May 2007

I arrived home and spent the weekend catching up with family and friends. Sunday morning I went to watch Becky and Lizzy run at Kelmarsh hall in the daffodil run. They both did fantastic, Bec coming 4th woman in the 10k and Hannah was fantastic in the 15 miles completing it in 2hours 20 minutes, so proud of my friends, I feel like I must get fit!
I spent most of the week rushing around getting things sorted. Spent time with Fliss for her birthday. Prepared my lesson for my interview, I got the job and will be teaching at the John Cleveland College in Hinckley from 2nd July. Had to take a photo of Long Buckby's beautiful sunset while I was doing my work. Popped into Guilsborough to say hello to everyone, was really nice to see people and some (not all) of the kids! It was a successful visit as I'm now going to be doing 2 days a week supply until I start at JCC. I planned to spend Thursday sorting myself out and getting my room into some kind of order, but I had a phone call at 7:30am and I was in Daventry doing some supply by 8:15am. No sorting for me! I then did supply on Friday at Guilsborough, so still no sorting done!
Yesterday I spent the day car shopping. It was pretty stressful as loan companies were messing me around and I couldn't decide what car I actually wanted. By 5pm I was signing on the dotted line....I bought a new Seat Ibiza. I'm now even poorer! I think I did ok though, got a good deal, I had my car geek with me....thanks Alex!
So, continued rushing around as had to get ready for the big girls night out. Nice to see everyone and catch up, although I need to see people more often as once or twice a year isn't enough. Photos are below. Think the blog really does have to come to an end now, but you never know, I might be back with more after Bec's hen do to Spain...another country to add to the blog!

Ronald In Australia

Bali

Singapore

Koh Samui

Chiang Mai

Ronald seemed to have the same pose in a lot of places which was disappointing, but I wouldn't want to over do it anyway.

There's a few things that happened while I was away that I didn't blog at the time as I didn't want people to start worrying about me. The first week was the worst of all in Rio, I was with 3 American girls walking to get a tram to Santa Teresa when a guy came up and grabbed Leah's head and whipped her bag. To cut a pretty long story short, after 4 police vans arrived and about 30 police officers with massive guns, they caught the guy and Leah ended up getting her bag back. It was pretty scary though, especially in the first week of my trip. The guy is picture below and would get 5 years for taking the bag.
I heard lots of stories in Rio in my hostel, people having bags and cameras taken. When I arrived in Copacabana about 10 days into the trip to meet my Gap tour group. The guy that was supposed to be leading the tour had been mugged and beaten into a coma. He'd been in a coma for 2 days, the ripped off all his jewellery, including earings...he looked a state. So, he didn't run our tour someone else had to be flown out to do it. When I met my group, one of the girls had had her camera taken out of her hand on the beach.
We went to iguassu and the second night I was there there was a drive by shooting outside our hotel. Luckily we weren't there, on a night out at the time, but walking by in the morning was horrible as there was still a pool of blood, thank god the body had been removed! Two of the girls in my tour group had walked by that spot about 5 minutes before the guy got shot. Lucky...although apparently it was all to do with drugs. We were staying on the border, bit of a dodgy area really.
In Chile, we arrived at a hotel and all went out for dinner as a group. While we were out two girls in my group had their room broken into and had passports and money etc taken. At this point I was thinking someone must be on my side as quite a lot had happened so close to me, but fortunately it hadn't happened directly to me. That was South America and since then I heard no bad stories and nothing bad happened.
I did a couple of silly things. I bought a purse and thought I'd seperate my cash cards out so put my natwest card in the new purse in a different part of my bag. A week or so later I had a panic and couldn't find my card. Emptied the whole of my bag (annoying), to remember that I sent a parcel of stuff home. In the parcel was the new purse that I didn't want to use until I got home!...Silly girl, I was then one cash card down. I managed to refrain from losing another until about 2 weeks before I came home. We flew from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and then I got some cash out. When we arrived at the hotel my card wasn't in my purse, I must have left it in the machine or dropped it. So, from then on the only cards I had was Ian (by transferring money to him) and my credit card. Lucky it was so late on in the trip.
I managed to lose a few items of clothing while I was away, left a jacket at the skydive centre. I was looking back at some photos the other day and thought what a nice blue vest I was wearing in Rio, didn't remember having it, or that I'd even lost it until I got home and looked at the photo!! I obviously had far too many clothes to miss it. I came back with less clothes than I took.

We left our hotel at 6am, unfortunately we couldn't fit in my favourite mode of transport so got a taxi to the airport.
We arrived in Hong Kong about 1:30pm and got a taxi into the city which was a bit naughty as it cost lots of money!...but with the amount of stuff I have I was about to tackle the public bus service after bruising my arm with my bag on the last public airport bus I got on! Arriving at our hotel was a bit strange, walking into a shopping centre. We squashed into the lift and I almost winded some poor man with my huge rucksack! We made it up to floor 3 where we were shouted at by some man, I was pretty scared and nowhere even mentioned the 'Oriental Pearl Hotel'. Anyway, the guy had us on his list. He went around the corner and I went to follow him as I thought he was showing us to our room, but he turned around and shouted at me and told me to wait. If it wasn't for the fact that we'd booked in and paid I would have walked out. So, it took us to a room...realised it wasn't clean, had a shouting match with his wife which wasn't nice and then he finally found us a room. Thankfully he apologised for shouting, customer service! We got into our room which you can't even swing a cat in, it's like a cabin, but it's fine for what we need it for.
We went out and explored, had a sit in the park for a while and in the evening we went to the famous temple street market. It was full of tack, nothing like the nice stuff that you get at Thai markets. We had something to eat, Ian ordered chinese sausage and rice, which was just as nasty as it sounds and my meal wasn't much better either!
Hong Kong is a huge city and made for people who want to shop, just like Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Sydney. So, what more than to spend the day shopping! I phoned Dad for my credit card pin and the picture below is what I viewed when I called. Well, spent a couple of hours looking around the shopping mall, but soon got fed up as I can't afford Armani, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Cartier, Burberry and every other expensive designer that you can think of! Ian and I sat on some steps to eat a doughnut outside the shopping centre and got told to stand up and move on! We went and sat in Kowloon Park, Kowloon is where we are staying rather than Hong Kong Island. We sat in the sun and read our books, but in Hong Kong you are not allowed to sit on the grass in the park! We sat on a conrete bench by a fountain in the park and I decided to lay down as my back was hurting, a security man came and asked me to sit up. I couldn't believe it, this place is pathetic! We went to a different market in the evening, the Ladies Market in Mong Kok, full of tack again and treated ourselves to a meal at pizza express...why not, nearly time to come home and earn money again!
Wednesday we got up late again, becoming a common occurance now. We went to the nice sandwich place in the mall next door and then headed down the road and caught the ferry over to Hong Kong Island. We wondered by statue square which was very unexciting and then made our way to the peak tram station. We got on the tram up to the peak. The tram was very steep in parts and as we went up the views were amazing, and even more spectacular when we got to the top viewing point. The only bad thing is that Hong Kong has a haze over it all the time, so the photos aren't great. Deciding that we'd stay at the top until dark so we could get some night shots we hung around, looked around the shopping centre, sat and had a drink and read our books. We were sat on a bench and I needed a back rest so Ian told me to lay down....yes, you guessed it I got told off again!! Before we knew it the clouds were coming in and by the time dusk came you could hardly see any of the buildings below, so again the photos weren't great. We got the tram back down, that was after having a panic as I couldn't find my ticket and then having to play teacher to all the Japanese people that were fighting like school children to get on the tram. They are so bloody impatient! I was so annoyed by the time we got on the tram, I had to calm myself down a bit! We walked back to get the ferry and then managed to catch the light show on the buildings on the way back over, little gutted that my camera ran out of battery! It was pretty late by the time we got back to the hotel, so we just had a much needed quiet night.
Yesterday we got up late yet again and went to our usual delicatessen to get our panini, we then went to the park and went to the swimming pool. We spent the afternoon there. After we'd got showered back in the room we went out, I bought another pair of shoes, actually lost count of how many I have in my bag now...but Hong Kong is for shopping. Mum, you can feel happy that I've found plenty of things to buy!! We then went down to the harbour front and watched the light show that they put on each evening at 8pm. It was pretty cool. We went for some food and then for a drink, can't believe it was our last night!
We've checked out of the room and now I am updating my blog..as if you didn't know! We've got a long wait today as our plane doesn't take off until 11:35pm, 4:35pm UK time. Wishful thinking that we might actually get upgraded and have a lovely flight home, but i doubt it. 13hours in BA economy, not looking forward to that! Well, this is my last blog, for now anyway, I'm actually going to miss logging on and telling people what I'm doing with my life! I might have to blog my trip to Spain in 11 days time for Bec's hen do, can't wait!
I hope to see you all very soon, land at 5:30am at Heathrow so it would be nice to see you!!....Mum, Dad and Helen xxxx

Well, after the terrible journey from Cambodia, Koh Chang was the place for us to stop and relax for 5 days and get some sun before leaving Thailand. The rain decided that we would be doing that!
Basically the time in Koh Chang was spent, sleeping, cloud bathing, reading, using the internet and having a few drinks with by the beach in the evening. We met a few people on our journey from hell and stayed up chatting to them a few nights.
We had a nice hut by the beach, it was just a shame that nearly everyday we woke up to the rain and went to bed in the rain. Most days we managed to get an hour or so on the beach, but would watch the sheet of rain some in from the sea and run....most of the time we made it under shelter before we got soaked through!
There wasn't a lot to do on Lonely beach....was very lonely, so we did get a little bored with not being able to sun ourselves.
On Thursday we did role play and Ian was interviewing me for my interview I had on Friday. I spent Friday morning preparing for the interview, it paid off as I got the job!
We left early Saturday morning for our last journey on a bus in Thailand. Everything went smoothly, you'd never believe it. It took 10 hours from door to door, but this was arriving early. So the last journey was the best!
So, we're back in Bangkok. Did a bit more shopping last night and had a drink in the local petrol station (honestly). During the day it's a petrol station and then it's a pretty cool bar in the evening. This morning we went to the Grand Palace, although we were too tight to pay the entrance fee to see even more temples! The weather's still rubbish so we're just hanging around now. Going out tonight to meet the people we met on the journey from hell and then we leave at 6am in the morning for Hong Kong.

We got up early yet again and set off in the pouring rain to get our bus. We walked to the hop where we booked it, we were told we'd be picked up from there. A guy turned up late, on foot and we had to walk in the rain to the bus...my bag's to heavy for walking!! Finally we got on the bus and then it took 45mins to actually move anywhere and it was nearly 2 hours after that we made it out of the city. It took ages to get to the border and when we got there we were dropped off at a restaurant for an hour, ripped off for our visa and had to buy the food as that was all that was around. Not only that we were told there was no cash machines in Siem Reap, so ten we got ripped off big style for changing some money! Anyway, after getting off the bus we trudged through the border. It was hectic and busy and there were lots of people and children begging, it was quite sad. As soon as we got through customs straight away you could see the poverty all around. Cambodia is a lot different to Thailand. The border was crazy, people charging around with huge wooden carts, ad loads of people on motorbikes and push bikes. We had to wait and then get on a bus, which dropped us about 2 minutes away. We then got on another bus to take us to Siem Reap. The bus was small and there was no space for the luggage. They piled seats with bags and then we piled in, it was very hot and sweaty. We were told it would take 4 hours to get there. The road was just mud and extremely bumpy, it was going to be a long four hours. After stopping after 4, we soon realised the 4 hours was going to be longer. After sweating and looking out of the window at the poverty, people sitting in candle light in their wooden huts we arrive to 5* Angkor hotels on the outskirts of Siem Reap. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be staying in one this time! A guy had travelled all the way to the border and back with us, caught up in another scam we ended up staying at his guesthouse as we finally arrived at 10:30pm and weren't about to go out in search of somewhere. We stayed one night and left in the morning.
We got to a much nicer guesthouse, in the town centre and then spent the day having a look around Siem Reap, which is a really nice city. Parts of it have a real European feel...apart from the many children walking around trying to see you things, or one little boy collecting cans and plastic bottles. He was so cute, got 3 cans out of me, empty of course! The fashion in Siem Reap is pyjamas for the girls and spider man caps for the boys. People actually walk around all day and night in Pj's!
The evening was nice, I sampled the local Cambodian fish curry which was lovely. Had a couple of Caprina cocktails which brought back memories of Brazil.
Saturday we got up early and got in a tuk tuk (different than that of Thailand, is like a horse and cart, only the horse is a motorbike!). We drove to the area of Angkor, first going to the Angkor Wat Temple. It was huge, with a massive moat and just amazing. The expanse of it was incredible, kind of lost for words trying to describe it. We spent a couple of hours looking around the temple and got bugged by people to buy stuff. We got back in the awaiting carriage and went to Bayon temple. This temple was just as amazing, loads of huge faces calved out of stone. Think this was my favourite. We then went around a few more temples and the Angkor agricultural site to, Elephant temple, Lepard King and also to Kleang. After our lunch we went to Preah Khan and Ta Keo. All of which were superb and i especially liked Prhom which was in Preah Khan with trees growing through and around the stone. It was a long day as we left at 8am and we walked a long way as well as having our own driver! We had an easy night, although I did stay up until about 1:30am to watch Villa win!
Yesterday we got up early again and got a van to our bus on the other side of Siem Reap. We were told it would take about 5 hours to the border and in total 12 hours to get to Koh Chang in Thailand. It took 7 long muddy hours to get to the border, the road was terrible and as it had been raining (again) the road was thick mud. I felt so sorry for the people as their motorbikes were stuck and they had to wade through thick mud for miles, pushing bikes piled with stuff. Even the 4x4's weren't doing very well...might be because they have about 30 people in the back of them! They like to fill cars, vans, buses and trucks to the brim with people. Our bus was full, no seats spare...but no luggage space. It was under seats, on top of people and piled high in the isles...not to safe. After looking out the window for 7 hours looking at the strange way of life and pigs, skinny cows, chickens in the road we finally got back to the border. We got dropped off, got on another bus to the border, and then had to walk across. No easy process, it took 2 hours! We didn't get into Thailand until 5:30pm. Luckily our mini bus to Koh Chang hadn't gone anywhere! Although we would never do a 4 hour journey in half an hour to get the ferry to Koh Chang! So, we were stuck on the mainland for the night. 11 of us in another min van, Ian and I sat on the very hot engine and we were taken to a hotel near the ferry port for the night. (Was this a set up too!!??) We stayed in the hotel and managed to kill about 30 mozzies before giving up and going to bed! The good news we managed not to get bitten, the bad news Ian is poorly and was up in the night being sick. It must have been the noodles he had for lunch yesterday as that's all we had on the horrific journey.
So, we got up this morning, back in another van to take us to the ferry. Got taken to another restaurant and waited there for an hour, then another van to the port, waited there, a boat to Koh Chang and then another van on Koh Chang. So we were supposed to get here last night and we arrived about 11:30am today. Ian isn't very well and I had to go around looking for somewhere to stay. The 1st place had no nice rooms, I walked up the beach everything was huts falling apart with no bathrooms. Got back to the Nature Village where Ian was with the bags and then a room became available. Thank the lord! We got into the room about 1pm, now Ian is trying to get better. Well, I have to say the last 30 or so hours have not been the best and I've lost my patience several times. Now we're here, it's been raining and isn't looking any better. Don't think I'm moving again for a few days!!

We got up early yet again and made our way to the airport in Chiang Mai, got our flight, paid more again for the luggage and arrived in Bangkok about 9:30am. It was throwing it down so we thought we might go to Cambodia, but there wasn't a bus early enough. I managed to bruise my arm dropping my bag as it's near on 30kg now! Too heavy! We made our way into Bangkok in a taxi and then went out for the afternoon. We walked down the famous Koh San Road, which isn't like I thought it would be. I imagined it to be far more lively than it is. We wondered down to the palace but couldn't get in as needed trousers on. By this time it was starting to rain again and I needed a wee! (Just for you Lizzy, I know you like the details!) So, we'd refuse the con tuk tuk, but then ended up getting in one anyway. They entise you in and then take you to shops to try and get you to buy stuff. Anyway, for 15p I got to go to the loo, 4 temples and yes, a few shops...but we didn't buy anything, hence why we think the man just ditched us at a temple! Anyway, after a long wet walk, getting lost and getting into another tuk tuk we got back to the hotel!!
In the evening we went back along the Ko san Road, still wasn't particularly busy and then we stayed up to watch the football. We got talking to a guy from Kenya, he was teaching English in angkok, really interesting talking to him. I ended up going to bed about 4am ish before the extra time of the football started. Ian arrived in on his birthday at 7:30am.
As you can imagine ian didn't want to get up on his brithday, he was rough and it was about 1pm before we got out of the room. We got a taxi to the Siam shopping centre which took ages as the traffic in Bangkok is rediculous. I got Ian a present, I had already bought him a market tshirt! I carried a cake and candles with me as I thought we could have a nice lunch, but Ian was too ill to eat! We came back in a tuk tuk and then went out for dinner, i gave Ian his cake then. We then had to sort our stuff out for the move to Siem Reap, Cambodia.