Settling in Sydney

Hello all!

I realise it has been a really long time since I last updated this and I apologise!

I'll keep it as brief as I can and fill you in on the details later... (read: when I'm back in the UK, ha)

So we are now in Sydney! We arrived here on sunny Sunday 20th October and it has been pretty full on since.  After spending our first week in search of a place to stay every night (one evening we spent 4 hours walking around town with our heavy backpacks and finally found somewhere with one bed in a shared dorm which they let us share!) and combined with looking for work, it was pretty exhausting.

We have made it through though and are already moving into our second rented home (currently renting two beds in a guy's living room, not exactly convenient but under half the cost of paying for two beds in a shared dorm...).

I'm working for an uber cool jewellery label, selling their amazing designs in a Westfields shopping center (I couldn't believe they have them here too) and I'm right across from the mall's Santa Claus - anyone who knows me well enough to know of my dislike for the London Westfields and of Christmas will find this particularly amusing, I am sure...

Anyway, it is good fun and I enjoy the job so much I wish I could do this back at home too!

We haven't hit the beach up yet as the weather has been a bit unpredictable, but from the sounds of it we aren't having quite as much rain as you guy's in the UK, so I guess it could he worse, heehee.

We've been to see the opera house and walked across harbour bridge and discovered some really cool areas, not to mention a very cool jazz lounge with free bands on during the week.

I will try to update with some photos of the last few months soon, but for now I have been uploading some more of the last few weeks in Asia, on my Flickr page - http://www.flickr.com/photos/78092110@N03/

Lots of love and I promise you will hear from me again soon!

Laura

we wanted a waterfall...

So yesterday it was nice and sunny in Sapa, so we decided to seize the opportunity and rent a motorbike to explore outside of this quaint little town.

There are lots of waterfalls to go see and we wanted to do just that.  Being up in the mountains and all, the roads are steep and windy and after an hour or riding we realised we had headed in the opposite direction that we had wanted to.

Not really upset about this fact, as the ride was stunning itself (there's nothing quite like the stepped rice fields climbing the Sapa mountains) we headed back.
Another quick note about the roads here - there are little water streams that trickle down the mountain sides and pass across the roads in little streams.  Easy enough to navigate through, but then you add in the patches of road surface that aren't, well, surface at all.  We encountered quite a few sections of boulderous rocks that we just had to ride straight over.  Luckily, Donny's good on a scooter.

On our way back, however, we came up to one of the streams on the road.  This one was extra special because 90% of the road didn't even exist and had been replaced by what I can only describe as a rock pool.  You guessed it, we went for a swim.  We still can't quite figure out how we managed to come off, but we did.  Luckily only a few bruised and some little scrapes but after we got back to Sapa (we were only about 20mins away at this point) I did have to sooth my ankle with a cold beer tied onto my foot with a bandana.  All very rock and roll.

After some lunch we had better luck and set off to Thac Bac (still smiling I might add) and found the Silver Waterfall.  First of all we followed the road signs there and got led up a more residential road with some questionable terrain that resulted in a massive crater.  Clearly no way through.  When we rejoined the main road we got led straight there and it was totally worth it.

All our 'wrong ways' lead us to interesting scenery and we're pretty sure that there is an Asian conspiracy that all maps are backwards here.

We payed our ticket of 40p each and climbed up the steps to see the full length of the waterfall and it was stunning.

I've uploaded some photos from yesterday onto my Flickr page which you can see by clicking here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78092110@N03/

So, what did we learn today kids? Always wear a helmet.  And always have a couple of cold beers in the fridge waiting for when you get home...

Vietnam Update: Nha Trang - Sapa

Hello everyone!

First of all, sorry for any odd spellings in this pót as the computer is set to autocorrect my spelling 'mistakes' into Vietnamese....

Secondly - this í very long.  Maybe make a cup ò tea before you carry on reading....

So far we have beên in Vietnam for almost a month now and so our visas have almost run out and it's time to move onto Laos.

We began in Ho Chi Minh then travelled to Da Lat, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Hue, Hanoi and then Sapa, which í where I am nơ writing to you from.  

I think I sent an email from Nha Trang, so I'll give you a brief run down from there!

We heard about a really nice beach an few hours ride (on a scooter) north of Nha Trang, so decided we'd give it a go at getting therere.  Donny há ridden scooters quite a lot but I've never even sat on one before, so it ứa quite an experience!  I went from giggling and laughing to screaming and holding on for dear life, then finally got used to the fact that I wasn't about to die and really loved it..  I think that há to be one of my favourite days so far actually.  The scenery ứa stunning and I have a great video to show you all, but I can't right nơ and I'll tell you about why later.

After thể we went to Hoi An which í a really pretty, peacefull riverside town with lót of fab markets.  Thí í also where I spent my birthday, I got bought a bearded face carved from a bamboo root (hoenstly he's great and we saw the guy making them), a beautiful handmade necklace and a crochet hook and wool! Happy girl.  Thanks to everyone who sent me mesages before I went ây and on my birthday!

After Hoi an ứa Hue, which ứa also by the river with a great night market and aawesome old imperial city with tiny picturesque river side streets you could eat by and drink coffee.  Herere thể are a lot ò tours to the DMZ which we wanted to sê, but having grown confident with the scooter riding decided to rent one and have a go ourselves.

So off we set, with a bike that felt great from a smiley happy Vietnamese man and headed about an hour or two North to Dong Ha, then cut a left to Khe Sanh, which í where you can find the old American ải base with crashed helicopters a plently.  

WE got further into the mountains and had a few moments of slight doubt when our engine cut out.  We concluded it ứa overheated to let it cool dơn (perhaps...) and continued.  After another hour ỏ so it happened again..  It ứa already 3.30 pm and with only 3 hours till sunset we decided not to push our luck and head back to Dong Ha, stay the night in a hostel and go back to Hue the following day.  

In the five minutes ò stopping by the road the local village children had gathered around ú, quite amused/fascinated by ú/our bikes/I don't know what.... When our bike refused to start up again we really đi gather a crowd.  People stopped and had a go but it ứa no use.  We reluctantly accepted our fate that we were stranded, no one spoke english, we speak to Vietnamese and the phrase book really doesnt cover these sót ò situations....

Cutting it shorter, we walked and found a garage in a few minsutes and after hand gestures and stares got a mechanic to look at the bike.  WE had a number for a tourist company in Hue in our pocket so someone called the number and acted as a translator.  Tún out the engine ứa completely dead and would take two dáy to fix.  So the locals had to flag a local bus dơn that ứa heading to Dong Ha and i we got.  With the bike.  With the bike tied to our back rơ seats bu shoe laces.  With the bôt half open and driving dơn winding mountain roads for an hour.  

It ứa dark by time we got to Dong Ha, we hadnt eaten all day and no one understood us.  We wanted to stay in one ò the nice hotels we să, thinking they would speak some English and help ú get the bike on the bus back to Hue in the morning.  Once the driver realised we needed a hotel, he took ú to hí múm's one (ỏ some relatives) where there ứa an even greater lack ò understanding but at least we had a bed!

They tried to fix our bike in the morning (after a night's sleep with death proof bugs and evil looking geckos) and finally semed to understand (after many more hand gestures) that we needed to go on a bus with the bike today, to Hue.

They got the bus to pick ú up and eventually we made in back.  Which ứa such a great feeling.  However it cót ú a lot mỏe money to get home thí way and the rental guy had no understanding and took no responsibility for anything.  He shook hí head like a 9 year old boy and we just decided to give up and be happy that we made it back to civilisation.  

The next day we arrived in Hanoi, we went on a cruise to Ha Long bay from here, which ứa incredible.  I've bên typing for some time now and you are probably getting bored of reading, so I will not go into tô much detail but we went to a cave, a beach and stayed overnight on a boat, saw the stars and jupiter and a shooting star too.  One of my favourite experiences too.  

Unfortunately, I got scammed by the hotel when we got back from Ha Long Bay.  I'll kêp it short á I cannot be bothered to think about it too much now, but I plugged my memory card into the computer to look at my photos and maybe email a few and they had a vírus on thểre which wiped everything.  As in Everything, from the beginning ò my trip in Dubai.   The owner ứa the only one who 'knew a guy that could get them back' and he ứa extremely rude and extremely unapologetic.  It cost ú money, he ofered ú nothing and ứa generally a horrible man!  No surprise that for $40 we got the photosos all back, withink a hour, even though the man who knew hơ to fix the problem ứa supposedly a long way âway from the hotel... 

We are nơ in Sapa which há to be one ò my favourite places so far on my travels.  It's a mountain village with a lot ò charm..  WE have a lovely view ò the mountains in a great little (cheap!) hotel.  Ladies from the nearby villages come here to sell goods they make.  They have the most amazing traditional dress, lots ò embroidery and bright colours, after only a day hể I already have a head band & earings like they wear and have bought ribbons similar to their dress and sewn it onto my clothes haha.  

We've met some great locals and some not so great - some great travellers too.  Although we've bên in some tricky situations we've just kept calm and gone with the flow -- there's not a lot else you can do!  WE've heard tales of people falling for scams and we've spotted some a mile off and used our common sense to stay awya.  Sometimes, they just can't be avoided though. So my advice for Vietnam - brush up on your communications skills before coming â way, I reccommend a few games of Sharades perhaps.  And try the Saigon beer, coffee and noodle soup.  You'll never want tea and porridge for breakfast again.  

Lots ò love to everyone and apologies for the ridiculously long pót, but at least you don't have to put up with me chatting all this to you when I make it home haha!

Best wihes,

Lẩu 

(Sorry it auto corrects my name too....)

xxxxxxxxx

Some Snaps & A Scam...

I had a bit of a fiasco with my camera in the hotel we stayed at in Hanoi.

To cut a long story short, I'm 99% certain I got scammed by the hotel owner.  A very rude, imposing, shouting man.  Basically there was a virus set up on the computer, so when I plugged my memory card into it, the virus took over and wiped all my phótos òf the entire trip.  I ứa devastated.  The owner refused to spologise despite my upset and shouted that it ứ á my ơn fault. For a price he knew a guy that could get it all back for me.  Aparently thí guy ứa a long way ây, so we could not go to him; the hotel owner would have to ride therere with my camera and memory card and it would take around three hours.

After much debating we agreed and within 20 minutes the man ứa back in the hotel lobby (we could hear him shouting from our room) and 30 minutes after that he magically had the camera back already (although he hadn't left to pick it back up) and all my photos had re-appeared.

I'm now over cautious about plugging anything into the computers we come across but for now I am using my Blackberry to upload photos onto Flickr to share with pieople.  They're nowhere near á good á the ones I have taken with my camera but give you all a little taste ò what I am up to!

So here is the link to have a look

http://www.flickr.com/photos/78092110@N03/

Enjoy!

P.S. Sorry for the odd spellings in this email - the auto correct í set to Vietnamese so it thinks a lot of what I am typing í a mistake and sets it straight... I can't even sign of with my ơn name! Only Lẩu haha!

xx

A Belated Beginning...

So I've been ăway for two months now and only just making a start on this, but better late than never!

To sum up my trip so far - I left on 10th July and had 2 mights in Dubai, then flew to Beijing for about 4 weeks travelling through China, finishing up in Hong Kong.

I then flew to Bangkok, Thailand on 6th August and met up with Donny, for the rest of our adventure.

After a few nights we left for Cambodia, spending about a week there, first in Siem Reap visiting Angkor Wat and then onto Phnom Penn.

After there we left for Vietnam and have been here for almost a month now.

We began in Ho Chi Min (which we loved and stayed twice as long as planned) then onto Da Lat, Nha Trang, Hoi An, Hue, Hanoi and finally Sapa, which í where I am now writing from.

Soon we will leave for Laos but for now we are really enjoying this little mountain town!