Vietnam: Hanoi, Halong Bay and Hazes

We arrived in Hanoi to a chill. Having come from Bangkok, and being blissfully unaware of the distance we were travelling, we were greeted by weather in the teens, when we'd been used to late to mid thirties, and a foggy misty haze when we were used to cloudless blue skies. And we were starving, and we only had ten dollars between us along with a couple of hundred Thai Baht (which of course was useless). So we arrived to Hanoi Backpackers in Ma Mai and were surprised by what we found; a modern, clean and friendly hostel where we could feel at home. Unfortunately we couldn't check in straight away and after an hour in the rec room, we decided to go for a walk, get some money and eat some food.

The money situation didn’t exactly help us with the cold. We realised that not even Alice, whose bank card seemed fearlessly able to deal with ‘high risk’ countries, could take out enough money to pay for our hostel (that didn’t take credit card) and eat and pay for a trip to Halong Bay in one day. So we took out two million dong a day (about €67) until we had paid our debts. And that my friend is all I will say about our financial woes.

Having arrived so early on that dreary Monday morning, we decided we had to do our Halong Bay cruise the next day. We had initially wanted to do the two night one, but due to the money issue (oops, I mentioned it) we realised we couldn’t possible pay for it before leaving on the Friday morning at disgusting O’clock in the morning as there was no ATM in Halong Bay (obviously). 

We boarded the Jolly Roger bright (ok not so bright) and early on the Tuesday. The night before we bumped into a girl called Sinéad at the ATM (whilst we were discussing what to do) and as it happened she and her travelling partner, Rachael, had gone to the same school as us; of course Rachael had Mammy for English too; only re-iterating our previous thoughts that the world is too small…or The Bower is too big!

So they were our friends the next day too on our Halong Bay cruise. It began strangely when we realised our guide was a tool, but as soon as we stopped listening to him we began enjoying ourselves. I suppose I hadn’t realised what exactly I was missing with the bad fog blocking our view, but apparently there are thousands of islands in the Bay; we actually only saw the ones directly in front of us.

After people jumped into the freezing water, and froze a bit, we went kayaking. We went to, I think it was called, Dragon’s Cave. It was interesting but I couldn’t understand our Israeli* guide very well so I actually learned nothing. Then we kayaked around the corner and into a floating village. It was at this point I began to slightly regret my choice of kayak buddy. I cannot for the life of me remember his name but he was a charming enough English boy who’d just come from a big mad trek in Nepal. I chose him because we were supposed to go Girl/Boy to a kayak for strength’s sake and he had no partner and neither did I. Simples. His idea of fun, however, was paddling up to an innocent looking boy on one of the flotillas and saying hello. This ‘innocent’ little boy, with what was actually a vicious dog, then grabbed on to the front of our kayak and would not let go. It seems this was the little boy’s idea of fun. He seemed practiced at it too. After that incident, I was not going to take direction from my private schooled friend. We had our qualms about the way I paddled etc. but in general it was an enjoyable two hours.   

During Lunch I was displaced from our table due to dietary requirements and put sitting beside a hungover American named Leo. As a table we talked about X factor, pop music and Leo’s inability to get any decent British pop in the states. Oh and we also spoke about his love of Cheryl Cole. It was during this interesting conversation that it came out that Leo had been on American Idol two years previous and had made it as far as the cut off point for the live shows. He was officially my favourite person on the boat. Later that night, we coaxed Leo Marlowe into an impromptu live show for the Athlonians up in our room. He was awesome. I can’t wait to meet him again when I get to Sydney, where he is now, bartending, and by his Facebook statuses, he’s loving it!

That night, I was the only one of us who seemed to have a thirst, and after a disastrously awful game of Kings, after the live show, and after the girls went to bed, I stayed up a bit with some new friends; notably Leo (obviously), Leo’s friend Katrina who was teaching English in Bangkok and Polly, who was off to Chiang Mai to Meditate with Monks. 

The next day, we woke up ridiculously early to a noise we didn’t recognise – an alarm through a speaker on the boat. Half the tour went on to the bug island, whose name I can’t remember, to stay in shacks and be bitten alive, and we headed back to Hanoi with the Athlone girls and a gang of others.

We spent the next day, Thursday, in Hanoi itself. We were delighted we only stayed one night on the cruise because we got to spend a good day strolling around the French/Asian city. We went to the prison, but apart from that we just looked around the city. The French influence was so obvious, we couldn’t believe. It was like Paris, but with heaps of Asians. The atmosphere and the feeling of the city was just the break we needed from the hustling bustling Khao San Road of Bangkok (more of that later).

I forget most places we ate in Hanoi. But the food was lovely. I do remember Pineapple on our last night though. We had, because I had suggested, left it until the last night because it was very expensive (90,000 dong for a meal).

Hanoi and Halong Bay were just a brief taster of what Vietnam had to offer. I will return some day for sure to go south to Ho Chi Min and experience the rest of the fascinating country with its paddy fields and women with triangular hats. 

*I’ve spelled this word incorrectly my whole live. English degree, what English degree?

A little help...

My sister Aislinn and her Fiancé Robbie have entered the Golden Pages Golden Wedding Competition. Please please, anyone who stumbles upon this, give them a vite if you have no one else running in the compettion.
They really deserve it - they're currently trying to get their house together to be liveable in and save for the wedding at the same time; Aislinn is a trainee teacher and Robbie is an artist, whose work is amazing but it's not exactly a lucrative business in times of recession!
I'm completely helpless in the planning of the wedding because I'm on the wrong side of the world so I suppose this is me trying to make up for my absence!
It only takes a second, you just have to like this Facebook link. Simple.

Thanks in advance,
Gabberific xx

Aislinn and Robbie's Golden Wedding

Koh Tao: Paradise and Pyromania.

There is only one word to describe my twelve night stay in the paradise that is Koh Tao, and that word is fire.

Possible the best photo ever.

Our stay in Koh Tao can only be defined by the beautiful food and the fire show at Lotus Bar on Sairee Beach. And of course by the friends we made.
We got the boat from Koh Phangan, the fast one, on the Monday after Full Moon so that the Hangovers would be well and truly gone. At the port in Koh Phangan we bumped into three Irish boys, Damien (Damo), Diarmuid (Diarmo) and Khalid (Kylo), who we had met sporadically on Koh Phangan, and we saw them every night (and some days) until they left a week later. Though the boys were infinitely intrigued by our love of the fire, they willingly stuck by us through the buckets, the late night pancakes and the pork flavoured noodles. We were delighted to have met them again, not only becuase they kept us seats every night but because we got on like poi on fire.

Myo, playing with fire

It wasn't just the fire show that kept us going back to Lotus bar every night; we were enthralled by the lives of the burmese boys who threw it too. Nearly everyday we discovered more about their fascinating lives, lives that were so far removed from anything we knew ourselves. One, my personal favourite, had only been to school for two years, from the age of five to seven, and then worked with his family making some sort of fabric. He arrived in Koh Tao in 2006, with no English or Thai but with an English-Burmese dictionary. Though his English wasn't perfect, even in the two weeks we were there he always asked questions about words and was definitely extrememly interested in the language. On our last night, he told me that he wanted to perfect his English and move to Europe; his girlfriend was Swiss and Europe was his ultimate goal. He was twenty-one. I didn't really get to know the others as well, but each of them had their own unbelievably difficult stories; full of both sadness and quests for freedom at the same time. We became very good friends with one of their girlfriends, Libby. She was from London and was sweet and fun and we loved hanging out with her. She told us so many more stories about our new burmese friends that they didn't tell us that we felt like, I suppose, we knew them better than we actually did. That said, I still think we got a fair idea of how they lived and who they were and it was a fortnight that really, in the end, made me appreciate where I was born and the oppurtunities that have been awarded to me as a result.

It's not the first time this feeling has come over me, the feeling of absolute gratuity for my place of birth. It happened a few times on Koh Phangan as well, especially when we saw little children roaming the streets when we were walking from dinner to the beach or even from the beach home at the ungodly hours we did; another time was when myself and Rachael were on one of our walks and talks around Haad Rin and we saw how the locals lived in their little huts. Well, my face was green after the complaining we did about the proximity of the shower to the toilet in our bungalow, I'll tell you that.

Instead of spending my whole Koh Tao post talking about how bad I feel for the things I have, I will be utterly selfish and also tell you all a little about the FOOD we ate on Koh Tao. And beautiful food it was. We ate in Sairee Cottage Restaurant on our first night, where I sampled my first (and last) Penang Curry. It was too spicy and sufficed to say I was unable to attend the fire show that night! On our third night, Claire's last night, we ate in The White Elephant, which was definitely one of our favourite restaurants. Our other favourites were our expensive Italian Portobello and the delicious Fizz which we returned to twice, but only discovered during our second week, even though we walked by it every day. The day of Claire's departure, we decided to eat close enough to the fire show so that we would get there early. We settled on Blue Wind where we'd had cocktails that afternoon. The food was beautiful, Massaman Curries all round, but it took almost an hour for us to get our meals so our ploy to be early for Fire show was kaput.

On the plus side, that night we met Barney, the barrister from London. He did what I hope if I ever need to do I will be able; he appraoched our group as we ate. He was over in Koh Tao after spending a few days in Koh Samui with his mum. He was learning to dive. He joined us, even after our rudeness of leaving him mid-meal to leg it to the fire show, each night of the three nights of his stay. We had fun with Barney and were delighted he approached us that night. We even got to meet his mum, and even she stayed an extra night on Koh Tao.

Which I suppose brings me to the explanation of why we stayed so long when initially our time on Koh Tao was supposed to fit in Chiang Mai as well. You see, Koh Tao is an island people go to for a week and stay three years. Take Libby for instance. She was on her gap year, travelling the world. Thailand was one of her first stops. And she stayed on Koh Tao a whole year. People stay for numerous reasons. We even bumped into a girl we went to school with, Sarah, who was doing her Diving Instuctor training on the island. I got the impression she'll stay a while too. At first we stayed two extra nights because the Irish guys were, and well, we just didn't want to leave. So we booked our boat/bus with Kylo who was heading back to Bangkok to meet 'Charlie and the girls' (Charlie is in fact a boy) for the Sunday afternoon. We had some time after check out, breakfast and before our boat left so we decided to go to Lotus Bar for one last good-bye. We didn't think anyone would actually be there, but we just wanted to see the bar before we left anyway.

When we arrived down, only Cyrus, the fourteen year old swiss Fire Man was there. He duly, though we hadn't asked him to, woke all the boys and they came out one by one to 'say good-bye'. As we sat there, on the little cushions, on the deck, talking, a rush of 'I don't want to leave' energy passed through us. It had always been between myself and Rachael I suppose, an unsaid thing that was understood, but Alice had been on the Chiang Mai train ever since we'd arrived in Thailand. I can't remember who said it first, but suddenly we were tossing a coin, and deciding our future in Thailand. Kylo, who had been with us the whole time, was watching our ridiculousness in amazement. It was ten to two. The bus to the boat left at two. Kylo had to get the bus to the boat. We, after three tosses, were destined to stay in Koh Tao.*

So we had ten minutes to find out if we could get our money back for our boat tickets. We walked more quickly than we had ever done down the street to The Silver Sands, and amazingly we struck a deal. So we waved our son, Kylo, off as he, or so it felt, set off to war, and we jumped up and down in excitement.

There was a worry, however, in the back of our minds that the process of getting our Visas for our planned trip to Vietnam a week later would be a week long ordeal. It turned out, we could do it easily online, but more about that later. So we stayed in Koh Tao an extra six nights. And they were as good as the first.
We have no regrets about staying because we know we are going to try to go back to Thailand at some point so we haven't missed out on anything really. 

We didn't just go to the fire show either. We occasionally did stuff during the day. On the Friday before the Irish boys left, we went snorkelling around Koh Tao. We had a beautiful day, but it was not with out mishap. In the first bay we were snorkelling, we were just making our way back to the boat when Diarmo and Damo started shouting at Rachael; A trigger fish was making his way to her and looking like he wanted a nibble. Rachael looked down just in time to see the massive fish take a bite out of foot! Luckily, the only thing she lost was a flipper and we didn't even have to pay for! The oddest part of the day, was when we were just off Nang Yuan island. We were in the middle of the beautiful ocean, looking at tropical fish and lovely colourful coral. It was the day of Election '11 and we began talking politics. I'd say it's the strangest place the future of the Irish language in relation to an Irish Election has ever been discussed!
Myself and the girls went to Nang Yuan one day ourselves, when the boys had left. We spent a gorgeous afternoon, on the private island. It was absolutely magical and we agreed that if it didn't cost a fiver (200thb) to get to, we'd be there everyday!

Nang Yuan as seen from Koh Tao

I don't feel like I've done Koh Tao justice in this post; it was the most relaxing and at the same time fun twelve days of my travels so far. So much happened that I can't remember, because when you keep a diary and take photos, they become all you remember. I do remember the happy feeling though. And I doubt I'll ever forget it.

The Alii - A girlband styled by Alice :)

*We actually tossed the coin a fourth time after we got Koh Tao on the third toss. It was Chiang Mai. But because our decision had been made, we were oblivious to the Universe and its 'signs'. We were staing in Koh Tao.

Thanks to Alice and Rachael for the photos, yours were better than mine!

Koh Phangan. Full Moon and Pancakes.

To say that Koh Phangan was fun, is an understatement. It was the funnest, craziest and most filled with partying week of my life. And I took breaks.
We arrived on the fourteenth of February. Valentine's Day. It was the Monday before the Saturday night of Full Moon. We walked the streets of Haad Rin that first night to find somewhere to eat dinner. We ate in a beautiful Italian Restaurant, MonnaLisa, that was topped eventually, but was one of our favourite meals of Koh Phangan. So nice that we returned on our final night.
We finished dinner at about eleven pm and the streets were desolate, isolated and sad looking. "Monday mustn't be a big night in Koh Phangan", we mused as we strolled around as new-to-Thailand-travellers. We decided to make our way to the beach to see what it was like at night time. "Quiet because it's Monday" we thought, perhaps with a few groups of stoners smoking and singing hippy songs.
We could not have been more wrong. As we walked down towards the beach, down the alley towards Cactus, we could feel the ground vibrate. It slowly grew up through our legs, our bellies, our minds. And once we reached the beach, that vibration of music and good feeling had reached our hearts. We were enthralled and encased by the power of the party. We had never experienced anything like it before.
The beach was dotted with masses of people, drinking from buckets and dancing like lunatics. We were in Party Heaven. A place none of us had realised we craved. A place I never thought I would actually enjoy. But I certainly did.

 Above is a picture of our Koh Phangan rings, donated by a lovely Bucket Stall owner whose name I don't remember. She was nice though.

After an unforgettable night of dancing and making new friends, the two most memorable being those two boys from Fiji whose names I don't remember, we arrived home from the beach at 6.30am. I was greeted by a text message from my sister asking if she could call me, because she had news. Her boyfriend, now fiancé, had proposed to her on V-Day. Cue me bawling my eyes out in the Gulf of Thailand with happiness and being embarrassingly told by my sister to hang up.
And so the tone of the week was set. With the surprise arrival of another friend the next day (that I had co-planned) we, of course, ventured to the beach that night too, this time more aware of what to expect. And so followed a week of partying. We stayed out most nights until dawn, stayed in bed until 11.30am, had breakfast (included in our room rate and I proudly only missed it once!) then returned to bed until skype o'clock (3pm) most days. On the two days after I skipped the night-time beach, I took strolls after breakfast, got a facial massage, occasionally lay on the beach (completely shaded, of course, and covered in factor fifty).

We stayed in a fine ol' resort that did the job in a bungalow pee-break distance away from the beach. Our favourite staff member was a beautiful Thai girl called Pancake. I think she will forever stay in my mind as the epitome of Thai Beauty. I hope her life turns out well.
Full Moon Night finally arrived. The night after the real Full Moon because of a Buddhist Holiday on which we lost power for three hours. It was a little worrying, as we hadn't yet eaten dinner, and a little scary because we were on an island in the middle of the Gulf of Thailand.

It was everything we expected. Our Beach was taken over by tens of thousands of travellers, who arrived from Koh Tao and Koh Samui for the night, or ventured from the far side of Koh Phangan for the festivities. We donned our bright colours and glow paint and partied with the masses. I bailed earlier than the rest as the crowd was too much for me but I saw from the video played around the streets the next day that the party didn't even stop when the sun came up. 9am and the party was still throbbing at Drop In, the favoured techno haunt.
In all, it was a week I will never forget and a place I will never return to. I may explore the other side of Koh Phangan in the future but, for me, Haad Rin was a one stop shop and one that doesn't need to be revisited.
In short, I've done Full Moon, and I liked it.

My new mantra.

Found in a toilet that you had to whoosh water down to flush and couldn't put toilet roll into in Lotus Bar, Sairee Beach, Koh Tao, Thailand.

It seems I have neglected Thee...

I'm seven weeks into my travels. In the past seven weeks I have been on two continents (excluding Europe) and in four countries (excluding England and Ireland).
I have lots of stories, lots of pictures, a few regrets and mainy fond memories.
My first entry shall be an account of Koh Phangan. An island on which we partied until dawn and rarely saw daylight between 7am and 3pm.

Watch this space.

What to do: Swap Big for small and dear for cheap

Since I'm heading away for five months next weekend (eek) and will be budgeting my savings from now on with nay a prospect of further payment becuase of a lack of services rendered I've needed to cut back on product purchasing and spending. My current cutbacks are as follows, from head to toe:
Hair:
Volumising Trésemme Shampoo and conditioner have been decanted from bathroom staples into small 100ml bottles to get me through my first few days in Thailand. I've switched from my normal Aussie Curl Hair serum for Boots Expert Serum.
Face (cleaning):
Clinique mild cleansing gel/various neutrogena face washes and exfoliators and Garnier Toner have been replaced by the L'oreal Scrublet Face wash. I will still bring my Clinique Spot cream! My Moisteriser will stay the same, Oil of Olay, but I'm adding a factor 50 to the mix too. My current eye maker remover, johnson and johnson two phase is just running out so I got a tub of the Boots Fragrance free pads so that I won't need to be messing around with millions of cotton wool balls.
Body:
St. Ives exfoliator and any Shower gel will now be a mini Sanex that I picked up in Superdrug for a pound and exfoliating gloves that I got for a Euro in Fuerteventura at Christmas!
An now to the face, make up wise:
My usual face is: Clinique Even Better foundation, followed by any heavy duty concealor, loose powder and Benefit's Coralista. Then my eyes would usually be nude, followed by mid to dark brown shadow and a brown line and brown Mascara (or black for going out with a Mac Red lip). This shall be downsized to Natural Collection tinted Moisteriser (€2.99!!), my current concealor, and a Lancome travel kit I got as a present from my cousin which has eye shadows, lip glosses, concealor, pressed powder, mascara and blusher all in one. I may throw in some colours from my FrontCover set to go with the sun but in a nut shell this is me.

Plus the all important factors 50 and 30 for the 30 degree heat in Thailand :)