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thetravellingredhead · 8 years ago

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Cambodia

Yet another absolutely stunning country, holy frigging crap. My time spent in Cambodia was a little different than the others so far because I spent a good chunk of my time here volunteering, which was absolutely amazing (I’ll talk for ages about it below don’t you fret) but the trade off with that was that I didn’t have as much time to see this beautiful country. I did get to see the main highlights though and I am sure I will be back so there’s no reason to be upset on any account :)

NEW HOPE FOR CAMBODIAN CHILDREN

Words cannot describe what an absolutely phenomenal place this organization is. I spent 2 amazing weeks volunteering at New Hope for Cambodian Children. It is an orphanage/school complex about an hour outside of Phnom Penh for children who are suffering from HIV. The majority of them have already lost their parents to the disease, or were abandoned by family members who didn’t want them after finding out they were HIV+. All that aside they are honestly some of the most amazing children I have ever met. The first day I showed up the first thing I got was a giant hug and 3 high fives from the kids. The set up of this place is insane, they have everything. There is a giant playground area for the kids, classrooms on one side and a big auditorium where they have assemblies. There are cluster dorms for the kids where they all have “Nannys” who look after then when they aren’t in class. There is a medical centre with nurses and a doctor where they get their meds and go whenever they have any issues. There is a volunteer centre where volunteers stay while they’re there and there are houses for the teachers. It is such a great atmosphere and fun place, even though it’s so hot you literally spend your whole day sweating hahaha. When I was leaving Vietnam I decided that it would be good for me to be in one place for a couple weeks just so I could give my body a rest and a chance to actually heal up, so I thought volunteering would be perfect. I had always wanted to fit in volunteering at some point in my trip and I am so frigging lucky with the way things worked out. I honestly just found NHCC while googling different places, and holy hell am I glad I found it. I spent most of my days helping out the teachers in different classes. My first week I was in a grade 3 class, a frigging ADORABLE grade 2 class, and spent a little bit of time in a grade 5 class. My second week I spent the whole time in a different grade 2 class as one of the teachers is having some health issues and needed more help than the others. It was so great being able to meet so many of the kids and actually spend a decent amount of time with them. It is insane how far along some of them are in English or math, but they vary soooo much. I can’t imagine how much work the teachers put in to create these comprehensive lesson plans while accommodating language barriers and kids with completely different knowledge levels. It was also so nice being with children who were so keen to learn. They all had certain routines with the teachers, but one of the school wide ones was how they greeted and thanked teachers at the beginning and end of every class. It melted my heart (along with literally every other thing they did). When I wasn’t in class or helping out teachers I spent my time playing with the kids on the playground. After dinner every night all of the teachers and volunteers hangout with the kids until bedtime/the sun goes down. That was one of my favourite times of day. So many times I would just stand back and look around and appreciate what a beautiful place it is. Adults from all over the world and all of these beautiful children just playing and hanging out, watching a beautiful sunset over the Cambodian landscape. I’m a huge baby but writing this part of the post is honestly making me teary! On top of all of the wonderful children, the teachers and other volunteers I met are honestly some of the best people I’ve had the privilege to meet. The teachers have dedicated their entire lives to helping these children, it is basically a 24/7 job for 10 months out of the year. I have no idea how they do it but I have such an insane amount of respect for them. Obviously getting in my bike accident wasn’t planned or ideal, but I don’t think I would have found this place if things hasn’t worked out the way they did, and I really believe it was meant to be. Every day was absolutely exhausting but so rewarding and even though I was only there for a short period of time I know I’ll be back and those kids have definitely impacted me. If anyone is ever in that part of the world and would like to volunteer there I know they would be so happy to have any of you beautiful people, or donations are always welcomed. I need to cut myself off here because otherwise this part of the post would be 4 million words long because I can talk about it for DAYS but I’ll just say I am so so so so so happy I got to spend time at this amazing place.

PHNOM PENH

Phnom Penh is a pretty crazy city. It’s absolutely ginormous and there’s lots going on. It’s nice having the Mekong River nearby, and there are soooo many western fast food place it was crazy! First time I’ve seen a Krispy Kreme in Asia! I travelled there after leaving the orphanage with my friend Sara from California that I had met at NHCC and spent a lot of time with. We stayed at this super nice hostel that gives people from NHCC discounts on rooms. I was definitely really sad leaving all those beautiful children, but let me tell you it is soooo nice having a real shower/toilet after having one-armed bucket showers and bucket toilets for 2 weeks!!! At the time it seemed like the nicest bathroom I had ever seen hahaha I was in heaven!!!! The main thing Sara and I did in Phnom Penh was go to The Killing Fields and S21 Museum. It’s hard to describe them because there are no words to describe them, but it was an extremely enlightening day. It is so sad all of the atrocities that happened there and seeing how badly people can treat other people. Before I went to Cambodia I read the book “First They Killed My Father” ( at the suggestion of my beautiful half-sister Vicki) and I’m so glad I did. It was a real story of a family’s experience during the Khmer Rouge takeover in Cambodia and I learned so much. I could not believe how everything was handled and the fact that the majority of the world knew so little. It is so sad but it does make you appreciate and respect the Cambodian people so much with how they have moved on and seem to be really enjoying life! They are such beautiful and lovely people, it is so sad that they had to experience horror the way they did. For the 1000th time on this trip I really understood how lucky I am to be where I’m from and to have access to the kind of life I do. I am so blessed it is ridiculous. After that emotionally draining day Sara and I took the nightbus to Siem Reap!

SIEM REAP

I had the best start in a city that I’ve had so far on my trip in this wonderful city. I left NHCC with my friend Sara who had been volunteering there for a couple weeks. We were still a little emotional about leaving NHCC when we got on our night bus to go to Siem Reap, but it was honestly the best night bus experience I’ve ever had! I’d taken soooo many buses in Vietnam so by this point I thought I was a pro, meaning I’m aware of the psycho drivers, the way they always show up early and just walk down the isles and hit you to wake you up. Not this time!!! We showed up at around 5:30am and were slowly woken up and actually informed BEFORE we showed up that we were almost in Siem Reap and that we had to get our stuff together. We were then given face towels as we got off the bus and were allowed to take our sweet ass time getting off (I’m used to being yelled at if I’m not off in .03 seconds). We had arranged a pick up through our hostel but had told them 6am, so we assumed that we would just be waiting in the bus station for a little while. I grabbed my bag and went to sit down, when I turned and saw a guy standing with the large queue of tuktuk drivers and he had a sign with my name on it, spelled CORRECTLY!!!!!!!! Guys I have never felt and will never again feel more like a celebrity than I did in that moment. We then spent the tuktuk drive to our hostel saying good morning to everyone we saw on the road along the way. I know I sound like a complete loser but it was just so fun and such a great way to start travelling again. Thankfully our tuktuk driver was a saint and enjoyed us being loopy from lack of sleep and yelling good morning at everyone. He actually was saying it with us! The only thing I regret from that morning is not keeping the sign with my name on it. Other than that amazing start I frigging loved my time in Siem Reap. Stayed in a great hostel and made some great friends, by the end of our stay we had a big misfit group of friends from America, Canada, Brazil, Holland and France. Went to Angkorr Wat to see the sunrise which was AMAZING and then spent the rest of the day and half of another one exploring the beautiful temples. It is insane how much time and effort has been put into creating all of those ginormous temples, I could not believe how big some of them were and how many are in that one area! Siem Reap is also such a fun place to walk around and hang out in. I honestly did not want to leave! I became really close with Sara (the other NHCC volunteer from California) so it was so nice spending time with her. Actually spent more time with her than originally planned due to a missed flight on her part after a wee bit too much alcohol one night hahaha but eventually she went back home and I went on my way to the beautiful islands of Cambodia - to Sihanoukville I went.

SIHANOUKVILLE

My time in Sihanoukville was verrrrrry short, mostly on the recommendation of everyone I spoke to before my travels. I’d heard it was a busy, scuzzy place with annoying tourists and from what I saw it seemed pretty accurate. I spent one night on Otres beach, which is the farthest one from the city. It was a beautiful beach and a nice relaxing place to have a night. The highlight of my stay there would have to be this BOMB salad I ate at the recommendation of my two British friends who were there a few weeks before me. It had roasted vegetables, cashews and other wonderful things and it was frigging HEAVENLY. You all know how I feel about salads so I get a lil emotional thinking about salads too much just because of the huge empty whole I have in my life without them. Needless to say it made the trip to Sihanoukville all worth it! After my one night there I was on a ferry to Koh Ta Kiev!

KOH TA KIEV

Because of my time spent at the orphanage I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked travelling the rest of Cambodia. I only really had enough time to see one of the beautiful Cambodian islands so picking was hard. The main two are Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samleon, which I had heard are both stunning. Koh Rong is the bigger one of them all so the most built up and pretty busy. After my time in Siem Reap and being on my own again made me really feel like I needed some alone time. Not in a bad way at all but I’ve definitely come to realize how tiring travelling can be (and now I sound like a huge asshole because I’m so lucky to be able to do this trip) and especially with all of my stupid health situations I was in a bit of a weird mindset. With all that being said I host Koh Ta Kiev, the smallest of island of them all that’s really quiet, secluded and basically a little paradise. It was actually suggested to me by my beautiful mama before I even came to Cambodia! I knew it was her and Dugalds favourite find and I’m so glad I picked it!!! There’s no internet on the island so it was nice to get away from technology and just hang out. The place was absolutely STUNNING. The boat dropped us off on the beautiful white private beach, with not a soul in sight. The place I stayed at had adorable little bamboo treehouse/bungalows all around with a main restaurant/hangout treehouse. It was honestly a little oasis! The people who worked there were so frigging lovely and same with the other guests. I spent 2 days just hanging out and eating the best food I’d eaten in soooo long. The sunsets were immaculate, I did not want to leave! One day some friends and I went on a hike across the island to see the floating fishing village on the other side. There had been quite a bit of rain before I got there so what was meant to be a leisurely hike turned into quite an adventurous trek! At that point I still had a wound on my foot that hadn’t healed from my accident, and I was on strict instructions from my future doctor best friend to keep it covered and to not put it in any water. With that in mind it put my friends and I in a little bit of a bind when we reached parts of the path that were swamps…… After unsuccessfully attempting to find a route around the swamps we said screw it and just went through, safely! I tied a plastic bag around my foot and ended up hopping onefooted for a large portion of the day, with some assistance in parts that were too deep. Definitely not expected but it was hilarious and made the day pretty fun. In the end we made it to the village and my foot was dry and intact!!!!! Mission frigging accomplished. After my two beautiful, quiet days on the island I was fresh, rejuvenated and READAYYYY for the next part of my trip. I actually had quite a few epiphanies about my trip and my life while on the island which I am so grateful for. After my lil emotional time I remembered how god damn lucky I am to be on this trip, experiencing all the things I am and to have the frigging phenomenal, supportive family I have. I literally have the best parents in the world. Like holy crap you two, even from across the frigging world you can make me feel better about everyone in one single conversation. I also realized that even though I’m having the most amazing time, I love Canada so FRIGGING MUCH and I am so proud to be from there. So yeah! Sorry for getting too deep there, I’ve calmed down now I promise. After all that a super fun guy I met on the island from Montreal (wahoo another Canadian!! Ps he’s gay so don’t get too carried away everyone) and I moved on to Kampot.

KAMPOT

The last stop on my Cambodia tour and it was a perfect place to finish. Kampot is a beautiful little river town, full of cute little shops, cafes and restaurants. I spent the first day just walking around the city and hanging out which was lovely. At night we went to this adorable little cinema just down the street from our hostel that shows certain films ever night in the cutest cinema you’ve ever seen. It has tiered lounges/beanbags/comfy chairs and we watched two episodes of the new Planet Earth 2 !!!!!!!!! Such a good night. Our last day we went on this action packed tour that showed pretty much everything there is to see around Kampot. The morning was spent up Bokor Mountain, which was absolutely stunning and full of all of these abandoned buildings, palace and church from the civil war in Cambodia. They were cool to see but definitely very eerie…. But on the bright side the views from the top were breathtaking. Is there anything better than standing on top of a mountain, looking down onto the ocean coastline???? The answer is probably not. I won’t say 100% but I’m pretty frigging sure. After that we had lunch at a beautiful waterfall and then dropped off the majority of the tour group and continued the rest just the two of us. The second half included us in our private tuktuk driving around the beautiful country side going to different sites. We went to the salt fields which were really cool! In dry season they take sea water and literally just dry it out and collect the salt. After that we went to Phnom Chhngok Cave, which I thought would be a short little look around but ended with us pretty much spelunking through the entire thing which was so fun. From there we drove by Secret Lake, which is a beautiful fresh water lake in the middle of the mountains. I felt so at home seeing that stunner. Then we went to my personal sanctuary, a pepper plantation!!!!!!!!!!! We toured around and got to see how it’s grown (which is on vines, mind blowing!!!!), harvested and then sampled the different types. As most of you probably know pepper is my SHIT and I put it on literally everything. It isn’t exactly a staple most places in Asia so I was in heaven seeing that place. From the plantation we went to Kep and saw the crab markets! After that whirlwind of a day we headed back into town. We were very, very tired after all of that but definitely satisfied with my last full day in Cambodia. That night we treated ourselves and went to a cute little cafe and ate such good western food. My friend had poutine and I had an amazing chicken burger. It was a frigging good day. The next day I took a bus to Phnom Penh, unfortunately had to say goodbye to my friend as he was staying in Cambodia and went to the airport to catch my flight to Bali!!! I was sad to leave Cambodia but I was so excited to go to Indonesia and be reunited with my two British friends I met in Thailand for Christmas!

I'm now in Indonesia and absolutely loving it. I definitely do not have enough time here to do all of the things I want to do here, but that's alright. Just another place I'll come back to! Another post with the updates from here will come shortly (hopefully)! I hope everyone had an absolutely amazing Christmas and New Years. It was so weird not being there, definitely missing home more and more! Excited for what's to come but also can't wait to see all of you beautiful people again. Love you more than I can say!

Your redhead

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thetravellingredhead · 9 years ago

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Nha Trang, Dalat & Mui Ne

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thetravellingredhead · 9 years ago

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Hue & Hoi An (otherwise known as pre-accident photos, immediate post-accident photos and then real post-accident photos where I laid on a beach, hung out with amazing people and ate beautiful food!!!!)

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thetravellingredhead · 9 years ago

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Northern Vietnam bike tour: Ha Giang, Tam Son, Yen Minh and the routes in between

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thetravellingredhead · 9 years ago

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Halong Bay, Cat Ba Island & Monkey Island

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thetravellingredhead · 9 years ago

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Hanoi, Vietnam

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thetravellingredhead · 9 years ago

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Vietnam

Hi again you beautiful people!!!!!!! Well if this isn`t insanely overdue then I don`t freaking know what is but I`m really sorry and I hope you`ll forgive me. To make up for lost time (also due to the fact I’ve been lucky and have access to a real computer right now) this one will be a longer one! I am sure you are all aware by now (and don`t worry when I get to it in my recount I will give you all of the details) but I may or may not have had a wee bit of an accident and broke my collarbone so I am using that as my lateness excuse and that is that. I am really sorry though and I promise I will do everything in my power to not let it go this long again. I will just start off by saying HOLY FRIGGING CRAP VIETNAM IS AMAZING. I was a little nervous going into it just because I had been with the same group of girls since basically the beginning of my trip so I was sad leaving them. I also had heard some mixed reviews about the country and I am so glad I didn`t listen to them. Vietnam is such a diverse, beautiful and absolutely lovely country. I am so glad I had as much time there as I did - originally I was only going to be there for 2-3 weeks but with my little incident and everything it ended up being a month exactly (literally left the country the day my visa expired, wahooooo living on the edge!) and I am so happy it ended up that way. Anyways without further ado I will give my recount of this beautiful country, I hope you enjoy :)

HANOI

Okay so like I mentioned before I was pretty nervous coming to Vietnam. With all of the different stories I had heard about sketchiness and being officially on my own again it was the next big adventure for me. The Hanoi airport was soooo nice but the visa application set up was a nightmare. Considering Vietnam is the most intense for visa approval (it`s pretty much the only place in South East Asia that you need to organize before you show up) it was so unorganized. There were people everywhere, no one knew where to go and no one was directing people so it was definitely interesting! After sitting on the cold hard vinyl floor after handing over my passport for about 30 minutes, BOOM I was in. Hanoi was absolutely amazing. Like I said, I was super paranoid about being in a large city again – especially being in Vietnam – but it was SO nice. It was a pretty big city but the streets were all smaller and had nice buildings everywhere and pretty constant flow of people all around. It was so refreshing/nice to be in a large city and not have so much of the culture being about tourism. I understand that it might sound bad but a lot of my experiences up until Vietnam had the local people spending a lot of their time catering to tourists, and that wasn’t what I came here to see. It was so nice seeing people going about their business and honestly not giving a crap about the foreigners walking around – in the nicest way possible!!! The city had so much to offer. Each street had a different thing it sold, which varied from the clothing street to the metal shop street to the keys and locks street. Plus this is where I was introduced to Vietnamese iced coffee which was a DREAM. Basically it’s an espresso shot with condensed milk so it is extremely sweet but holy god it is delicious. There were coffee shops pretty much everywhere you looking in Hanoi, it was my kind of city. I actually spent a good amount of time here, mainly because I was waiting for my two friends I had met in Thailand who were coming up from the south of Vietnam to get to Hanoi so that we could travel around together before they left to go back to Ireland. I had a few days of seeing the sights, which included Hao Lo Prison (aka the Hanoi Hilton), The Women’s Museum, St Joseph’s Cathedral and walking around the lake that’s in the centre of the city. HISTORY LESSON: The prison was actually created by the French and the Vietnamese took it over once they got rid of their reign. Then they used it to hold all of their American war prisoners they captured during the Vietnam War. It was actually insane to read all of the signs that were recounting the history and to see their side of the story. The signs were very, very biased that is for sure. Also the Women’s Museum basically just taught me that Vietnamese women are BADASS. There were thousands of women who are voluntarily and physically involved in the war, like shooting guns and fighting and everything. It’s insane. Of course on top of the sightseeing there was some socializing in there as well don’t you worry! A big thing in Hanoi from the hostels is they almost all give away free beer at some point during the night, every night. So myself and the people I had met made our way around to the various hostels and had a great time for absolutely no money! It was my kind of activity let me tell ya hahaha. I actually met this lovely couple from South Africa and spent most of my time with them. Honestly the stories they told me about South Africa makes me want to go so. Frigging. Bad. The way they explain how they see ostriches and lions and hyenas and all sorts of creatures on a regular basis and it is no big deal at all is mindblowing. Just another place that I’ve added to my list! After several days of walking around the city, drinking iced coffee after iced coffee, eating every bowl of Pho I saw and drinking free beer though, I was definitely ready to see my friends and to do some adventurous activities. Once my friends arrived in town we booked a trip to Halong Bay and off we went! Just for reference to previous posts, the friends I met up with were Gemma and Ray, the Irish couple I met in Chiang Mai and travelled Northern Thailand with. I know I’ve said this before but it is so incredible how close you can get with people travelling for such a short period of time. When we met up it was honestly like a mini reunion, we were all so excited! They have become such good friends of mine and I have officially convinced them to come to Canada for their next adventure, wooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

HALONG BAY

Halong Bay was absolutely STUNNING. I went there with 4 others (including the Irish couple of course!) on a 3 day tour. It was a bit of a trip from Hanoi (involving a bus, a ferry, another bus and then another boat) but once we were on the water I was in heaven. All around us were giant Limestone Islands that were stunning. Our first day we were out on the boat which started with 12 metre high cliff jumping, which was INSANE. They drove us up to this little cliff island that in comparison to all of the ones around it looked absolutely miniature, but holy crap it was big. It was myself and 4 others who were brave enough to do it. Before you get to do it they do warn you that if you climb up you have to be able to jump, because there’s no other way down other than jumping. What they didn’t say was that the climb up itself was frigging TREACHEROUS and was even more scary than the jump! Honestly once I made it up to the top I was thrilled to jump just because it meant I made it! Because the limestone erodes so much it was basically like rock-climbing up a cliff in a bathing suit hahaha so there were quite a few marks on my body after that – but god damn was it worth it. Such a thrill and I knew I was making Peter proud doing it!!! After that we went swimming off the boat, went kayaking and then had a lovely night on the beach. The next day we took a boat onto Cat Ba Island, which is a national park and the main island in Halong Bay. We went biking (on actual bicycles which I hadn’t done in forever so it was a little shakey at the start, as embarrassing as that is) but it was so lovely. We hiked up a mountain to see a lookout over the small village that we were at and then had such a cute lunch in the town. I’ll add that the hike was actual just another rock climbing adventure and was a wee bit scary as well. Health and Safety is definitely not a thing in South East Asia, and definitely not on tours! The next day we just had the morning to relax and then we were on our way back to the city, as sad as it was to leave that beautiful place!

TRUE NORTH TOUR: HA GIANG

Okay. This was the absolute highlight of my time in Northern Vietnam. After Halong Bay my Irish friends and I went on a 4 night, 3 day tour of super Northern Vietnam, and I honestly cannot put into words how amazing it was. There was a group of 18 of us with a motorbike guide. We took a night bus up to Ha Giang (where we started the tour) and then the next 3 days we spent motorbiking up to the Chinese Border and back. I spent the tour on the back of Gemma’s bike, and it was so frigging fun. She was phenomenal driving that thing, as I know lots of family members of mine are going to be rather upset I did this tour. In my defense, I had ridden with her before and she had lots of experience and was super safe and I knew she would be!!!! Not that I need to be defending myself but I know that if I was home I’d be getting some interesting comments hahaha so I’ll try to nip that in the bud now. Honestly, I cannot say how stunning it was. Each day we saw different sites and views of the North, from different mountain peaks and valleys, to villages that are perched so precariously on the side of mountains it is insane. IF you look at all of the cities/villages we drove from it doesn’t look like a big distance on a map, but it was crazy how many different looking landscapes we saw. It was a frigging cold adventure and I was not prepared clothing wise in the slightest ,or was I physically prepared for how much it hurts to sit on a bike for 3 days straight but it was one of the most amazing things I’ve done this trip so far. We had such a lovely group of people who were so fun and happy and just thrilled to be doing what we were doing, it was such a great atmosphere. Plus we got to have a little cheeky step into China!!!! I may have stopped in China on my layover on my way to Thailand but something about being illegally in an intense country like that is pretty frigging cool. After that 4 day trip I was a new frigging woman.

HUE (aka ACCIDENT-VILLE)

After the True North tour we went back to Hanoi, and by that point I was very ready to get out of the city and see the rest of the country. Unfortunately I had to say goodbye to my Irish friends, who were heading home after being gone for 2 years, but it wasn’t too sad of a goodbye knowing that they’re planning on being in Canada for next fall!!!! So excited for that. Plus it is always lovely knowing you have somewhere to crash in a different country, especially somewhere as lovely as Ireland! Once that goodbye was over my next stop was Hue, a city farther south down the coastline of Vietnam. I went with 2 Canadian girls I had met on the True North Bike tour, which was so fun!!! After spending the majority of your time with people with accents, there’s something really nice about having a conversation with someone who uses all of the same words and accent as you. We took the night bus to Hue and then spent the next day hanging out in the city and going to see the beach and an abandoned waterpark. It was just about as eerie as it sounds, but still very cool. The next day a group of 9 of us (myself and the other 2 Canadian girls and this group of British boys the others had met in Hanoi) set off to do the Hai Van Pass. It is this absolutely stunning drive between Hue and Hoi An that is a pretty standard thing to do while travelling Vietnam. Here I go defending myself again but I had practiced driving a ton before this trip and while with my Irish friends so I felt confident in my abilities to drive a moped. We had gotten about an hour into our drive (supposed to take around 4 hours to get from point A to point B if you’re going at a leisurely speed) when my wee baby tiny little accident happened. I won’t go into too many details but basically what happened was I was going around a corner and a local cut me off and resulted in me falling. I obviously was pretttty out of it at the time but everyone was so lovely. I was taken to the local hospital where they made sure I was okay, cleaned out my road-rash and then diagnosed my collarbone break. When they were bringing me into the x-ray room at the time I honestly thought I was fine and in my head was like “I have nothing broken why are you wasting my time and yours in here, this is stupid” but next thing I knew they were like collarbone broken and putting me in a figure-8 brace. Looking back on it I definitely was pretty frigging shocked and was doubting them when they said I didn’t need surgery and telling me I could leave. I can definitely say that local hospitals in Vietnam definitely don’t’ provide the most extensive care but they patched me up alright, gave me medicine and then drove me to Hoi An, which was very kind of them. At the time they asked me if I wanted to go to Hanoi or go to Hoi An and I was like HELL NO am I going back to Hanoi (no offense but I was very sick of it at the time) and Hoi An was supposed to be my next destination anyways so it worked out perfectly. All in all it was an experience I will never forget!

HOI AN

Love love love love love this place. When I first got here I was in a private hotel for a couple nights, which was definitely the way to do it. I basically spent my time in a bed, watching movies and eating room service which I’d say was justified considering I’d just had an accident hahaha. It was really nice having my own room to be able to adjust to my new situation and get used to dealing with everything. Once I was back on my feet I moved out to the beach area just 15 minutes out of the town of Hoi An, where my friends I’d met on the True North tour were staying, called Under the Coconut Tree. This place was sooooo so so nice. The food was cheap and delicious, it had adorable rooms and was a 2 minute walk to An Nang Beach – IDEAL. The two friends I was meeting were these 2 Dutch boys I met on the motorbike tour who were soooo sweet and fun. They took care of me for a couple days and made sure I was alright, then it turned out that 5 Scottish girls we’d met on the tour as well were staying at the same place. So we had a little True North reunion right at Under the Coconut in Hoi An. It was so nice being able to just laze around for a good amount of time so that I could heal up more and just hang out with friends. Everyone was so nice and helpful about everything. I gotta say, travelers are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met. Aside from the beach part of the town, Hoi An itself is a beautiful city, sort of like Vietnam’s own Venice. There’s a river that runs through the middle of the city where there are little boats that can take you up and down it, there are shops all over that make anything tailor-made your pretty little heart could think of and there are amazing food places. I spent a week in Hoi An, which was a perfect amount of time to relax and start to heal up. Once I was itching to move again I ended up meeting this big group of British/American girls and guys who were also staying at Under the Coconut Tree and were heading out. They welcomed me into their gang with open arms and were so much fun. Aside from them being nice/funny it was definitely ideal to have strong people around who could help me with my luggage ;) As per Peter’s request, I was looking in town for something that I could attach to my backpack to give it wheels so I didn’t have to carry it, but unfortunately I had no such luck. With my new group of homies I was off to see the south of Vietnam and even though I was broken, I was so excited about it!!! I knew that as long as I wasn’t in pain and I could still move around, there was no way I was leaving this country without seeing what I wanted to see.

NHA TRANG

Nha Trang, also known as the Russian beach city of Vietnam. I was warned before going (actually in my original plan I was going to avoid it entirely, but the people I was with wanted to check it out, plus it made the journey to Dalat much better) but holy crap, it was insane! It was completely built up, with giant hotels and resorts all along the shoreline and into the city. There were signs in Russian, Russian stores and Russian people literally everywhere. It actually was kind of cool looking back on it just because it was so ingrained in the culture there. The Vietnamese people there could all speak Russian and would gage what language to try to sell you things as you walked by. We got there early in the morning because we took the night bus from Hoi An. Once we had settled in to our hotel (thank GOD for places that let you check in early) our big group split into two activities. Nha Trang is mostly a beach town, and also has this island theme/water park. I went to the beach because roller coasters and water slides weren`t exactly options for me due to my collarbone situation, but if I could go back I would go. It seemed like a really fun way to spend a day! I ended up at the beach with 3 of the other girls and it was much nicer than I was expecting. Definitely lovely spending the day on the beach after a night bus. The beach and surrounding islands were actually stunning! Very Jurassic Park-esque. After spending a day there we decided to leave the next morning for Dalat (which I was very very happy about) so that was it for Nha Trang. We did spend some time walking around the city and some markets but for the most part it really is a Russian resort town.

DALAT

Dalat is up in the mountains west of Nha Trang, and it is absolutely stunning. We took a bus from Nha Trang and it was a beautiful drive, even though the weather was sort of foggy. It made the mountain views that much cooler!! It was a much bigger city than I was expecting (literally pictured a tiny mountain village but it was very well built up). The main activity to do there is go canyoning, which involves abseiling, cliff jumping, going down rapids and hiking so it I was prepared with the fact that I wouldn’t be able to do that given my condition. There are many beautiful waterfalls around though and I thought I would be able to see those. Unfortunately the only cheap way to do it was to rent motorbikes (definitely a no no) plus we had rather crappy weather while we were there for the most part I hung around the city and met some really fun people while the majority of the group I was with went to try and find waterfalls. One really cool thing we did do was go to the Crazy House. It’s this Alice and Wonderland-esque building/complex THING that was designed and built by this one woman in Dalat. Honestly only pictures can explain how weird it was! It had stairs and arches and plants and weird buildings woven together like someone had just tossed it around and built it. Very cool though!!! That night we also went to the associated maze bar which is super cool as well (mind you it is definitely unsafe if you are too intoxicated considering its like 5 floors of mazes that do not make ANY sense and there is not a single soul supervising anybody hahaha) so all in all it was a good, maze-filled day! Originally we were supposed to stay for a few days but considering the weather was crappy and how there wasn’t much I could physically do we cut the visit short and hopped on a bus to Mui Ne.

MUI NE

Vietnam’s own mini Sahara!!! I absolutely looooved Mui Ne. It’s another town on the coast, with its main attraction being the White Sand Dunes and the Red Sand Dunes. It was a little like Nha Trang because it did have a bit of a Russian influence, plus there was a large section that was very resort-oriented, but I had a lovely time there. The town was basically just one long street along the water front and had a frigging AMAZING Mexican restaurant. My friends and I ate there for almost, ALMOST every meal and it was so worth it. They also had traditional Vietnamese foods which was good as well, and in the end I felt a little bad for not trying too many other places but at that time I did not give a frigging hoot. When all you’ve been eating for the past month is rice, there is nothing like fajitas, let me tell you. I spent one day touring the sand dunes which was stunnnning. The White Sand Dunes were definitely the superior ones of the two. It was so cool because they’re so randomly in the landscape. What I mean is that it’s not like the whole area is sandy, you have to drive there up some hills and through fields of grass/sparse trees and then BAM it’s just this wide open area of sand dunes. The tour I was on walked up to the top of them and it was breathtaking. Definitely was sweating buckets but I’d say it was worth it. Unfortunately I had to leave the big group I was there with the next day to make it to Ho Chi Minh so that I could see the city/take care of some collarbone stuff before my visa expired, but I spent my last morning/afternoon with the group at this hotel with giant beach umbrellas and a pool overlooking the ocean. It made it so much harder leaving my friends when I was hanging out at such a beautiful spot (see pictures). I thankfully met some people on my tour who were getting on the same bus and I planned to meet a friend I met on my True North tour once I got to HCMC, so all was good. Being a cripple a main consideration in travelling is how I am going to transport my luggage, so I definitely had to make sure I had a man standing by to help a sista out!

HO CHI MINH CITY

My last stop on my whirlwind Vietnam tour! Just like Hanoi I enjoyed it much more than I was expecting. It was very different to Hanoi even though they’re the two main cities. Instead of having smaller roads and only a few story buildings it had wide roads and larger buildings. Definitely had a more built up feel and was a frigging ginormous city. The people at my hostel and all of the restaurants I ate at were soooo lovely and kind. It might sound kind of weird but there’s something really endearing when the lady who owns your hostel or the one who you just bought dinner off of warns you to be careful with your purse so that it doesn’t get stolen (apparently, and I had heard this before I got there, there are a lot of motorbike drivers who drive around and steal peoples purses/phones right from people’s hands – not very nice at all.) My first day there I went to a private hospital in the city, and all in all my experience was pretty great! Thank the frigging lord for my parents who coached me through literally everything before I went to the hospital and dealt with my insurance – Pat and Pete you two are saints! Only had a couple breakdowns and I got x-rays, a new brace and saw an orthopedic surgeon, in frigging Vietnam!!! So all in all, I would say it was a very successful day. Another point I guess I’ll share that once I got back to my hostel after my hospital adventure I had a little freak out epiphany considering my whole situation (my mom will recall this because I called her that night). I finally realized how CRAZY I’ve been about everything ever since my accident. It’s not like I’ve been an idiot about anything and I’ve never been in serious amounts of pain or anything like that, otherwise I know I would have come home, but I realized how it is actually sort of a big deal to break a bone while in a foreign country……….. You IDIOT Mackenzie. Anyways all is good and I’m still alive and having the time of my life so that’s what matters. My last day in Vietnam I spent at the Cuchi Tunnels and the War Museum in the city. The tunnels were really interesting to see and to hear it explained by a Vietnamese tour guide. What actually shocked me quite a bit was how nonchalant he was about how many people’s lives were lost at the very sites we were. He was showing us different traps and weapons that they had made for the Americans, and it did weird me out a little bit how all of those things took people’s lives, but he spent the majority of the time making jokes about it. I did go into the actual tunnels themselves though!!! Holy crap they are absolutely TINY. They had 3 levels for distances you could go (20 m, 40m and 60m) and I could only do the 20 m one. I never have considered myself having any issues with claustrophobia but WOW I had a little tiny freak out in there. It blows my mind that there were people living and fighting a war from in those small spaces. Yikes.

After all of my touristy things were done my time in Vietnam was over! I know I’ve said this already but Vietnam was so amazing I cannot believe it. When I had spare time in my hostel in Ho Chi Minh City all I was doing was talking to other people about the things I’d done and seen, and most people felt the same way. Definitely didn’t go exactly how I planned it (re: motorbike accident) but I loved every single minute of it. If anyone reading this is planning on going or wants to plan a trip HIT ME UP because I will create a whole itinerary for you. Such a stunning country. One last thing I wanted to say was SORRRRRRY for how long winded I’ve been this whole post. Having access to an actual keyboard has made me a little excited so my word vomit is even more aggressive than normal.

Anyways, that was Vietnam! I am now in Cambodia volunteering at an orphanage/school for kids with HIV/AIDS and I am so inspired by this place I cannot even begin to explain, but that’s for another post! Love you and miss you so much more than I can say. I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and I expect to receive way more photos of christmasy/snowy things that I’ve gotten already.

Your redhead

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thetravellingredhead · 9 years ago

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Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng & Vientiane, Laos

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thetravellingredhead · 9 years ago

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I apologize in advance for the screams - just one of the many amazing zip lines at The Gibbon Experience

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thetravellingredhead · 9 years ago

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The Gibbon Experience, Nam Kan National Park, Laos

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thetravellingredhead · 9 years ago

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Laos

And the adventure continues!!! I apologize for how long this one took (my dad has even giving me shit for a few days now.... sorry Petey!!!) and also I apologize for the length of this one. I will not be offended if you get bored and can't finish it. I'm just writing whatever pops into my head and rolling with it so here we go! Laos was honestly the most beautiful place I've been to so far. I thought northern Thailand was stunning but holy crap guys, Laos is just ridiculous. The rolling mountains of Thailand carry over but then become more rugged and awe inspiring as you head south. The bus rides I took from city to city were pretty frigging sketchy but the views were just so beautiful I didn't mind in the slightest. I made the trip across the border from Chiang Rai with 4 other girls and we did it all by ourselves, go us!!! We had to take a city bus from Chiang Rai to Chiang Khong, a tuk-tuk to the border, had to pass through the Thai customs/border, then had to take a coach bus across the friendship bridge to the Laos customs where we had to get our visas, and then finally had to take another tuk-tuk into the town of Huay Xai. A lengthy process but it actually was pretty empty so at least there were no lines we had to wait in. And just like that we went from Thailand to the stunning Laos!!! HUAY XAI: THE GIBBON EXPERIENCE Alright everyone grab some popcorn and prepare yourselves for a TALE. Some of you no doubt have already heard me rave about this experience so you may want to skip ahead (no hard feelings) but for those of you who I haven't spoken to, this experience was the most gruelling but absolutely amazing thing I've done. We basically went to Huay Xai specifically for The Gibbon Experience. It's a two day hike/zip-line excursion up in the mountains of Nam Kwan National Park in Northern Laos. We got to Huay Xai in the evening so we spent the night at the adorable guesthouse on the Mekong River, and had dinner at this Thai restaurant nearby (we had no idea it was a Thai restaurant until we sat down and by then it was too late hahaha we hadn't exactly planned to finally make it to Laos from Thailand and have our first meal be a Thai dish but hey, such is life). My friend and I wanted something light so we both got the spicy cucumber salad, which is the beginning of this fabulous tale. In all fairness it was absolutely delicious (so spicy I almost died but still awesome) buttttttt unfortunately it led to my first bout of sickness of my travels. I was up all night feeling like absolute BUM (so was the other girl who had the salad as well, woohoooo) which wasn't exactly the ideal way to start this excursion but we made do. The next morning we got all our shit together and the adventure began. Thankfully I wasn't puking (my friend was and I felt horrible for her) but oh my god guys I haven't felt that shitty in a very long time. We had a truck drive us out to the starting point of the hike, where we got suited up in harnesses and helmets etc. The guides were handing out beer before the trek began (which I declined vigorously) so I spent the waiting time mentally preparing myself for the next two days. To give a little context on the excursion, we opted for the "express" option instead of the classic. It meant that our trip would be 2 days instead of 3, but also the disclaimer before signing up is that the first day has a very hard trek and is only recommended for people in good physical condition. This may be TMI but when you're worrying about shitting your pants in normal conditions, the fact that you're spending the next two days in the jungle hiking and zip lining is a LITTLE disconcerting (SPOILER ALERT: I didn't end up shitting my pants, nit even once!!!!!!!!! Look at me go mom!) The trek ended up being about 4 hours. It was honestly the hardest thing I think I've ever done. It was straight up a mountain the entire time and even though there were some breaks, it was still so insane. We were sweating so much I honestly didn't know how I had that much liquid in me, like Jesus Christ where does it all come from????? The local guides were so great though, encouraging us the whole time and kept us going. Even though a couple of us were sick, the rest of our group were so great. The group of girls I was with were honestly so amazing, I was very lucky. Once we hiked the majority of the way up the mountain the amazing zip lines began - there may or may not have been a few tears of joy once we reached them. Guys it was honestly INSANE. The first day had 10 stunning zip lines, I wish I had a GoPro so that I could have filmed them all. The views were so spectacular I can't even put them into words. The zip lines brought us even farther into the jungle until eventually we made it to our abode for the night: the tallest treehouse in the world. Guys I wanted to cry it was so beautiful. I don't know how we lucked out but the 5 of us got our own treehouse. The entire tour group was about 20 people I think but the rest were at the larger treehouse. It was so unbelievable. We were all soooo dead from the trek and sickness combination but we had the most unbelievable sunset view and we just got to hang out up in the clouds. There was an outdoor shower that overlooked th whole jungle, it was frigging INSANE. The coldest but best shower I've ever had. The tour guides brought us dinner (which looked amazing but I couldn't stomach anything) and the left us for the night. I ended up passing out at like 7:30 that night but it was definitely needed. The next morning we were up at 6:30 am for the sunrise and did 5 more amazing zip lines before we had breakfast - definitely the right way to start your day! I still wasn't feeling 100% unfortunately but it was way too amazing of an experience to care. After breakfast we started the zipline/trek down the mountain. I cannot tell you how excited we were that it was a downhill journey. We had 10 more stunning zip lines on the way down and about an hour hike down and then we were done. Even though a few of us were sick and it was about a thousand degrees out we couldn't stop talking about how amazing it was. If any of you are ever in Laos this is a frigging must do. Sorry for such a long story about this but honestly I am still not over how amazing it was. Definitely the best thing I've done so far! We got back into town around 4 pm the second day, where we had to get our night bus to Luang Prabang at 6pm that night. Thankfully we got to shower at the offices before we caught the bus, as we were quite the smelly bunch. LUANG PRABANG We arrived in LP at 4:30 am the next morning after a very interesting overnight bus (we weren't supposed to get there until 6am but the bus drivers drive like frigging MANIACS). Safe to say we were extremely tired and didn't really know what to do at that hour, but thankfully when we got into town we saw this lady coming back from the alm procession who had a guesthouse that let us check in early. I absolutely loved Luang Prabang. It was such a cute town with such lovely people. There were adorable stores and cafes/restaurants all around and it was right on the beautiful Mekong River. We spent the first day going around town and the second we went to two different beautiful waterfalls that you could swim in that were nearby. At this point we had a group of 7 of us which was soooo fun and really great for renting drivers to take you around. I would have liked to stay there another day but unfortunately some of the girls we were with were on kind of a time limit so we got a morning bus to Vang Vieng on the 3rd day there. A few of us got up at 5:30 that morning to see the monks procession which was so cool. Every morning at dawn they come out of the temples and walk along the streets taking gifts from the locals. Most just sit outside and offer the famous Laos sticky rice, which was what we did. Such a cool cultural experience, definitely worth getting up for! VANG VIENG Okay so the drive from LP to Vang Vieng was definitely the top one I've had so far. This was where we started in rolling mountains that progressed into rugged, giant peaks. We drove through thousands of little villages on the tops of these mountains, they were insane. The whole time we were just talking about how ridiculous it would be to live there and wake up to those views every day. What I would give!! We got to Vang Vieng late in the afternoon after our beautiful bus ride. We decided to upgrade ourselves for our accommodation here, as the place we started at in LP left quit a bit to be desired and we decided we earned it. We stayed we this beautiful little villa complex 15 minutes outside of town, it was soooo nice having our own room and real beds. I stayed in a room with 2 girls from Manchester and the other 2 (who are sisters who are from just outside of London) stayed in the room next door. The other 2 girls who were with us in LP stayed at a hostel in town which was nice because it kept us connected to the social scene but we had a place to chill out when we wanted. The big activity in Vang Vieng is tubing, where you all rent tubes and float down a river going from bar to bar. It used to be absolutely insane but the Laos government came in and shut it down so it is much more tame now, which is good for everyone I think, especially the locals. The group of 7 of us did tubing on our second day which was a frigging blast. Definitely not the safest activity hahaha considering where they started us in the river it was basically rapids until the first bar (Dugald I wish I had asked for some tips before leaving!) but it was such a fun day. Floating down the river with amazing people on a beautiful sunny day, what's not to love?? The second day there we went to the Blue Lagoon and Than Phu Kham caves. We had to climb up a pretty steep staircase to get to the caves (which was very difficult considering my butt still hadn't recovered from the gibbon experience hike......) but cooling down in the blue lagoon after was lovely. That night was our last night of the core 5 of us being together so we had a nice dinner and ended up finding a bar with free whiskey (very dangerous) so we finished our time in Vang Vieng with a bang! VIENTIANE The 5 took a morning bus to the capital city of Laos the following day after saying goodbye to our lovely villa. The sisters were heading on to Hanoi straight away so we said goodbye to another part of our crew and the final 3 of us went to our hostel downtown. It was a really interesting city considering I didn't really know what to expect. It was very big with a decent amount of traffic and shops everywhere but there weren't that many tourists. Seems to be that it's a place that people just go to on their way either into the country or out if the country, but we had a great couple days there! We went to the Buddha Park that's just outside of the city which was stunning. It's this big open park that is just full of different Buddha statues all over (needless to say we took about 1000 pictures so don't you worry your pretty lil heads I'll be posting some). We also went to this amazing centre called the COPE (Cooperative orthotic & prosthetic enterprise) Centre. They're an organization that aids people all over the country who have injuries or disabilities that they can't afford to deal with. They started because of the huge amount of injuries that happen due to unexploded bombs that were dropped by the Americans during the Vietnam war all over the country. They help people all over the country get proper prosthetics for lost limbs, provide physio and OT to people who need it and honestly go above and beyond for anyone who needs it. It was so inspiring and amazing to see such a progressive organization in a country like Laos. I had no idea that there were that many bombs left just in the countryside all over. In addition to proving healthcare to the people who need it, they also have a sector that is systematically going around the country and getting rid of whatever bombs they can find. It's so sad that this country still has to deal with the aftermath of that war but it is so amazing to be able to see first had an organization that is having such an incredible positive impact. Other than those couple activities we mostly spent out time making our way through all of the different cafes in the city. I swear to god I think I've put on 100 pounds just from all of the bread I've eaten in Laos hahaha. It is seriously the land of baguettes and pastries and we were definitely not complaining! The three of us also had a traditional Laos meal one night, which was delicious. It consisted of their traditional dish called Laap (which is basically minced meat cooked with different spices and herbs), a beef red curry dish, stir fried morning glory, fresh spring rolls and traditional Laos sticky rice. The rice is so cool!!! They bring it out in this little basket and you're supposed to take it and roll it into little balls and dip it in sauces. Sooooo delicious. We were definitely well fed in Vientiane. After 3 days there the final 3 of the crew split up :( the two girls from Manchester (Emily and Chloe, such amazing girls) were heading to Cambodia next and I was making my way to the North Vietnam. The goodbye wasn't too sad though because I think I'm meeting up with them in Indonesia for Christmas!!!!!! So all is good in the hood :) I left Laos on Wednesday by taking a short little plane into Hanoi. Had to wait around a little bit for my visa to go through (it was so unorganized it was comical, there were just people sitting on the ground everywhere waiting to be called up) but everything went through without any issues! I am now in Hanoi and absolutely LOVING it. It is such a beautiful city with a ton of character and cool people. It's nice being in a real big city again! I've met some really cool people already (may even be going to a music festival here, we will see!) and I can't wait to see the rest of this beautiful country. As always I'll keep you guys updated! Love and miss you even more than before :) Your redhead

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