Annelies around the world

hi my friends,

no i am not dead, not robbed, but still very alive and kicking. my last week is coming up and i am trying to enjoy every last minute because i love it out here!!!

on my way to ko phi phi now, should be paradise as i have heard.

see you soon

xxx

After an other crazy busdrive yesterday of 15 hours, I am back in Thailand. And if that was not yet enough, I am taking the nightbus this evening to Ko Phangan because it is party time over there around Christmas en New Year. So I am stuck an afternoon in Bangkok, hence I have time to write because it is freaking hot out there.

First things first, Cambodia was absolutely amasing, a country with such a violent history and still people are so friendly and funny here. They seem not at all to have become bitter by their past.

So after Phnom Phen I went with Alexa to Kampot, the french built this city on top of a hill and it has been completely abondonned for years, hence the name Gost City. It is 2.5 hours driving to get there with a jeep, and of course, our jeep broke down... very funny (and this was not the last broken bus \ jeep experience in Cambodia). So we waited for about 3 hours for a new one to arrive, the 2 hours we could spent in the city where slightly reduced to 30 min, the waterfalls were skipped and the sunset river cruise must have been really nice, where it not that the sun had already set some time ago. Still it is part of the cultural experience and a trip I will not forget.

Back in Phnom Phen I visited the killing fields and the jail, Cambodia was in civil war from 75-79 and this crazy man just killed his entire intelligent population!! No need to mention that the killing fiels and the museum were a difficult day to absorb.

Next stop, the famous temple complex of Ankor with Ankor wat being the biggest religious building in the world. I took the 3 day pass and had this 24-year guy driving me around on his motor. The pictures will say for more then I can ever write, but it was beautifull. The second day I woke up very early to see the sunrise, together with thousands of other people, but still worthwhile to wake up for. By the 3rd day, it seems that my motorcycle driver got a little crush on me, very sweet but not really necessary from my part.

The trip to Sihanoukville started again with some more broken busses, it does not seem to affect me anymore. Sihanoukville was amasing, the first beach I saw in 7 weeks of travelling, and it may not be the most beautifull beach ever, but it is still very small and undevelloped, something how Thailand must have looked liked several years ago. I ended up staying there 9 days, mainly also for visa reasons but I enjoyed every minute. It was so wonderfull spending that time at the beach, not really doing anything, just relaxing, beach parties in the evening... which has let to my next decision...

For christmas and new year I was thinking of just going back up to Pai, to avoid all the hastle and crowd at Ko Phangan. The only real catch was, everybody is going there and I loved the beach so much, I decided this morning to just go there, face the crowd and have a new year party as never before.

I have arrived yesterday in cambodia, still not yet been killed, robbed, ... so far so good it seems

At the moment in Phnom Phen, the capital. They have some nice guesthouses here next to the river, honestly you can not tell you are in a city from the terras. Arrived yesterday with Alexa, german girl, very late at night, but this evening is cocktail time.

Since Alexa is leaving in a couple of days, we will probably go with the train south to Kampot, come back to phnom phen. From there moving to siam riep to go and see ankor wat and going back south to some beaches in Cambodia. If plans do not change again what they always seem to do out here...

I have arrived in the south of laos on the 4000 island - does that not already sound very good- ?

Internet is ridicously expensive here, so you all will have to wait for more pictures untill I have arrived in Camdodia, which is finally pretty fix that I will go there.

The south is really nice here, as if live stops here, so relaxed...

On the VIP bus, Laos style (see picture) to Vientiane, which gives me some time to do some writing. Thailand again was great, being in Laos makes me sometimes even more realise how much I love that country. And I will never complain again about the absence of decent bread in Thailand, Laos has amasing baguettes but I truly miss my Thai curries. It is strange how a country so far away can feel so much like home, but I will have a couple of weeks again in Thailand before coming back to the real world. All of this does not mean I am not enjoying Laos of course.

I spent a couple of days in Chiang Mai, visiting the temples, and completely suprised ran into Angelique who I met in Bangkok. To both our disappointment, she only had 3 weeks and our paths had to seperate in Pai ... In Chaing Mai, we rented a big motorbike and went into the mountains, so beautifull.

I managed to stay another 11 days in Pai, still one of my favourite places in the world and home to a lot of backpackers who get stuck there. Pai has a ideal combination of local life mixed without tourism with the tourist taking over the entire village. What did I do there, not that much, relaxing, trips on the scouter, drinking tea, reading my book, enjoying the nature and the mountains of Pai, partying. I did follow a cooking class, mmm Thai food is so good. My last day in Pai, I finished with a yoga class and I would love to find an other place where they gives these classes.

Going from Pai to Laos, always involves a full day in the bus and then there are  options. Either taking the slowboat wich takes 2 days or the speedboat which only takes 6 hours, but is ridicously dangerous. Not to upset anybody, I took the slowboat. The good thing was, I have been hearing so many stories about how boring and uncomfortable the thing was, it actually turned out much better than expected. I was expecting a row of wooden benches all packed next to each other. The boat is of course Laos style, meaning instead of 80 people, they pack it with 150 and once going to move 2! people from site because the boat is out of balance and of course sitting on the side is unsafe. But still it was fun, not to be seen as a alcoholic, but after a couple of drinks, everybody starts talking to everybody and times flies by.

Luang Prabang is the first stop in Laos. The french colonial influence is very clear here, the city site is like asia meeting france. Partywise, the bars close at 11.30pm with only the bowling open after that, no need to say that bowling is not the first priority.

Luang Prabang also has an amasing waterfall just 30 min outside the city. The big pool has a robe swing and who knew that was only preparing me for Vang Vieng.

Everybody going to Vang Vieng, goes tubbing down the river in a inner tube of a tractor. Along the river, plenty of bars who literally pull you out of the water. Every bar has robe swings and some are pretty scaring but lots of fun. The 2nd time, I went down the really big one (mom you might want to skip that photo once I get those...), it took a lot of courage and knee shaking but what a kick, the adrenaline is just rushing through your body afterwards. It is a bit like 3rd world disney land.

Further I liked Vang Vieng but had a bit of a love-hate relationship with it. In the evening, all the bars have these lights outside, seems a bit like Las Vegas and the association with Laos seems sometimes far gone.

So yesterday I took of to Vientiane, the capital of Laos and this evening I am already leaving on an other bus to the south (Pakse). It should take about 10 hours but there are stories of 16 hours. The roads in Laos are nothing compared to Thailand, everythings goes still a bit slower.

It has been a while by now. I have arrived in Laos yesterday and still having a lovely time here. As they say, no news in good news so just a short recap (still not really in a writing mood).

Pai was again wonderfull as usual. I followed a cooking class. And the last day, I followed yoga with mama yoga, really good.

After Pai time to move to Laos with the slow boot, which was a lot more fun then people made it sound (ok the alcohol could have something to do with that). I am liking Laos a lot, tomorrow moving to Vieng Vang, tubing in the river.

Voor de verandering, eens een berichtje in het Nederlands, sommigen zullen me dankbaar zijn (al vallen mijn schrijffouten hier wel harder op). Chiang Mai is weer onverwacht leuk geworden, ik was woensdag de tempels in de stad aan het bezichtigen, die ik vorig jaar niet had gedaan, en wie loop ik tegen het lijf (Chiang Mai is nu niet direct de kleinste stad dus ik moest zelf 2 keer kijken), Angelique die ik mijn eerste avond in Bangkok had leren kennen. Het klikte nog steeds even goed als toen. Tot deze morgen (Angelique is verder gegaan naar Laos) hebben we dan ook ontzettend leuke dingen samen gedaan.

Woensdagavond was culinaire avond, vis gaan eten op de night market in Chiang Mai, mmmm zo lekker. Dat laatste pintje dat we nog gingen drinken nadien is licht uitgelopen tot half 4, een leuk feestje ontdekt.

Donderdag was het plan om scouters te huren en een trip buiten Chiang Mai te doen, weg van de drukte van de stad. Dat was het plan in ieder geval, tot Angelique een iets groter model zag staan. Rondrijden in luxe was het. s avonds, in hetzelfde plaatsje als de avond ervoor, Digma en Rene uit Nederland ontmoet. Geen koppel, buren van elkaar en om het zacht uit te drukken, het was voor Digma niet echt wat ze ervan gedacht had. De dag nadien zouden we vertrekken naar Pai en Digma is lekker voor een dagje meegegaan om er even tussenuit te zijn. Goed feestje s avonds, licht dronken ...

En toen de volgende dag, de minibus naar Pai op, dezelfde minibus waar ik vorig jaar met een kater opzat en een ritje dat toen niet echt aangenaam was ... maar ergens schijn je die slechte dingen toch te vergeten en te minimaliseren, maar geloof mij, het was erg. 4 uur ontzettend misselijk in de bus gezeten, mental note to myself, GA NIET IN DIE BUS ZITTEN MET EEN KATER, misschien onthoud ik het deze keer.

Vrijdag en zaterdag waren rustige dagen in Pai, gewoon genieten van de sfeer daar. Het is toch nog steeds een van mijn lievelingsplaatsjes op aarde, niet de drukte van de stad, mooie omgeving, verfrissende waterval (ben er deze keer niet afgevallen, ik leer dus wel een beetje bij), leuke mensen...

Kortom ik heb het hier naar mijn zin en de fotos zullen allicht veel meer zeggen dan mijn uitleg. Ik geniet er de volle 100 (zie hier het procent teken) van en hopelijk gaat het met jullie thuis ook allemaal goed!!!

Last week, I was still completely stressed out. Saying goodbye to everybody was more difficult than I could have imagined, although I kept it probably hidden for most people. I could not give in to all my doubts and fears, this was my big trip and one way or the other, I was getting on that plane!!

Luckely all my doubts disapeared quite quick, I even more or less appreciated Bangkok this time, can you imagine. More I even had fun in Bangkok. I was sitting next to a really nice Australian guy on the plane, and he was so nice to take me with his taxi to Kao San Road (the famous backpacking street in Bangkok), so no long busdrive to the center, what a way to start.

Being here, I even realised more what possibilities we have here, and how very lucky I am to even be able of doing a trip like this. So you can be sure of it, I am going to enjoy it to its fullest. There is only one life and you better enjoy it today rather than tomorrow.

Bangkok turned out so much nicer than I expected, first evening was really nice, met a dutch girl, Angelique en Stephen from Canada. Saturday evening started off with finished a bottle of thai wiskey, not by myself of course, pfff that would have given me an enormous hangover. I met 2 canadian guys and we ended up going out to the bars on Kao San Road.

And then my first visit ever in Bangkok, I decided that it was time to finally visit the grand palace. Even with the hangover, and all the people, it was worthwhile seeing it finally.

Going to Chiang Mai on Monday, and having heard all these fun stories about parties on the nighttrain, I decided to give it a go. Well it was not worse than the nightbus, but first the disco on the train had been cancelled I heard from the English guy sitting next to me. Apparantly due to too much drinking and accidents caused by that. And second, I did not really sleep better. There still is a bar on the train, but we were kicked out at 11.30 pm. My conclusion, travelling for 12 or 14 hours to Chiang Mai is never comfortable... but yeah it is better than going  by foot.

Since yesterday I have arrived in Chiang Mai, I will stay here for another day or two and move on the Pai. Just to escape from the city and enjoy the peace in Pai. (for those wondering, this is all in the north of Thailand and I will stay there and go to Laos from there)

The decision has been taken !!

I'm already talking about this since my return from Thailand last year and, even beyond my own imagination, I'm going to do this ... Take off on October 18th till January 17th. The "plan" is to visit North Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodja en ending with the beaches of south Thailand...

Ik heb er maanden over gepraat, het gepland en heel veel getwijfeld... maar soms moet je gewoon je gevoel volgen en ervoor gaan, al is het best wel een beetje akelig.

Ola,

And again the story has come to an end ...

After 5 hours delay my journey home started yesterday ... I saw a slight chance that the flight would be cancelled and I would have no other choice then to stay there :-).  The airline company was however very nice to give us a coupon for 18 USD, to spend in the airport, and I had some delicious goodbye fajitas, mmm, what a way to go.

In Palenque I had decided to go straight to Isla Mujares and to enjoy my last days at the beach.  One great decision if I can say so!  The hostel was again full with wonderfull people and I couldn't have had a better ending of this trip.  My 2 dutch friends had also arrived already the day before and Stefan from Germany joined us on Tuesday.

My activities during these last days are extremely easy to summarize ... lost of doing nothing all day, just hanging around and having fun, swimming of course in the cariben sea, taking lots of naps on the beach (that was really great, catching up with some sleep), and not to forget the beach parties every evening (thus the explanation of the napping during the day) ... a well deserved relaxing ending to this slightly exhausting but very worthwhile trip.

The only active day was Wednesday, together with Erwin and an american (nice guy but a very difficult name to remember) I went snorkling at sea.  That was really fun, fishes seem to be paid to swim as close as possible to you.  And the fishes are really beautifull, they look like a 5 year old had given them colours, going from fluo pink to bright green, to yellow.

And Thursday I had planned with Stefan and Hannah (English girl already travelling for 20 months !!) a trip on the scouter around the island ... which we however replaced by an other day of doing nothing and napping on the beach due to simultaneous hangovers ... not having to say the party was very good the evening before.

And then it was time to go back home ... I can say I was extremely jalous of those travelling for several months.  I have added lots of new countries on my list "places to visit" which can become a problem to realise everything in the next years, almost impossible, lots of pictures and great memories ... no need to say that this was not my last trip ...

Mexico in short :

* great food !!

* beautifull countries going from beaches, to jungle, to maya tempes, to colonial villages,

Mexico has it all

* extremely nice and helpfull people

* good weather (I just missed the rainseason !!! talking about timing)

* most colourfull buildings

does anybody needs more convincing ???

That's all folks

see you next time !!!

lots of love

Annelies

xxx