phnom penh

in cambodia as of a couple of hrs ago, is fricken hot, not used to it after a week of rain in hoi an! vietnam was so good though, had the best week met heaps of people, got stacks of stuff made :) have an extra bag now haha.
hoi an was such a cool place to hang out, half the town flooded the second day i was there. the town is right next to the river, so the water rose up to the second street that is parallel to the river (the town is a bit of a grid) it was hectic, was walking along one of the flooded streets, the water was halfway up my thighs! straight away some locals had there boats out but, charging 40,000 dong (about 4 bucks) to get to the other side of the flood waters - only about 20m! one of the shops where i had a dress made was completely flooded, i helped them move all there materials upstairs they thought it was the funniest thing, so they kept giving me free water... haha it was good. met a couple of english girls who are also heading to cambodia in a week or so, they are going to try and come to orphanage as well i think, which would be cool, i hung out with them most of the week. then they are coming to aus (one for a few months, the other to live) so that will be cool, talked up dunsborough and southbound etc, best place in aus etc ha
one bar there served cocktails called ''i love you'' so good, every time the waiter would bring you one they'd just yell out i love you, we thought it was hilarious :) they came with little plastic monkeys that sat on the rim of the glass, they were the coolest thing so we started collecting them, we had a monkey party going on at our table, we had at least 30.. one of the waitresses called me monkey for the rest of the week... ha good. last night i went for early dinner cos i had early flight, i ordered a sprite and shes like what monkey i dont believe, no alcohol?? hahahaha GOOD. didnt go to the beach in hoi an, didnt really get a chance because of the weather. the last few days were ok, but was doing other things or the sun didnt last long. went to marble mountains yesterday, it was cool. hotel said it would cost 40us to get out there, went down the street and got a moto taxi to take me for 10us.. heeeeeps better. sore bum though ;) mountains are really pretty, great views over china beach. first half hr i was there it absolutely poured, the steps up became a waterfall. got a bit scared walking throught the caves, they are really dark!!
checked into guesthouse here, all good, getting transported to village 2moro, im excited :)
dont have cambodian sim yet, but will try and get one now. em says she got my postcards, so hopefully the rest of you do in the next few days too!
xx

can't resist...

so....

i came away wanting to get ONE dress made for ash's wedding...
now i have one blue dress for ashs wedding
one green dress for ashs wedding
a red polka dot dress for christmas
a red polka dot dress for abbey for christmas
a skirt
and five matching grey dresses for all the girls at mums work

my pack is going to be very full!!!
i am well and truly sucked in by the tailors in hoian
one of them gave me a free skirt this afternoon :)

its raining its frigging POURING

in hoi an, had one incredible day of sunshine and since then its been torrential rain. the entire town is flooded, all the tailors had to move the fabrics upstairs cos there shop floors were ankle deep in water thismorning, havent been back to town yet tonight, but its probably a lot higher hasnt stopped raining all day. Asked one girl how high the waters normally get and she pointed half way up the wall... the forecasts say the whole time im here will be thunderstorms. GREAT.

flights from hong kong to here were longgggg had the longest most frustrating stop over in hanoi, worlds worst airport. flight was delayed about 3 and a half hrs in the end, i sat in the departure lounge for 7. ever 30 mins another anouncement would come over the pa "the cabin is not QUITE ready" meanwhile on the tv the weather man is pointing to a mother of a cyclone of the coast...safe. and none of the staff knew what was going on. good day! :)

hoian is a really cool town, having heaps of fun its just that to get anywhere you have to wade through water :) today one of the streets was above my knees fun times! did a cooking school today which was fun, they reckon they wont be able to run it 2moro cos the classroom will be flooded, so i was lucky. getting a dress made for ash's wedding woohoo! its pretty :) got a skirt made too, there are about a million tailors here so fun.

hung out with mandy and fam on wednesday, next to there pool which was incredible! met a few girls last night when i went for dinner, they were cool they are heading to cambodia too so will try and keep in touch. gotta love facebook!
using mums viet sim now, i ran out of credit haha.. new number 01234549869, not sure if that needs codes or pluses at the start haha

hong kong

yangshou was so cool, had the best time we hired electric scooters and hooned round for a day, one of the scooters died so we stopped at this mans house on the side of the road, it was a single room brick shanty house, it would be sooo cold in winter. anyway we called scooter ppl, they said they'd bring a new one out but it would be about 15 mins so we sat around at this mans house. he pulled out this little plastic container filled with water and something in it, then showed it to us looking so proud. in the container was a rock. we didnt know what to say, this rock was his pride and joy. he couldnt speak english so he was explaining to mathieu that it was a special rock, and rock in mandarin is 'shithole'. tried ridiculously hard not to laugh. also nigger is 'this' in mandarin, so the words we picked up in their conversations were "blah blah blah nigger nigger shithole blah blah blah blah beijing blah nigger shithole blah nigger blah shithole". a little bit funny :) AND THEN he borught out a coke can, we were all like no thank you we dont want a coke and then he was like no look inside, he had a frog in the can. it was his pet. sat alongside his shithole/rock. at night apparently the frog climbs out, eats all the insects in his house then during the day chills out in its coke can. interesting 15min wait haha (ha jules). anyway we got the new scooter, hooned around for a bit more, went and had drunk duck for lunch (two signature dishes of this town were drunk duck and beer fish - pretty much sums china up haha) the lady said it would take an hr, it was already 2 oclock we were so hungry, she explained she had to go home, get the duck, bring it back, kill the duck, pluck the duck, cook the duck - all which she offered to do in front of us.. how kind!! it was yum but so it was worth it, thats about as fresh as it gets i think :) then we went fishing, caught nothing, bait was uncooked bread dough... dont understand why the fish werent biting?!?!?
then we went cormorant fishing, its so cool the fisherman takes all his birds out (at night) they have a tie around there necks so they cant swallow the big fish and they jump of the boat and dive underwater (which you can see cos they rig up big flood lights) and you can see them darting around trying to find the fish it is so cool to watch. then we stopped and i got to hold a bird on my arm, it stared at me it looked like it was decidiing whether or not to peck my eyes out.. scary but cool :)

the next day in yangshou we all did our own thing, spent so much money ha. did a cooking course in the morning made the best beer fish, tastted so good and all this other cool stuff. i definately want to do a cooking class in vietnam they are fun. then just hung around in yangshou its a cool town, had to send a box home iv bought so much stuff ha. hopefully it gets there! my pack is well light now but, so glad iv gotta walk up mega stairs to get to the metro 2moro to get to the airport... gross!
then overnight train to shenzen, border into hong kong, the train was so much worse than the overnight one we caught form bangkok to chiang mai, there were 6 people per sleeper and we were right next to the toilets and sinks, so because chinese people love to hack up mega slags, going to sleep was made very dificult by the lovely soundtrack coming from the bathrooms. and i got bed bug bites. HATE LIFE! no hong kong is really cool, it was worth it. got to hk at about 12 the next day, had maccas woohoo! weather has been really shite while iv been here, no point doing the cable cars cos you couldnt even see back to the mainland. tested myself on the metro yesterday, public transport is so easy and fun here, was so proud of myself yesterday haha. went up to the peak on hong kong island, normally it would have excellent views, DID BUT. couldnt see anything, mega overcast. went to madame tussauds wax museum had a bit of fun, a short fat indian muslim lady took heaps of pics of me which was good, she thought it was the best thing when i put on the sumo suit haha. today i went to disney land, so good spent all day there just wondering around. went and saw a 3D show, it was SO GOOD not only was it 3d, when there was a splash in the show, you got wet (i have no idea where the water came from, felt like it was coming from the screen) and there was food and i swear i could smell it. it was really cool. went and saw its a small world cos mum told me i had to haha it was good but, took heaps heaps heaps of pics. flying to vietnam early 2moro, looking forward to waking up though cos i have cereal!!! found supermarket heaven at the trainstation, i could have spent the last 2 days just sitting in this supermarket its amazing. had cheese last night, frothed so much :)
looking forward to vietnam il be able to use my phone again, number is +84947431866
xx
ps well done darcie cant believe you have a bf
pps well done candice too OMG hahahahahhahahaahaha

:D

BURRITOS

dont taste so good coming up hahahahhahahahahaahaha bet you all needed to know that. in yuangshou think thats how you spell it, dont ask me the names of ANYWHERE iv been in china, i dont remember. its by far the best place we have been in china, so pretty its like halong bay on land, big karsts rock mountain things, really good markets. was feeling real crook on tuesday night, didnt eat all yesterday til dinner then was sick again.. feeling wayyy ybetter thismorning though, we have one more night in yuangshou then overnight train to hongkong. yesterday was all public buses, each one worse than the last. first it was a mini bus with about fifty people on it, i was right up in the back corner haha about half way the person next to me got off, there were about 20 people standing up but no one took the seat.. racists!! haha next bus the little girl next to me spewed grapes EVERYWHERE she was so pleased with her self it was good. last bus not so bad actually, slept most of the way. still getting stared at ridiculous amounts, a bit more used to it now but.

yum

hurled chunks all last night woohoo!

...

the belgians are following us

ps.

got all my oil stains out with shampoo. i rule!

picture perfect longji

last two nights we've been staying in a traditional dong village in beautiful wood houses.. or so you would think until you realise the walls (and ceiling) are paper thin and your room is next to the water wheel which sounds like a chainsaw and the noisy belgians upstairs decide they will move the furniture at 11.30 at night in there industrial hiking boots and the owner does his karaoke version of pavorotti and all the toilets are connected so the room smells like shit permanently then hayley tries to impersonate a chinese idol to drown out the rest of the noise then a cockroach the size of your hand crawls on your foot then you get offered dog meat.... etc etc

spose its all part of the experience haha :)

i have decided laos is my favourite country iv visited and when i get home im going to try to learn to speak lao.

i miss: cheese, my music, clean feet, driving the volvo, cereal, mashed potato

2moro we are doing a three hour hike i think im going to die.

ching chong china

HAHAHAHA just read the end of my last post.. new group haha. my new group is me, hayley & conor from last group, and new group leader. only 4 of us haha. its good but :)

not getting a sim in china/hongkong to expensive so stop freaking mum i haven't died.
:D
in Liuzhou right now, we are the only westerners here im sure. yesterday we were walking back from dinner and this old chinese man saw us, stopped and stared at conor and shook his head like he didnt believe what he was seeing. crazy. ate so much food for dinner, we got a hot pot which is a pot that is hot in the middle of your table (no shit ha) then they bring you about 50 plates of different meat seafood and vegies and sauces, so much food, one of the sauces was oil so needless to say, all my clothes now have oil stains. good one mia.
hanoi was hectic, only started getting used to it on the last day or so. after we left there we went to halong bay, had one night on a boat then one on cat ba island. island not so good, typhoon warnings so we werent allowed to do anythign. but the boat was so good, heaps of fun and it was only us on the whole boat. after halong we went to lang son, border town. in lonely planet it says 'not a place you would want to linger in'... its right. wouldnt go back no one spoke english it was wierd. got lost walking home from dinner we couldnt find the hotel ha. i think we would have walked past it about 3 times :) then into china, not sure if you have been seeing on the news but there has been massive floods in the guangxi provence, right where we crossed the border into. trying to upload pics to facebook of the floods. in the pics you can see on the trees they are covered in mud up to about 3m, thats the level the water got too, 2 days before we were there. the car couldnt get any furhter along the track to where we were staying (which was really remote) so we had to walk with packs. so muddy. stayed in these really cute rooms, they were like cubby houses up on stilts. whole day of travel yesterday to Liuzhou, leaving 2day to i dont know where haha. should be good :)