Chúc mùng nam mói

Is Vietnamese and means happy new year. That is something that we heard many times in Vietnam and I even think that we are able to pronounce it correctly =).

So from Cambodia we went by bus to Vietnam. This time it was easy to cross the border as we also saw a lot of people who just lifted the fence and passed through. We arrived to Ho Chi Minh city late in the evening and looked for a place to stay. The next day (friday) we went to the reunification palace and war remnants museum. It was intresting. In the evening we went out to celebrate the new year with our new friend from France who we meet on the way. We had a lot of fun and we also saw the fireworks. We would have wanted to continue up by bus or train, but due to new year everything was sold out. So were stuck in Ho Chi Minh city for four days.

On Monday we flew to Hanoi. I was really happy since my family came to meet us at the airport. From Hanoi we went straight to Haiphong where the relatives of my sister-in-law live. We were there for two nights and went to the beach and also to Halong bay. It was beautiful in Halong, but the wheather was not the best possible so our pictures do not look so good. After this we went with Piritta to Hanoi on our own. The next day my family also arrived there so we were able to spend more time with them. When we had to say goodbye we went to an Italian icecream cafeteria. It was funny that while we were enjoying our icecreams the background song was Andrea Boccelli Time to say goodbye =)

From Hanoi we flew to Bangkok with Piritta for the weekend and my family went south to Ho Chi Minh city by bus. Now I have been over a month back in Australia working, but I will tell you more about that and future plans soon.
See ya.

Happy Valentines Day

to all of my friends. I hope that wherever you are you are as happy as I am here in Cambodia at the moment.

Danger Mines!

Instead of Rome all the roads lead to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. I say that because everywhere we go we always have to travel through Phnom Penh (the capital). So on thursday we arrived late in the evening and on the way we managed to meet a Finnish guy. Well you don't meet too many Finnish persons here and it was quite a coincidence that he happened to be from the same city where I was born.

The next day us three Finns and a German girl went together to see some of the horrible things that have happened in Cambodia. We went to the Killing Fields where the Khmer Rouge systematically killed approximately 2,5 million of Cambodians during the 70s. We also went to S21, which was a prison where they tortured the people first. I can definitively say that it was not a nice day, but we learned a lot about the history.

From Phnom Penh we went north to Siem Reap to see one of the wonders of the world. We were in Siem Reap for three days and saw a lot of temples of Angkor. We went there one morning at 5.30 to see the sunrise. I think that we both took at least 100 pictures during these three days and probably all of them include Japanese tourists, so we were not the only tourists there. We hired a tuktuk-driver who took us to the temples that we wanted to see. He was really nice and at the end when we thanked him for everything he was very thankful that we had given him a job. At the temples of Angkor there were also a lot of kids working. It was sad to see that they also had to work but we talked to many of them and they said that in the mornings they go to school and in the evenings they work.

From Siem Reap we came to Sihanoukville via Phnom Penh and we have been here for two days. Now we have just been relaxing and been to the beach. Tomorrow we will go to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Vietnam via Phnom Penh. I must say that I really like Cambodia. The people are very friendly and intelligent. The country still has a lot of problems that it is struggling with like e.g. landmines in many places. Something that is very similar to Laos is the smell of smoke everywhere. People seem to burn their own waste and you can smell the smoke. When travelling here with bus on the bumpy roads the buses also have to stop occasionally due to the cows who feel like crossing the road.

Oh I and I almost forgot to mention that I have a new way of starting smalltalk with people, which is just by looking at them. My right eye is half red of blood and people always point at my eye and ask what happened. They also wonder if I can see and if have had this problem since I was born. Well my explanation sounds a bit weird, cause it starts with a minor foodpoisoning in Bangkok. I vomited and after that my eye has been red. This was almost two weeks ago and my eye is getting better slowly.

Lao-Lao and the Mighty Mekong

are some of the things that I think of when I think about Laos. So we took the night train from Bangkok to the border of Laos and it was a good trip although it was freezing in the morning. At the border of Laos we spent approximately three hours just to get through. We bought the Visa at the border and for some reason people for different countries had to pay different prices. For most of the European countries it was 35usd.

First we went to Vientiane (the capital). Our guesthouse was located next to the river of Mekong and it was lovely. So in the evening we sat next to Mekong and looked at the beautiful sunset. Definitively a moment to remember. We spent there only two days. On our second day we did rent bicycles and did some sightseeing. Vientiane was a quite relaxed. From Vientiane we took a night bus south to Pakse. I had heard that the buses can often break on the road, but we only had one flat tire. The people also had the attitude of Bob the builder and fixed the problem immediately.

From Pakse we continued to an Island called Don Det in the middle of Mekong. There we also stayed for two days and bicycled around the Island. It looked exactly as I had imagined it to look like, beautiful. The river was green and a lot of kids were swimming in it. We went to the Island with a small ferry and I was just a bit scared that it would flip over and that we would fall into the water, but everything went well. Our guesthouse there was quite basic, since there was no electricity and our "bathroom" was on the backyard behind the pigs and chickens. Still we had a shower, which I think was water that was carried up from Mekong.

One evening when we went to eat to a restaurant in Don Det the owner of the place told us that his menu was famuos in Finland. I don't know how he knew where we were from and I didn't even ask cause I just wondered what he ment with his famous menu. When he showed it I realised that the boys from Madventures had been there and created an interesting breakfast including valium etc. In the same restaurant you could also get a happy version of all meals, which basically ment that they had included marihuana in the food. But we were happy enough without the happy meals. The only thing that we tried there was Lao-Lao, the famous ricewhisky of Laos. I do not recommend it to anyone since it did not taste good and I actually read later that it is supposed to be illegal in Laos.. There was also a monkey in this place which probably was very thirsty since it jumped into my glass =)

After leaving the Island of Don Det we went to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. The border between Laos and Cambodia is not official and we expected it to be difficult to cross but it was actually quite easy. Only the road that leads to the border is small and very bumpy in the middle of the forrest, so it was an experience.

Sa-wat-dii from Bangkok

Hello again, unfortunately I haven't written anything for a long time and so much has happened lately. As you probably can imagine from the title I am in Bangkok at the moment on vacation.

Ten days ago I left Bundaberg with tears in my eyes cause I had to leave many great friends there. I really liked being there, but it seems that all good things have to come to an end. From Bundaberg I took the bus (25hours) to Sydney where Piritta came to meet me at the station. I was one night in Sydney and the next morning I flew to Alice Springs to see Uluru. Seeing Uluru was one of the most important things to me in Australia. If you don't know what it is I can tell you that it is a big rock in the middle of Australia, and it is a holy place for one aboriginal tribe. It was beutiful to watch the sunset of Uluru and see the rock change color =)

I was supposed to go back to Sydney on Friday 26th to celebrate Australia day in Blue Mountains with Piritta and co. The tour that I went to Uluru with didn't go on Thursday so I had to wait in Alice Springs until Friday. I was able to go back to Sydney on Saturday. In Sydney I met a lot of hangovered people, but luckily for me they had enough energy to go out with me on Saturday.

This Tuesday I came to Bangkok. I was here in the middle of the night and I was a bit scared of trying to walk around and look for my hostel. The taxi driver that took me to the hostel was very nice and made sure that I got to the right place. For two days I just walked around the city with two Australian girls from my hostel. We did also go to a thai massage. The massage was a mixture of stretching and massage and it felt really nice at the time, but now that my back has been aching for two days I'm not so sure that it was a good thing for me. Piritta came here on Thursday and yesterday we organised our trip to Laos and did some shopping. Today we are taking the night train to the border of Thailand and Laos and from there we will continue by bus to Vientiane. Exciting. I will write you more about the trip when I have the possibility. Take care and write to me as well.

-the traveller-

By the way I forgot to mention that I am not coming back to Finland yet. On the 25th I will fly back to Sydney and I will stay in Australia a bit longer. At the moment my return ticket to Finland is 31st of May.