Cambodier

It has been almost a month since my last post, whoops. Its not that I'm on strike, or lazy, per se, its just that its actually been a pretty uneventful few weeks. Saigon turned out to be a less interesting version of Hanoi, which was followed by a nice and wonderfully uneventful week on the beach in Mui Ne, which was followed by a few days in Phnom Penh, a thoroughly bland city, which was followed by another lazy few days on the beach in Sihanoukville.

Both beach trips were wonderful; just swimming, sunning and reading, no sight seeing at all pretty much. Except of course for getting horribly ill my last few days in Sihanoukville, which I am just getting over now. Phnom Penh really was pretty generic, I just didnt grow to like it at all. Though admittedly the city was memorable for the fact that Dim ran into Karen, a friend and Philosopher from college who I havent seen in two years, while in an internet cafe, which was great both for how ludicrously random it was and for the fun we had drinking that night.

So please, belive me, I was sparing everyone more than I was being lazy, really. But I will have something more interesting to write about soon. Yesterday we got into Siem Reap, the home of Angkor Wat, so were gonna spend the next few days wandering around temples. Ill write all about it soon.

xx

Pictures

Just a quick note. I've tried three times over the past week and a half to put up photos from Laos, but it hasn't worked each time. When it has worked in the past, its annoyingly slow. So from now on I'm just going to put all of my photos up on facebook,where I can put much more up much more easily.

My Russia album is here:

http://standrews.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1292&id=263100090

My Mongolia Album is here:

http://standrews.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1295&id=263100090

My China album is here:

http://standrews.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1301&id=263100090

My Laos album is here:

http://standrews.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1322&id=263100090

And my Vietnam album is here,with more to come:

http://standrews.facebook.com/album.php?aid=1360&id=263100090

You need to be registered on facebook to see them. If by some small miracle I still know someone who isn't registered then do do now! Its a great website.

Vietnam

And so we have arrived in Vietnam. We're in Hanoi at the moment, and heading to Saigon this evening, hopefully. The trains south weren't running yesterday because of the flooding in the central coast, but apparently they're fine this evening, so all should be good.

Danny P just asked me if it's like China, the answer being no, its completely different. Hanoi, to be truthful, is not the prettiest city we've visited; it doesn't have the grandeur of, say, Shanghai or St. Petersburg. But the energy of the place is just amazing. Beijing felt sedate in comparison. People everywhere, walking, biking, selling or just eating. So much of life here is conducted on the streets, people eat breakfast, lunch and dinner on little plastic chairs and tables they drag out of their houses and shops, many buildings seem to be an odd combination of both, with offices doubling as living rooms or bed rooms just visible through a door at the back. Foot paths here pretty much don't exist. They are there,but most are either covered with the aforementioned miniature tables and chairs or with motorcycles and mopeds. Hanoi, a city of five million, has three million motorbikes, and it feels like more when you're crossing the street. This is an experience in and of itself. Its impossible to find a break in the traffic so you just have to wait for a gap on your side of the street and walk slowly across while bikes swerve around you. It was a bit nerve racking to begin with (the first time I stood next to some locals so I didn't get killed).

After two days we left Hanoi and took an organised trip down to Halong Bay for three days. The pictures on my facebook account do the grandeur of the place some justice, but not nearly enough. Halong Bay is filled with almost two thousand islands; fingers of rock, mostly over one hundred feet high, jutting almost vertically out of the ocean. On our first day we cruised around the bay for a few hours and then went to see a really impressive cave system, with one massive chamber beautifully lit. Afterwards we went kayaking for an hour. We cruised along for half an hour and then went through a small tunnel at the base of one of the cliffs, once we got through we realised we were in a fully enclosed little bay, with green covered walls of rock rising up around us in a wide circle, it was beautiful. On the second day we stayed on Cat Ba Island, the only inhabited island in Halong Bay, and spent the afternoon on a lovely beach.

The Halong trip was also lovely because we got more of an opportunity to talk to people than we've had in a while. We met a lovely couple in their fifties form the south of England, who were traveling for six months. Peter, the husband, had been a cabinet maker, a police officer, then worked in insurance,then restored antiques for a few years and is now a funeral director. We also met two American ladies who had just adopted two beautiful Vietnamese babies. It was so interesting to hear about the ordeals they had to go through and the description of being united with the baby you've been trying to adopt for the last fifteen months.

Anyway, suffice is to say, the trip is going well. In two days we'll be in Saigon and then we'll be on the beach for almost a week. Hopefully the typhoons will have cleared at that stage.

Laos

My mother has rightly rapped me on the knuckles for not updating in a while, so here I am. To be honest, the reason why I didn't update, at least in Kunming anyway, was because it was just a bit boring; it had a lovely park and the hostel handily had a pool table and cheap internet, but besides that the only interesting thing to happen was someone swipping my jeans off the washing line (bastards).

But Laos, to be fair, has been much more interesting. After a horrible overnight bus we arrived into Luang Prabang after night fall so just had dinner and went to bed, but I got up fairly early the next morning and just had a wander around. The place really is amazing. Most of the town is located on a penninsula formed by the joining of two rivers, its surrounded on all sides by hills covered in jungle and its dotted with really ornate Buddhist temples, with lots of orange clad Buddhist monks wandering around. Its also a real tourist hub also though, so many here; every third building is either a travel agents, a restaurant or a shop selling silk and paper products. So I spent a few days looking at museums and temples ( not Dim's thing really) and one day we went on a package day tour riding elephants, swimming at a local waterfall and kayaking, which was probably one of the most memorable days of my trip so far, so much fun. The waterfall especially was very cool, so idyllic, if a little chilly. Unfortunately we got rain our last few days, but its really bright at the moment so all is good.

The day before yesterday we moved down to Vientiane, the capital, which unfortunately lacks a lot of the charm that Luang Prabang had, so we spent yesterday be the side of a pool swimming and trying to de-farmer our tans. Today we're going to look at concrete replica Arc de Triumph in the centre of the city, and tomorrow we leave for Vietnam. We're getting an overnight, non-sleeper, 22 hour bus, so Im really dreading the journey. You'll find out in a week if I survive intact.

x

Pictures

A quick message just to say that I've put up a larger album of photos from Russia on facebook.com. Photos from Mongolia and China will follow soon.

Pictures from Shanghai

Pudong at night time. At the moment they're building one of the world's tallest buildings here. Less than twenty years ago the view from the same spot would have been of a few warehouses and paddy fields apparently. The scale of development here is mind boggling.
Old and new; the older one is the Shanghai Gallery, which had some nice exhibits.
People's Square, the centre of Shanghai, and a very funky monument.
Shanghai Theatre, even more impressive at night.
xkcd.com

Pictures from Beijing

Here it is, the Great Wall of China, this is pretty near the start I think, you can tell by how good kip its in.
This is what about two thirds of what we walked looked like, the "Wild Wall'.
This is Beihei Park, next to the Forbidden City, very beautiful. The white thing on the hill in the background is a Buddhist Stuppa which was gifted by some past Dalai Lama to one of the emperors.
Dim in the Forbidden City.
Initially I thought this was a picture of the Temple of Heaven in Tiantan Park, but upon closer inspection it turned out to be the cast shot for Battle Royale 3.

Beijing and Shanghai...er

Lo all, I haven't posted in a while, so thought it time. We've been In China for around a week and a half at this stage, so I feel happy enough to talk about my impressions of the place at this stage I spose.

Beijing first. One of the weirdly cleanest city's I have ever been in. Largely spotless, and largely shiny too, the effort they've put in before the Olympics is immense, which very handily meant that getting around with English was a breeze. We had ten times the trouble in Russia than we had here. Also quite beautiful, especially their parks, of which they have a multitude dotted around the city, many containing temples and pavilions left over from Imperial times.
Walking through any time of the day we found people exercising, dancing together and choirs practising. Its also probably the largest city I've been in, so spread out, nothing is clustered together.

Shanghai, I think has left more of an impression on me though. The scale of the place is just amazing, and the architecture too. Art deco skyscrapers from the 20s and 30s sitting next to 50 story glass towers, stately looking art gallerys next to ultra modern theatres, walking around here is an activity all in itself. The have and have nots are much more obvious here too, much more people shoppinga nd lounding around in nice cafes, but also alot of beggars and homeless people.

Shanghai has also left a deeper impression because of the annoyances it has exposed though. People here have been very friendly, several people stopping when they could see we were lost, but unfortunately alot are also out to screw you over. In both Shanghai and Beijing youe're warned that people who just want to chat to you are scamming you, in several different schemes. About a dozen people wearing the fakest smiles I have ever seen have tried to stop us to 'just chat', the blatantness of it is just annoying.

Shanghai is also the first time I've read a newspaper, which turned out to be a mildly disturbing experience. We've noticed already that the internet is indeed heavily blocked; BBC news, wikipedia and, oddly, the philosoph website all wont work here, and we cant view blogs here. And that, I suppose, aint cool, but the newspapers just disturb me more. Taiwan is clearly part of the mainland, and authorities there are stirring up discord that none of the Taiwanese people support, the Dalai Lama is apparently posing as a Buddhist leader and no statement issued by the government is questioned. Editorials are also by Communist Party members. The internet, as the song goes, is just for porn, but newspapers defanged so much in any society affect me more, because newspapers are supposed to spend all of their time bitching about the government, its just the way they're supposed to work.

Don't get me wrong though, this is an amazing country and I definitely feel more comfortable here than I did in either Russia or Mongolia, the atmosphere is just nicer I think
and the place does have the energy of a country on the rise.

At the moment we're trying to sort out where to go next, Hong Kong seems like alot of hassle, and not the best for our budget, so we're thing ing of heading inland to Kunming, which is fairly close to the Vietnamese border. So that may turn out to be an interesting change, we shall have to see.

Pictures soon.

Pictures from Mongolier

Dim riding his horse off into a Mongolian sunset
This is a not particularily good picture, curse my camera, of the inside of one of our ger tents. 'Tent' is a very misleading word, considering the bed and the wardrobe, also the very cool stoves.
One of the temples at the Buddhist monastery at Karkhorum.
What Dim assures me were roughly 140 horses.

Mongolier

After a month we finally left Russia and got into Mongolia. Our experience here has been very different from the rest of our trip so far and will probably be very different from the rest as well. On Connie's advice we booked a tour outside of Ulaan Bataar for three days, to see the countryside, so for three days we had our own guide and personal driver, which was odd to say the least, but well worth it. The roads here are being upgraded at the moment so lots of the time we were driving on crazy dirt track roads, and for a minimum of three hours each day. (round trip we drove just under a thousand kilometres)

On the first day we went horse riding for a few hours, which I had never done before, which amused our guide greatly when I told her. The scenery here is spectacular, so rugged and barren, so it was really beautiful. At one point we were riding along with nothing in front of us but a plain ringed by hills, with yak grazing off to the sides when a small herd of camel crossed in front of us in single file. The moment was ruined somewhat by our horse guide riding past me waving his mobile phone around to try and get reception. It also took a little bit of a downturn when the horse I was riding stopped after about 40 minutes to take a crap and the horse guide just took the reins and started leading me, so for the whole way back to the camp I was just left watching the scenery in what Dim referred to as my 'fairground pony ride'.

The other two days we first went to visit a camp inside a national park with the last species of wild horses left in the world, and the second day we went to a four hundred year old buddhist monastery, something I had never seen before. It was quite beautiful but also quite sad, the entire monastery was ringed by a massive external wall, but about three quarters of the space inside is barren, most of the temples were destroyed in the 1930s in Communist purges. From a height of 1000 monks, there are now just 60.

Just driving along we also saw a herd of over 100 camel strolling past and on the second day a hawk or some other type of bird of prey which was at least five foot from wing tip to wing tip glided low over the car. On the last day when we stopped to have lunch next to a small lake a herd of what Dim counted as over 140 horses just wandered over the rise and started drinking and splashing around. The breadth of wildlife in this country is just amazing.

The day before yesterday we got into Ulaan Bataar, we havent seen much yet because were being a bit lazy, but were planning on a bit more of a wander today. Then tomorrow morning we get on the train bright and early for the crossing to China, where we spend the next three weeks.

The missing home has hit me just a little I think. I miss people and Ive also started to get my first twinges of longing for St Andrews, which hadnt hit yet over the Summer. I think it was looking at photos of the first meeting that did it for me, I wish I could have been there. (could someone tell James Hoobler to shave the mutton chops by the way).

Anyway, more goings on soon. I hope everyone is good. Send me news.

T

Siberia, Week 3

Nearing the end of September and we're in Irkutsk in the centre of Siberia. We spend one night here on the shore of Lake Baikal, the deepest lake in the world, and then tomorrow we get on the train to Mongolia, where we stay for four days.

Since last I posted we spent most of our time St Petersburg, which is positively beautiful. Walking around the centre of the city is like walking through a museum, filled with ornate 18th and 19th century buildings. The Hermitage, the city's art gallery, which has over three million pieces, most in storage, was an amazing experience. Myself and Laura spent four hours in there and still had oodles of stuff left to see. The entire city feels so different from most of the rest of Russia that we have seen. The remains of Communism were so prominent almost everywhere else, especially in Moscow, but were absent here, which was a very odd transition. Its also far easier to get around with English here, which was abonus, but also meant lots of tour groups.

After three days in St Petes, Connie and Laura left for home, leaving myself and Dim alone for a whole three months, so starting with three days in a compartment together was somewhat of a change. The Trand-Siberian, all four nights and three full days, was in honesty fairly dull. Though crossing five time zones on a train is definitely an experience worth having.

If things work out in Mongolia then we should spend the next four days sleeping in ger tents, hiking and riding horses. Yak tipping may also feature.

As promised, a picture of the great lady herself, Mother Russia. The little dots at the base of the statue are people.
Laura with her trusty Lonely Planet and remembering her mantra.
One of the glrious interior rooms of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. It was a truely amazing art gallery, some of the rooms were more beautiful than the paintings.
Dim carrying Connie across a bridge. Not for any particular reason I think, just our amusement.
And the three of my travel companions, two of whom have now gone home, just leaving myself and Dim, kinda odd.

Rusher, Week 2

We're in Volgograd at the moment, which most people probably know better as Stalingrad. The city was almost completely destoyed during World War 2 and rebuilt after, so we made yesterday our Battle of Stalingrad day. The War Memorial on the edge of the city stands on a site where over one million are estimated to have died over months of fighting. Its centrepiece was an 80m high statue of Mother Russia holding a sword over her head. Needless to say it was very impressive. (pictures soon). They also have a very good battle museum.

Prior to Volgorgrad we were in Samara and Kazan. Unfortunately we were blighted in both by awful weather, we got one horrible wet day and one chilly dry day in each. Both were certainly interesting, with some beautiful architecture and sights. We went to see Lenin's old family home in Samara, where an old woman gave us the most uninformative tour ever: 'Here is his desk, here is where he cut bread'. Both I think left more of an impression from walking around than from anything in particular we went to see. Kazan I liked most I think. It reminded a little of home; lots of cafes and lots of new buildings, most not finished yet. Nothing reminds me of Ireland more than scaffolding and cranes.

This evening we head to Rostov on Don, and then back to Moscow for a day before going to St Petersburg. I'll post agin in a few days, and try to put up more pictures too. I hope everyone is good.

x

Pictures! I finally have a chance to sit in an internet cafe in a while so Im posting a few, starting with the obligatory one of Red Square. At the far end is St Basils, with the walls of the Kremlin on the right, wih Lenin's Mausoleum in front.
This is us in front of the 'Boran'. It was the only Russian space shuttle built but failed all of its security checks so was instead stripped out and put in Gorky Park in Moscow as a flight simulator. Its a terrible flight simulator, but it was so bad it was hilarious, we all just giggled the while way through.
This is an interior of one of the Metro stations in Moscow. We saw quite a few of them. Most of the city centre ones are absolutely beautiful, with ornate plaster work and chandeliers. Most also have statues and sculptures. It made traveling in the city so much more interesting.
This is one of the new Cathedrals they've built. Its only a few years old. The Soviets knocked the original down and put the worlds largest outdoor swimming pool in its place.
And here's the big man himself, in front of the one of the very imposing Soviet buildings we visited.

Rusher, Week 1

Lo ello all, at the moment we're in Nizhny Novgorod, a few hundred kilometres to the east of Moscow, where we spent the first five days. I was hoping to upload photos but the computer I'm at doesnt have a USB port, so I'll try to upload some later. Things have gone fairly well besides one or two hiccups. Moscow was great fun, we did lots of the touristy stuff, Red Square (big, impressive), St Basils Cathedral ( beautiful inside, much smaller than I expected), Lenin (rubbery looking, nice digs), also the Kremlin, which was a little underwhelming but still quite impressive and massive. We also took a day trip out to Sergiev Posad, where Connie's friend Olga lives.

I'm liking Russia more then I expected, though I still find it to be a countries of complete opposites in many senses. People we meet on the street; waiters, guards, shop attendants are almost always not just brusque, but usually unpleasant. On the other hand the two people that Connie has introduced us to, Lera who let us sleep in her living room for four nights and Olga who showed us around Sergiev Posad, are genuinely two of the nicest and most generous people that I think I've ever met. Alos, the places that we have been have included beautiful and shiny new buildings, but also lots of derelict buildings, both houses and public buildings, many of which are literally rotting. The same often applies to basic things like foot paths. This applies much more to the smaller places that weve been to so far than to Moscow.

Anyway, this evening we head to Kazan where we spend the bones of two days, then we overnight to Samara for another two days and after that to Rostov-on Don, followed by another day in Moscow and then to St Petersburg, followed by the week on a train heading into Asia. I'll try to post photos up soon.

Most memorable part of the trip so far: probably the two hour tour from the very eccentric monk who told us that Russia would be ruined when it looked like Europe and that the world was fine as long as Moscow was fine. Very nice man, a little crazy too.

Leaving

Today I moved out of the house in cork, said goodbye to my friends for four months, but more importantly had to say goodbye to my cat, seen here attempting to eat my rucksack.


Packing has also been made somewhat more complicated by the fact that my family may be moving while I'm away, so I've had to pack up my entire room. To be honest though, I'm expecting everything to be where I left it in January, considering this is what my new room currently lloks like:

Still though, its odd to be finally leaving tomorrow, I've been thinking about it for so long.

The Plan

Ok, Im heading off next Friday, so I thought it was probably a good start to lay out in a very fuzzy sense where we’re going.

The first three weeks are wonderfully organised because Connie was in charge, not me or Dim. The trip starts in Russia, sampling the wonders of Moscow: going to the Kremlin, visiting Lenin’s body, marvelling at Communist architecture, but probably mostly playing on swings in playgrounds. Then we head south to Volgograd, I think via Samara, for about a week, and swing north again to St Petersburg. Connie has all the details sorted so, as I say, I’m a little fuzzy on this leg.

Anyway, then myself and Dim leave Connie and Laura behind after three weeks and head off on our own. From St Petersburg we train across Russia, probably stopping at Lake Baikal in Siberia and eventually hit Mongolia. This will be the first month over.

Were booking tickets on the way, so were not sure how long we’re staying there, but at least a few days. Then off to China. In China we’ve committed ourselves to Beijing (to see Mao, the second corpse of the trip), Shanghai, and Hong Kong. Possibly also Xian to visit Terracotta warriors, but we’ll have to see. This is the second month over, which brings us in to South East Asia. From here myself and Dim need to decide what specifically were doing but we know the general direction were taking and I’m gonna mention a few of the more interesting sites I’ve read about.

In Vietnam we start in Hanoi in the north, visiting the city itself and also Halong Bay, which is apparently spectacular. We then head south to Ho Chi Ming City, possibly stopping at one or two places along the way. There are apparently some very cool cities and also beach towns, which might be a nice change of pace after two and a half months. After HCMC, we enter Cambodia, head to Phnom Penh, and then north to Angkor Wat, the portion of the trip I’m really looking forward to most at the moment. Cambodia is also pretty much guaranteed to be the heaviest part of the trip, I don’t think Id feel right going without visiting the killing fields or one of the other major museums.

Then we head north through Laos. Possibly stopping at Si Phan Don, which is just over the border and apparently a beautiful area of islands with rare dolphins. Then north further to Vientiane, the capitol. Lunag Prabang, which is further north is apparently amazing, but may be a bit out of our way. All of this will probably take the bones of six weeks, leading us back into a much tighter schedule.

We head to Bangkok and on December 14th fly to Kuala Lumpur. The next six days are spent debating at Wupid (the World University Peace Invitational Debate). On the 20th of December we fly to Phuket and probably just spend the next three days lounging on a beach. On the 23rd its back to Bangkok for Christmas. On the 27th it’s Worlds. On the 3rd Worlds ends and we spend 5 days looking around some of Thailand. Then on the 9th of January 2008 we fly home.

The Trip

Ok, this is the blog that Im gonna use for posting news and pictures while Im traveling, basically because its less hassle than bloody emailing people.