could too to be honest because everything was so cheap and all sellers were keen to bargain down to fantastic prices.  Kat and Jenna brought quite a few bits and bobs but I was determined to keep my purse in my bag and perhaps come back another day if there was something I really wanted (like a silk scarf, a sequined cushion, and embroidered bag or a few pictures or ornaments!)

Next on the agenda was all heading out for a "Blind Massage".  Basically we had been advised numerous times to get one and we had been told that they were a lot less painful than the traditional Thai massage and it was all for a good cause, all the money goes to the masseuses and to training more blind people and giving them employment.  We walked in and were given some blue pajama type things to get changed in to.  I felt like I was in 'theater blues' that doctors wear.  We then all got shown to a bed, side by side and a blind man clambered onto my back.  Now if people say that the Thai massages are more painful I think that I might die from pain if I ever had one of those.  He said that this was a 'soft' massage, I don't believe that for a second.  He clicked every bone in my body, bent me in ways I never thought I could being and shoved his bony fingers and elbows into every joint he could.  Jenna seemed ok with hers but Kat and I were constantly mouthing our pains to each other.  After an hour of being slapped and chopped it was finally over.  I must say I was slightly relieved but my body did feel good and I felt about two inches taller!

Following this it was time for more pampering, Kat had a lovely facial and Jenna had her whole body plucked of hairs, I spent the next two hours wondering up and down the street.  It was then time to go home, for Kat to open her presents and get our glad-rags on!

That evening we went out to a place that we had been told about called 'Happy Herb Pizza' where basically you can get Pizzas with any toppings and a special sprinkling of 'Happy Herbs', much like the happy herbs that you get in your brownies in Amsterdam.  It was delicious and we spent the rest of the evening giggling like school girls and drinking cocktails.

20th July - The Royal Palace.

Today we spent the day in the beautiful Royal Palce that we had seen on our first day.  We arrived in out ankle length skirts with our sarongs around our shoulders to be told that we were not allowed to wear them.  We then had to rent some hideous baggy white t.shirts.  What a money making con!!!  Despite my annoyance we walked around the 435 meter long and 421 meter wide palace, which was first built in 1434, in the very hot mid-day sun. 

Most of it was sectioned off because the king and queen still live there,  The whole building was surrounded by a high wall.  Inside the buildings were magnificent, with many tiered roofs topped with towers (as a symbol of prosperity).  The whole place was painted white (for Brahmanism) and yellow (for Buddhism).  Inside, the throne hall had the most magnificent ceiling, although barriers prevented us from getting a closer look to the royal thrones.  We also had a look around the Sihanouk museum, the pavilion of Napoleon and a room filled with artifacts, royal costumes (these people were tiny), Souvenirs and jewelry.  In one of the main buildings was the famous 'Silver Pagoda' which I had read so much about and was so excited to see, but most of it was covered by carpets and rugs and when we all took a seat to cool down and look at our map to figure out where it was we didn't even notice when we were sitting on it (i couldn't believe it!) The Emerald Buddha was also in the center of this specific room, but it was tiny.  Not the huge thing that it is made out to be, or indeed that I had seen in books and on postcards.  What a con!

Once we had left the palace, the day was drawing to an end so we decided to go on a river boat cruise (which was supposed to be part of Kat's birthday treat from yesterday)  The strange little German mean we had organised the cruse through the previous day led us to our own private boat.  It was still light as we set off up the river.  As we approached a floating village the sun began to set.  The village was so interesting to see.  The houses were totally surrounded by water, with no planks or path ways leading to other houses.  The occupants had to use a boat to get anywhere and the housed certainly didn't look very sturdy.  We sailed back down the river it was dark and we had the chance to enjoy the lights Phnom Penh and the river side.

That evening we went for a meal where we could also have the chance to watch a film about the genocide and the history of Cambodia.  My meal looked and tasted exactly like a pot noodle, and the film was appalling, I could have made a better one from what I already knew  from my guide book and reading 'survival of the killing fields'.  Oh well.

21st July - The National Museum

This morning, in the pissing rain, we decided to go to Phnom Penh's National museum. I arrived at the impressive dark red sandstone building and was glad to get out of the rain.  Inside was a collection of sculptures, relics and artifacts dating back from prehistoric times. A lot of the stuff had no real information about where it was found or even the year due to the face that the whole collection was abandoned in 1975 when the city was emptied by the Khmer Rouge then re opened in 2002.  I was disappointed that the leper king had been moved to Berlin and also by the lack of information that I could read.  After a couple of hours of plodding around trying to guess where things were from we decided to go to another market.  The one we went to this time was the 'central market', it was good but nowhere near as interesting as the Russian market that we had been at  a few days previously. The only thing I bought was a beautiful hand made bag with embroidery, silk and sequins on the side for just over a pound so I came away pretty happy. 

That evening we decided to go to 'Sovanna Phum', which is a shadow puppets theater.  We were very excited to see the traditional shadow puppets.  e arrived very early thinking that we could find somewhere to have dinner near by, before the show started, but no such luck.  We were in the middle of nowhere.  After a while we found a little local place where they had no menus and no one spoke any English.  There we enjoyed a 'hot pot' type dish where we cooked our own vegetables, noodles and meet in a big bowl of soup, it was ok but some of the ingredients looked very suspicious.  We had a whole audience of local people watching us, and seemed amazed at how we tried to eat the food given to us. We then made our way back to the theater.

The show was a Khmer adaptation of the Indian epic 'Ramayana'.  It was beautiful; all the fantastic costumes, masks, women dancers, fantastic musicians and of course the puppets.  The show was only an hour long and by the end of it I was desperate for more.  Luckily we were allowed to go behind the scenes and meet the performers (who had been training since they were about 10 years old) and they showed us how to do some traditional 'Apsara' dancing and how to maneuver the huge leather shadow puppets.

22nd July - Choeung Ek Genocide Center and Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

Today was a very emotional day.  It started of fine, whereby I went down early for breakfast and got chatting to a lovely Irish girl called Sarah, she was travelling alone due to her boyfriend having to go back to Ireland to see his sick father.  I thought she was very brave and invited her along with us to go to visit the genocide museum and S21.

Our tuk-tuk driver, Sarem arrived and we all headed off to the 'Genocidal Center', which is basically hundreds of mass graves. There was a huge Memorial Charnel full of sculls and a few other bones and even clothes and shoes.  It seemed so unreal to see it and to believe that just 30 years ago these were breathing living people. Some of the sculls were tiny and that of little children.  We then walked around the site where all the mass graves were.  There we so many of them and there were still bones sticking out for the earth.  When we looked beneath our feet; we could see teeth and shreds of remaining clothing.  It was really too much for me to take.  It felt so wrong walking around there knowing the mass genocide that had occurred only 30 years ago. My eyes filled with tears and I went to get a drink.  I got a disgusting can of something, which I took one sip of and nearly threw up.  I gave it to a little begging child by my side and she was delighted.

The next stop was S21 (otherwise known as Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum).  It was actually quite near to the theater that we had been to the night before.  I couldn't decide whether to go in or not.  I had read a lot about the place in my 'Survival of the Killing Fields' book, which used to be a school.  I decided to go in and just leave if it got too much.  Well needless to say I didn't get too far.  I made it through the torture rooms in the first building whereby there were the original begs with a picture above them with how they were found (dead prisoner still attached) but now they just had all the torture implements laid out on them.  There was blood still splattered on the ceiling.  I tried my best to desensitize my self and not look to closely at the picture, but I was already feeling nauseous. I then went outside to see the gallows (which used to be a goal post) and then went into the second building which was over 11,000 mug shots of all the people that were killed in S21.  I looked at about 20 pictures of abused looking women with short hair, and then I came across the children.  They were so young and looked absolutely petrified.  That was enough for me, looking at innocent kids who had had their picture taken just before they knew they were going to die.  I could see the misery and fear in their eyes.  I burst into tears and spent the rest of the afternoon in the gardens under a try trying to think about other things.  It really was too much for me, it is far to recent and far to real.  I don't think that it was a good idea to have read my book before coming here.  For the next three hours I waited for Jenna, Kat, Sarah and Sarem to look around the rest of the museum.  They said that it was pretty horrific and even had real pictures of many of the prisoners after they had been tortured to death.  I was so glad that I came out when I did.  There was also an artists exhibit.  Whereby a man who had survived the prison had painted some scenes of what he experienced and what he saw happening to others.  There were tortures that most people couldn't even imagine.  The Khmer Rouge really were sick people.  Jenna told me that there was also a room with pictures of the prison guards who had been 'forced' to perform their tortures and how they lived now.  There were burns and graffiti all over their pictures (understandably).  When I joined the rest of the group we all watched a video about the man who had done the paintings about his experiences and also an interviewed former Khmer Rouge guard.  It was had to watch as the guard seemed to proudly state how he had killed people and he also laughed about it too (although I think it was probably a nervous laugh)  I was very glad to leave the place and I would advise only hardy people with a strong stomach to ever visit the place.

Opposite was a place called 'The Boddhi Tree' which was a beautiful little oasis and the perfect antidote to go in and sit and try to forget about all the horrors that we had seen earlier.  We all enjoyed some unusual yogurt shakes (called lassi's) and shared a plate of spring rolls.  We then headed off to the riverside, where Sarem took us to one of his favourite bars called 'Elsewhere', with its lavish gardens that overlook the river whereby we enjoyed another drink and watched the sunset.  It was nice to try forget all the horrors i had seen and be grateful that it was all in the past.

That evening the five of us met up again and went to the famous 'friends' restaurant for dinner.  It was a place whereby they take kids off the street and train them up into excellent chefs.  We enjoyed a splendid tapas style feast, but it was a much needed pleasant end to our sad and emotional day.  On they way home Sarem let Kat and I drive his Tuk-tuk.  It was so much fun and he said that we were probably the first tuk-tuk driver in Cambodia.  I was only glad I didn't crash, but actually found it easier to drive and control than a motorbike.

23rd July - The Russian market and the afternoon by the pool.

Again we went back to the highly tempting 'Russian Market'.  I wanted: bed throws, pashminas, cushions, puppets, ornaments, cushion covers, jewelry and clothes, but only came away with a green silk scarf (which cost me about 60 pence) and a lovely traditional painting on canvas, done by street kids, of Ankor Wot with an elephant in front (which she took out of the frame so that I could roll it up and put it in my bag.  I don't even own my own house, but at numerous times through out the morning I found my imagination wondering off and picturing my 'future house' filled with all these beautiful things.  It really was incredibly difficult to restrain myself yet again.  I will certainly have to come back one day when I actually have a house, and kit it out with all this amazing and incredibly cheap décor.

That afternoon Kat went back to bed with a bad back, Sarah had things to organise so Sarem took Jenna and I to the local swimming pool.  The sun wasn't shining but it was a warm dry day so the three of us had fun swimming some lengths and splashing about in the water.  We were back in time to watch the nightly showing of the "killing Fields" (which is nothing to do with the book that I have been reading) but equally as upsetting, then Sarah, Kat and I (along with a strange German boy, who invited himself along) went back to 'Happy Herb Pizza' for another fun night, while Sarem took Jenna for 'motorbike practice' :)

24th July - The Heart of Darkness.

Today was rather uneventful, I actually managed to get a much needed lie in, then we spent the day in town plodding around and using the internet etc.
In the evening Serem took us to a lovely place by the river for dinner.  It was so beautiful and seemed so posh but was unbelievably cheap.  It is so useful having a local guy to show us round.  We then went to a bar owned by two English guys.  One from Birmingham, and the other from Barnsley.  We got lots of free drinks and before we knew it we all were a little tipsy.  We all headed to a club called 'The Heart of Darkness', all I can say is that the music was crap, but it was very 'interesting' Before long Kat, Jen and Sarem sensibly went home leaving Sarah and I with all the locals dancing our little socks off.  I ended up playing a game of pool with a group of Cambodian Prostitutes.  They were so tiny but pretty funny.  Eventually got home by about 4.30.  We travel to ‘Siem Reap’ tomorrow morning, I am so excited , however  I am really not looking forward to waking up.

Cambodia - Koh Kong, Sihanoukville and Kampot.

12th July -Hat Lek/Koh Kong

When we awoke it was still raining, but not too heavy so we decided to move on to Cambodia.  We wondered into town to get some breakfast and Kat and I got some hideous passport photos done, then the "three pregnant turtles"  were on our way.

My leg was still pretty painful.  It was swollen and bruised from my toes until half way up my calf. Pain shot up my leg with each step I took.  Without my bad, I had found a relatively painless way to walk: whereby I use my right leg and press lightly on my left, but now with my huge bags this method was impossible.  I just really concentrated on my walking, trying not to let on the pain to Janna and Kat (otherwise we would end up staying in Thailand another day) I was throbbing and my leg was stiffening from the bruises but I just bit my lip and looked forward to when we arrived!

We waited for over an hour, in the hot sun, for our seelaw in the hot sun, even though we had been told that there would be one every 10 minutes.  Once we had arrived at the ferry port we only had about 30 minutes to wait, then we relatively easily managed to catch buses and seelaws through Trat and within no time we arrived in Hatlec, with Cambodia in our sights.

As I imagined the boarder offices were very minimal and basic, and basically little hut with young boys in them to stamp our passport, fill out forms, take money.  To be honest it was rather a blur getting through, it was 7.30 at night and we only had 30 minutes until the boarder was due to close, so we got shoved here and there, and got charged more than we should have for our actually visa, but there was not much we could do about it and they refused to give us a receipt.  Oh well what can you do? ( I bet they make a fortune)

Once arriving the other side we met up with a Cambodian man named Whiskey, who was actually a friend of the Scottish woman who co-ran Independent Bo's.  He was incredibly easy to understand and insisted on practicing his Cockney rhyming slang on us.  He then took us to change some money (where we actually got really duped) and then we settled in to his small but pleasant guest house called the 'Koh Kong guest house', where we enjoyed a lovely Thai style meal and then passed out!

13th July - Sihanoukville

Today is a Friday, so suspicious people might say that it was a very unlucky day being the 13th, but we managed to have a good day, well as good as a day spent travelling could be :)

We were all up early and had a freezing cold was in our bucket in our 'bathroom' then went out to wait for the bus to Sihanoukville.  We had originally planned to catch the boat, which would have taken half the time, but apparently the seas were too rough for the boats to run.  The bus was really late but, it was a good excuse for Kat and I to play with the gorgeous little puppy that lived at the guest house.  My ankle was still pretty painful so I was relieved when the bus eventually came, we boarded along with a French couple, and Irish couple, an English guy and a Cambodian guy.

Again the journey was interesting, more incredibly bumpy and windy roads full of holes and deep puddles and slippy mud.  It was hard enough to remain on my seat and also prevent my head from hitting the ceiling.  As I looked out of the window I could tell that Cambodia is much poorer than Thailand, the sights I saw and the houses reminded me much more of the Philippines.  The most crazy parts of our journey was the ferry crossings:  We had four or these in total and each time they seemed to get worse.  As we approached the river side, we were asked to vacated to bus "because it was likely to sink" and then went slipping and sliding about in the mud trying to board the 'ferry'.  Now I say ferry, but what I actually mean is four canoes with bits of wood over the top of them all and an old motorbike engine to move the whole thing.  I was pretty petrified as our bus, along with a few other cars drove on to the wobbling planks of wood, followed by us.  I really couldn't believe that this was the only way to get across the river.  With thanks to god all of us, our belongings and the bus survived all four crossing with nothing more than very muddy feet ( I was wearing flip flops, but by the last crossing it looked like I had a lovely pain of reddish brown ankle boots, made from mud)

I am currently reading 'Survival in the Killing Fields' which is written by a Cambodian man who basically managed to live through the Pol Pot/ Khmer Rouge regime (which is a truly horrific book) but in the story he explains about how he and his family along with their vehicles cross the river and, the way he describes it is exactly how we did it today.  I actually can't believ how much my book is influencing everything I have seen so far in Cambodia.

Anyway, late afternoon we arrived and had to fight off hundreds of people in order to catch a mini-bus to 'Serindepity beach'.  Apparently by taking the mini-bus we were taking away business from all the guys on motorbikes waiting to charge us a fortune to take us.  They even tried to park their bikes in front of our bus, I thought that is could turn nasty but luckily it didn't and we all made it to the beach without too much trouble.

We all booked into a nice place called 'GST guest house' where it was two pounds a night for a double room with two double beds and even a bathroom with a SINK, I was so happy to see a sink again for the first time since leaving Korea!  We were all ravenous so all of us (from the bus) gathered for a nice dinner then took a stroll along the beach.  We tried not to get wet, but the fast coming waves soon got our shorts wet.  As the sun went down we decided to stop for a quick drink, but as usual one drink turned into three or four and we ended up being pretty late for bed.  There were lots of young boys walking up and down the beach trying to sell their artwork, bracelets and other things.  As usual we felt sorry for them and ended up buying a woven shark key ring off three of them, and the Irish girl (Rebecca) bought a picture.  We finally all retired to bed by about midnight leaving the busy beach and all the kids behind!

14th July - The Market

Today was a rather uneventful day.  Due to the rain we spent the morning on the incredibly slow Internet catching up with emails and trying to update our blogs and then in the afternoon we tried to find a place we had read about in our guide book, where we could book trips.  Unfortunately when we got there it had closed down for the rainy season and was not due to open again for another couple of weeks, we aimlessly walked around the dead town (where everything was closed due to low season) and eventually found somewhere to eat.  

On the way back to the beach we stopped of at a thriving local market.  It was fantastic, people shouting, throwing things around and local bargaining everywhere.  It was all sectioned out.  The food section was rather smelly but I was amazed by the sheer quantity of rice.  My favourite part was the dress makers section, there were women everywhere basically fixing things and making clothes.  You could chose your own material and get an outfit made especially for you right there and then.  I mist say I was tempted, but I must also remember that I do not have anymore room in my bulging rucksack for any more clothes!

That evening we all went out for a Khmer meal.  Kat and I chose luk lok steak, which was delicious and Jenna enjoyed a Chicken Mok curry, then we all shared battered bananas in rum for desert.  I really like Cambodian food (although I loved Philippine and Thai too)

15th July -Ream National Park.

What a crazy day.  It all started with breakfast on the beach, it was the usual Cambodian favourite of 'crispy baguette' with butter and bananas! We then met our guide and a nice girl named Marijke from Holland and headed off to the national park that we had heard so much about.  It was raining when we arrived, but for once it wasn't too heavy so we were determined that it wouldn't spoil our day.  The four of us boarded a boat along with the driver and our very smiley guide and headed off along the river.  At times, I thought that we might capsize but I was soon distracted by all the mango trees and fishermen.  Our guide informed us that sometime dolphins come down the river from the sea, I kept my eyes peeled but unfortunately didn't see any!  

Our boat ran aground a long way from the shore, so we had to roll up our shorts and wade through the very stick mud to the river side.  As we did we passed many families hunting for cockles, muscles and crabs.  One little girl was delighted when I picked up a large live crab and gave it to her.  Everyone was filthy and a few times I actually though I was stuck in the mud. I was relived when we got to the riverside and also happy that the rain had stopped.

We spend the next few hours trekking through the jungle.  We passed a little school, which was basically a little bamboo hut with desks in it and a few old books and a map on the wall.  We also passed some very rural houses with all their surrounding animals and little kids who would rush up to say hello.

Due to it being rainy season most of the jungle was pretty flooded, we kept having to alternate between bare feet and our trainers, after about 20 minutes of this I gave up and just trekked in my trusty flip-flops.  It was very strange seeing little fish swimming through the jungle.  I bet that this place is so different out of rainy season!

I also held a small iguana and was fascinated by the termite mounds.  Apparently termites (who look like large ants with big heads) have 'workers', 'royalty' 'breeders' and 'guards'.  We watched the streams of small working termites and all around them were the much larger guards.  If we put a twig or leaf anywhere near the workers the guards would attack.  I didn't realise how intelligent these small creatures were! After an hour or so we found a lovely deserted beach, we relaxed there for a bit before heading back through the jungle to the river side for lunch.

Just before we headed back to our boat we saw a water snake in the water, Jenna hates snakes so it look a little persuasion before she agreed to wade back out through the river.  This time Kat and I both cut the bottoms of our feet on sharp shells and I got paranoid that our cuts were going to get infected (like my still swollen leg).  We all enjoyed a nice lunch on the boat, consisting of: fish with pepper and lemon, salad and another baguette.  We then headed back before the next bout of torrential rain.

That afternoon I ventured out alone on a motorbike to get some bits and bobs from the market, post a letter and try and find my jacket that I had stupidly left in a bar the night before.  I was nervous about going out alone, but I soon felt confident and enjoyed the fact that I did feel safe.  My jacket was thankfully exactly where I left it in the bar.  That made me realise how honest these people can be.  Everyone I encountered while being alone was incredibly helpful and went out of their way to help me.  I wouldn't like to travel totally alone but I must say I enjoyed my afternoon alone.  I feel like I noticed more things and got talking to more people.

That evening we headed out to the beach to a bar run by deaf people, called the 'Dolphin bar' for dinner, as we tucked into our noodles suddenly a huge ball of fire landed on or table, we jumped back in shock.  Soon after we realised that the owners of the bar had been practicing 'fire acts' and while spinning a wire with two huge petrol soaked balls of fire on each end the chain had snapped and this had resulted in one of them landing on our table!

The deaf girls at the bar were full of apologies, but everything was fine, they were so sweet and no one was injured and we got a free meal and a couple of free 'buckets' of cocktails to make up for it. We got talking to a few interesting people including travelers from Israel and Germany.  We had come from where they were going and viceversa, so we could exchange our stories and advise each other where to go and what to see.

16th July - Kampot.

Due to the rain, we all decided that there was not much point staying at the beach, so decided to move on up the island to Kampot in order to find more to do.  Then 6 of us piled in a small car and off we went.  Our driver was a retired police officer and he told us that he usually tries to get 4 in the back and two on the passengers seat in his car, and that it was totally legal.   A long the way we made up a game called 'spot the most passengers in a car'  I think the most we saw was 12...yes, 12.  There was the driver, with a kid on his lap, two in the passengers seat, four adults in the back with two kids on their laps and 3 people and all the luggage hanging out of the open hatch back boot!  I couldn't believe my eyes, but our driver insisted that if the car had a roof rack, they could get at least another four on there.   I tried to imagine this happening in England, hilarious.

After about two or three very squashed hours we arrived in Kampot.  Which is a small provincial town, with colonial style houses, situated on the Teuk Chhou river only 5 k from the sea.  I could see that the town had very clear French influence., but again it was all very quiet and very run down.  We moved into our rather dirty room and then went off for a walk along the river to look for pagoda.  Everywhere we walked people were stopping us, desperate for us to ride in their tuk tuks or on the back of their motor bikes, and many people who were just trying to practice their English.  Sometimes it can all get a bit to much, but I think most of these people are relatively harmless and they are incredibly friendly and their faces are always beaming with smiles.  After being stopped about 100 times, we eventually got to the spot where the pagoda should have been, but yet again our out of date guide book was wrong and it was no longer there!  On the way back to our hostel we saw many disturbing sights, such as whole baby chicks on sticks, ready to be cooked and live pigs stretched out and squealing in 'pig shaped baskets' It really was enough to turn a person vegetarian.  

That evening I decided to refrain from eating meat and instead was delighted when I saw 'jacket potato with beans and cheese' on the menu.  This is something I have been craving for over ten months.  It was okay, but rather hard, the Cambodians really don't know how to make a jacket spud :(

We got back to our room and with in about 5 minutes, while getting ready for bed, we saw a hole, where spiders, insects and mosquitoes were getting through and two mice even scampered across the floor.  We changed rooms, to a much smaller room, where we had to share a bed, but at least we weren't sharing with vermin and insects!

17th July - Bokor National Park and the deserted hill station

Today we booked ourselves on a trip to visit 'Bokor National Park' and the deserted hill station and casino there.  We were up early and while we ate breakfast it began to rain...heavily. Shortly after our OPEN-TOP jeep arrived to take us.  We were not looking forward to getting into the back of the jeep, which already looked like a swimming pool.  A few people backed out of the trip, but we decided to just get soacked and make the most of it.  Just as we zipped up our rain coats and got ready to hop on board, our guide notified us that there was too many people and some of us would have to get in the car, we quickly volenteered and cheekily pushed our way into the shelter of the car.  Jenna and Kat got into the passangers seat of the jeep and I along with an English couple and a german guy got into the car.

The journey, as usual, was very bumpy, and our driver was a maniac, wrecking his car and susspention hurtleing down the crazy roads.  He spoke no English, but I tried to relax my nerves by nattering away to him about how to drive safer and asking him how on earth his car survives abuse like it was getting.  I also had a good chat with the English coulpe, who must have beenin their 40's, and told me about their travels over the last 20 years.  I listend intently to their stories about the best  places they had been and took all the advise they could offer.  I got incresingly excited about my future plans to visit South America, Africa and India, listing to their amazing stories.

Feeling well and truely sick and having many bumps on my head we arrived at Bokor National Park. which is packed with tropical forrests and hiddern waterfalls.  The first stop was Bokor mountain and the 'Black Palace' which was the former kinds residence.  It was pretty ruined, but you could make out which rooms were thae bathrooms, kitchens etc.  We looked out at the highest point of 1800 meters, from Cambodias second biggest mountain, from here we had an impressive view of Veitnam to our left and the over the gulf of Thailand to our right and a panaramic view of Kampot its self.  Luckily the rain had stopped so the views were actually pretty clear.  I could see rice fields for miles and miles around.  Our guide informed us that women carry 40k baskets on bamboo rods accross their backs from these fields to Kampot.  I couldnt believe it.  I struggle with my 15k bag!

We all gathered in a large building for lunch, which consisted of a large bown of a vegetable stew type thing, served with a baguette and rice.  It was relitively nice, but we found numerous dead ants floating in it.  Needless to say, most people stuck to the baguettes, I just thought of the added protene!

The second stop was an old French hill station, 'There was a church their and the main building called the Hotel Bokor Palace.  our guide informed us of how they had been abandoned twice in history.  First in the 1940's when the Vietnamese took over whilse fighting the French and again in 1972 when it was over run by the Khymer Rouge, who turned them both into prisons and tourcher chambers.  We had a chance to look around the gutted remains.  It was actually really eary.  A real ghost town, mist was all around us and my heart was pounding as our guide told us the stories of what happened to the place.  The doors were filled with bullet holes and the main ball room hall was almost totally flooded.  I imagined the scem out of "Titanic" where the boad transforms back to its former self before our eyes, I bet that this place was truely wonderful.  I wouldn't have liked to see it when the Khmer Rouge took over though.

It pained me to think what the Khmer Roughe did to people in there and we could even walk to the edge of the cliff where thousands of Cambodians had been forced to jump off.  Many Cambodians stay away from the area as they fear the spirts of these ghosts who were treated so badly and died with out a cerimony.

On the way back, I opted to go in the back of the Jeep.  A guy had been speared in the neck by a rotton spikey plant and wanted to take my place in the car.  Kat also offered to take another girls place.  I must say it was one of the most crazy couple of hours I have had in a while.  I had planned ccatching a bit of sun and looking out for elephants, lepords, bears, and gibbons, but this was not to be.  Instead I spent the whole journey ducking and trying to avoid branches and plants.  The Cambodian at the back, spent the whole time shouting "duck, spiky plant" or "spider" Everytime I raised my body I got whipped in the back by a brance or if I was caught in conversation I would get whipped in the face.  At one point the hugest spider I had ever seen was litterally two inches from my head and as I whiped the wed from my face, a few baby spidesrs dropped ito my lap, it is a good job I am not afaid of spiders, but later I learnt I should have been as they were said to be poisionus!!!  Numerious times I almost got bounced out of the back of the Jeep all together, my nuckles were while from clinging on and both cat and I had red whip marks alover our backs and spent a while fetting all of the leaves out of our hair when we got off.

I was releived when we all got out of our vehicles and clambered abourd a nice canal boat.  We were greated with a nice cold beer then and enjoyed a leasurely cruise back along the Touk Chou river to Kampot, while Kat and I told Jenn about our experience in the back of the Jeep.

Once we were abck in Kampot the English couple (who had been in the car with me on the way) and a pleasant French man all found our way to a bar run by an English guy who cooked me the most delicious sausage and Mash follwed by cheese cake.  That certainly satisfied my craving for home cooked foods.  Absoulutely delicious.

Tomorrow we are heading up to Phnom Phen.  I would like to appologise for my rushed blogs, but really these computers are useless and I really never find myself with much time to dedicate to my blogging.  I am such a busy girl, as I am sure you can tell, so I hope that you can get the basic gist until I get chance to sort it all out! :)

Ko Chang - Thailand

Chiang Mai - Hilltribe Trekking, Temples and reunited with Kat

 4th July  Hill tribe Trekking

Today we escaped to Duet National park, to the beautiful tropical forests and tranquil rivers to find pure nature.  We were up and met our guide at 9 am, he was a very strange little man and i wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him, shortly after we met three French people.  All 24 years old, two girls names Estelle and Dorothee and a boy named Guillaume.  We then all head off to Maemalai market for provisions for the trek.  The market was busy and full for tables of fruit that I had never seen before and other tables of meats, intestines and even slices of Iguana meat!  . 

We all got back in the Seelaw and headed off into the mountains.  After about an hour we arrived at Mork Fa waterfalls.  On the way we passed some trees that had collapsed and rocks had formed over the top of then, they were very strange.  When we arrived at the waterfall I was amazed by the spray coming off it, we were about 20 or 30 meters away and still got soaked from the spray.  We hadn't packed our swimming things and didn't fancy being wet all day so decided not to go swimming this time (especially as we had been twice last weekend)

The next stop was the 'hot springs' I had never seen anything like it, water was spurting about  2 meters in the air and bubbling and hissing all around us.  The air was filled with steam and all the rocks were burned around it and all the plans dead.  We had the opportunity to boil an egg in the 90 degree water but we really didn't have time as we wanted to get to the hill tribe village before night fall.  We enjoyed a fried rice and pineapple lunch and then were on our way. 

It was incredibly steep and really dense forest, lush and green and still wet from the lunch time rain.  After about 10 minutes we were drenched in sweat, covered in more bites from all the insects and had red 'jungle mud' all up our legs.  It was very hard work.  By the time we reached the summit, after about 2 hours of intense trekking I must say I was very relieved.  We had a clear view of Thailand’s tallest mountain from here and our weird guide made us do some stretches and made every advance to crack a joke or touch us in some way.  There were also two local tribes people that accompanied us.The trek changed scenery as we moved on, some parts were very narrow tracks through lush forest, others were open area of slippy wet mud (like the red mud at the mud festival in Philippines) and in some parts I felt like I was in England, walking through the Cornish woods near my Nanas house.  Dirt tracks, covered in pine cones...it seemed very strange, such a contrast, when just walking up and down one mountain.  We also saw some interesting wild life.  A termite mound, a group of ants carrying a live wiggling worm, snakes, lizards/iguanas spiders, huge millipedes and could hear the loudest beetles that I have ever heard.  Apparently the beetle is called a 'Secada' and is a flying beetle that sounded like a combination of a kettle boiling and a pneumatic drill.By the time we got to the 'Karen tribe' village, we were all quite relieved.  The village was interesting and very basic.  We saw women in their red traditional costumes cooking and washing.  We saw baskets of hens, the vegetable gardens and the rice fields.  No sooner had we dropped or heavy sweaty backpacks we asked if we wouldn't mind moving on to the next camp.  No one particularly wanted to, but it did make sense that we would be closer to the elephant farm and the fiver for tomorrow.  Being assured that it was close and an easy walk we all reluctantly agreed. 

The next HOUR of out trek was the worst past, very steep climbs and very slippy mud, water was running low and we were all exhausted.  The sun set and by the time we got to the next village, called Bankbacah, it was almost dark.  We all felt a little hostile to our guide, but relived to arrive at the village and grateful to the accommodating tribes people.  We washed using a bucket by candle light and it felt so good to be clean, we then got dressed and sat along a candle lit bench and enjoyed a delicious meal of Thai curry with chicken, vegetables and rice, with fresh pineapple for desert. 

As the candles burned down and we finished our 'moonshine' (whiskey), we all retired to our small hut, clambered under the very musty smelling mosquito nets and were out like lights.

5th July – Elephant riding and bamboo rafting. 

We were all awoken at 4am by two very annoying roosters, which actually lived under our hut.  It was still dark but I shone my torch through the cracks in the wood and could see one of the noisy little things.  I was tempted to hit him with a rock, but thankfully after about 30 minutes he went away and quietened himself, pecki8ng around the hut.  We all fell back to sleep until about 8 o'clock. 

We all enjoyed a western style breakfast of egg on toast, got packed up and headed to our afternoon’s transportation.  An elephant!  Ours was a beautiful 38 year old female called 'Bosoot'.  They were lovely elephants and I was glad that the guide didn't use sticks or spike to guide the elephants.  Instead he just used commands.  The elephants were like dogs, they were very well behaved and did what they were told, apart from when they were hungry and stopped to eat plants, or drink from the river. 

The trek was about two hours in total and we mainly walked alongside or through the river.  We passed hundreds of wild water buffalo basking in the sun, rolling in the mud, or swimming along side us.  It really was lovely and our elephants actually seemed happy and content as they plodded along.  When our ride came to an end, the elephants were allowed 'bath time' in order to cool off.  They all played in the water and squirted each other, as we were feeding them bananas a family (Mum, Dad and Baby) came down the river and joined in.  They had no people with them but were incredibly tame and interested in everything we were doing, sniffing at our sun cream etc.  I loved it.

From the 'Lahu tribe' village we all boarded our bamboo raft and set off down the river.  Basically our raft was made from about ten bamboo poles threaded together with banana leaves, but it floated well and was really steady.  The river was such fun, beautiful and every so often we went down sections of white water rapids, I loved it and it brought back memories of my Canoeing down the Ardech in France or the trips I went on when I worked as a canoe instructor for Camp America.  As the day went on our guide and his friend got more and more drunk on the whiskey that they had brought with them, and the more drunk they got, the worse their rafting skills were.  At one point we hit a huge rock and went half over it.  One of the guides and Jenna got flung off into the water and the rest of us hung on for dear life while the raft cracked and split under our feet.  Eventually we freed our raft and headed back off down the river.  By this time, thankfully, the French guy was with us, volunteered to steer the raft.  From then on we had a much safer journey. We all enjoyed noodles for lunch and then headed on our incredibly bumpy journey back to Chiang Mai. 

That evening Jenna and I went for Thai curries for dinner and then enjoyed a couple of drinks in a very interesting bar.  It was full of Gay men, including older western men hitting on young Thai boys, and lots of stunning looking transvestites.

6th of July - Doiu Suthep Temple and Palace in Phuping.

Today it rained and rained all day long.  Never the less Jenna dressed in out suitable attire (long skirts and covering tops) and headed off to see some of the temples in Chiang Mai. 

Due to the fact that it is low season and due to the rain, we actually had to wait for two hours for our bus to fill up enough for the driver to take us there.  The journey was incredibly whindy and I felt quite sick by the time we arrived.

The temple was up in the mountains, and apparently on a clear day you would get fantastic views of Chiang Mai and the surrounding areas, but for us all we could see was mist, fog and rain!  However inside the temple was beautiful.  It was difficult to work out when the building were made as everything was in Buddhist years.  Apparently they are 543 years ahead of us.  So for them, this year is 2550 (...I think) The building were so intricately made, everything carved so carefully and covered in gold leaf. 

It was different to the temples in Korea, whereby the was more gold, more fancy decorations but no paintings and patterns on the ceiling, like I got used to seeing in Korea. There were hundreds of golden Buddhas and each one was covered in precious stones and surrounded by gifs, candles and flowers.  We also got to watch some Buddhist monks taking part in a ceremony.  Despite the different language, it sounded very similar to the chants we heard in Korea.  We were no allowed to wear our shoes and we were slipping allover the place, and with out soaked skirts we tried to remain as respectful to these gentle people as possible. 

After a couple of house of looking around, listening to services and walking around the museum: which only contained foreign money and broken Buddha(as it is bad luck to own a broken Buddha, but even worse luck to throw one away!) then, we left.

That evening we went to a bar named 'Tuskers' owned by an English couple; we enjoyed yet another Thai curry and chatted to them about the charity that they run, saving Elephants.  Jenna said that I should take up a career as a journalist, as a journalist herself she said that she has never seen someone so inquisitive who asks so many questions!  I guess that is what traveling is all about though - asking questions, and learning new things!

7th July - Reunited with Kat again

Jenna and I were up early to make the most of our morning before we headed to Bangkok.  We headed off to "Wat Phrasingh' temple, which our guide book had advised to be the best in Chiang Mai.  Luckily the rain had stopped and we spent the morning looking around this fantastic temple, took part in a service and took in the peacefulness of the beautiful surroundings.  It wasn't long before we had to get on the move again.

Back to Bangkok airport.  When we got off our plane Kat was there waiting for us, with a big smile on her face.  It was lovely to see her, we thought that we would be waiting for a couple of hours before her plane had come in, but it was a lot earlier than expected.  The three off us can now properly plan our travels.  Something that we have been planning for, and excited about for so long now. 

We all got ourselves settled in to a hostel in 'Thong Lo' in Bangkok.  Our room was already a pig sty because of the  English boy, a South African girl and a guy from New Zealand who were already in there.  We were eager to find somewhere to sit and eat so that we could exchange our stories and tell each other what we had been up to over the past month. 

We headed out to the biggest market area in Bangkok called 'Mo Chit' however as soon as we got off our train the most torrential rain I have ever seen began to pummel into the ground, we were getting drenched under the shelter and after about 20 minutes we decided that we couldn't possibly go out in so decided to head back to wards 'Siam' where we could shelter in the mall they had there.  As soon as we got of the train we darted in to the mall like scruffy wet dogs and immediately felt out of place.  The place was amazing.  So huge and posh and everyone looked perfect.  We wondered around the rather expensive food court and eventually agreed on a restaurant where I ordered a very spicy noodle dish and we sat for hours exchanging our stories and catching up on our time apart.  

As we boarded the train to go home, Jenna and Kat got on ok and I (along with a few others) got trapped in the doors, like the time when I first arrived in Korea.  I was left alone on the platform, but this time felt strangely less worried about being alone.  I think my confidence and independence has sores in the past 10 months.  We all met up at the next station and headed back to out hostel. 

It felt good to slip into the clean sheets and know that by this time tomorrow I would be in Koh Chang!

Chiang Mai - Northern Thailand

It was sad saying goodbye to the family, who we had stayed with over the past few weeks, we made them a nice photo album to remember us and the fun times we had had though.  Again I was shocked by the airport, we literally waited outside in the street until the plain flew in before we walked through the tiny building straight onto our tiny plane.   When we arrived at Manila airport we had a few hours to kill, We soon got bored with the two shops and 3 food places.  It was pretty dreadful considering it is supposed to be a popular airport!  I ate an awful noodle soup and Jena forced down a slimy but sweet ham sandwich.  

Instead of any long flights we just had four short flights, so all of which we had to pay extortionate prices for even for a drink of water, It is so frustrating not being able to take a drink onto the plane.  Jenna and I spent time plodding up and down the airport looking for different places to sit, also because of the time we were flying most of the restaurants and all of the shops were shut too :(

As predicted the rest of our journey was pretty dreadful. After killing another 8 hours in Bangkok we went to check onto you Chiang Mai flight, I had known all along that the flight had a 15k limit so knowing that I had 17 k when I flew out of Korea I had made sure that I had got rid of some things from my bag.  So despite re packing my bag in Bacolod and ditching yet more stuff I still managed to have nearer 17k of stuff at the weigh in.  As predicted I had to get rid of more stuff, I took out 4 large books and a few clothes and rammed them into my carry on luggage and my bag suddenly went down to just 14k, I was relieved that I didn't have to throw anything away and happily departed to Chiang mai!

2nd July – Arrive in Chiang Mai, a Hill tribe museum and the Night Market.

We arrived at about 8 am, just as the day was beginning I the beautiful city of  Chiang Mai, I immediately notice a huge difference since coming from the Philippines.  The place is so clean, there are many foreigners and the best thing is no one seems to stare at us! I love being able to blend in and not be noticed and stop feeling so self conscious.

The city is surrounded by a mat and castle walls and we are staying in a nice little hostel called the Eagle House, just out of the city centre.  It is perfect, nice and quiet but walking distance from the hustle and bustle of the city centre. We checked in and then enjoyed a plate of bacon and eggs before heading to our room with the idea of a couple of hours kip before we went out to make the most of our day.  Those illusions were soon shattered when a group of builders came to repair a roof right outside our door, scraping, banging and shouting as loudly as they could, despite wearing ear plugs Jenna and I decided that the idea was useless and that we should go and explore the city. 

 Firstly we decided to go and find the “Hill tribes museum”  in order to find out some information on the famous hill tribes that are so prevalent in the North of Thailand, as we were planning a hill tribe trek in two days time. We stumbled out into the mid day sun and waved down a Tuk Tuk (a small, thin, open sided 3 wheeled vehicle used as taxis throughout Thailand)  When we arrived at the Museum, I was surprise to find not a sole there.  All we could hear was people singing in the little restaurants on the other side of the lake.  The museum, built in 1965, was very informative.  It exhibited the lifestyles of the 9 hill tribes in Thailand.  They are called the ‘Akah, Lahu, Lisu, Yao, Hmong, Karen, Lua and the H’tin’.  They all remain in the hills under strong traditional societies, seen by many of the Thai people as like peasants.  I found out that there are about 750,777 people in the 9 tribes’ and they live in 3,503 villages dispersed over 20 provinces.  They are not Buddhist and they are not Christian, they are ‘Animists’ which basically means they believe in spirits which inhabit the earth, water, fire, forests, mountains, their villages and houses.  They believe that good spirits help and protect and that bad spirits bring bad luck and sickness.  They give offerings to all sprits, to thank good ones and to try and keep the bad ones happy.  I also enjoyed looking at all the colourful pictures and clothes from the tribes, reading about each one individually and how whey lived, using looms to make their own clothes and how they are self sufficient, living off the land  growing all the vegetables, fruit and ice that they need and farming their own animals.  At four o’clock a little man came in and started bolting up the windows and closing the doors, we then decided that we should probably leave, despite him saying a word.  Much to our surprise, the Tuk Tuk driver was waiting for us outside.  We had planed to catch a local bus home but felt a little obligated to take our ride back with him (I guess this was how he wanted us to feel) but he was nice enough and cost us less than a quid each!

We decided that he could drop us off at the ‘Night Bazaar’ However it only being 4.30 it was not yet fully open so we spent a few hours looking around a small Buddhist temple and eating noodles in a little restaurant.  By the time we resurfaced at about 6.30 the place was thriving.  Bright little stalls everywhere, lights and people calling us from every angle.  We were overwhelmed. It was hard to resist the many beautiful clothes, bags, jewelry, fake designer watches and anything else you could imagine.  We escaped by about 10 o’clock with only a bracelet each and a bag of fruit!  It would have been easy to go crazy in there ad although the bargaining is hard work, it is so satisfying when you manage to third the asking price.  I would definitely want to come back here in the future when I have lots of money for all these beautiful and unusual things!  It is amazing how the smalls of the food being cooked in the strrets and the herbs from the markets are bringing back so many memories to me, from when I came to Thailand as a child with my parents.  It is crazy how smells can be such catalysts, I can even remember some of the language ad words I learnt all those years ago!

3rd July – The factories and a Khantoke dinner

The North Thailand people are famous for their beautiful things and their handicraft skills, so Jena and I decided to get up early and go and see a demonstration of these in Bosang/ Sankamphaeng , an area just outside Chiang Mai.  We jumped in a ‘seelaw’ (truck style taxi) went to 10 factories in all, I call them factories, but they certainly wet like any factories that I had even seen before.  With statues, fountains and huge beautiful gates outside each one.  Every one was presented beautifully and so well maintained. 

The first place we went to was: ‘the silver factory’ whereby I bought myself a lovely ring and we watched people carefully filing and polishing jewelry, bowls and spoons.  Next was ‘the cotton factory’ where we saw women weaving at phenomenal speeds.  The third was ‘the precious stones factory’ where we got show about how they find and polish up beautiful stones.  We learnt about our birth stones and wished we had money to buy more jewelry. Fourthly was ‘the leather factory’ where we saw bags, wallets and shoes made out of elephant, stingray, goat, snake, crocodile and iguana skins.  We asked if they had any cow leather and they proceeded to tell us that this was the cheapest and works leather to use!  The fifth was the ‘silk factory’ which I found the most interesting because they showed us all the silk worms in their various stages.  As caterpillars feasting on leaves, to cocoons, to the silk worm pupa.  This brought back some horrible memories of Korea and the dreadful smell of them cooking in the street.  I know that my mum would have actually been sick if she had smelled them!  I rushed past that bit as quickly as I could in order to watch the ladies weave silk from the cocoons.  The sixth was ‘the Jade factory’ where we were taught all about the different types of Jade.  How the light and multi-coloured Jade comes from Burma and how the dark green Jadeite comes from China.  There was also Thai porcelain and ceramics to marvel at.  The seventh was ‘lacquer-ware production’ whereby we could witness pottery being made and how they apply gold leaf to things, then there was the ‘pain factory’ where men hand painted fans and umbrellas made from silk and paper.  Ninth was the ‘handicraft factory’ with many beautiful things made from ‘saa paper’, the finally was the ‘woodcrafts and antique furniture factory’  where there was so many beautiful carvings, including little ornaments, chairs, beds and even life sized elephants.  Everything was so beautifully doe and just perfect.  I could see my dad in this shop and I know that he couldn’t have come away empty handed.  Everything was so much cheaper here than we would find in the shops, I must say it was difficult to resist temptation.  We were exhausted by the time we had finished, partly because we had missed a night of sleep and partly because we had been shopping and plodding round for about 6 hours straight.  We decided to head home for a nap.

That evening we booked ourselved in for a traditional ‘Khantoke dinner’ in old Chiang Mia’s center.  At 7 o’clock we got picked up by our taxi and take to the restaurant.  A ‘Khantoke’ is a pedestal tray’ used as a small dining table, usually made of teak wood.  We arrived in the thriving restaurant and were given a garland of fresh flowers to wear round our necks (they smelt like lotus flowers, but were much smaller)  We were then show to our table ad served a huge ‘Khantoke’ of food.  We had the traditional fare consisting of: fried chicken, Burmese ok curry, friend cabbage, pork in tomato chili paste (which was rather spicy), Pork scratching (for dipping in the paste), cucumbers, fried bananas and another sweet crispy dist that I have forgotten the name of.  All this was served with both plain boiled ice and sticky rice, which was served in a bamboo basket.  For desert was fiend rice crispy type things and coffee.  It was delicious. 

Throughout the meal we were entertained by classical dances, such as the fingernail dance, sword dance and the beautiful candle dace (among many more).  Once we had finished everyone was lead outside to the ‘Khuang Hong Kham’, which was basically a outdoor court yard.  Here we watched genuine hill tribe people showing their dances that they have been doing since their ancestors times.  I was amazed as we watched little kids hopping about trying not to get their legs caught in clapping bamboo poles, boys with drums and gongs, people dressed up as birds ad other strange beasts and women galloping round in all their heavy clothes.  I really enjoyed the ‘Fire sword dance’ and the ‘winnowing dance, where by pretty girls pranced around with sieves showing how they separated husks from the rice grains.  It was a fantastic evening, but before the night was over we headed back to the night bazaar in order for Jenna to buy some more t.shirts (as we have to be covered up when visiting the hill tribes tomorrow)  I accidentally bought a beautiful flowy skirt, covered with embroidery and sequins.  I worked hard for it though and got the guy down from 7 pounds to just over 2.  I went to bed content 

Sipalay and good bye to the Philippines!

25^th June - Sipalay.

 

We were up really early and filled with excitement as we knew we were going for a three day ‘holiday’ to a beautiful part of Negros called Sipalay.  A little later than planned we boarded the bus, I rammed my huge rucksack under my very small seat and poor Jenna’s wouldn’t fit so she had hers propped up under her legs.  The bus was pretty full, my knees were rammed into the seat in front of me and there were sweaty people and Jenna and I couldn’t possibly have a conversation because it was so loud, all of the windows were wide open, so it was basically like an open sided bus.  I enjoyed looking out of the window and seeing all the differences in this country.  I could see rice fields, which were totally flooded, due to the time of year, with water buffalo trudging their way through.  I also noticed all the paintings on the walls, saying things about becoming catholic, and ‘get high grades in school not high on drugs’ I am still amused that everything is in English.  I also enjoyed taking in all the different types of housing.  Some people simply lived in huts, others in metal sheds, it seems people use any materials available to put together some kind of ‘house’

 

After a little while I started trying to read, however, the road was so bumpy, filled with potholes and incredibly whindy that I soon felt sick.  I was also desperate to stop, but even when we stopped at bus station, I couldn’t bare the thought of hopping off all hot and sticky and having to make my way through the hundreds of people trying to sell me water, snacks and even fish.  I really felt like my traveling had started, I know that there are going to be many more times like this, and perhaps even more uncomfortable bus journeys.

 

It felt like forever, but after 5 hours we arrived.  As we stepped off the bus in Sipalay, we saw a thriving fish market to our right, but right ahead of us was the sea!  It was beautiful.  The sand was white, the see was blue and the sun was shining.  I breathed in the fresh salty air (along with the fishy smell from the market) and we headed down in order to find a boat that would take us to the place that we had booked.  We slipped off our flip flops and walked along the sand, I realized that this was the first time that I had seen sand, since I went to Newquay with my friends last summer.  Shortly a boat man approached us and asked us where we were headed, we told him and he said that we needed to get on his boat, but that we just had to wait for half an hour while he finished getting previsions from the market.  We sat in the shad and waited for him, as we waited we were approached by a lady who introduced herself as Rose, who claimed to be the manager of the lodge that we were staying and confirmed that we were catching the right boat.  We soon boarded the small boat; there were just us two and the young boat boy.  We had to sit on the edge of the boat because it was full of fresh food and crates of drinks.  The water was so blue and actually really choppy, as I looked over the edge and into the water I was so excited, I had the erge to just jump in right there and then, but managed to fight that erge and just take in the breath taking views.  After 20 short minutes we arrived at ‘Sugar Beach’ and jumped into the water and onto the shore.  We were gob smacked.  The place was beautiful and there was not another person in sight, just our small lodge nestled in-between the coconut trees. 

 

The place we stayed in was called “Takatuka lodge” and was definitely the most interesting place that I had ever stayed in.  The place was owned by the Filipino, Rose who we had met at the beach, her Swiss husband (Marc) and a German couple (Kalle and Cathy). They were all very friendly and were kind enough to inform us that the exotic sounding name of the place originates from the fantasy story about ‘Pippi Longstockings’ and the story about when her father got captured by pirates and she boarded her flying bed and went to rescue him, from the island of “Takatuka”.  Apparently the whole story is colourful, creative and crazy so the owners decided that this would be a perfect name for their little place.  The place was so unusual; Jenna and I spend a little while excitedly running allover the place checking out all of the weird and wonderful things and twists in the decoration.  There were clearly influences from all over the world, I noticed some masks on the wall very much like some that my parents brought back from Thailand, and also Indian and African statues, and most of the rest of the thins we noticed were things made up of complete junk!  I will give you some examples:  In our room the first light switch we came across was made up of a petrol can, as it seemed you were screwing off the lid the light flickered on, the second was a tourch fixed to the wall, where you would normally switch the tourch on, I pushed it and yet more lights came on around the room, I then wandered into the bathroom, this time I had to punch a stapler to turn on this light.  Everywhere I looked there was another interesting thing to entertain and stimulate my mind.  Nothing seemed related.  There were statues of African elephants walking across the ceiling, Indian headboards to our beds and then random toy cars, paint brushes, computer parts, and bottles etc coming out of every wall.  I loved it, what an interesting idea for a place, and what ingenious people they were to think of all the ideas.  Marc, who was also a dive master told me that the four owners make everything themselves, using only junk!

 

Jenna and I moved our bags into the “Bamboo room” which was right on the beach, with its own veranda, with a magnificent view of the see and then went to get ourselves some breakfast (even though it was well past lunch time) We realsied that the lodge restaurant was the only place that we could get anything to eat or drink, it was rather expensive too…well I say that, but in reality it is English prices.  It is difficult to get used to when you are used to spending 30 pence on a beer or 5 pence on a chocolate bar!  But I must admit, despite the beauty of the place, we were slightly disappointed that if we wanted to go anywhere else, or even to a shop we would have to go back in the boat to the market area where we had hopped off the bus earlier.  We were worrying about how much money we would spend, but were also pleased by the fact that the most people that the lodge could hold at one time was 15.  So we enjoyed a nice breakfast and then unconfidently slipped into our bikinis and headed down to the sea.  The sky had already clouded over and rain was pushing its way through (as usual), but that didn’t stop our fun.  We had a good long swim all the way to the end of our private little beach and then clambered up some rocks and had a little explore.  We then looked to the West and enjoyed a beautiful sunset across the Sulu Sea, from the beach, while we got eaten alive by sand flies.  That evening we enjoyed a delicious meal in the restaurant and when then by about 10 o’clock everyone headed to bed.  We have definitely found that people in the Philippines certainly seem to live by the sun.  Up at sun rise and to bed shortly after the sun had set.  I supposed it is resourceful!

 

26^th June

 

I awoke feeling utterly refreshed, despite sweating a lot throughout the night because Jenna had decided to turn the fan off!  We sensibly applied some sun cream, paying special attention to Jenna’s badly burned arm, which had gotten 5 hours of sun through the bus window yesterday!  We then headed down to the beach.  We enjoyed the morning, swimming, walking up and down the beach and reading our books.  We though our peace was ruined at one point, when 6 overweight middle ages white men arrived on their little boat, luckily they departed shortly after they realized that there was nothing to entertain them on ‘our’ beach.  It rained all afternoon so Jenna and I spent our time swimming (well we were wet anyway) and writing post cards. It was probably a good thing that it was cloudy too, as Jenna had managed to get her whole body very burnt, luckily I only burnt my very pale backside!!! That evening we chatted to the owners and they were delighted with the Kimchee paste that Jenna had brought then from Korea (they had asked us when we booked the place, and they found out that we were in Korea) We orgainised a trip to do the next morning and we all retired to bed by about 10.   I don’t think I have ever had such early nights, especially on holiday!! 

 

27^th June – Julian’s Wreck.

 

We awoke early and shared a cheese, tomato and onion sandwich before heading down to the dive room to equip ourselves with snorkels, masks and flippers.  We then boarded the boat that we had come across on two days ago and headed away from Sipalay, across the Sulu Sea towards the North.  It took about 20 minutes, and it seemed that we were in the middle of nowhere as headed towards Anajaua Island, we looked to notice the difference in colour of the water beneath us.  The last time I had looked all I could see was a deep blue, now I could see shadows and a much lighter brown colour.  It was the wreck beneath us.  Marc was reluctant to tall us exactly how the ship had sunk, he told us that there were many theories, but he liked to believe that it had run aground on a coral reef in 1980.  We wondered why the boat had been spit in two though.  Perhaps, it had been bombed! I suddenly felt a little nervous, anxious to jump straight into the water knowing that there was a fully submerged ship beneath me (perhaps this is why Marc had opted not to tell us the whole story on this wreck.)  I was assured that there were no sharks and just dived in, once I has I could immediately appreciate the beauty of this 60 meter long ship, half of it was almost completely buried in sand and the other half was above the sand and only covered with corals.  Jenna jumped in shortly after me and we spent the next who hours marveling at the magnificent wreck, with its immense diversity and manifold of colourful corals and all of the vivacious fish.  Some parts of the wreck were as close as 5 meters to the surface; I could easily swim down and touch the side of the boat.  I do however wish that I hadn’t been so intent on prodding corrals to see which ones were hard and which were soft, as I accidentally touched some fire corral, causing my fingers to burn for the rest of the day!  It has been overcast all morning, but when the sun came out is when we saw the true beauty of the fish.  Most of them were pretty small, but my favourites were the schools of pearlescent fish, that changed colour every time they changed direction in the sea, also the stripy fish, that looked tike they were covered in tiger skin and the most interesting were a medium sized fish that had a green body, with bright blue and pink fins, a blue head and a yellow tail.  I could have analysed their beautiful differences all day.  I also enjoyed seeing the huge blue star fish and I was even lucky enough to see one of the very rare luminous ribbon eels,  it was a magnificent blue and yellow colour, I was excited to share the experience with Jenna.  I lifted my head to find her but when I looked back under the water it had gone again, probably into one of the nooks and crannies of the ship.  I would have loved to have had the confidence to go into one of the windows and look around the ship, but I worried that I might get stuck or that I might come face to face with something nasty! We spent the rest of the day in the shade, as it was simply too hot to be in the sun and Jenna seemed even more burnt than the day before.  We enjoyed another delicious, yet expensive meal and then headed off for another early night.

 

28^th June – Back to Bacolod.

 

I couldn’t believe that it was time to head home already, this place was so peaceful and I really didn’t want to leave, but when we didn’t have enough money for the bill, including our tab, I was glad that we wouldn’t be spending any more money.  With no banks anywhere near and not credit card option we were relieved that we could settle the bill by pay pal.  We had also entirely run out of sun cream, so spent the morning out of the sun, sitting in hammocks taking in the views for the last time and having one last nosey around the place.  We said goodbye and got onto our little boat, we left the Takatuka lodge and our paradise behind and sadly caught our bus back to Bacolod.  Now I thought the bus here was bad, I thought the busses in Korea were bad, but nothing could have prepared me for this ride.  It must have been the fastest bus journey that I had ever endured and I must say: it was NOT fun.  We swerved around tail pin bends, looking down it looked as though we were only 1mm off plunging down the 50 meter cliff face; on the other hand the road was full of cracks, bumps and huge potholes.  They really were so badly maintained, and numerous times I jumped about 2 feet into the air, my head dusting the roof and almost jarring my back on the way down.  I wanted to read my book, but I couldn’t even consider it on this journey!  I felt like I was on a really unsafe rollercoaster, my knuckles were literally white, palms red, from clinging onto the pole in front of me so hard,  also my slightly burnt and very sweaty back was also sticking to the seat.  At least that kept me in place some what.  To make matters worse a man sat next to me, stinking of BO, with his legs open so wide that his knees were constantly rubbing against mine and he ‘accidentally’ kept falling into me, he also had a box on his lap with and animal in it, I still don’t know what that was!  I must say I was delighted to get off the bus, and we realized it had taken an hour less than planned with our crazy bus driver.  We were happy to get back to Fatima and Brian’s house.  It almost felt like going ‘home’ even the dog was pleased to see us.  We unpacked and then we all got ready for another night out.  We went back to Chicken Ally, with the live bands, and MO2 and then ended up in a club, where we were the only guests.  I couldn’t believe that it only cost 50 pence to get in and that included one free drink.  I spent most of the evening dancing with Fatima’s young cousins, it was a fun night, however that night I went to bed and I really missed my lovely boyfriend Brian.

 

29^th June

 

Today was a very unproductive day, it rained, we popped into town and that is about it.  Poor Jenna had some how got conjunctivitis, and had one dreadful looking eye, but we still went out that night and I had fun having a dance in the club with little 6 year old Joshua.  Every time I spend time with him, I wonder about my lovely little classes that I left in Korea.  I hope that they are all ok, and the new teacher is doing as good job as I did 

 

30^th June.  I rode a caribou

 

I would like to start off saying Happy 21^st Birthday to my little brother.  I hope that he has a lovely day and that he got his package ok.  I miss you and an so sad that I can’t celebrate this special day with him.

 

Today we had a family outing.  We went to visit Fatima’s grandmother, in her little village at the ‘other side of the mountain.  14 of us bundled into the Jeepney along with the usual supply of delicious food and drinks.  It took almost 3 hours to get there along the bumpy roads.  The close we got the more in the middle of nowhere we became.  We finally got to fields and fields of sugar canes, that whipped us through the open sided Jeep, then the Jeepney could safely go no further.  We all got out with our bags of stuff and then along came a caribou (a water buffalo) to help us along the bath for the last little bit.  Joshua and I hopped on (obviously with no saddle or ropes) and desperately tried to stay on as he plodded down the lumpy muddy path.  His skin was like pigs skin and not at all like a cow.  Numerous times I thought that I was going to tumble into the stream running along the side of the track.  Thankfully we didn’t and we arrived safe and sound at grandmother’s lovely place.  The little village was something else, it was lovely.  In the middle of nowhere they had no electricity and no running water but the place was lovely.  The houses were spacious and tidy.  We cooked some fresh fish in a banana leaf outside on a little fire, then went to wash in the stream.  They are entirely self sufficient.  They had their own chickens, pigs, goats and grew all their own vegetables and picked the plentiful fruits off the trees.  Everyone seemed to chip in, even the kids would be hanging out the washing or collecting the chicken eggs, it really was lovely and they were certainly surprised to see three white people.  After a couple of hours we got back on the caribou and all got back on the Jeepney.  We then headed to Prezle’s house.  Where she lived was even more remote.  There were babies and animals everywhere, and we were shocked to find out that her mum didn’t even know that she was working and living with Fatima’s family for the past few months, so certainly seemed relieved to see her young daughter.  The place reminded me of houses I saw in Tobago, where it seemed they had nothing, all sleeping on the floor in one big room, with tattered clothes yet I looked to the side to see the hugest CD player I had ever seen and a TV, both blaring away all day.  As the sun begun to set and the afternoon rain begun to fall we headed back, getting utterly drenched through the glass less windows running down the side of the Jeepney.  That evening we all went out for a few drinks, but a few drinks turned into a few more and we didn’t actually get back until more like 3 o’clock.  It was a good night though and I will definitely miss this lovely little family that I have come so close to.

 

This morning I awoke early, knowing that we had a dreadful day of traveling ahead of me, what a daunting prospect.  However I had a lovely time her in the Philippines (will on Bacolod anyway) and had such a fantastic time with Jenna’s kind and accommodating family, I will say good bye to the family, the piiad, Jeepneys, Chicken Adobo and come away with a few Elongo words (the language they use in Negros) adding to my ever confused vocabulary.  It is almost second nature to talk in an American accent and input Korean and Philippine words, oh dear what will I sound like by the time I go back to England in February?  I am extremely excited to move on, four flights later and yet another day spent in Bangkok and I will be in Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand. I will see yet another exciting place, another place to check off my ‘places to see’ list. 3 countries down 9 more to go! 

Bacolod -Philippines (part 2)

22nd June - shop workers

It pretty much rained allday again today, so nothing is new there.  I took Joshua to school by myself today, I wasn't half getting stared at by the other mothers at the school gates!  I then sat in the internet and blogged and wrote emails for a while then it was time to pick Joshua up from school.  When I got home I found out thai their helper had done my washing for me, at first I was utterly embarraced, saying that she doesn't have to do my washing and that I would have done it, but when i went to collect it off the line I was utterly gobsmacked.  Old t.shirts that were ready to be thrown away and jeans covered in stains looked as good as new.  All my clothes were spotless.  She had even managed to get years old stains out of Jennas Jeans that Jenna had scrubbed with a vanish stick.  I was so thankful, it just shows you what a bit of elbow grease will do, and how crappy wahing machines are (especially my filthy one I was using in Korea)

That evening while the family and their helpers had dinner Jenna and I offered to work for a couple of hours in their little shop that they own at the side of the house.  People here are very poor and can only bye small sized things, like odd sashets of shampoo, or single polos and cigerrets, it seems very strange to us but people earn about 50p a day!  So with the help of 6 year old Joshua (our translator) we sold single cigerets, sweets and small sashets of washing powder.  I t was pretty fun actually, although we spend most of our time watching a small mouse on the floor or lizards mating on the celing or Josua dancing around!  We had planned to go out for a few drinks but due to the torrential rain outside we decided against it and instead opted for an early night.

23rd June - The Mudpack Festivle

We were thankful that we had an early night last night as we were awoken early and all bundled into the van along with our swimming things, food, drinks and foldup chairs.  There were 12 of us in total:  Brian, Fatima, Joshua, Fraderick (Fatimas brother) Ian and Melnet (Fatimas cousins) Grandpa, Prezel (their helping lady) Thelma (their pregnant friend) Big Joshua (Joshuas little friend) and Jenna and I.  The Jeepney was packed as much as it could be but everyone was in good spirits and excited for the day in the mountains, ahead of us.  After about an hour we arrived.  The theme of the festivle was to: 'Earth our minds, water our hearts, air our minds and fire our spirits'

We found a nice shady spot and all settled down to watch the days events.  First was a kind of pagent contest.  With 10 girls all dressed in highly decorated bikins came and talked about what their city represented.  They had flowers, feathers and other natural things attatched alover them and all did their speaches in English, which was nice.  I think the men enjoyed this more than me, but the costumes were all very interesting.

The next entertainment was 6 'Drummer tribes'  whereby 6 groups of boys (with between 10 and 15 people in each) covered them selves from head to foot in different coloured clays and muds and used wooden drums, flutes annd other instruments made of only natural things to make music.  Each 'tribe' performed for about 5-10 minutes and they were fantastic.  Jenna and I couldn't help ourselves from jigging around on the spot.  Some of the boys in the 'tribes' cant have been any older than 5 years old, but they were all so very impressive.  By the end of their performances the rest of our clan had gone back to the van.  On our way back up there I spotted a long hald of bamboo filled with all of the different clays and muds.  There must have been about 10 different colours, and I was assured that they were all natural.  I persuaded the reluctant Jenna that we should paint ourselves up as 'tribes men' before we went to join the others for lunch.  In the end she agreed and we were helped by others to draw patterns alover our faces and arms with these interesting shades of clay.  We were also asked to pose with yet more Koreans that had found their way here too.  How I love to shock them with the little Korean I know.

We joined the other 10 at the van and all enjoyed the foods that we had brought with us.  As clouds gathered in the sky fro the daily afternoon rain Jenna and I decided to go and see in we could go and find the waterfalls that we could see in the distance.  Just around the corner we found a trail that led the way to "the 7 falls"  We all begun the climb the step in the mountainside and up and down rocks to the first sighting of waterfalls.  Despite the rain it was beautiful.  We were not able to swim in this one and there was a large sign saying that you could only swim in the 7th fall.  Th rest of our group gave up here and headed back down to the Jeepney, but Fraderick, Ian, Prezel, Jenna and I were determined to go swimming.  It was mid day, so it was boiling hot and I think I actually sweated most of the mud and clay off as we climbed.  It was really difficult at times, dancing accross stepping stone rocks through rushing streams, throuch high feelds, past villages and numerous water buffello.  Each time we got to the next water fall we were tempted to turn back and call it a day, but our sweaty bodies were screaming for us to get to the top so that we could delve into the cool fresh water.  Eventually we passed the other 6 falls and climbed the last or the 920 steps and reached the 7th Fall!!!  I was delighted, what a sence of achievement.  There seemed to be a lot of people in the water, about 20 or so, which seemed strance as we had only seen about one other person the whole way up.  Jenna imedieately stripped of to reveal her small bikini, which resulted in everyone chearing and wooping, I was only wearing a thong under my shorts so after hearing the cheer and seeing all eyes, of the  fully clothed Filipinos in the water, on me,  I was reluctant to strip off.  I dived in in my shorts!  The water was so refreshing and cool, we splashed about for ages, going in and out of the beautiful falls as the sun peeped through the clouds.  We took a sip of the water , but it had an earth taste so decided that we probably shouldn't drink any more.  After about half an hour we decided that it was propbably time to head back down.

The way down was much easier (it always is) but, some of the rocks and the mud was so slippy and as Jenna and I stubbed our filthy toes for about the 100th time we agreed that flipflops were certainly not the best idea when climbing mountains!  The further we got to the bottom ,the darker the sky got and it begun to fill with screeching bats! Apparently there were more than 25 species of bats at the waterfalls that we were at.  We spotted three main types in the trees, the most prevalant was the 'Large Flying Fox', which is not found anywhere else in the world, They really were huge!

24th June - San-jam and Kipot Twin Falls.

Today was a special festival here in the Philippines called "San-jam" (said Sanwan) Basically what it means is 'get wet' so of course there are people everywhere you look armed with buckets and bottles of water.  Most people tend to head to the water on this crazy day, so hundreds of people go to the rivers, lakes and the beach.  We decided that it would be a nice idea to go to some more waterfalls.  Again a huge group of us all got into the Jeepney and we all headed to Kipot.  The place was in the middle of nowhere and we managed to find a lovely little shelter thing in the forrest where we could eat our lunch.  It was like being in the rain forrest, the sun was shining but we were totally shaded by all the huge lush green trees and beautiful flowers. After our hot and sticky journey we were eager to get to the water, we all marched down the hundteds of steep steps to the water below.  Once we got to the bottom there was a huge clearing and we were pleased to see that we were the only ones there.  I looked to my left and saw the beautiful 'twin falls' gushing down the rock face, we all stripped off and made our way accross the slipery rocks to the main water pool.  The water was cool and clear and we spent hours splashing about and playing with Joshua and his two little friends in the water fall.  After a huge waterfight we then decided to head back for lunch.  The men made a little fire and we heated up some chicken Adobo and cooked some fresh fish and boiled some bananas for desert.  Once we were all full, we decided to work off our lunch by going back down to the waterfalls.  However this time there were lots of other people there and shortly it began to rain very heavily, so we decided that we should head home.  We trudged back to the Jeepney in the rain and made our way back to the house.  Despite the rain, the streets were lined with kids excited to throw water into our Jeep, it was hillarious, they were throwing buckets through the back door, Brian and Frederik got absoulutely drenched, despite them putting up and umbrella up to shelter them.  The whole way home we tried to speed past the armed Kids, but there was nothing we could do to prevent getting more drenced than we already were.  Tomorrow Jenna and I are going away to Sipalay (about 4 or 5 hours by bus) to stay on a beautiful beach, I can't wait, I will write again when we get back!

Bacolod - Philippines

19th June

I was awoken by the sound of cockerels at 5 am, but still managed to doze until about 10am.  We truly are spoilt here, they are always cleaning up after us and there is food and fresh juices constantly being made.  I wasn't even allowed to clear the table after dinner, it really is a different way of life.  We all boarded the Jeepney and took Joshua to school, the kids were amazed by the two white girls in the play ground, then Fatima took us shopping.  We went to a mall and then 'down town' to the markets, we were hassled a lot, but everyone seemed friendly and I felt safe being with a local.  Jenna and I both found ourselves another pair of shorts (for about 6 pounds) and we all enjoyed lasagna for lunch.  It rained heavily all day, but I know that I need to get used to this as we are going to be travelling through the rainy season for the next two months!  We all went out that evening for a few drinks.  We spent most of the evening in a bar called 'chicken Alley' that looked like a castle, where we could enjoy some live bands and watch the teams of 15 year old prostitutes strutting about outside.  We also found a Mexican bar to have another drink before heading home.  It was a good night and the company was great too.

20th June

We got an early wake-up from Jenna's cousin, Brian as he pounded on our door.  He had just got back from England, laden-ed with gifts for a very excited Joshua.  It was nice to meet the man of the house.  We went with him to take Joshua to school, Don't got me wrong we still got starred at , but it was nice to be walking with a big white male.  No men seemed to hassle us, and he seemed to get more attention than us, which was nice! It again rained all afternoon - so much for that tan that I have been dreaming of!

We went back to their house and went along with him while he visited a few friends, giving them their much appreciated gifts from England.  We then went back and all relaxed with a couple of beers while he told us about what had been happening in England over the pat ten months.  It is so strange to think that I am missing it all.

21st June - Negros Museum

We were up with the cockerels this morning at 4.30 in order to join Fatima at her aerobics class.  We had to catch too Jeepneys to get there and when we arrived at the park there were loads of people there, men, women, old and young.&