Step 5: Back in Thailande (from 31^st to 2^nd january)

We spent few time at Chatuchak market for Christmas presents. By night it was new year eve. We spent it with a French couple, Elodie and Baptiste, met sooner in day. While bombs were bursting we were at the Bayoke Tower (the tallest building in Thailand) eating a great buffet and admiring the view... By midnight we went to an outdoor bar to kiss at midnight. At that time we weren’t sure bombs have burst. A bit after midnight they kindly asked customers to leave. Security reasons: to close all bars and pubs: 2 more bombs have burst at 12 in a night club...it was pretty freaky!

Matthieu left the next day and me I spent almost 2 more days there...walking around, visting. I left the 2^nd at 11pm to France...I was sad cause it was the end of my trip, but I knew I did the most difficult 1 month ago: to leave all my friends overthere and to know that I will never see everyone together again. I am sure now that I want to do a worldwide once in my life...Baptiste and Elodie are doing one right now for 8 months and I want to do that. 1 month it’s already great and I know I did a lot these past few months and I discovered I like traveling!!!!

Next destination...????

Step 4. Vietnam (from 18^th to 30^th )

Vietnam is composed by 80 millions of people for 330 000km² (Laos is 15 times less populated for 230 000km²). Although we are in Asia and they speak vietnamese they are using the same alphabet than us (more or less, but compare to the other languages overthere!). Hanoi is the capitale with less than 4 millions people and 2.5 millions of motorcycle (that’s why traffic there is packed!!!!). As a former French colony you can find some baguettes as well and also some specialties like dog meat...

It was my turn to be sick...so we didn’t do a lot the 1^st day. Afterwards we hung around the old quarter. I loved it...I love Hanoi. It’s a beautiful city, very crowed, polluted, messy and it is dangerous to cross streets but streets are so nice, and even if people jump on you to sell something they stay nice even if you don’t buy anything, architecture is nice, I don’t know I just felt good there. It’s funny because all shops in a street sell the same things, so you can find the “shoes street”,”souvenirs street”, “repair motorcycle street”, “gravestones street”...

We decided to do a 3 days trip to Halong bay (we thought it should be THE tremendous place while our trip). So we spent days around a beatutiful limestone landscape, did some kayak, did a small trek on Cat Ba Island (the biggest Island), sleept on a boat, sailed between rocks...I loved it too. Awesome!

Back to Hanoi we took a plane to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). We spent 2 days in HCMC and I really don’t like it. It is not as nice as Hanoi but as polluted and crowed as it is.

We were there for Christmas Eve and it is funny to see how they celebrate a such important fest in Europe. For us, it is not a Family thing...everyone is in the street, throwing away shaving cream and other stuffs, children are dressed up in Santa Claus, angel or even elk. It was quite –very- difficult to be far away of my family but I appreciate to see something else as well.

We decided not to go in Cambodia, because doing so many things in such few time is quite tiring, and you can never stay in a place and really enjoy it. Instead we wanted to spend more days in Vietnam as we liked it and then took a plan to Bangkok and spent our last days at Ko Phi Phi...I was very keen on this idea, but flight ticket was freaking expensive (194 US$ for one way!!!), so.....we forgot this plan and decided to take the open bus from HCMC to go back to Hanoi (NO???and yes!!!!we did that!!!) as it allowed us to still visit Vietnam by stoping where we wanted and flight tickets from Hanoi to Bangkok were half the price.

So we did a lot of bus travel, by night, by day (more than 30 h).

We stopped 2 days at Nha Trang, an attractive coastal town. We had a lot of fun there: we rent a motorcycle and I drove it ( just for remind: I don’t have my driving license :-) ), and of course we had an accident while I drove:someone tried to overdrive inner me at a roundabout (??? Do you understand what I mean?? Anyway just to say I wasn’t the only responsable:-) ). Fortunatly I am not a crazy driver and I didn’t drive fast (that’s why maybe the guy tried to overdrive me!!!)...Oh btw I didn’t tell you...the guy who tried to overdrive me was on bicycle (Yes, he was!!!shame on me :-( ). Anyway, we also did island hopping, snorkeling (Matthieu tried but he was quite stressed), sunbathing:nice

Afterwards we went to Hoi An for 2 days, a great city, small less traffic I loved it as well. This place is also the place for tailored suit and we did it, one each. The first day they took your mesuration and the next day you come for a try and they make changes...So fast and so well it’s incredible.

Finaly we reached Hanoi and took a plane to Bangkok...we needed times to order our luggages: it was almost end of the trip, so we had a lot of Christmas gifts.

Step 3: Laos (from 11^th to 17^th)

About Laos. Laos is composed by 5.3 millions of people and 85%of them live in rural area. It was merely shelled during Vietnam war (“Laos earned the unenviable distinction of being the most heavily-bombed place on earth” from BBC article.). As it was a –strong- communist government tourists weren’t allowed to go in before 90s. Nowadays, it is still a communist one but government understood the importance –the opportinuty- to open its border to foreign firms and foreign people...good for us.

In the morning we crossed the Mekong river and I saw a Laos town for the first time. I had many first impressions: slower life, people less “aggressive” with tourists, the road wasn’t tarmac and dusty...

From there we took the slow boat for 2 days (the slow boat not the speed boat as in the Lonely Planet they say it is “at your own risk” because tourist died) with a night stop at Pak Beng. Afterwards we arrived at Luang Pra Bang.

Luang Pra Bang is the 2^nd largest town in Laos, after Ventiane the capital. As it was the former capital, it is filled with a fascinating array of magnificent temples, historic monuments and crumbling French colonial houses.

We stayed 4 days there, in order to ride a bike around streets, to see the beautiful Kuang Si waterfall and to swim there, to visit temples and musuem. We saw tremendous sceneries. We also spent 1 day in a cooking class in a restaurant to learnt Laos food....it was awesome. Saddly Matthieu was ill 1 of these days. We wanted to try local food, so we ate at the night market but one night he tried something he didn’t digest (=tourista).

We finally left by night bus to Ventiane (210km for 8h :-), VIP bus with aircon=windows that you can open, hole in the ground). We arrived at 6am at Ventiane and at this time NOTHING is open!!! So we waited to go in a restaurant, took a breakfast and slept on a chair. I didn’t like Ventiane. I didn’t find it nice, beautiful or interesting....I was quite excited by the fact that we would take the plane to Vietnam!!!

I really appreciated to travel in Laos after traveling in Asia because as french colonized it there are still some french stuffs: good baguette, vache qui rit, local talking french.

Step 2 : Thailande (from december 5^th to 10^th)

Thailande is very touristy country. It is composed by more than 62 millions of people for around 510 000km² (552 000km² and 60 millions of people for France). In Thailande you can find everything: big cities, amazing beach and great mountains scenery. Bangkok is the capitale and due to a fast expansion it is not a very nice city: too much polluted, not easy to go from place to another, from the point of view of architecture there is no harmonization...I mean i’m not a great fan of Bangkok.
We left Singapore December the 5^th by plane to Bangkok. There I planned to leave luggages to a friend because I didn’t (and I couldn’t travel with all I gathered in 4 months in Singapore) but it didn’t match, so I left everything at the train station ( I was pretty worried about that I have to say!!).

We took a night train-see picture on the left-(the most confortable I have ever seen, but slow:14h for 700km) to go to Chiang Mai (the 2^nd largest city). We stayed there 1 days and did a 3 days trekk around with walking, elephant riding, rafting driving and sleeping in spartiate dorm in small village, eating wild pork and rice cooked in a bambou. It was very nice, and it was my first experience of living in a place where there was no electricity so activity by night is not very thorough :-)

After Thailande we planned to go to Laos. Air ticket was quite expensive, so we chose to go there by boat. But first, we did a 1 day drive to Chiang Khong, the Thai/Laos border and slept there. Doing travel by day is quite interesting as you can admire scenery and it is exactly what we did. North of Thailande is very mountainous and it's beautiful.

Step 1: Singapore (December, 4^th )

Good by !

My last exam was December the 4th, and I picked up Matthieu at the airport right afterwards. For my last night in Singapore we first went to the famous Lau Pa Sat food court, and then with some we went back and ate French products directly imported from France: wine, duck paté, french salami, cheese, chocolates...and Paj brought Australian wine.

It was a great great night and thank you all for coming...I was quite upset to leave everyone but I was also very happy you can discover French stuffs and you enjoyed it (especially Paj and Steph with the duck paté).

Here are some pictures of this night (cheesy or pathetic?)

ONE DREAMING MONTH


Mission: Take maximum profit of culture, landscape, people, food ... be aware of unpredicted events/delay ... don’t spend to much money... be careful of not being sick...enjoy it!

What: 1 month travel (from december 4th to january 2nd) with my bagpack (left)

Where: around some of the SEA countries (see map above: what we plan to do)

When: mainly in December 06

How: bus, tuk-tuk, plane, motorbicycle, boat...whatever

Who: Matthieu and me

FILIPINO FILIPINO (babo babo bab babo babo bab babo babo ba)

At the end of the semester, in order to not screw up your exam, you have one week to revise, and then you have 2 weeks of examination. As my all my exam was at the end and in a row, I had to week to revise which was more than enough…so I decided to travel to Philippines with some other friends from November 18^th to the 22^nd included:6 days (what a short trip, isn’t it Stephanie?)

Philippines officially the Republic of the Philippines is an island nation located in the Malay Archipelago in Southeast Asia, with Manila as its capital. It comprises 7,107 islands and it is huge!!!!

The Philippines is the fifth-largest Christian nation (after the United States, Brazil, Mexico, and Russia): about 85% of all Filipinos are Christians.

My team:

This time women were merely represent: 5 girls for 1 boy (luckily or sadly for him ). It was my first travel with them but Aanchal. Asma and Carly from Canada, Mat from USA, Michealla from Germany, and Aanchal still from HK. It was a great team and I had a lot of fun!!!

We landed in Manila and we spent our 1^st day walking in it (and lost around of course), visiting intra muros (the old quarter), attending at a philippino wedding (gross I know), walking around, making a short ride with a horse (5of them + 2of the guide…poor horse).

Finally by night we planned to take the bus to Banaue, (up to the North), but even with a map, many people looking at it, and asking thousand of people we found the bus terminal too late and missed our bus…but find another one.

We slept in the too much cold aircon

and we arrived at a small town where we had to get out in order to take a jepney to Banaue. We got in because the sign on it said it went to Banaue, but when we asked the driver he answered: “ I don’t know. We’ll see”. So we were pretty afraid not going where we wanted to. Sometimes he took off the sign and put it back few seconds afterwards…we never understood why!!
We finaly arrived at Banaue at the beginning of the morning, rented a Jepney for the 6 of us and went to the rice terrace.

Banaue has famous rice field. They were built 2000 years ago, in the middle of mountains and people did that bare hand. As it wasn’t the harvest time fields weren't green but even considering that what we saw was impressive and huge!!!We walked down and up the mountains but although on the edge of rice paddy.Of course Aanchal lost her balance and put her foot in the wet paddy :-)…

By evening we took the bus the way around…yes, we did 10 hours get there in the morning and 10 hours again to get back, in the same day: we really wanted to see that, but it definitely worth it!

Once arrived in Manila we found another bus with the aim of going to the beach. After the bus and boat we arrived in magic place: Tamaraw beach. There, there were the 6 of us and another couple, that’s all. By night we usually went on the beach close which was more crowded…of ladyboy or shemale whatever you call them…funny!! Otherwise we spent 3 days sunbathing, snorkeling, visiting, and having massage: pure laziness.

We finaly got back to manila by evening and with Micheala we went out with some random Philipino guys we met. We danced all night long before going around Manila for the last day and got back by plane to Singapore (and directly do the nightclub hopping: ladies night!).

6 days was quite short and were in a rush, but we did a lot…I want to go back there again, we missed so many things…

Philippines is a beautiful country and local are very nice…but I have never seen so much poverty than in Manila: children are everywhere, alone, in the street, ask for something, ghettos, entire family living outside…but local people told us not to give money otherwise they will keep living in the street and they will not try to find another way to leave….but it’s hard not to feel guilty and not to give them something.

Mac GYVER is Singaporean!

I have already told you that Singaporians study hard, a lot a lot! Anytime you go in a study room there is someone, and recently opening and closing time of library were extented to revise our exams.
Anyway, the rumor has it the workload is the highest in the School of Architecture. Some people live there many days without going back home! You will say 'it's not possible? how do they sleep?' Easy...under tables, with ruban (the one you use for Xmas), they wrap it between table feets: your bed is ready. They work and when they are tired, hop hop hop they gonna sleep under the table! Crazyyyyy:-)

BALI – LOMBOK

2 weeks ago there was a huge celebration for the end of Ramadhan, which means day off, no school, holiday, viva vacancia…anyway, this day was a Tuesday, fortunately for me day which I have all my compulsory tutorial. So I decided to take profit of this situation and go away from Singapore: Indonesia I’m coming!!!!

The republic of Indonesia is a nation of islands consisting of 18,110 making it the world's largest archipelagic state.
With a population of roughly 220 million, it is the world's fourth most populous country and the most populousMuslim-majority nation (around 85% of the population is Muslim): Bali is mainly Hindu but Lombok is mainly Muslim!

My team:
As I skipped 1 week class nobody could do that :-( I went with Didi, a Dutch guy, for couple of days but then he had to leave :-(, I finished my trip alone.
I Flew from Singapore and arrived Wednesday night the 18^th, and slept at Kuta

October, 19^th

Morning KUTA
Hanging in main streets and beach of Kuta. Kuta is big tourist place in Bali. A lot of people are not going further than it (dixit lonely planet). You can find beaches, with waves if you want to surf, an attractive nightlife.
It’s here than in 2002 and 2005 took place attempts…and you can easily the place:they didn’t construct anything else there and built a simple monument with names of people who died: impressive.

Afternoon: flew to Lombok, with a local low cost. I wasn’t very confident in this company…if Didi would have not been with me I would have never flown, I was too scared! When you check in your luggage, they ask you to weight you with your handbag, it means you go on the weight normally dedicated to luggages. Then it was the smallest plane I have ever taken: 18 seats. No stewards of course, the captain explain the safety procedure. But everything was alright.

Anyway we arrived early in the afternoon, so we decided to rent a mob: Didi was the driver and me, as usual, the passenger. It was the first time for Didi, and Indonesian’s circulation is approximately as bad as in Malaysia maybe worse. They don’t care about the white line, for them it’s like a third way. You have to stick on one rule if you want to survive on the road: the bigger is always winning! So when you hear a honk from a bus or whatever, it doesn’t mean it wants to overdrive you and you have to go on the side. It means it is overdriving you so be aware of your ass!!! But Didi did well!!

We went to Sukarara. On the way, 2 policemen arrested us, because we stopped at the red light (I swear it’s true!!). In fact, when you want to turn you don’t have to stop whatever the color of the light. They wanted us to pay 100 000 Rupiah (10€) for that otherwise they kept the Didi’s driving license: it was clearly corruption. After at least 15 minutes of negotiation, they let us go without paying anything. In Indonesia you can bargain everything, even corruption!

picture: market on the way to sukarara.
It was the first time i saw pink, yellow, blue, purple and green chicks :-). They color them, because children are more attracted by them.

Sukarara is small village where very few tourists are going. We had to buy some gas and the seller, Sam, was very nice with us. He shown us women who were weaving sarong (traditional tissue used as a dress for official ceremony) and he invited us to his house to eat, drink and presented his family. His wife weaved as well, so they wanted us to try them: so we did J

They were so very friendly and so curious about us.

In Lombok a girl cannot get married if she doesn’t know weaving. So, from 9 girls learn to weave. To do a sarong they need one month which one week is used only to build the pattern. Girls get married between 13 and 20 years old (and 20 years is quite old) because “girls are easy growing here” said Sam. We left this place, non without buying a sarong for each of them J

October, 20^th

Woke up at 4am and picked up at 5am. Direction Rinjani Volcano. We booked for a 3 days trekking: the main attraction of our trip. This Volcano is 2^nd highest volcano in Indonesia, 3700m, and it is still in activity (last eruption in 2004).
8am we started from Sembalun, with a guide, two porters, Didi and me.

Each of the porters carried 25 kg at the beginning (food, cook’s utensils, tents…). They always wore the same clothe whatever the weather (hot, cold, wet…), and they climbed it wit h flip flop!!! Even with that these disadvantages they did it pretty fast, almost as fast as us!
They pamper you. Even if they arrive after you, they take care of everything: tent, fire, cooking…and you just take a nap coze as a lazy tourist you are tired ( I did it!). They are doing that once a week during the dry season, and once a month during the wet season.

We arrived at 4am at the base camp 2700m, took a nap, took pictures…and sleep early for the next difficult day.
On the right: picture from the base camp. After going to the summit you go down to the lake, and then go up to the rim on the other side

October, 21^st

Woke up at 2.30am to start climb at 3am. Didi learnt a bad news: he had to leave right after going to the top (as his plane from Lombok was cancelled).
The goal: to see the sunrise from the top 3700. It takes normally 3 hours to climb it, but I was very slow in the last part. As it was so sandy, I had to crawl!!! 1 hour!!! Everytime I did a step I slid. Anyway, we missed the sunrise :-(, but it wasn’t such a bad thing as it wasn’t so cold and we saw the island very well.
(on the left: the sun is rising, and we are not yet at the top...nonononononono!wait for us sun!!!).
Lombok was made by theses volcanos, it’s not a huge island, and from there we saw the entire island, and even the other volcano in Bali: nice weather!

We went back to the base camp for a huge breakfast, and with the guide we left quickly afterwards. He told me “we still have 8 hours to walk: it’s a big day today”…Didi!! I want to go back with you J
Didi went back and I kept going alone!
From the base camp, we went to the lake, down, down very down (especially when you know you have to climb it again!!). Ate there, took a shower in a (real) hotspring and climbed up the other side and went down to another base camp. I was pretty tired when we arrived (I’m wondering why!).

Here is panorama from Rinjiani I tried to do...

October, 22^nd

Last day …it was only descent to Senaru, it was better because I had muscle pain. Senaru is a beautiful village.

Afterwards, I went to the harbor to take a boat from here to Padangbai in Bali. Boat is slower than plane…but cheaper and anyway, I wasn’t able to do anything else today. I was just dreaming about a shower, a real shower.

The ferry trip was quite funny. They are not used to see foreign people, especially white people. I think everyone on the boat came just to see me, some talked to me, asked me questions, and some people even wanted to take picture with me :-) . In the beginning I wasn’t feeling safe because they were looking at me, a lot, and you never know why (I did something wrong…), but it was only because they were curious. This time I was the attraction :-) .

I was lucky because there was a Balinese dance festival at Padangbai. So, I enjoyed and discovered a bit of Balinese culture.

October, 23^rd

I spent my morning walking in Padangbai, which is a nice place not very crowed. (on the left:fisherman boat)

I Took a mini bus from there to Kuta. In the Bus, I met Yet and Catherine from Netherland (again!). We rested a bit in the afternoon and decided to go to Pura Tanah Lot (temple in the middle of the sea) to see the sunset. But, surprise, it was the end of the Ramadhan and there a special ceremony so there was a lot of people. Moreover, the tide was low…it was even beautiful, but less than it could have been.

October, 24^th

I met Adi (Chinese from Jakarta) the day before, and we planned to drive a bit around Bali. We went to Ubud. In the LP (my bible!!), they said it’s still preserved from tourists…bah bah bah!!not at all. From Kuta to Ubud (2 hours), there are shops all the side long, ok it’s handicraft, but even. The place is beautiful: Temple, monkey forest, and rice fields.

We were going to Bedugul (place close to a lake, at the feet of Gunung Catur, another Volcano) when the engine decided to break!! So we had to take a cab and go back to change of car. Finally it was to late to go there, so we just went to Sanur, nice place a bit touristy.
At night I went out with some backpackers I met at my guesthouse.

October, 25^th

I spend my morning just lying on the beach and at the swimming pool. Then I flew back early in the afternoon to Singapore…finish, back to school! And I was in a rush…of course, when you left for one week! But it worthed it!!!

SIPADAN'S DIVING PICTURES


Someone who dived with us in Sipandan (borneo, previous post) took some pictures from underwater world, i have just fews :-(

You can recognize 2 white reff sharks, a trigger leopard (??), and the fish from 'finding nemo", the one who lives in the aquarium, and a big turtle (i hope you will find who is who) !!!!

There were so many things, and beautiful color...i wish i will convince people to have their dive certificate.

NEVER ENOUGH...

here, it is early in the morning...exactly 6am, i am in a study room in Singapore and i am studying! I'm leaving tomorrow to Bali for one week...so i'm quite in a rush to finish project,assignment, tutotials! In a way i am working very late because i don't have the choice...but i am not the only one here!!!(and that, it's crazy!!!)

anyway...i was hungry, i decided to order mac donald: It delivers 24h a day, 7 days a week...you call it and it delivers on campus (a kind of dominos :-) ). that's so cool

I wanted to share with you one of their speciality: the Mc Fan-tas-tic!!what is it?? as it's not enough to eat rice for breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts...As you understand, rice is quite important in your everyday meal. So Mcdo have created the 'riceburger'!!i'm not kidding...it looks like an hamburger but you find a sticky oily rice instead of bread. For sure i have to try!

good night and good appetit!