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jon and katie

26 Blog Entries
10 Trips
574 Photos

Trips:

London to Bangkok to Surin
Surin to Ko Samui to Ko Tao
Ko Tao to Pan Ngan to Krabi
Malaysia
Indonesia
Thailand Revisited
Laos
Vietnam
Cambodia
Thailand III

Shorthand link:

http://www.blogabond.com/jonandkatie




Siem Reap to Ko Chang

Ko Chang, Thailand

"I don't play basketball, but I do have a Magic Johnson". One of the funniest things about South East Asia is the fact that locals walk around in English t-shirts with absolutely no idea what they mean.
We were confronted with this classic on our return to Thailand, a pensioner, stooping around, looking for somewhere to sit, that's fine, but when we looked down and noticed that he had an extremely bold statement about the skillful nature of his phallus it put the evening in a whole different light. That was in Bangkok, and at the Thai Boxing, so we were only distracted for a few minutes, and back again watching two guys knocking the hell out of each other.
Mui-Thai is pretty cool to watch, especially behind a fence it felt like we were in Fight Club or something. The best thing about the boxing is watching the locals all betting over the fights, and getting really emotional, hundreds of sweaty men flying their hands around like John McCririck, and shouting obscenities at the fighters. Classic stuff.
Last week we were in Ko Chang or Elephant Island, and it was a great chance to unwind after 6 and half months of moving from place to place. We spent a week here and just indulged; our bungalow was cockroach infested if that makes anyone feel any better. They were popping out of every corner, thank god for mozzy nets.
But the bungalow was right on the sea front and the water was lush, so warm and calm for the first few days. We spent a lot of time in the sea, a lot of time drawing, taking photos, and generally being lazy gits, it was fantastic. The food was pretty expensive at our place so we ventured to find a cheaper alternative, and they're always hiding where 'farangs' can't find them, but it was worth the hunt.
Catfish and rice was on the menu, so we had a bit of that, but we didn't expect to be confronted with two of the freshly caught monsters looking up at us. It feels like we've been staring out various animals served on luminous plastic plates throughout our travels.
We're in Bangkok at the moment and tonight we're going to a ping pong show, I've never seen table tennis live, so it should be an experience, I just hope it's staged under tournament conditions. We'll bring back a souvenir.... 'til another time y'all......jon and bony x

permalink written by  jon and katie on May 23, 2009 from Ko Chang, Thailand
from the travel blog: Thailand III
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Siem Reap week three

Siem Reap, Cambodia

We feel like old hands at this Siem Reap thing now, three weeks seems like quite a long time in one place when we are supposed to be 'travelling'. I just wish the tuk tuk drivers would recognise us and stop giving us the, "do you want to go to the temples? Sunrise? Floating village? Sunset?" everyday!!

Early in the week we realised that we had sieved and washed more sand than the average person does in their whole lifetime, and more, so it was time to leave Trailblazers. I'd also like to meet the person who can stand listening to the Cambodian music on the radio all day, especially as there are just two 'classics' that are played on repeat, all day. It was very rewarding to be able to help out with a charity that does such important work for the village communities in the areas surrounding Siem Reap and I'm really glad that we had the opportunity to do it.

Working at the orphanage has definitely been a highlight of the whole travelling experience and meeting and getting to know such great kids has been brilliant. During this time my respect for teachers who made lessons fun and interesting enough so you actually wanted to go to them has increased ten fold, I didn't think it would be so difficult and tiring. It seems like the kids normally work through the text book and fill in the gaps but learn nothing because when you try to do something different they don't really get it.
On the last day we decided to just do something fun with them, so we organised the olympics. We had been telling them all week that we'd still do English on the last day so it was going to be a big exciting surprise. They all had their books out and Jon wrote on the board, "today we are not going to do any work we are going to play." Without any instruction, they all copied it down and sat there looking at us, not quite the reaction we expected.
When they finally realised what was going on they were loving it. There were races, swimming relays, penalty shootouts, hula hooping and carrot putt-ing, okay so not all olympic events but if the commitee want any nore ideas for new events there are loads more where they came from. Of course the day was finished off with yet another game of bingo and more importantly, another bag of sweets. I feel sorry for the next volunteers who turn up without bingo cards at the ready.

As the end of the day loomed everyone was asking when we would come back again. Under the pressure of 17 small faces peering up at us Jon saved the day, "tomorrow, we're coming back tomorrow to go for a swim if you fancy joining us?" Phew!! Nicely done Trace, situation saved.


It's really hard to go to a place where there have so little of the basic things that most people take for granted and walk away without doing a little bit to help. Malaria is rife in Cambodia and loads of people, especially children die from it so before we left we bought mosquito nets for all of them and a 50kg bag of rice which is enough to feed them all for about 2months, hopefully long enough for some more volunteers to turn up and help out. The Bone's gave us the money to buy the rice so thanks indeed go to them.

Cambodia has been amazing but quite hard, it is a beautiful country but there are still alot of people in pretty bad situations and a lot of people who think that tourists and westerners with "alot of money" are the answer.

We're off now from the blog and from Cambodia, next stop Koh Chang in Thailand! x x x



permalink written by  jon and katie on May 18, 2009 from Siem Reap, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Cambodia
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Siem Reap week two

Siem Reap, Cambodia

It's always a bit disconcerting when you leave restaurants in Cambodia, because they always shout "good luck to you!" as soon as you've finished your meal. Granted, some of the food does look a bit ropey, but there's no need to presume that we're going straight to the toilet. Actually there's quite a few "good luck to you" stalls that help street kids and the food is amazing.
Siem Reap has been our home for about two and a half weeks now and the majority of the time has been spent splitting volunteering projects.

The second project is volunteering teaching English as a foreign language at an orphanage in Angkor (which is home to the temples, 5 miles or so from Siem Reap). The children didn't have any English teachers, so it feels like we're making some sort of difference to their lives. It's a beautiful place in great surroundings where for 2 weeks we are teaching 17 children aged from 9 to 15. We've only worked there for 4 days so far, but it's just amazing to see such happy children in a situation like theirs. They're so talented with the little they have, and it's been a privilege to get to know all of them.
A lot of our time is taken up thinking of games we can all play that shoehorns in their current syllabus, I think the favourite is bingo, as that's all you can hear them shouting when we rock up in a knackered tuk-tuk everyday.

The highlight was being able to play football with them, where half of the pitch is the lake, and you just jump in the water to get the ball. Cambodian kids can be pretty tough when they want to be. The sweat and bruises from 10 year olds was ridiculous. The lowlight was probably when we first started teaching, got some stationary from the shop, all is good, the kids are going to love it, then I start scrawling all over the whiteboard with permanent marker. Well done Trace, go to an orphanage and just ruin their stuff, although I think it's all just about come off now. Actually, a kid called Ran just popped up and calm as you like said "it okay sir, that coming off with the petrol, you want me to get the petrol?" Our next lesson went through some key points relating to Cambodian health and safety.

At the weekend we took a day trip to Angkor Wat which blew us a way. It's one of the seven man made wonders of the world so I guess it's going to. We had to get up at 4am for the chance to make the most of the sunrise. At 4am it didn't really appeal, but at 5.30am when the sun was coming up over the back of Angkor Wat it was all worthwhile. Built in the 12th century as Hindu temples, the whole of Angkor is home to many unbelievably intricate monuments. I hope some of the pictures do it justice. The busiest one wasn't Angkor Wat, it was jungle-based Ta Prohm where Tomb Raider was set, cue lots of Angelina Jolie style poses and snap happy Japanese tourists. Okay so there might be a few Jolie poses in there too. Speak to you soon, all this picture downloading is thirsty stuff, and the beer is cheap, bye for now x

permalink written by  jon and katie on May 4, 2009 from Siem Reap, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Cambodia
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Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Another coach journey and another chance for us to eat insects at the random halfway point cafe, only this time I notice Kate is, and is dangling a big sweaty spider in my face. Claiming that it tastes of nothing but the chili sauce on top, I'm really tempted but am still reeling from eating chicken's feet last week, so pass on the offer.
Siem Reap is where we are at the moment, and is very close to the ancient temples at Angkor Wat, which are one of the seven man made wonders of the world.
So we're definitely going to Angkor Wat at some point, most people seem to say that 5am is the best time, because of the way that the sunrise behind the temples comes up. We've got a few weeks in Siem Reap because we're volunteering at an aid project at the moment called trailblazers that help villages and schools with water purification. The company was set up a few years ago by an American couple who employ mainly Khmer staff to create water purifying units. The units are basically vertical wooden boxes that water can be poured into; the water comes out pure with sand and stones that manage to weed out all of the dangerous things found in the dirty water. That's where we come in. We have to filter, wash, pack bags of sand and then deliver them to the local villages. People can then use the sand themselves to have pure water for up to 3 families for life, saving people from drinking out of holes in the ground and catching whatever diseases might be around. The cost of a unit to a westerner is 45 dollars, the cost to a villager is 2 dollars, which makes it really feasible for a family to buy. We're going to a school to deliver a box on Monday morning where around 500 kids can have clean water to drink. It's a great project to be a part of, despite the heat at the moment in Cambodia the days are really worthwhile.
On a more touristy note, we kept catching a whiff of the most momentous poo type smell coming from where we were working. I thought it was Roger the sales guy, an overbearing, portly and sweaty figure. Kate thought it might be Sainvie, a big, oafish man verging on the unhygienic. We felt bad for Sainvie and Roger when we realised that there was a crocodile farm next door. We popped our heads over the wall and sure enough,
the smell was being created by some absolutely huge reptiles. We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the crocodile farm. It was great because you're allowed to walk around with the smaller ones that are only 4-5 years old, it's still a bit scary though. Siem Reap is a beautiful city and we can't wait to explore some more, just going to grab some bikes and visit a guy who owns a swimming pool on the outskirts, it's the only way to relax on a Sunday. Write soon from probably the same place...jon and katie x

permalink written by  jon and katie on April 25, 2009 from Siem Reap, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Cambodia
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Mekong Delta to Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

We arrived in Phnom Penh very late at night and it was beautiful; as we were driving past the palace, riverside and countryside huts everyone was dancing and celebrating the Cambodian new year which is on the 14th,15th and the 16th of April. Everything looked great and we threw our bags into a 4 dollar a night place, only to wake up and witness the real Cambodia.
Every shopfront, cafe and hotel just seems like a facade, hiding the homelessness, desperation and poverty of so much of this city. It is very different to the bordering countries of Thailand and even Vietnam in respect to the horrific recent history where over a quarter of the country was massacred by the Khmer Rouge, and millions of landmines still remain from the Vietnam war. The fallout from this is evident everywhere and one of the reasons we want to volunteer for the next few weeks.
Skip forward a few hours to half past 10 at night and we're eating rice and egg with a teary and emotional Cambodian mother in her stark hotel room. It's a 1 dollar room in a rancid hotel where she is barely able to afford to feed her 3 children following the death of her husband. We shouldn't be here. We just bought her some food for her family at the market, and helped her back when she hits us with the big one. Taking her 2 year old child from her. She doesn't want money, just a good life for him. The desperation and pain is hard to listen to and obviously we can't, but with it comes a stark reminder that between the cafes with their 'happy shakes' and the shops selling 'I love Cambodia' t-shirts is a world of extreme poverty and lack of education.

We couldn't avoid visiting the Killing Fields and Toul Sleng, the site of some of the most horrendous acts of torture. Some of the rooms still had blood on the walls, and many instruments had been left on the steel beds as a reminder. Cambodia is such a beautiful country and people have moved on from the regime, but sometimes it feels helpless travelling through here and seeing what life is really like. I hope there are opportunities to do something at our next stop in Siem Riep.


permalink written by  jon and katie on April 20, 2009 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Cambodia
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Ho Chi Minh City to the Mekong Delta

Ben Tre, Vietnam

The Mekong Delta promised a more laid back, relaxed pace of life among paddy fields
and small villages giving you a brilliant chance to meet local people and get a more rounded view of life in Vietnam, it sounded great so we were off. First stop Ben Tre, well after an accidental night's stay in My Tho. The minibus stopped at a bus station with a big sign outside it saying Ben Tre, at last, so we dragged our tired bodies into a nearby restaurant. As we were looking around for somewhere to stay we realised that we'd got off too early and Ben Tre is a local brand, brilliant! Through experience we have learnt that when someone wants your money they'll say whatever they have to so it's worth being wary of a tuk tuk driver who says it's 5km to the nearest guest house.
Through experience we have also learnt that sometimes you need to just hand over the cash and get on with it. With heavy rucksacks we walked and walked and no one else appeared offering a lift and nowhere to stay appeared either until 5km later we stumbled upon a seedy motel, needs must.
The description of Ben Tre was spot on. We got a motorbike the next morning and the ride there was awesome, through palm tree lined villages with kids and animals running around everywhere and no other tourists.
It felt so good to be off of the tourist trail for a bit and in such an amazing part of Vietnam. We arrived at a homestay to be greeted by a guy called Phat, who could give Del Boy a run for his money. He was a really nice guy but we quickly learnt that whatever he was offering we could get a lot cheaper somewhere else. However, there were free bikes at his place so made the most of the chance to explore the area which was absolutely stunning. Somehow we managed find somewhere with a tv just in time for the Stoke vs Blackburn game, understandable, almost, in England but a rural village in Vietnam?! They have got one thing right though, there would be less trouble in English pubs if they just served iced tea.
Although we were a bit tight on time we still managed to slow back down to the Mekong pace of life and went on a boat trip to a floating market where locals still buy and sell produce from boats, amazing to see even though we had to be up at 4.30 to go. The only part of life in South East Asia that we seem to struggle with is the idea of getting up early and going to sleep early, we normally take the option of sweating alot in the middle of the day.
The people here are really friendly and seem really happy to accommodate tourists and through a lot of sign language and broken language want to know all about you. One night at a small family restaurant we ended up with a slightly unfair exchange of our disgusting rice whisky for the owner's really good red wine. The only thing that was confidently said was "mot, hai, ba, yo", cheers is definitely the most important Vietnamese that we learnt. '
It's another long boat trip along the Mekong for us, back to city life in Phnom Penh, see you in Cambodia! x x x

permalink written by  jon and katie on April 16, 2009 from Ben Tre, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Vietnam
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Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The sleeper buses' beds just seem to get smaller and smaller, the beds are made for tiny Vietnamese woman and no-one bigger. I'm built like Ian Beale and I had trouble getting 3 hours sleep in one of those things, they must do it on purpose, damn those 5ft+ tourists. When we arrived in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City it was pretty hectic, and we just collapsed.

The next day we decided to go to the very anti-American war remnants museum which was a really difficult few hours. The suffering of the Vietnamese people in the war was very well documented and photographs of the various torturing and napalm-related injuries were very difficult to absorb in one go.
That was enough for one day and we decided to do what anyone else would afterwards, get plastered. This was a great plan, but we got sidetracked by the local game which was being played in the centre square. It's basically just keepy ups, but with a long shuttlecock, and it's great fun. Two hours later and dripping with sweat we went to a local street 20p a pint place and got half drunk. I hope shuttle footing or whatever it's called takes off in the UK, because I don't have a job and this could be a feasable way to make a living.
We only spent a few days in Saigon so I'll quickly knock through some sightseeing stuff to get to the best bit of the trip. We went to the Notre Dame Cathedral - cool to see a ceremony there, went to the out of town Chinatown - really hectic and the food was superbative, oh and we also checked out the food market - marketlike.

But the my favourite bit was watching a half naked obese man fall asleep whilst sitting down cross legged on the floor. It was kind of like a cartoon and he ended up with his nose touching his ankle. This man was our hotel manager. These are the kind of places we've been frequenting. I thought it was a bit harsh to wake him up with a sudden scream but it had to be done. Thirty minutes later we were eating snails. Trips should always end this perfectly.

permalink written by  jon and katie on April 13, 2009 from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Vietnam
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Hoi An to Nha Trang

Nha Trang, Vietnam

Oh I do love to be beside the seaside! The deep depths of the crystal clear waters of South East Asia have been trying to tempt me from the beginning of our travels but NhaTrang was to be the place.
I'd never heard much about Vietnam as a scuba diving destination but had seen some cool underwater pics and to be honest diving is just awesome anyway. Okay so I haven't dived in the UK yet but NhaTrang did not disappoint. I was a little bit nervous about diving as for some stupid reason I haven't dived for 4 years but it all came flooding back and was brilliant.
The guys at the dive shop were really nice and it was an ideal place for Jon to take his first tentative steps into the amazing world of diving. I say tentative but he took to it like a natural. His going to kill me for saying this but his instructor came straight over to me after their first dive before he'd even taken his kit off to tell me that he's the best he's ever had, not bad hey. We did 3 days of diving and saw loads of cool stuff, lion fish, frog fish, an octopus, loads and loads of beautiful fish and a massive moray eel.
Now that Jon's done his open water we can just go diving together, pretty cool. It felt so good to be back in the water and I can't wait to go again, hopefully in Thailand before we go home. NhaTrang as a place is quite uninspiring and it rained everytime that we went outside but when it has brilliant diving it is still alright in my eyes.
On our last day we decided to take it easy and wallow in mud baths and natural springs for the day, life's tough. After being in quite a touristy area it was great to get out of the centre and chill out with so many locals and the soft skin, it was good.
Just wanted to add something about diving, I thought it was amaaaazing, can't wait to get down there again. Hopefully on our way back through Thailand:)

permalink written by  jon and katie on April 10, 2009 from Nha Trang, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Vietnam
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Hue to Hoi An

Hoi An, Vietnam

The term 'fish wives' apparently comes from the fact that the wives of the fishermen coming back from a catch would fight amongst themselves for the biggest and best fishes. Arguing and angry wives fighting over raw fish didn't seem that enticing, especially at 6 in the morning, but it turned out to be a highlight of the stay in Hoi An. To see how the local people live and make their living from the river was a real honour, and some of the fish were pretty damn big. The tunas and barracudas would have bought in a good wage for a family and you could understand the competition between these ladies.

The local market sold the most amazing fresh vegetables and also fish from the morning's catch; so we decided to learn some Vietnamese dishes and do a cookery course. It was cool to see how to make such tasty local food so quickly, and hopefully we can practise some on unsuspecting 'volunteers' at home.
Night fishing was the idea for the next evening, just us and a Vietnamese guy who said we could cook and eat whatever we caught on the boat. You will catch lots, he kept saying...lots of fishes! Coolio! We caught nothing. But the experience was excellent was worth it for the lightning show and our 'guide' alone. The forked lightning was crashing down and we had a good laugh teaching the boat driver some English. Although, I don't know how but he now thinks stars are called forgets, and that a crossroad is pronounced as 'goatud'. Just turn left at the goatud and you'll be fine. Excuse me? I blamed Kate. She blamed me. It was her fault.
Visiting the nearby bombed ruins at My Son was a really stark reminder of the recent history once again amongst the architecture of 8th century cham temples.
Another thing Hoi An is famous for is the sheer number of tailors selling amazingly cheap clothes, so 3 dresses, 2 skirts and a blouse 'I need' later we left for Nha Trang and scuba diving. The ocean life is supposed to be some of the best in Vietnam so we can't wait to get down there and experience it. Oh yeah I might need to learn how to dive first too.

permalink written by  jon and katie on March 28, 2009 from Hoi An, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Vietnam
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Hanoi to Hue

Hue, Vietnam

Hue, as with most of Vietnam, has loads of history, a great atmosphere and there is loads to see and do without having to go to another temple or pagoda. From what we already knew of the history sounded fascinating and we wanted to learn more. So we did the one thing we had been desperately trying to avoid, we booked onto a tour.
A 12 hour day which we were assured would give us loads of time at all of the great places it advertised, turned into 10 hours on a coach with a guide who no one could understand with a 5 minute stop at each place. It included the Ho Chi Minh Trail which is now the Ho Chi Minh highway, not quite the same with tarmac and the Demilitarised Zone which is now covered in paddy fields and could be any part of the Vietnamese countryside. The highlight of the day was being able to go into tunnels where people lived for 5 years during the war. To see how they managed to survive and even found the privacy to result in 37 babies being born there was amazing.

Our stay in Hue saw the arrival of the most important day of the year, my birthday!The day before the day of all days Jon went present shopping for 5 hours. I wondered what he was buying that took that much time and careful consideration but it included two and half hours for getting lost and an hour or two in the pub with a random Vietnamese guy. We spent the day on bikes checking out the city and doing a lot of chilling out in the shade because it was sooo hot. What's the temperature in the UK at the mo?!In the evening we went out for a meal at a really nice local restaurant only to be confronted half way through by the family who owned the place in a procession through the restaurant carrying a cake and singing happy birthday. There was also a little girl with a rose for me although that resulted in a bit of a battle between us as she did not want to let go, I didn't give her much choice. Seems that someone is a little more crafty than I thought, I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on him now.

Hue has been chilled out and really interesting but it is now time to go to the seaside, Hoi An here we come x x x

permalink written by  jon and katie on March 26, 2009 from Hue, Vietnam
from the travel blog: Vietnam
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