Traveling around Taiwan & SE Asia

 

 

May 21, 2007 10:14:09 AM

 

hey there everyone this is a short one, Yay!

we entered into cambodia via the mekong delta river, if you recall, and we took a bus to Phnom Penh (capital city) and what a difference it was... aside from where we were told we would be dropped off to where we actually were dropped off... cambodia is just more relaxed... no one herrassing us to buy junk or touching us, just easy going people... the strange thing is that they use american currancy like their own... which can make things priceier because "its only $2" but its a developing country so it should only be 25 cents... so with our pockets full of american dollars and cambodian real... we didnt do much of anything.

we went to S-21, a P.O.W. camp for their civil war were over 1 000 000 people died, anyone with education or old age was killed in an act of genicide... we saw a wat (like a temple or two a little different than the rest of asia), we ate some happy pizza, and just relaxed for 4 days... Then we went to battan bang which was kind of batten boring... the city itself was boring but we signed ourselves up for a tour: some caves, 1000 year old made of stone on stone temple... really cool to see.. then we went on a bamboo train ride... you need to see the pics for this one but its like this:

picture a train track half covered up with grass and weeds, then a man sets up a pair of train wheels then another set of train wheels(they look like giant dumb bells) then they put on a raft like thingy made of bamboo and some twine... something you would see huckleburry finn riding down a river except its not a soft river but a desserted railway track... then they put in a motor and attach it to one of the wheels with a fanbelt... we load it up with our motorcycles and where off at about 50 km/h  thats fast when you've got nothing to hold on too... sometimes there would be cows on the tracks or chickens so we would slow down for them, well for the cows anyway... if another bamboo train is coming from the opposite direction then its like paper, scissors, rock to see who has to unload and dismantel thier bamboo train so the other can pass... it happened to us once and we won the coin toss... check out the pics: kaptainshanghai.spaces.live.com

then we went to siam reap which is where ankor wat is the biggest and oldest temples in the world really neat to see... so for two days we went by tuk tuk to 15 -20 temples and wats ... some small, some big, some with moats, others with a pool... after two days we were pretty templed out... then we tried going to loas but...

its alot harder to get into loas from cambodia, many buses dont run there so you have to fly or go all the way south just to go back north into laos which makes no sense so we shook our heads a bit, sceamed a little and went off to thailand to try from a different approach...

thats it, not much to do in cambodia, the food is great, the people nice, atmosphere wonderful... we would definatly come back... next stop thailand.

cheers lynn and kaptain

check out the pics

kaptainshanghai.spaces.live.com

April 11, 2007 8:58:10 AM

 

We walked across the boarder from  china to vietnam, we wanted to head for a small city up in the moutains called sapa... we bought tickets for a mini bus, we were the only ones on but the bus wouldnt go unless it was full so we waited for 2 1/2 hours on this bus a little annoyed than got transfered to another bus with more people on it and than an hour after that we were on our way to sapa... now if it wasnt so foggy up in the moutains sapa would really be a beautiful area, but while we were there we were in a giant cloud.  we walked down the mountain a bit into a smaller village called cat cat and we had more visabilty there and that was breathtaking... not just cus of the thin air but because of the scenery of a waterfall, moutains and greeneries everywhere.

after Sapa we went to Hanoi the capital of Vietnam ... another big city but very very loud... they honk at everything here even when they dont need to honk, its just alot of noise polution... we saw an old prison used by the french when they invaded and later for P.O.W.'s of the vietnam war in the 60's, we also saw a water pupet show which was a bunch of wooden puppets atached to bamboo sticks over water that people would control from behind a screen... it was interesting... we sat on a steet corner and ate some donars about 75 cents (like sammy slavaki) and drank some half pint beers for about 11 cents each truly wonderful, cheap and delicious.  I also bought about 12 box sets of television shows for dirt cheap and later found out i cant mail them home so now im devising ways of smuggling them in the mail...

we book tickets to ha long bay but our ride never came so we got a refund and headed to Nimh Binh not much to do here except go to the areas around it first day we rented some bicycles and went down the back roads of rice fields and headed to Hoa Lu not much there except some temples that was used by royalty way back when... we also hiked up a mountain to find another temple ...Yay!  Next day we went to Tam Coc where we took a little row boat down the Bich Dong river really pretty except fot the lady's on other boats trying to sell junk to us... or if you buy a drink from these riverboat ladys, they will try and convince you to buy a drink for your rowers but the rowers will just resell the drink back to the boat ladys at half price... sneaky buggers... we didnt fall for that one.

in the end vietnam is very beautiful but everyone is after you for something... they see foreigners as dollar signs... for example this one 7 year old kid greeted us as we walked by his house with "Hello, Money!"

April 23, 2007 1:34:41 AM

 

Hey all once again another brief email of china Pt 2.  After Beijing we headed to the east coast near the Yellow sea to Yantai and Qingtao... both look like cool little towns if it was warmer... but as it was it was freezing so we didnt stay long, just enough time to see our friend we met in taiwan, Shaun.  he's there doing a martial arts course for a year... we met with him and 3 others at the same academy.  they were cool... well Nick was cool, the swede and the mexican were just too young to be at a bar... but entertaining none the less.

Next we went to Xi'an which was a really cool little city built inside of a giant regtangular wall that surronds the city kind of like the great wall but smaller... close by there are the Terracotta warriors found in the mid 70's an underground tomb containing over 600 red clay life size warriors, including horses, chariots and weapons.  3 pits full of these warriors built for the emporors grave sight... really really cool.

Next we went to chungdu, thats where the largest Panda sancutary in the world is... and that was amazing.  Much cleaner and more sanitary than the zoos here. they actually took care of the animals there.  we saw 8 baby pandas all 6 months old and energetically cute and clumsy.  we watched them for a good hour and took several hundred photos. in chengdu we also saw a Sichuan Opera which is a compositions of short 2 man plays, musical instuments, hand shadow puppetry, acrobatic puppets, and magical mask colour changes.

Next we flew south east china to zhuhai (jew high) arriving late or very early and we ended up sleeping in a parking lot because the hotels were too expensive, being a boarder town to Macau.  it was only 4 hours in the parking lot so not that bad... well as much as can be expected for a dirty parking lot

at 7 am we walked the boarder to Macau with many pushey chinese people running to get in line, we were they only ones who didnt run.  in Macau we found a place to stay and walked around town... very different from the rest of china because of the portuguese influence... looked like europe, cobblestone streets, baroque style buildings and portuguese food.  so we just bummed around town enjoying the relaxed atmosphere... very very different from the loud hussle and bussle of the chinese culture, even the chinese people looked a little portuguese... probably because there great great great great grandmothers were raped and pillaged by the portuguese...

3 days later we took a boat to hong Kong... to meet Lynn's friend Keith who now lives in Korea.  Keith shopped and we watched, hong kong was very expensive and in the end just another big city.  we saw a crappy light show over the water that separates Hong kong from Hong Kong island.  we walked down the fake hollywood stars street finding Jet li, Jackie Chan, and the most important Bruce lee.

Next we went to Guangjou which is a place where many americans go and adopt a chinese baby, we saw many people there with baby chinses girls, because usually the family keeps the boys to continue the family name...  cool little city and left after a couple days.

Then Kunming which was a stopping place for us to get vietnamese visas.  then we went to Dali Old town, which was a very old looking chinese city, pretty timeless, except for all the bars.  the most amusing thing was the 60 year old women whispering in your ear "You smokey? You smokey the Gaunja, Hashish?"  we met an american from vegas who reminded me of Billy bob thorton, whom we hung out with for a few days.  we shaved my head, i kind of look like Lincoln Burrows from prison break only a little smaller... we went for a bike ride to the lake and near by villages.

Next we went to Lijiang which was very similar to dali but touristy.  lots of cool art and crafts, so we did some good shopping.  while there we witnessed a very crazy situation... we were on our way to a temple when we heard screams and shouts from a shop nearby... we looked and saw many people run out of the shop and up the hill towards us... then a minute later a chinese man came out of the shop walking up the hill towards us aswell, very calm looking but something in his hand.  Kaptain noticed a knife in his right hand, as he approached a chinese woman, he stabbed her in the neck and turned and nearly stabbed this German lady we had met ealier... we were about 5 feet away and scared as hell.  he then walked up the hill and within several minutes we saw many people running down the hill and at least 7 to 10 women cut in the face, arm, head etc... everyone was scared and crying, the men in the streets carried sticks and wooden benches to protect themselves.

In the end the caught the crazed man and put him on display in front of the post office, where people began to spit and curse at him, some tried to beat him with a wooden stick with nails, but the cops stopped them.  It was pretty surreal and intense because it was broad daylight and in a very safe china... but not to worry except for the fact it killed our buzz for the day we are unharmed.

after that we stayed a few more days, we had a dog we named witherspoon because she looked like reese, who followed us everywhere.  she was fun.  we shopped and then left for vietnam.

Cheers for now and dont forget to check out the pics of china pt 2

Kaptainshanghai.spaces.live.com

cheers Lynn and kaptain

PS for all those wondering and constantly asking, we are aiming to be home in june