wow time flies

tonight we are in Siem Reap - a city in Cambodia only a short tuk-tuk drive away from ankor what - wich will be our all day destination for tomorrow. plan is to get up at 4:30 OUCH and be on our way to the temples for sunrise. then i guess we will treck around visiting more temples all day, break for a leisurely lunch - fingers crossed i will be sampling some deep fried grass hoppers - before finishing of the day with a "cheap cheap" hot air balloon ride at sunset... ahhhh

life has been much of the same since my last blog - lots of food and constant movement

we arrived in hanoi excited to be in a new country at last. vietnam was awesome. great hostel polished off by the opportunity to join in with the city's TET (new year) celebrations. while we were there we also managed to find a nightclub that had a big local crowd - awesome for us as we got to enjoy a club about the same atmosphere as metros city but we were a head taller than everyone else! very helpful if you ever were to get lost
also went to halong bay but weather was shit and travel was painfully slow due to tet holiday

following this we hopped on a an excrutiatingly LONG bus ride down to hoi an - this was a really cute stop with a nice enough beach. there was heaps of site seeing to keep us occupied not to mention sally, sorcha and my efforts to start our own clothing line = between us = 5 skirts, 8 shorts, 15 dresses tailor made...

more bus riding in which not enough seats existed and people were forced to perch upon stools or their bags in the isle for 12 hours... lucky for me, i was only forced to endure the twelve hours cramped in half a seat as a fat sweating tourist continued to drift off to sleep as he slowly slumped into my space... very trying journey

na trang was great. we hired scooters again (never learn our lesson) and set off to find the hot mineral springs and mud baths within the bustling city. 3 hours later after unintentionally navigating the entire area and having my life flash before my eyes atleast 3 times - a semi trailor sped towards me honking and i momentarily forgot how to move let alone drive my scooter with kate on the back through the traffic ARRRGHhhh - this driving has taught me - if ever you find yourself heading towards an object in your path - this can be simply resolved by the honking of your horn... dog, cow, garbage truck, lonely street vendor or foriegn tourist - they will know what to do.

in na trang we went out to a local club "the fish club?" as kate and i headed from were we had had predrinks (cocktails 2 for 1 and only 3 dollars to begin with) i was approached by a friendly vietnamese women measuring in stature at most up to my shoulder. she seemed very interested in our plan for the night so i smoothly told her we were on our way back to our hostel and that we knew were we were going, needed no assistance and needed nothing in the way of weed, cold beverages or cigarettes. you can imaging my confusion as she quickly went to pick me up around the hips. i was like... huh ... weird. i shoke my self down and quickly moved on.
we got around the corner only to see her quickly speed past pausing for a mere moment to through my now empty wallet at my feet. haaaaaaay now i get it ... she had picked me up to steal the shit out of my pockets... i was down 2,000,000 dong SHIT

the next day we went snorkeling and diving - had my first dive - so much fun
na trang has really good shallow offshore reef perfect for snorkeling - well worth a day if your ever in the area

next was ho chi mihn city = this stop involved LOTS of site seeing - museums, palaces, museums, memorials... we went out to the cu chi tunnels which was realy crazy - we got to fire a gun AK47? and crawl through the tunnels = very tiny

ok running out of steam and money - il round this off later

bye

hi everyone
sorry i havent been very good with the emails and photos as of yet but untill this point we have been so busy travelling eating and shopping to warrant an hour on the internet uploading photos and typing stories... lucky for u - bankok airport is very limited in its choices of entertainment. so here i am - accompanied by my whopper value meal (first western food ive had yet ... inclusing breakfast) about to give you a quick run down of wat ive been up to so far...

FULL MOON PARTY -
daytime was occupied with scooter riding - seemingly cheap at 150 baht/day (about $5) but after a series of massive stacks which left aine, sall and sorcha with an extensive collection of gravel burns, bruises and deep gashes we returned the scooters to learn that replacing the rear view mirror alone would cost us 2500 baht ($100) FUCK!

i dont have any photos from the night time festivities as i was too chicken shit to bring my camera to haat rin.
however i can assure you that the party scene was crazy. on the first night i won myself 3 vodka redbulls and a vodka redbull bucket FREE. this led to a night of fire poi - burning my arm and my second favourite white dress and returning to our bungalos at 5 in the morning. however i got lost and slept in a hammock on the beach a short x-country treck from our "hotel".
second night - much of the same - though this time i burnt my favourite dress but made it home to bed safely ... 5.30 am
third night and the actual night of the full moon = crazy
we went up to mellow mountain, each had a muchroom shake (foul) and the night kicked off from there
met some hilarious people, danced too close to lady boys, endured an hour not able to move my arms and spent 2 hours in a bar with sally painting eachother from head to toe in flourescent paint... couldnt stop laughing

after full moon we trecked across thailand to crabi - so beuatiful and has some of the best rock climbing in the world
just finished a three day treck north of chang mai - we went to visit some hill tribes 1400m a.s.l (though they werent really as remote and culturally different as i had hoped for - but what are you gonna do - tourism trumps in thailand) we also went on elephant rides, walking, white water rafting, walking, swimming in a number of jungle waterfalls, walking and bamboo rafting

now we are off to hanoi
il try to keep you posted!

EVERYDAY
6:30 hit alarm 6:40 stumble to shower 7:00 get in car and pick up fellow workers 7:30 run for "7:30" ferry 7:32 get in ferry (most times) 8:15 clock on at work - rotto general store - 9:00 remember idea of breakfast 9:08 eat breakfast soya crisps 10:15 go to isle 3 and face all tins so they are perfectly aligned in colour and height all facing forward 11:00 think about lunch 12:30 lunch break - swim 1:00 lunch break ends - seek out lunch 1:05 lunch juice from juice nest 3:15 re visit tuna 4:15 clock off work 4:30 get on ferry 4:40 fall asleep 5:15 get in car 5:45 get home 5:46 eat 7:00 eat 8:30 watch tv 10:00 fall asleep on couch 10.30 stumble to bed set alarm.