"On the road to nowhere...."

Just really quickly... If I get to upload my photo, then it's from Tad Lo Grand Central.... Where I waited for seems like the longest time... Only thing moving there was,domestic animals crossing the road, always when a truck or an ancient tractor were passing, as to keep me wide awake, for fear of any duck, goose, 3-legged dog or cow getting hurt....!

Vientiane is probably the finest capital city of any nation in the world... Well, of the many I've seen , anyway! The french influence is pronounced but so is the Asian way of living and the two compliment eachother in a rarely found harmony.... ! No tall buildings to take the view from the sky and not too much traffic to pollute the air... There was a sign on the door to this Internet shop, saying; "Flat for rent" - Oh, how I would love that! Had my breakfast with Irene, my new best friend, at "The Scandinavian Bakery" Read an old Sweedish newspaper from the the 15.th of June.... Can see that nothing musch has happend in the world...(?!) But It was a very nice "Danish" breakfast, and after a month of either fruitsalad or white rice with bananas as first meal of the day, it was a real hoot!! Oh , and we re-celebrated my birthday at "The Sticky Fingers" restaurant...last night! (Yes, I got our man; Paco a T-shirt!) That was nice! And it set past annoyances right and good again!

I'm now getting ready to take a national flight to the absolut north ;

Luang Nam Tha... And from there a bus to Muang Sing,about 10km from the Chinese border... I will stay there for some days, trek around and go to the big country market on June 28... At the Burmese border town of Xieng Kok, when all the various hill tribes from Burma, Thailand, Laos and China get together and sell their stuff; Food, silverware and other handicrafts... There'shardly any foreigners that far north.. No Internet and therefor no contact with my Blog for a week or so...

After Muang Sing, I'll take a bus back to Nong Khiaw and get a boat down to the World Heritage village of Luang Pra bang, which is also extremely touristy .... But still supposed to be very nice and from where I have to catch the slow boat up the Mekong to the Thai Border... But loads of Internet shops in Luang Pra bang.. So you'll hear from me there!

Have to be at the airport in 30 min... so I'm outta here!

"- And I've seen pretty people disappear like smoke...."

Vientiane.... Sounds like a girls name... The capital of Laos is still very French in its Indochine way... I got myself a nice Cafe au lait and a fresh croissant, when I came rolling in this morning at 5:30....!

After some really nice days, yes.. it did pick up considerably after my last entry... And I did meet some really nice people in Tad Lo... Two English couples and a Finnish guy, who was a professional storyteller... And what an enchanted place to be: Tad Lo, this one horse (But loads of cows, pigs and chicken!) town on the border of the river and a very nice waterfall... Rented my self a small, very basic, bungalow ( no shower, only by pail!) and ended by for staying there for three days... One morning I woke up by the sound a cow and her calf makes when they rip up the grass from under the stilts of the house...

Then I got a ticket for the so called VIP bus from Tad Lo - Pakse - Vientiane... At the palmhut, also selling live snakes and lizards, potatoes, onions, washingpowder and good, good coffee....! It was leaving, well supposed to leave at 16:30, so I hiked down to the main road at 15:00 hrs.... Ended up waiting for two and a half hours before the bus finally rolled in... at Tad Lo central, just where the ducks and the black pigs cross the road....

In Pakse we'd to change for the night ride to Vientiane... Now what are the odds to have to share your seat with a morbidly obese person in Laos? Everyone around is thin as sticks!! But yeah... I just won the national lottery and found my self confined to half of a seat, because of my having to sit next to the only fat person of the whole of Laos for the next 11 hrs... Not only was this person big, but she also radiated pure heat! Very strange feeling, like sharing a bed with a small warm kid in a cold room... You're freezing on one side and which ever part of you, who unwillingly mind you, touches the other body is just burning up...

Great ride... There must be some special hell, invented for the person who dreamed up bus transport in Asia: Loud local (or Thai = Sob stories about brokenhearted girls/boys) pop music going nonstop, karaoke DVDs on a loop/or a dubbed Hong-kong Kung Fu movie, also on eternal loop, noodles dripping with fish sauce served up at 2 in the morning, loud beeping of the horn, whenever overtaking something that moves within a kilometer of the actual road and unexplained stops in the middle of nowhere/or a restaurant in the middle of nowhere... The bus does not move until the owner deems that enough money has been spent in his/her establishment... This has pretty much been the panorama of traveling by bus over longer distances ( This meaning more than an hour!) in Thailand, Cambodia, Viet Nam and now in Laos... I personally would like to find the person, who invented this "Passenger oriented wellness" and send him\her on a never ending bus ride through Southeast Asia until this person is begging on their crying knees for mercy... As I almost did this morning...

But then Vientiane came into view, and I had the very good fortune to meet up with Irene from Canada, but of Philippine origin and we are sharing a room here and going out for dinner at "Sticky Fingers"... Tomorrow I'll fly way up north; Luang Nam Tha - The Burmese/Chinese border and make my slow descend to Luang Prabang, where I'll get a slow boat to Thailand (2 days on the Mekong)

- By the way, I met the danish girl (again) on the Tuktuk coming into town, this morning.. we tried to make it a day together, the three of us, but we had the misfortune to start talking about the danish emigration laws.. and as I understood by her choice of words, that she agrees with Pia Kjaersgaard, who has very xenophobic standpoints.. - I sort of drifted my own way through town which is absolutely lovely.. Old wooden houses of max. 3 floors high, old derelict french villas ( but also some gloriously restored from near ruins!) and a "laisse faire" of the inhabitants, that now suits me just fine... After a short siesta.. I Stumbled in the soaring heat (It hasn't rained for three days, now) down to the small riverside restaurants with a view of Thailand and had a great afternoon Mango shake... And now my inner dinner bell tolls - Or maybe I'm just in love?

Wearing my heart on the sleeve..

I'm now off the Islands and took a looooong ride first to Pakse in a "Jumbo" with almost only foreigners and some cases of fish and a couple of baskets of live chicken on the roof... oh, and the Danish girl, I met on the bus from Phom Penh to Siam Reap.... Which now seem like ages ago!
Then on the "bus station" in Pakse, changed to a "real" bus, that would pass by Tat Lo... The bus station being a big mud hole of a place, with a hundred small stalls selling everything under the blaring sun... From second hand clothes, neatly washed and ironed, hung up and sold, food, lots of food...Even a old man with his wagon- stall; selling old toys in dusty plastic bags, belts with watches as belt buckles or old 3D images( Remember those?) of Japanese superheroes !....Think I might get one of those on the way back!
Sat and waited for 3 hrs in a very hot bus, thank God for my fan, and when it finally was full of people, live fish in plastic bags, live geese and ducks and what have you... We set off...
I was unloaded at the bridge, 2km from Tad Lo... which is a small village at a very nice waterfall-
After a gruffly journey trekking up to a guesthouse overlooking the waterfall and the basin, where women,men, kids and animals were washing themselves and their bodies in the stream and the last rays of sunlight...
Got myself a hot shower( Jubiiiii!) and fell asleep at about 7...... and slept til 5:30 this morning... Such bliss and quiet...

Random thoughts:
I must have lost my social skills over the last few years.. Have a hard time of striking up conversations... And when I do manage, I seem to loose interest quiet fast... But seeing everyone else is going in twos and gangs... Make me feel lonely... But somehow, my age render me invisible and when not, these particular dates of the year, makes me carry my sorrows and tears on my sleeve...
I've just reread: The Poisonwood Bible", By B. Kingsolver (Got it in Viet Nam) And I cried the whole way through... So there... I'll stay here for a couple of days in my bamboo-palm hut with outside toilet/ bucket- shower... Read a book, bathe in the river and then go back to Pakse... Take a nightbus to Vientienne (The capital of Laos) Where you'll hear from me again... Hopefully in a better mood - And with some photos to show!

Don't change horses in the middle of the stream... It'll cost you!

Well, the days of mindless travelling is definitely over! Went out for dinner last night and got lost on the way home... 'Usually' I would just have hailed a Tuktuk or something like it, but the city seemed absolutely devoid of anything moving in fact (No people, only dogs in packs, friendly enough, but not fit to point me in any direction ... I headed down to the The Mekong, knowing I would be able to make it from there... And lo and behold... It seemed like the town had gathered in the countless shack-bars on the river... and they were having a ball, drinking BeerLao ( The local beer) and having a Karaoke night out under the moon (Full?) And closer to home at the northern bus station... It was the kids having a disco.....

In my colossal french room I lit a tea candle (Which I had 'borrowed' from The Ei8ht rooms in Siam Reap) for Amadeu and slept blissfully until the backyard cock woke me up at crack at dawn....

Decided to go to " 4 thousand islands" south on the Mekong, right next to the Cambodian border... So I got a "Jumbo" ( A flatbed truck with two rows of seats) and asked him to take me to the southern bus station... On the way he suddenly turned around and went into a, I don't really know, but it looked like a garage of some sort... I kindly asked him to take me to the bus and after a rather heated exchange of words, he finally agreed... But looking really cross and waving his finger at me in the rear window mirror....

Then I found another 'Jumbo' going to Don Khong.... and then I waited... It wont leave until it's full and by this I mean full!!!! On top, inside and outside.... Build up with 50 kg's of sacks containing ? , suitcases, children, old women, 'two cool guys' ( Who then proceeded to eat the whole 3 (?) hrs.. (I've lost my watch weeks ago) workers and me.... We all had a lot to carry... Some more than others! I would have loved to take some photos, but it didn't seem right.. being so close together.... Especially an old granny with her grandchild, going to market in Don Khong with 5 sacks of cauliflower and the kid ( 8-9 years old) with wide open eyes as seeing this side of the world for the first time...! He was sporting, proudly; the dirtiest t-shirt and what used to be a red/white "Hugo" cap - Which the Danes will find hilarious... Don't know about the rest of the world... Granny had chewed so much Betel, that most of her teeth had gone, and what's left were this deep, deep red. But still wearing the exquisite silk sarong and some lovely golden earrings, in the shape of a lotus........

Great trip though... The road is fairly new and almost deserted, apart from the cows and the goats, they seem to favor the middle of the tarmac for standing, doing nothing!

After a small 'ferry' trip to the biggest island in the "4 thousand island" area.... I was dropped of in the pouring rain in the middle of nowhere.... I started to walk down to the river and found a guy sitting under a tree, next to a boat... So I sorta thought, that he would take me to Don Det, where I was trying to go.... But after asking a price of 20$ for the trip ( The 129 km bus ride costs 5$) I tried to appeal to some humanity in a nearby guesthouse... Neither the waiter or the tourist there, could be bothered to even answer me... Okay, so I went back to the first one... and after a lot of haggling around - it was still pouring, you see- I finally caved in to this horrendous price, all account of me being on my own!- more people= better price.. This goes for hotel rooms as well, as you pay per room, not per person!)... Now I had caved in, I thought we would be going, but then he said that the boat was full of water.. and therefore it was a no go! I nearly lost it then.... And I would had started to cry, like a baby, if it wasn't for the outrageousness in the situation... I finally found a guy, willing to take me to the village of Ban Nakasang on a motorbike... It did end up costing me another 100.000 Kip! ( Laos money 1$= 8.000 kip) After a great cup of coffee ( Man!! Laos produce some really fine coffee!!!!) He took me 29 km the other way , back on the mainland..... The whole problem being; I got a truck to Don Khong instead of Don Khon.....! Me (Again) not looking clearly at a map, before hopping on the truck... And then made my mind up of which island to go to.... on the way!

After a delightful longboat ride to Don Det... I'm now here, they only just installed electricty and the place is very, very small! But beautiful green island in the middle of the Mekong river... Got me a room at 'Mama's guesthouse on the river.. (Think it's the sunrise side....!) I 'll stay here for a couple of rainy days...But going on the internet it extremely costly, so I'll write again, when back in Pakse on the way to Tat Loe on the Plateau!

Sunday on my mind.....on a tuesday in June!

Okay, so this is Laos ? If coming here on the plane would give you any clues... Then all three of us, only outnumbered by the crew would give it up!
I'm in Pakse, South Laos and by the looks of it it's like perpetual Sunday around here... No 'Motos', no Tuktuks, not that many people and all is very, very quiet.... After all, this 'city' has an international airport -Totally empty.. But it's there! Went to a couple of the cheaper Guesthouses, but settled on The Salachampa- being a bit more expensive... But; It's an old french villa, with wooden floors, white starched sheets, a walk in closet (filled up with ancient suitcases!) and a brand new bathroom (Which is nice, The french not known for their good plumbing) It's huge rooms with high ceilings and windows with wooden shutters.....=20 $ And it's pure luxury! The backpackers prefer Mr.Vong's place, which only costs you: 4,50$ (with a shared bathroom) But today being today... I decided to give my self the gift of old style colonial comforts...!

Tuesday the JUne 17th. has so far been okay, me being a bit on the wobbly side; It's 5 years today, that Amadeu decided to leave us for a better place... So when Mr.Nol presented me with the sweetest 'goin' away' present.. I quickly had to hide behind my fake Ray Ban Aviator shades, saving face is alfa omega in these parts..... That family being so nice to me... I could only find a tin of Danish Butter Cookies in Siam Reap's most prestigious super market to give them... It sported 'Big Ben' and the guards of Tivoli gardens on the lid... But still... It's one of the few good things of being a Dane on the road... Butter Cookies is avaible EVERYWHERE in the world!
We had some breakfast together, before leaving for the airport... Apparently leaving the world behind, and entering " the Promised land -The land of milk and honey" Where the girls are wearing the most exquisite silks for sarongs, the coffee is divine and no one bothers you... I might not come again! As people has said before me of Laos; The only bad thing about it, is that you have to leave.... at some point!

I see it this way; We all (tourists 'en masse') wants to be the first and only white person around, finding 'unspoiled havens' from our own busy world, but we all want the amenities and luxury 'add ons' of being the last..... I think, some how I've found that special place.... And this is only my very first impression... No hotels, spa's and mighty resorts... No one speaks a word of English and no one really cares.... As laid back as it gets before slipping in to a comatose state...

Tomorrow I' ll decide whether to sail downstream of The Mekong to Don Khong/ Don Det = 4 thousand Islands, with the fresh water dolphins or to take a bus to Tat Loe... A waterfall on the
Bolaven Plateau (Where the coffee grows and where some of the old Ho Chi Min trail is still visible....) Ahr... I can smell the fried plantains being about finished! ( big bananas - not sweet and only eaten cooked!)... I'm off to have some late lunch!

It's my party and I cry if I want to.....

Last day on the Temple run.... some 59 km out of Siam Reap! .... It was so serene and beautifull... Nature trying to take back the ruins and almost succeeding... The Buddhist pagoda delivering a nonstop soundtrack of plinkity plonk ( My feeble attempt at re interpreting Khmer music) and a deep male voice shouting some blessings or maybe telling us; "That life is only a illusion !"

A goodbye to rural Cambodia: Throngs of children going to school in their blue and whites ( Well, in some cases only sort of...!) Water buffaloes having a ball in the flooded fields, Morning (Salad and vegetables) Market at the side of the road only lit by solitary candles (in the wind of bodies and motos) sat on top of the green bundles, sunset over the foothils, boys having a morning bath in the blossoming Lotus puddles, small children still asleep at the top of the stairs to their shacks on stilts, young girls burning sugarcanes, making them ready for later clients, smoke across the road from the cooking fires, the sky turning gold and the perfume of Jasmine, Tamerind, Lime and "Sun silk Shampoo" lies heavy in the morning mist, the sound of animals; Dogs yapping , cocks crowing, geckos and cricketts and the sound of human interaction makes my morning universe complete... Thank you!


Now after another deluge, I treated my self to a aromathics body massage, a facial and a manicure... The very best yet! The long, soft, brown and strong hands makes my body seem mine again and when the same girl uses the very same beautifull hands of hers to give me the softest facial touch... Then I might concur that life is only a illusion but what an a illusion this is...!
With all this indulgence I miss out on the two 'dates' I had for this evening; A Skype call a 19:00 from Saigon and a dinner date with an Austrian girl I met yesterday... Hmmm.... That's how it is around here; I can only make one plan at a time... Two; and I'm bound to screw it up!

Going out for dinner, this last day of my Cambodian adventure... Hardly able to walk for sprained muscles ( All that Temple trekking) and with a bad case of the blues... I choose a nice looking Indian... But somehow they make my dinner go so fast, that after 20 min I'm back on the street... aptly called "Pub street" - How's that for a birthday dinner ? I'm in a bad mood already but now I'm feeling sorry for my self as well..... So I slog it down to my usual place; The shadow og Angkor Wat.... They don't have Brandy.. So it'll be a Amaretto and a coffee then.... I take the luxuxery of a TukTuk home to the hotel, where I have to clear a misunderstanding of how much to pay for my room.....They said 5$ when I came and now it's 12 $... We settle on 10$ but somehow sour the ambience... And right now I can hear them discussing the fact, that I have been up at crack of down every morning and have had to wake them up also (to open the gates) and that I initially said I would stay for 5 instead of the 4 days I actually have stayed..... And now I will not pay up.... "A, Bon contes fait de bonnes amis" (- Better sort out the finances, if you wanna have friends)

Hurray what a birthday!
But tomorrow it's onwards christian soldiers.....

I bow humbly, (if I only could) and send lot's of love to all who has send me mails and text's messages on my mobile...! I know you're all out there! Right now I'm missing everyone who's absent tonight!

Be back tomorrow from Paksé, Laos....
Love from the old gal....

Random thoughts and some explanations...

Well... Had a nice morning , again, Mr.Nol and I... No sunset due to heavy rain and cloudy weather... But never mind, I've had so many other very interesting conversations, every time we stop for coffebreak or yet another Temple... I'm about had enough of Temples, I think... The Khmer might think me lazy or shallow... But I tried to explain that for me it's not only the fine, very fine temples but everything around them... that seems to fill me, my eyes and mind up in matter of hours... Talked to some of the selling women today and we all agreed that the Chinese don't make for very good tourists/costumers... They come in hordes, spilling out of countless buses, zip up and down the Temples, shriek, talk very loudly and buy nothing....

When I had my fill of impressions, which takes me about 5-6 hours... I'm good and ready to go back for a siesta at my hotel... So about 10-11 ish we head ''home"...

Today was different, being Sunday, Nol invited me home to meet his family... I was delighted of cause, only sorry that I came empty handed! ... He lives with two of his sons and a 'new' wife (They were married in 2005) in this really nice, sparse big wooden house! It's very modern in the way it's not on the usual stilts.. But his oldest son lives in , what must be their old home, which is a really small half wooden half palm leaves shack on stilts... it sits in the backyard... What a rare treat...... They invited me to some fresh coconut juice and we sat and talked for awhile and then went back to my hotel in between downpours... We'll be back on the road again tomorrow at 5:00 am.... Even though it's my birthday!

Random observations:

The motos here is normally carrying 3 adults... But this number can easily increase to 4 + several kids. Motos are used as transportation of ANYTHING! 50kg's sacks, a basket full of piglets, 5-10 mtr long bamboo/iron/metal/wood sticks... you dream it up and it's probable been done!

Why has caring Canadian, American or English families who has donated a house or a palm leaved shack, put up signs, sometimes much bigger and in much better shape than the "house"it self? - The sign stating f.ex that this run-down, poor excuse for living quarters, for a whole family was donated by Mr and Mrs Thomas Jones. Canada!

Why not just give the 50 - 100 $ such a place costs and be done with it?

In the whole of Cambodia, I've only seen a handful of people wear glasses! Either they are so expensive that it's impossible to buy or else this is a nation of 20/20 perfect eyesight!

In populated areas it's hard to find birds or crickets... The sound of crickets only heard on the grounds of big Hotels/Resorts and birdsong only deep in the woods... Which is a bit weird, the unnerving sound of crickets being THE sound of heat and warm weather....! But alas they are being fried and served up with chili.. Birds likewise... The same in Vietnam!

"The Kmer Rouge" evacuated all towns and cities, killed most of the intellectuals and skilled workforce. The "Kmer Rouge" 'only' ruled this country for 3 1/2 years, but continued to be active up to 1998... That's only 10 yrs ago!!! It's a monumental effort to have rebuild this nation ravaged by corrupt leadership for centuries, civil war, genocide ( about 3 million during Pol Pot, Big brother no.1 in the Khmer Rouge) famines and the thousands & thousands of landmines, which still claims about 500 lives a year!

Tourists with the right wallet size, wouldn't know the difference between Cambodia, Thailand or Club Med in the Caribbean..... Extraordinary people, the Cambodians: They still have a smile and a hello for you and everyone else passing them by!....

Well... Tomorrow it's my 50th birthday and I've already had some congrats! Ninon is on the way to Portugal from Spain and therfore out of reach... But I don't feel alone and the rain has stopped!

Same, same... but different!

(I actually managed to upload, one of my own photos!]

I've kinda got into a rhythm now... Get up at 4:30 am... fall into the waiting Mr.Nol's Tuktuk (A moto with a wagon attached) and the ride through the still quiet town of Siam Reap and out to the woods of Angkor... All the security guards are sound at sleep on their posts, outside the bigger hotels/resorts, banks and VIP houses and some shops... The few motos or bicycles on the streets are driven by yawning drivers and the kids on the back (And front... all 3,4,5 of them) are sleeping against each others backs (wonder, they don't fall of!)... A few street kitchens are either opening or closing.. You can tell by the state of drunkenness of their customers, which it is... It's still pitch black and I'm freezing.. But even I learn ! So today I've brought my warm jacket and a silk scarf... Then it's not so bad, I almost is asleep as well, when a bat flies into the inside light of the Tuktuk, and he lands at my feet... His furry belly touching my toes.... This is where I yelp out like puppy... He died from the collision and it's a easy matter, getting him out... But it sure sets my heart pounding...This is way too early for me....!

But then we arrive at this magnificent artificial lake, [the 986 century] Solitary and out of the way and thus avoiding the crowd at Angkor Wat, proper! As I sit next to the lion guarding it and see the sunrise ( All 5 secs! It has and still is very cloudy!) I manage to blot out the group of babbling Japanese behind me. - And the persistence of the usual band of kids selling; bracelets, guidebooks, coffee and what have you... leaves me unperturbed... Ah... the beauty of it all; A man fishing with a spear inside the lake, the birds and the rings of water where the fish comes up for air.....!

Today we do the "real thing" meaning; I'm being driven around, from one temple to the next... And everywhere we stop, I have to buy at least a postcard from the kids.. If not their pouting and nagging will give me bad luck for the rest of my life...! ( Me thinks...)

I invite Mr. Nol for breakfast and we have a good conversation about life, economy and lack of it, loss, the joy of good health and loving children (He lost both his parents during the Pol Pot regime - he's 41 yrs now) and this mans kindness and gentle ways impress me no end...!

The we take off again and the temple of Te Keo rises before us - the only temple in the Khmer empire, which is build a bit like the Inca pyramids, it stands "only" 22 mtrs high, but the 'steps' are extremely steep and has been corroded over the years... Well, I think I can get to the top... So I start.. Halfway I'm not so sure and when I finally get to the absolute top, I'm aware of 'things' - can hardly use the word; muscle, for what I have left in legs.....- I didn't know I possessed! And hurray, what do I find at the top - besides an fantastic view over miles and miles of dense forest? Yes! Two kids selling Buddha, Ghanesh and other Hindu gods statuettes and postcards! To my complete and utter surprise; These two are incredibly nice, soft mannered and well spoken in English!!! To the usual question of my origins, the 13 yr old boy named Hin answers:" The capital is Copenhagen and the money is Kroner - Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Checoslovakia has Kroner - Same, same but different money! " Now I'm impressed! So I sit down and we have a talk; The cost of schooling ( 500 Rial a day!- 4000 Rial = 1 USD) which is preposterous, considering that an average worker makes max. 20 $ a month! So that's why they are selling in the morning, so they can attend school in the afternoon...( So of cause I buy some of them!) We compare scars we have on our legs and they tell me how a Japanese fell of this pyramid, breaking an arm, a leg, lost 4 front teeth and the camera went boinky, bonkity, boink... down the stairs... Later they teach me some Khmer words... Which I forget in the same instant I begin my crawling decent... Actually I'm scared shitless all the way down, my legs quiver, my heart's thundering and I decide that this was the last time I climb anything... never mind pyramids!

After some more of this spectacular place, I'm all "Templed out" by 11:00 am.. and we head home just in time, before the heavens opens up and an all day rain starts... It's still raining....!

Mr. Nol will be waiting again tomorrow at 05:00 am.................

A mere walk in the woods.....

Mr. Nol, my very nice TukTuk driver, were waiting this morning at 05 am... Off we went to see the mythical sunset at Angkor Wat - One of the seven wonders of the world, but only just discovered 100 years ago! The magnificent and enormous temple site sits in the middle of jungle/wood, it's an incredible architectural homage to the first the Hindu Gods and later on to Buddha... The buildings date from the 4-500 century and onwards to the ninth.. Build by different Khmer kings, or rather their the hard labouring . And yes, it's true all that you read or heard about the place, it's truly amazing, breathtaking and so big, that it'll take you days to get around to all 4 corners of the excavated site....

If you can imagine this place, where every little piece of stone has been carved with divine pictures, with dancers, priests and artists and the more mundane as a woman giving birth, weavers, workers and entire murals depicting the glory's of wars fought and won!( Siam Reap means" Siam defeated"-Thailand being the Siamese kingdom...) Ahr... the breathtaking beauty of all this is hard to describe in my limited English ( Or any other language...!)... Besides the usual; ah's, oh's, wow's and the Oh my,my's!

Me being who I am, and pretending that I know everything.. or at the very least; making it up/figure it out as I go along... Did not study any guidebook, did not ask anyone, but simply started up through the main entrance... Said hello to a Khmer boy who apparently lives inside this enormous building, half ruin, with his grandmother,who takes care of a huge Buddha statue... hidden within the endless corridors.... and then I went out on the other side and up a road....And through the woods......... Actually,when I eventually figured out that I was probably lost, I just kept walking.... As there's so many temples on the way, hidden behind small lakes and big trees, it was actually fine with me, being lost! Had some conversations with a couple of kids walking to school( It was now about seven am) and was even offered a ride on the back of a bike, but as the girl offering only reached my mid thigh- I took her...! Great fuss, we stirred when we arrived at her classroom...

Finally I came back into the official trail of the main temples but against the flow of Tuktuks, buses, motos and elephants! I at last, found a place to have breakfast and get "ripped of" by the gang of kids there...Told them to go to school, instead of selling stuff in a very insistent manner to dumb, lost tourists like my self... But when a small girl out in the middle of nowhere ( Well,next to a Temple of cause) asked me the usual question of "Where you from" answered; "Oh, Copenhagen" to my; "Denmark" (Which normally only causes a blank look) - I just had to buy; her 2$ silk scarf - yet another one!

After 5-6 hrs I was back to Angkor Wat from the "wrong side" and was "rescued" by my very worried Mr.Nol... When I told him the whys and hows.. He naturally ( I would have done it my self, if I knew how!) made me the laughing stock of all the Tuktuks waiting for their clients..to take them around to the next Temple.... and the next one, and so on...!

Out here in these incredible and divine surroundings: I don't know who looks the more idiotic: The loud Chinese males with cowboy hats, the very serious Japanese girls in full " Explorer" mode ( Being driven in 4WD Lexus with air con!!), the Korean girls in disco outfits incl. high heels, the pale European girls with bad postures or me, doing a 16 km "walk in the woods" barefoot with only flip-flops ??????? (Was bitten by big, bad black ant MF twice! I cried like a baby)

"Memsahib wants to go home" she cried to her driver, which he did... giggling all the way! Tomorrow I'll be back for more, but in the correct way, ha'kuun!

Ps. After some hours of good siesta, I went to town, had my self a good old 5 US$- 1 hour foot massage (Ninon, you'd love this place!!!) - Some dinner by the river and will now be going back to my room and watch some Spanish TVE, at least it's "soaps" where I understand what they're saying, as opposed to the endless Chinese, Korean, Indian, Russian, German, Khmer, Thai ditto....!

By the way to ensure us all a good night sleep, could someone please silence the big Bullfrog outside my window? He is quite unattractively and very loudly serenading/or lamenting the absence of a fellow Bullfrog all night?! - it sounds like a mix of a cow and a donkey...!!

Driving Miss Gabs....

Sorry for being such a moralistic prude this morning! But I was woken up at around 4:00 am...My room being right next to to the kitchen and "Le Picine" - A small affair filled up with chubby Canadians/Americans and well fed Europeans.... and their typical derrogatory remarks about all things foreign....! I'm not too good my self, mind you... I suspiciusly easy fall into the role of imperious old Memsahib.... With a disarming smile...(I hope!) When the hotelboys tell me that "your driver, Madam, is here"- And after all these manicures, pedicures, foot masssages, back rubsand the beeing wated upon hand and foot at all times and everywhere.... then it's even harder not to do the "White Woman in the tropics" act... I don't think that I've carried my own backpack for much longer than 100 mtrs, I have not been ignored in restaurants and the mere fact, that I can go anywhere... even places, where anywhere else in the world would be a "no-no"for riff-raff like me - Just because of my lack of skin colour.... Makes it heaven on earth, ha'kuun! ( Which means: "Thank you" in Kmer - ethnic Cambodian)


This place is full of foreign people, of the sort you don't see in any other place in Cambodia....(Apart from Sihanukville, which's fast becomming the San Antonio, Ibiza of Cambodia) You kniw the sort; Bleached, young and extremely pale English girls in miniskirts and minimal tops, constantly playing with their hair... The male counterparts are equally pale going pinkish, in low hanging shorts and t-shirts saying something about getting drunk and that not being a problem or sporting a marihuanna leafe/joints/dead reggae heroes totin' ( And then they don't get it , when the are pulled over by the police in drug controls?) They are all very loud and not in the least interrested in the country, culture, peoples... only in having, what they consider a good time: Getting drunk, stoned and laid.... preferably as cheap as possible...They will haggle a beer down from the 0.50 cents it costs to maybe 0.45 c and being very proud of it! This in a country where an average worker makes max. 20 USD a month!Halleluja.... Let's save the world!

Well, tomorrow my driver is waiting for me at 5:00 am and of we'll go, to see the sunset at the Angor wat.....

And now it's raining cats and dogs again... Turning all the red dirt roads into rivers of mud.....; "Driver!... come here... Memsahib wants to go home!!!".....

"Red earth and pouring rain"

Had a looooong busride to Siam Reap... The bus was full of babies, who took turns in crying every single minute of the 7 hour long trip! I have a thing about children crying... My heart seems to break for each one of them, bur seeing how the loving mothers, sisters, fathers,grandmothers etc. having no luck in getting their child to stop crying! Maybe the clapping of hands, singing in loud voices, soft but insistent slapping in the bottom and yelling is not the most appropiate technique for soothing babies? When I finally Arrived in Siam Reap, I was good and ready to throw the lot out of the bus windows!

Had the good fortune (?) to sit alongside a very young (20yrs) Danish girl, who also was travelling solo... And had been for 6 months... Chapeau! But her ignorance was of encyclopedic proportions.. and it made me wonder if this Global village stuff is all that great after all? If people, who actually take the time and money to go to the other side of the world, just as well could have been busing around Greater Manchester ship canal... (It rains there too... All year round, mind you!)- Okay, you can't get a B&B for 3USD, but the knowledge (or rather lack of it) of what is happening around you is the same... She didn't have a clue to who, where and what! But she had conscientiously taken the antibiotics for 2 months (?) that her country doc had given her as Malaria medicine....! But I let her be, reading her book about a foreign journalist's escapades in the Phnom Penh's 3usd brothels, under age prostitutes, drugs and shoot outs in the 1990' es - apparently he had a blast! So did the Norwegian girl and her two Dutch friends I met in Sihanukville... They had tried out Ak-47, grenades and Bazookas with some Cambodian Military guys out in the jungle... They had used live ducks, as they taste better than chickens(!) to shoot... All of them being pretty bad shots, it took them several rounds of ammo, before they finished them of!- Luckily they had it all, proudly on tape!
I don't know which is the worst here, the ex-military guys profitting on 30 years of civil war or the turists, who are enabling them to do so?

The new road to Siam Reap was uneventful.... Passing the scenery of wooden/palm houses on stilts, rice paddies, poor small villages filled up with garbage and filth and humans in all shapes and forms... Saw a lot of schools on the way and the amount of Ngo's that is everywhere in the country! I passed some of time, chatting to a young monk, travelling with his granddad and immensely proud of his rather limited English!

Arrived in this really nice place, I think... A bit touristy,of cause.. Being so near to one of the official seven wonders of the world!....

Goodbye Cruel World - Hello Divine Angor Wat.....

It's early morning, it's about 6:30.... The Guesthouse cleaners and waiters are sleeping on the stairs, immaculate in their starched uniforms. That's something you see all over; In the market stalls, shops, bars, verandas, restaurants, post office: Someone sleeping... either in a hammock, on the floor, on top of shop supplies..... or on top of undelivered mail... Don't matter which time... just blissfully sleeping... I get it alright, I do my siestas too... No need to stay awake during the hot hours...!

Yesterday afternoon, I was off to the Royal Palace and The Silver Pagoda... I had been so clever as putting on my only sleeveless shirt I own... Which is "INTERDIT, Madame!" S0 I had to put on my raincoat, I bought in Thailand... Good stuff! It's has it's own sprinkler system on the inside, or so it felt like... After about one minute! I was dripping wet in the humidity of the afternoon heat.. So maybe I didn't pay so much attention, as I should have? But I really think, that all this gold and splendor is a bit like taunting the poorest of this country... of which there are millions! The Silver Pagoda burst of a silver floor... But the floor is very hard to see, under the carpets and when visible, they are stucked together with tape! The emerald Buddha is very nice... But I liked better an unassuming little one, outside, almost hidden under a tree.. Someone had given it their grandmothers best light blue cardigan to wear... I took photos, but this PC do not have an USB... So you must wait, till I find one!

After I went down to the Tonle Sap to find a restaurant with an upstairs balcony... I did the whole river front and at last found a place for my sundowner... The riverfront is full of people; street kids, old lady's selling copied "Lonely Planet Guidebooks" -( I bought one for Laos, they are fine, but for the maps... They tend to be almost unreadable, when they are copy ones!) White guys with their Cambodian girlfriends hang around in big groups at the "English/Irish/American pubs", Landmine victims begging, Tuktuk drivers hassling, Street kitchens cooking up grasshoppers w/chili or Sugarcane being thrashed by a big wheel into fresh and very sweet juice. The traffic is awesome; Motos, cars, trucks, bicycles and Tuktuks... It's quite normal to ride at least three persons on a Moto! The highest number I've seen so far is 6, but then 3 of them were kids... I have even seen a mother breastfeeding the baby and daddy driving the Moto with the older kid in front of him, while chatting away on the mobilphone!
Well all this does not come silently.. so the noise is deafening! Shouts,honking, beeping ( instead of using the lights, naturally!) of horns and chanting, music from open doors...... At last I found a semi quiet place to wound down, enjoy the sunset and say goodbye to this city...
Now I'll go looking for a place to have breakfast - just a fruit salad- a cup of tea and hop on a bus to Siam Reap...

Ps. Néné has asked for an explanation of "Kmer food"; Well," Kmer" is what most of the population of Cambodia, calls themselves and their food is more like Vietnamese than Thai... That means they use bitter leaves a lot, a lot of green salads, chili, onions, not so much meat and then mostly chicken and pork.... And then they have as the Vietnamese inherited the "Baguette, the croissants and the brioche from the French colonialists - Jubiiii, This beeing one of the better things to have survived over the years!

"- And all the angels beat their wings in time..... Shine a light!"

Imagine if your neighbourhood school suddenly turned into a prison of the most evil sort; And I mean evil in the purest of forms.... Where children and young people is guarding you, torturing you and killing you for no offence other than being alive, able to read or some other misdemeanor..... The horror is not the prison it self, but the ordinariness of it all; It's located in the middle of a pretty and quiet street. Being a former school, you can still see the blackboards used in the classrooms turned into cells and torture facilities... This is right in the middle of Phnom Penh, at the time (1975- 78) a very deserted ghost city, as the xenophobic Kmer Rouge didn't believe in education and such frivolities, only in the rice growing, back aching, painful life of a peasant.. So they tried to turn the whole Kmer nation into such lucky, lucky people! And using such much force and violence in the process, that when their 3 and half year regime ended, they left a country devoid of culture, education, skills, religion, food ...... and men... only 30% of the male population survived the "Mighty Revolution" - Not that women weren't killed along the rest of the "enemies of the cause", but mostly men and boys.. Either as prisoners or as child soldiers against the Vietnamese army!

The young children used as guards were reportedly "normal"when the started; But in a short while, they evolved into these monsters of pure evil - sorry to repeat my self, but I have no other term for the inhumane activities of these youngsters - But as in Nazi Germany the monster starts to feed on it's own and many of the original jailers became incarcerated and killed them selves, by another generation of youths waiting to take over.... Can't remember if I have already written about a BBC "Hardtalk" I saw before I left Denmark? It was an interview with the American Proffesor P. Zambardo and his Stanford studies on the evil that apparently lies dormant in all of us "normal people"- Yes I have, just tag Zambardo or the BBC and the piece will turn up!

It was a "good" and sobering visit, this morning.... Seeing all the photos of former prisoners, brought in from all over country... Some of them even smiling to the camera, maybe being the first time they were having their photos taken and not knowing what lie ahead, in terms of suffering and pain...... yet? - There is thousands of these photos of old, young, infants... and every each one of them is dead on the premises: Just an ordinary primary school, in the middle of a nice tree lined street in a good neighbourhood...... Even the former pupils' physical training gear was used to torture the prisoners..... What did the neighbours think of the screams in the night ? - It doesn't say..... But the same thing is happening just west of here, one country over in Burma.... this very day!

( Had an annoying experience there, though... Two young Cambodians were making the tour around as well, their mobiles ringing at all times, them laughing and pointing to some of the photos and instruments of torture.... Ahr, the fickleness of memory, youth and respect ...... , I told them at least to go outside, while on their phones, signs everywhere, saying, this is a place for silence.....! First time I've lost my temper in Cambodia)

I will not be going to the so called; Killing Fields.... The rain has washed away the earth, and the bones are laid bare in the mass graves..... I do not believe in walking upon the remains of humans and anyway, hopefully their souls has gone to a quieter place....

Think I'll go the the Silver Pagoda instead, when the rain ceases and pay my respects to the living and the dead........

Shine a light.................................

Rolling Thunder Review

Well... If I could compare Saigon to a vivacious young whore, and I think that I did earlier on.... Then Phnom Penh is a grand old dame... But just as confused as everyone else around here! I've had Kmer meals served up with good South American Salsa music, Danish 3rd division football results on Cambodia national TV and seen 4WD Lexus' coming down on PP streets so filled up with garbage, street kids and landmine victims that it was hard just to walk through....

But like her younger sister, it's thee place to get lost! For a weekend, a month or a lifetime! A secret love affair behind wooden blinds, where the big fan tiredly pushes the hot humid air around and around, in old derelict french colonial villas, hidden from view by overflowing Frangipani trees and mosquito infested lily ponds. Sneaking out to watch the sunset at the Foreign Correspondents Club overlooking the lazy Tonlep Sap river, while wasting time chatting up pale, old Expats, who seems glued to their seats there, with their shades on - night and day!

I suppose that every nation that has had to customize them selves, to cultures foreign to their natural DNA, more or less by force, has always found a way to implement this foreign 'masse' according to their own ways and byways?! I've seen effigies of Lenin and Marx hanging right by the door of 'The Louis Vouitton super store' in Saigon and here the quite a few Catholics believe in luck and has somehow dispelled with the Roman guilt trip!

Did I say I like this mind blowing place? The only trouble is being a woman and therefore not quite safe to wander alone as the clouds - after dark!

But I have done my bit of wandering during daylight hours! Had my healthy breakfast at a NGO place for Vulnerable Women and Children, which means they have been trafficked at some point, worked as prostitutes until rescued.... By then they probably have AIDS/HIV and are in any case shunned from their homes and families! Cambodia is the country in Asia, that has the highest number of HIV infected!!! Which is not surprising, given the high number of UN soldiers an NGO's in this place.... The same thing is happening in Afghanistan, just as I'm writing. But Afghanistan being Muslim, they deny it completely and thus creating or rather letting the disaster unfold!

I have done some shopping at the Russian market, where I also had my weekly 2 USD pedicure! Today I've opted for red nails with golden glimmer - As a tribute to the Chinese new year about 4 months ago - well, that's what my toes look like anyway!
After all this very tiresome and hard work, I took my 1 hour massage at "The seeing hands" parlour! It's blind people who works there and they are normally pretty good! Today it was a youngish, pregnant girl named Truc. She had lost both her eyes due to a landmine as a kid. I floated away in her strong hands just until she started to stifle one yawn after another..... Then we both couldn't wait for the hour to finish.... I'm still danish at heart!

To celebrate I had a coffee and Calvados at the Foreign Correspondents Club, watching the thunder and lightning bolts come rolling in from the Tonle Sap.... It never really got the show of going and after last night, where a tropical storm kept me awake for hours, I'm spoiled for light shows.... I then decided it was time for a much needed siesta....

Had dinner at at Kmer place down the road from the Guesthouse and I'm now sitting here in the lobby, eaten alive by B52''s- Big huge mosquitoes out to do some grief! Suppose I'll scramble up my 4 flights of stairs. to my room with a view and Spanish television amongst 89 other interresting Chinese, Corean,Italian, French, Cambodian, Hong Kong and American HBO channels.

It's a bit weird though, not having talked with anyone since Saturday... But everybody is pretty wrapped up in their own little circles.... And me being past the childbearing age, I'm only really visible to the Tuk tuk drivers or others trying to make a buck! I'll stay for another day and then head out for Siam Reap and Angor Wat for my 50' birthday and the day after, the 5th year anniverary of Amadeu's death;17 th of June.....

This was a long sigh of relief from a bit lonely and weary traveller..... Now, I still haven't said a word about the sounds and the smells and all these endless impressions, that is blasted in my face, every time I open my eyes..... It's like doing the Louvre or the MoMa turbo style... My eyes and my head's ready to explode about the time I get to see my pillow at night!

If Saigon is like NYC, then Phnom Penh is like Wolverhampton!

One should never make long busrides with a hangover! Which i learned today, painfully! Had a great night out in Saigon with my new pal Tom, who lives in there.... Sat at the top of the Grand old Dame of Saigon; The Majestic Hotel (1925) and watched the migthy Mekong river by night! And got hammered in the process..... Never mind, if ever there's a time for heavy drinking of classic Cocktails, then it would be there, at Graham Greenes favorite bar!

This morning, when the kind, but at times incomprehensible, receptionist at the "Indochine" gave me my wake up call, I (almost) couldn't be asked.... My ticket for Phnom Penh was for 9 o'clock.... But with an gigantic effort, I tore myself away from the allures of Miss Saigon....

It was a good bus ride, though... With a nice little ferry in the middle, if only it hadn't been for the excess of hard booze last night....!! The Cricket was cancelled due to rain in England! In Saigon , we had a mid afternoon thunder and lightning storm, gave the place some much needed cleaning and lower humidity numbers, which I could fully appreciat - Not easy, beeing a woman with menopause in the tropics!

Now I'm here in Phnom Penh and finally have access to some international news, which for some odd reason is out of reach in Socialist Vietnam?! - Almost all hotel/Guesthouses has had a TVset in the room with up to 50 channels, but no news in a language I could understand... But now I'm in this really nice 6 USD place and my Tv has everything... From Italian Rai 2 to BBC world.... And the first I heard was; That Hillary has finally faced the, for her I guess, awful truth, and has withdrawn from the 2008 elections! Wow.... That only took almost a year and I don't know how many billions of dollars.....

I have to adjust to being on my own again, after all this socializin' with other travellers.... But it is nice to be walking about. Hop on a Tuktuk, down to the river and have a quiet Mangoshake as my "Sundowner" at "The Foreign Correspondents Club"....(Recent violent history apart, of wich I should probably elaborate some more, and I do have it in mind at all times, but when I get through to the keyboard, it's not the first thing that comes up...... Don't know why!)

I'll do some fotos tomorrow with my brand new Leica 12 megapixels, bought for about 260 USD in Vietnam... Hey, is that cheap? I don't really know and I don't really care..... But I'm happy!

"Let me see your smile one more time, before I turn you loose"

Ahh... Saigon, my lovely old whore... This city is, as I said yesterday, quite surrealistic... Theres as many "motos" as there's inhabitants in the whole kingdom of Denmark... The only traffic rule is; there is no rules, whatsoever!! They only stop for red.... sometimes...when that is, is still beyond me.. There's cars, bicycles, pedestrians and motos all in one big weaving carpet or rather they come in waves, big, huge and roaring from all side at once.. And the undertow can be quite scaring! I mean: after having sitting on this pearlywhite beach for a week, watching the oceanwaves.. this sea of polluting, honking and lethal one is.... well, like a tidal one of sorts!

In every doorway, back alley, front step: There's some old (or not) woman selling sodawater, lottery tickets, setting up a soup pot: called "Pho"... With the embers in an old brick to keep it hot! As a heritage from the french, there's all kind of "crepes" and "wafles" - done right there on the sidewalk...

In District 1, there's all these very elegant stores and very elegant ladies of the night - and day!!! And all the mixed " Nana couples" ( Old white man with a young Vietnamese girl) goes strolling down the by the mighty Mekong river... And somehow these old guys seem to forget that, the only point of real love' these young beautiful girls have for them, is their wallet! I somehow have a hard time, being really disgusted by this bizznizz relations... As long the girls are not too young, then I would call the cops and denounce "the whitey" at once!!

But this city is a perfect mistress, for a quick romance... And she has made love to both the French and then the Americans... But still has, somehow, been able to maintain her pride and her joy... Her fake smile and the moto drivers cry of " Madame, Madame... moto please?" ....

Everyone is apparently still interested in where you come from in the world...I even had a conversation about Michael Laudrup in Saigon airport...Yeah.... I'm leaving tomorrow, I already bought a bus ticket to Phnom Pen, Cambodia... But I am very tempted to stay another day, another year maybe even another life in this city of broken dreams and flirty smiles.....

Not "Stretched out in room 1009" - but in room 303....

Wow...Flew in at midday from my nice little coconut island retreat.. And smack into the totally confusing, surrealistic metropolis called Saigon..aka HoChiMin City... Been wandering about, up and down the big boulevards, the small side streets...And yes its still Vietnam...Me thinks... Have lodged into the nondescript Hotel Indochine...Could be anywhere in the world, no windows, 30 tv-channels, Air Con and a tub! - But as soon you've come out from the isolation of my room 303 (Even it was a bit hard, to tear myself away from the Major league Baseball game ( Toronto Bluejays Vs. The NY Yankees!!) and taken a slow ride in the ancient elevator to the lobby, I'm convinced I'm i Vietnam: There's a scooter parked right next to the breakfast tables and there's this overpowering smell of fish sauce and slowly rotting food..

Got my self a map, not that it helps... I've been lost a few times, not that it matters... Coming in from the airport, gave me a tast of innercity traffic; Saigon style! I was driven in a really old sedan with the classical radio-station on full blast... weaving in and out of the traffic, which is absolutely CRAZY!!!!.... I'll try to upload some fotos tomorrow, before I'll meet up with a resident friend and watch the Cricket testmatch between England and New Zealand ....!?!? Not I have a clue as to what cricket is all about - but I'll sure give it a try...

"Handfull of lightnin', a hatfull of rain....."

I'll be writing in english, while on the road in SouthEast Asia... Just can't be bothered with the hassle of trying to write in danish on a nondanish keyboard..... It's way tooo hot!

These days are wasted away in the most delightful manner on the Vietnamese island of Phu Qouc... Rented a little beachhut on the roughseaside of the island, called " Long beach" because it's, yeahr you guessed it: Long, white and this time of the year quite deserted!...

After Sihanukville I went to Kampot, Cambodia... This nice, smallish, sleepy riverside town on the way to the Vietnamese border.... It was where the french used to go in summer, up at the hillstations to cool off, from the heat in Pnom Penh.... Actually it's where the best pepper grows!
I stayed one night in this old pretty villa, right next to the river and the breeze... Oh, it was nice, it was paradise....
The next day I hired a Tuktuk to the border, but when he heard, where we were going, asked if we could change to a simple 'moto'... Which later became evident as to why.. as we drove and we drove over endless red dirtroads with massive potholes, through the Cambodian Countryside... It's all a question of trust, you see... Travelling alone on deserted backroads, with all your worldly possesions on your back... Behind the back of a sweet smelling, (and Cambodian men do smell sweet, must be their diet)- stranger.... The last I saw of him, was at the border wawing me goodbye... and that was the end of my Cambodiaen adventure for now.. But I'll be back in no time...

Vietnam and their harsh treatment of foreigners came as a total culture chock after all this soft spoken kindness... The first is the screaming hordes coming at you, when you trying to get off the bus in the southern town of Rach Gia... A 'moto' to town center, buy a ticket for the ferry, a posh new hydrofoil to Phu Qouc island... Find a hotel to crash, but before sleeping: A nice shower to get all the red dirt of me and something to eat... As it turned out, hotel and shower was easy enough, but something to eat or drink a bit more difficult... So in end I stayed a this brand new hotel, reminded me of the Areoflot-hotels in Moscow... Had the same heavy, not so charming, socialist feel to it... With an empty tummy I settled in for the night with an American movie, where you can hear the original soundtrack pretty loudly and in the same time the female voice reading the dialogue in Vietnamese... That's how they do it here, and it's a very strange way of watching movies... Fell in to a blissful air condition sleep ( The very first aircon!!!) And next morning the party boat to Phu Qouc...

I first got a moto to this very Vietnamese bungalow place on a lovely beach called Baio Saio, but something spooked me during the day and I hurridly and expensively got myself and my backpack on a Moto, straight to this nice and sweet little bungalow, where I'm right by the beach and the sea.... Much cheaper a place and much nicer.... I'll stay for a few days, and after this small vacation, it's back to the "hard life" on the road.... Will write again in Saigon....