Here's another quick entry from NZ! Yesterday we went and did a knife making course. It was fantastic and both me and Rob are really chuffed with our results. We started the day with no more than a long rectangular piece of carbon steel, a couple of small squares of brass, a few brass pins and a block of rimu (native hardwood tree) wood. Steve and Robyn were our hosts and instructors. They were very hospitable, and Steve also told a constant stream of bad jokes which kept us laughing throughout the day.
The first job was to transform the dull looking piece of steel into something resembling more of a blade shape. To do this we had to heat it in the fire and then on an anvil, using our best blacksmith skills and a large lumphammer to beat the end to form the point of the blade. We continually reheated the steel bar in the fire and gave it a good old beating to squash the side of the metal that would eventually become the blade. This was definitely the most fun of the day :)
Once we'd forged the blade, we cooled the metal quickly in a bucket full of a mixture of water and duck shit (apparently there are lots of nitrates in it that help with the strength of the steel). We then had to cut the unhammered end of the metal off so we had the correct length of knife.
Next we glued the brass pieces on - which were then drilled and riveted. After this we cut wooden handles and stuck them on too, again they were drilled and pinned. We then began the more tricky process of shaping the handle on a belt sander. Once roughly shaped we placed a polyester resin into the cracks of the knife between the blade and the brass and the wood and the steel.
The next process is the only one we weren't involved in. Once hardened the polyester had to be sanded - apparently this produces a rather toxic dust. So Steve did this part wearing a special mask. He also did some very useful corrections on our handles for us too!
Now we had back something that actually resembled a usable knife. The next stage was to polish the blade with a series of 5 or so different sandpapers. Thankfully all of this was also done on the belt sander so it was quite a speedy process. Once polished to almost a mirror finish, Steve went over the few bits we missed and the it was time to hand finish. Several wet and dry papers later and we had pretty much a mirror finish on our blades. Rob's knife not had only had sweat and tears poured into it as he managed to stab himself - so can proudly say it has been polished with his own blood! It was time to give the knife back to Steve who put the last finish to the handle before we stained the wood. Once this was done Steve stepped in again to give the knife the final sharpen, a quick polish of the handle with some shoe polish sealed the handle and made it waterproof. And we were done! It took us about 6 hours to complete the process and was a very enjoyable one indeed!
At lunch our group got to play on a really large swing in the garden combined with some very nice Venison Salami toasties made for a very wonderful, enjoyable and informative day which was topped off by some 'Barrypagne' (our course was held in a place called Barrytown) this was white wine that Robyn and Steve had placed in the Soda Stream to give it bubbles!!! Fabulous!!!
In case you are wondering when you look at the photos my knife is the shortest one of the group and Rob's is the long one next to it.
Thursday, 29 October 2009
What a journey!
“What a journey!” is a very polite summary of my thoughts on our epic trip from 4000 islands to Siem Reap.
We’d bargained hard to get a good deal on the transport (or so we thought) into Cambodia. So our large group clambered into our first mini van of the day at 9am where we were driven a short distance to the local farmer’s bank to exchange our kip into dollars and pay for the journey. The bank looked like it was something from the turn of the 20th Century – all work was still meticulously logged into large legers with receipts signed in triplicate, and everything was calculated and handwritten by the few administrators, one of which had such a streaming cold that the face mask she was wearing was damp where she had been continually sneezing into it – nice… The whole bank appeared to operate out of 2 rooms – an office for the male manager, flanked by a framed mugshot parade of his senior executives, and the main room where the female administrators worked with the customers. Every transaction had to be signed off by the manager, so it was a slow process, especially when those in our group who needed to withdraw money using their cards found that plastic-based banking technology had not yet reached this venerable institution so instead they had to visit the bank of Chris, who boasted a substantial fund of his native currency for loan at favourable rates!
It was actually quite an interesting experience seeing the bank operate at first, watching the locals coming and going with various dirty bundles of kip flowing over the counters but two hours later we’d definitely had enough!
Once we had got rid of the soon to be worthless Kip we headed to the riverbank and boarded a battered pontoon which was noisily and painfully pushed by a little tugboat belching out an acrid black smoke. A few bumpy dirt lanes later we stopped at a café a few miles closer to the border. The driver asked us all to get out and get some lunch. We had to unload our backpacks as someone else would be along to pick us up soon.
As it was lunchtime we grabbed a quick plate of rice and then waited for our next lift to arrive. We waited. We continued to wait. Finally about an hour and a half later someone arrived to pick us up. It was after 1pm by now and we had still failed to travel more than 10 miles. Our driver picked us up – we bundled in eager to get to the border, which wasn’t too far. Our driver drove very very slowly, and proceeded to tell us that they could take us all the way to Siem Reap for an extra $5 each rather than the agreed overnight stop off. That is when the alarm bells started to ring. We thanked the driver and said that we would like the stop off, he continually advised against it. We got to the border and were told yet another mini van would be waiting on the other side for us. So we got out paid the $2 leaving fee (or bribe) to the Laos officials to stamp us out of Laos and then walked through no mans land to the Cambodian border hut. With no problems we were stamped into Cambodia and jumped into the next mini van.
This driver then tried to tell us that it would be much better to pay the $5 and get to Siem Reap in one night, he said we could be in Siem Reap by 7pm, then he added that the ‘other’ mini van had broken down and he couldn’t guarantee us a lift to Siem Reap the next day as agreed – instead he said it would be 2 or 3 days before they could get us to our destination. It was quite obvious that they never planned us to do a stop and thought we would jump at the option to be taken straight to Siem Reap – so they were quite taken aback when we weren’t so keen. However, we finally decided as a group that now we were in the mini bus we would go straight to Siem Reap. I for one now did not trust these people and knew that if we had been dropped off for the night we would never see them again – so I figured it would be best just to get there and pay the guy his $5, we had done well not to be ripped off before hand. We told the driver and his assistant that we would pay the extra but not until we got to Siem Reap as the plans were being constantly changed and we wanted to ensure that we actually got to where they were promising us! That was when the drivers assistant well and truly threw his toys out of the pram, and after having a tantrum followed by a wonderful impression of a 3 year old sulking we pulled up at what turned out to be the drivers house! (During the journey we must have made 5 or 6 stops in a 3 hour period for the driver to empty his bladder at the side of the road!) After the driver had faffed around in his house for maybe ¾ of an hour we set off again, where we stopped at a guesthouse and met several more very disgruntled travellers who had been promised a lift to Siem Reap, had been dropped off there to be told they would be picked up soon and had been waiting over 5 hours!
They climbed into the mini van – which was now completely full and a Cambodian boy who we found out from the driver was the bosses son was sitting / crouching in the foot well of the sliding door. A few more hours and we stopped again – it was now 7pm and the sulky man had left us and we stopped at a café where we were told that we were waiting for a couple more people to join us and then we would continue. We naturally assumed that must have meant that the other travellers were leaving us at this point – we were wrong!
We got taken round the corner after another hour of waiting and moved into a proper rusty old mini van, and then it was filled to capacity and then filled some more! By the end of it the mini van had 5 more people in it than it was designed to have and we were very cosy indeed!! Although uncomfortable we all put up with it as by this point we just wanted to get to our final destination. We set off and very soon the road turned from tarmac to dirt and then it felt like we were off-roading, the potholes in the road were very deep and made up more of the road than the dirt! It was fun to start with – but an hour later we were more than ready to get off the road. At about midnight (we started our journey 15 hours ago now) we hit normal road again and could see houses at the sides of the road again.
What was interesting was there were large sheets of polythene that had been strung up which formed nets. Above this were big blue UV lights. The thing that was strange was there wasn’t one or 2 there were literally hundreds lining the roads, in the fields, outside people’s houses – it looked like we were on a film set for some strange sci – fi film. We managed to find out from the driver that it was cricket season (as in the bugs rather than the sport!) and these sheets were used to catch them. Apparently the Cambodians loved to eat them, and the ones outside houses were a personal stash for the owners. We stopped to look at them.
Another line that we had been strung was that accommodation had been organised for us when we finally got to Siem Reap – although slightly concerned about the condition of this accommodation we were just pleased to know we had somewhere when we got to the other end. However, yet again this plan turned out not to be true. When at the outskirts of the city we were told that they did not have anywhere for us to stay! We were then fed a load of rubbish of how they couldn’t drive into the city – but they would drop us off with some tuk tuk drivers who would take us to a place that was open. So at 3am we wearily got out of the mini van and into a tuk tuk and were whisked off to a guesthouse – fearing the worst about the standard of the place we were about to be taken. Thankfully it actually turned out to be a nice new place with reasonable prices too, so we all decided to stay. It was actually quite funny when we were checking in at what was now 4am they were busy trying to sell us trips to Angkor Wat the next day. We were all so tired by now we just ignored them, but it wasn’t the best introduction to Cambodia! Our 7ish hour journey had turned out to end up taking over 19 hours to complete….. I really hoped there wouldn’t be many more journeys like that to come.
We’d bargained hard to get a good deal on the transport (or so we thought) into Cambodia. So our large group clambered into our first mini van of the day at 9am where we were driven a short distance to the local farmer’s bank to exchange our kip into dollars and pay for the journey. The bank looked like it was something from the turn of the 20th Century – all work was still meticulously logged into large legers with receipts signed in triplicate, and everything was calculated and handwritten by the few administrators, one of which had such a streaming cold that the face mask she was wearing was damp where she had been continually sneezing into it – nice… The whole bank appeared to operate out of 2 rooms – an office for the male manager, flanked by a framed mugshot parade of his senior executives, and the main room where the female administrators worked with the customers. Every transaction had to be signed off by the manager, so it was a slow process, especially when those in our group who needed to withdraw money using their cards found that plastic-based banking technology had not yet reached this venerable institution so instead they had to visit the bank of Chris, who boasted a substantial fund of his native currency for loan at favourable rates!
It was actually quite an interesting experience seeing the bank operate at first, watching the locals coming and going with various dirty bundles of kip flowing over the counters but two hours later we’d definitely had enough!
Once we had got rid of the soon to be worthless Kip we headed to the riverbank and boarded a battered pontoon which was noisily and painfully pushed by a little tugboat belching out an acrid black smoke. A few bumpy dirt lanes later we stopped at a café a few miles closer to the border. The driver asked us all to get out and get some lunch. We had to unload our backpacks as someone else would be along to pick us up soon.As it was lunchtime we grabbed a quick plate of rice and then waited for our next lift to arrive. We waited. We continued to wait. Finally about an hour and a half later someone arrived to pick us up. It was after 1pm by now and we had still failed to travel more than 10 miles. Our driver picked us up – we bundled in eager to get to the border, which wasn’t too far. Our driver drove very very slowly, and proceeded to tell us that they could take us all the way to Siem Reap for an extra $5 each rather than the agreed overnight stop off. That is when the alarm bells started to ring. We thanked the driver and said that we would like the stop off, he continually advised against it. We got to the border and were told yet another mini van would be waiting on the other side for us. So we got out paid the $2 leaving fee (or bribe) to the Laos officials to stamp us out of Laos and then walked through no mans land to the Cambodian border hut. With no problems we were stamped into Cambodia and jumped into the next mini van.
This driver then tried to tell us that it would be much better to pay the $5 and get to Siem Reap in one night, he said we could be in Siem Reap by 7pm, then he added that the ‘other’ mini van had broken down and he couldn’t guarantee us a lift to Siem Reap the next day as agreed – instead he said it would be 2 or 3 days before they could get us to our destination. It was quite obvious that they never planned us to do a stop and thought we would jump at the option to be taken straight to Siem Reap – so they were quite taken aback when we weren’t so keen. However, we finally decided as a group that now we were in the mini bus we would go straight to Siem Reap. I for one now did not trust these people and knew that if we had been dropped off for the night we would never see them again – so I figured it would be best just to get there and pay the guy his $5, we had done well not to be ripped off before hand. We told the driver and his assistant that we would pay the extra but not until we got to Siem Reap as the plans were being constantly changed and we wanted to ensure that we actually got to where they were promising us! That was when the drivers assistant well and truly threw his toys out of the pram, and after having a tantrum followed by a wonderful impression of a 3 year old sulking we pulled up at what turned out to be the drivers house! (During the journey we must have made 5 or 6 stops in a 3 hour period for the driver to empty his bladder at the side of the road!) After the driver had faffed around in his house for maybe ¾ of an hour we set off again, where we stopped at a guesthouse and met several more very disgruntled travellers who had been promised a lift to Siem Reap, had been dropped off there to be told they would be picked up soon and had been waiting over 5 hours!
They climbed into the mini van – which was now completely full and a Cambodian boy who we found out from the driver was the bosses son was sitting / crouching in the foot well of the sliding door. A few more hours and we stopped again – it was now 7pm and the sulky man had left us and we stopped at a café where we were told that we were waiting for a couple more people to join us and then we would continue. We naturally assumed that must have meant that the other travellers were leaving us at this point – we were wrong!
We got taken round the corner after another hour of waiting and moved into a proper rusty old mini van, and then it was filled to capacity and then filled some more! By the end of it the mini van had 5 more people in it than it was designed to have and we were very cosy indeed!! Although uncomfortable we all put up with it as by this point we just wanted to get to our final destination. We set off and very soon the road turned from tarmac to dirt and then it felt like we were off-roading, the potholes in the road were very deep and made up more of the road than the dirt! It was fun to start with – but an hour later we were more than ready to get off the road. At about midnight (we started our journey 15 hours ago now) we hit normal road again and could see houses at the sides of the road again.
What was interesting was there were large sheets of polythene that had been strung up which formed nets. Above this were big blue UV lights. The thing that was strange was there wasn’t one or 2 there were literally hundreds lining the roads, in the fields, outside people’s houses – it looked like we were on a film set for some strange sci – fi film. We managed to find out from the driver that it was cricket season (as in the bugs rather than the sport!) and these sheets were used to catch them. Apparently the Cambodians loved to eat them, and the ones outside houses were a personal stash for the owners. We stopped to look at them.Another line that we had been strung was that accommodation had been organised for us when we finally got to Siem Reap – although slightly concerned about the condition of this accommodation we were just pleased to know we had somewhere when we got to the other end. However, yet again this plan turned out not to be true. When at the outskirts of the city we were told that they did not have anywhere for us to stay! We were then fed a load of rubbish of how they couldn’t drive into the city – but they would drop us off with some tuk tuk drivers who would take us to a place that was open. So at 3am we wearily got out of the mini van and into a tuk tuk and were whisked off to a guesthouse – fearing the worst about the standard of the place we were about to be taken. Thankfully it actually turned out to be a nice new place with reasonable prices too, so we all decided to stay. It was actually quite funny when we were checking in at what was now 4am they were busy trying to sell us trips to Angkor Wat the next day. We were all so tired by now we just ignored them, but it wasn’t the best introduction to Cambodia! Our 7ish hour journey had turned out to end up taking over 19 hours to complete….. I really hoped there wouldn’t be many more journeys like that to come.
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Sandflies - the new peril
Seems we'll never be safe from biting insects on this trip. After my four relatively itch-free months of gloating over the fact that northern hemisphere mosquitoes find Amy infinitely more tasty than myself (well who wouldn't?), I'm surprised and saddened to become the new dish of the day for all the carnivorous critters that buzz around these isles.The plague of the west and south coasts of the south island here are the sandflies, who all regard my shiny bald head as a tasty meat flavour chupa-chup and every moment I am hoodless or without a hat it's DINNERTIME!. Even my trusty Cambodian insect repellent serves as a simple garnish to their ginger meal.
They have all the subtlety of a chainsaw juggling mosquito which is my one small consolation – their first mouthful is invariably their last as they feel a swift splattering retribution from the icy hand of death (in practice that's whichever of my hands is closer to the bite site).
So now it's Amy's turn to gloat as I zoom up our blog's biteometer league table, will I catch up her staggering high score before we move on to South America to face a whole new continent of antisocial insects?!
Thursday, 22 October 2009
4000 Islands
The Lonely Planet says “Si Phan Don, where the Mekong fans out forming an intricate network of channels, rocks, sandbars and islets 14kn wide is one of natures marvels” It therefore made sense that as this was enroute to Cambodia this should be our next and final stop of Laos. We travelled down to the area by Sleeper Bus (with double beds too!), then a Mini Bus and finally onto a small boat to get to the Island (which is in the middle of the river) of Don Khong. It was a relatively smooth journey even though we did feel like sardines on the mini bus!!
It was a pretty area and after settling into our hostel we went for a quick explore, as we actually knew very little about the area and what there was to see. There was not much of note on the Island except a little temple. We decided to go on a boat trip the next day, as the island had nothing much to offer.
The next day we all bundled on a little boat and were taken down the Mekong where we saw the collection of the 4000 islands, some of them big enough for settlements – others so small you could be forgiven for mistaking them as rocks that had been washed from the banks of the river. After a hour or so on the boat we were dropped off at one of the neighbouring settlement islands to see a waterfall. We were popped into a couple of people carriers. Ours was driven by someone who looked no older than 14 and drove like someone of that age! The only saving grace was the roads were so quiet there was nothing to bump into!!
We were dropped off in the waterfall car park and as we left the comfort if not the safety of our vehicles the heavens opened – rainy season had begun. After a wet 20 minutes looking a violently spectacular waterfall which had many tiers and vast amounts of water we headed off the local café to wait out the rest of the time in the dry.
Once back in our hostel we spent most of the evening sitting on the balcony watching the beautiful lighting that was striking over the other side of the river. It was mesmerising – so much forked lightening and wonderfully booming thunder. It really marked the beginning of the rainy season and although beautiful it showed that it was a good time to leave Laos, and the next morning we begun our journey out of Laos and into Cambodia.
Laos had been a beautiful country to visit, and I can’t help thinking that it was probably what Thailand had been like before the tourist industry really boomed there. While travelling round the country we saw an awful lot of building work, as the country began to embrace tourism and realise the money it would bring in – so I urge as many of you as can to visit this country before it becomes overrun by people like me!! Not that Thailand was in anyway bad – but I’m sure it has been influenced and changed by tourism, so I felt privileged to see fledgling Laos and it will take some beating for fun and beauty on our trip.
It was a pretty area and after settling into our hostel we went for a quick explore, as we actually knew very little about the area and what there was to see. There was not much of note on the Island except a little temple. We decided to go on a boat trip the next day, as the island had nothing much to offer.
The next day we all bundled on a little boat and were taken down the Mekong where we saw the collection of the 4000 islands, some of them big enough for settlements – others so small you could be forgiven for mistaking them as rocks that had been washed from the banks of the river. After a hour or so on the boat we were dropped off at one of the neighbouring settlement islands to see a waterfall. We were popped into a couple of people carriers. Ours was driven by someone who looked no older than 14 and drove like someone of that age! The only saving grace was the roads were so quiet there was nothing to bump into!!
We were dropped off in the waterfall car park and as we left the comfort if not the safety of our vehicles the heavens opened – rainy season had begun. After a wet 20 minutes looking a violently spectacular waterfall which had many tiers and vast amounts of water we headed off the local café to wait out the rest of the time in the dry.
Once back in our hostel we spent most of the evening sitting on the balcony watching the beautiful lighting that was striking over the other side of the river. It was mesmerising – so much forked lightening and wonderfully booming thunder. It really marked the beginning of the rainy season and although beautiful it showed that it was a good time to leave Laos, and the next morning we begun our journey out of Laos and into Cambodia.
Laos had been a beautiful country to visit, and I can’t help thinking that it was probably what Thailand had been like before the tourist industry really boomed there. While travelling round the country we saw an awful lot of building work, as the country began to embrace tourism and realise the money it would bring in – so I urge as many of you as can to visit this country before it becomes overrun by people like me!! Not that Thailand was in anyway bad – but I’m sure it has been influenced and changed by tourism, so I felt privileged to see fledgling Laos and it will take some beating for fun and beauty on our trip.
Vientiane – Laos
After a day of recovery in Vang Vieng we decided to move onto the Capital of Laos – Vientiane. Some of our fellow travellers opted to do the journey by mini van while Rob, myself, Yehel and Arthur decided to get a sawngthaew. This form of transport is a converted pickup with two wooden benches down either side – not the comfiest form of transport – but very cheap and was a great way to see how the locals got around (only a few public buses to speak of). During our trip we watched many locals being picked up and dropped off and at each stop point we had various different goods pushed and waved at us through the truck frame – the most bizarre had to be a BBQed bat on a stick – wings ‘n’ all!
After a 4hr journey we arrived and were pleased to there! The benches were ok for a 20 minute drive rather than one as long as ours! We were dropped off just outside town and then went through the usual bartering with a few tuk tuk drivers to get us into town.
We were dropped off in town to discover that our first choice of accommodation n longer existed – the lonely planet book of lies strikes again! After walking around the block we finally managed to find some where that was neither mouldy nor full of mosquitoes and holey nets and suited our budget, but to be honest our first impressions of Vientiane weren’t great. The city was quite dirty and very polluted. It was also expensive for the quality of what was on offer. We quickly realised we wouldn’t be here long, that said we had just been completely spoiled with what we had just experienced in the North of the country.
The 2nd and next day turned out to be the best if not the most tiring day of our time in Vientiane. Just outside the city (well 25km outside) was a place called Buddah Park where as the name suggests it is a place full of Buddhist sculptures. I had this bright (?) idea we should cycle there and Rob, Yehel, Arthur and Kat agreed. It was a scorching day (high 30’s) but we hired bikes and set off. The route was pretty much flat which was one saving grace for the whole adventure but the heat made up for that! We cycled for what seemed to all of us like an age and saw a roadside bar/café on the side of the road so decided to stop and cool down at next to one of the fans. We all thought by this stage that we were really close and were all getting excited about our destination. This was shattered by the woman telling us we still had about 11km to go! So we jumped back onto our bikes and after watching many public buses sail by – undoubtedly stopping at Buddah Park – and cycling on a road that resembled Swiss cheese we finally arrived. Thankfully it was worth it! There was a statue of a large face and you could climb inside through the open very toothy mouth. Once inside there was a series of narrow corridors and steep steps which lead you to the top of the structure and outside to look over the whole park.
There was a large variety of different Buddhist statues – everything from snakes and crocodiles to birds and rats. After a well deserved ice-cream (well I thought so!) we headed back home – the journey seemed to take much less time and we arrived back in the city tired but very content, and slightly more sun-kissed than when we left.
Our 3rd Day was spent looking at the main sights of the city. The main one is called Patuxia. This is a replica of the Arc de Triomph; it is quite a bizarre sight. You can climb to the roof to take in the sights, so after several floors of absolute tourist tat inside we got to the roof and enjoyed some nice views of the city. It was a stinking hot day so after some sight seeing in the city we grabbed our swim stuff and went to one of the local hotels and spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool. Lovely. The day ended with a goodbye meal for Arthur who was back to Bangkok for a few nights before flying back to Oz land. It was a lovely evening of beer and pizza and a reunion of all the people we had met and travelled with in Laos.
The last day in Vientiane was spent pampering! After a tough day of cycling a few days previously we were in need of something more sedate so we opted for a traditional sauna and massage in a temple just on the outskirts of the city, which has a great reputation with the locals. We walked through the gates of the temple and then into an area slightly separate from the actual temple. It was an open wooden deck enclosed only by a roof. To one side of the deck there was a wooden shed which we were soon to discover this was our sauna. We were all given sheets of material and told to get undressed and wrap this around us, when we emerged from the changing area we were greeted by a very refreshing fragrant tea. The sauna was then ready, we went in. It was pitch black with a series of benches running the length of the shed. Between the benches there were gaps where a wonderfully aromatic steam was rising. It felt great but within 10 minutes the sheets we were wearing were completely saturated! Yehel, Brian and I dived out after about 15mins but Chris, Roald and Rob stuck it for about 20 mins. We all managed 3 rounds and then we were all ready to stop! Once finished in the sauna we were given a fresh sheet and could go and wash under a tap outside – the cold water was divine!
Next we went onto the deck area where there were 6 massage tables. The main idea behind Laos massage is to work pressure points, which was almost slightly painful – but overall tremendously relaxing. The massage ended with the masseur getting me to sit up – he then placed his knees behind my back and twisted until there was a very satisfying crunch sound. We left feeling very relaxed – it was a great way to finish in Vientiane.
After a 4hr journey we arrived and were pleased to there! The benches were ok for a 20 minute drive rather than one as long as ours! We were dropped off just outside town and then went through the usual bartering with a few tuk tuk drivers to get us into town.
We were dropped off in town to discover that our first choice of accommodation n longer existed – the lonely planet book of lies strikes again! After walking around the block we finally managed to find some where that was neither mouldy nor full of mosquitoes and holey nets and suited our budget, but to be honest our first impressions of Vientiane weren’t great. The city was quite dirty and very polluted. It was also expensive for the quality of what was on offer. We quickly realised we wouldn’t be here long, that said we had just been completely spoiled with what we had just experienced in the North of the country.
The 2nd and next day turned out to be the best if not the most tiring day of our time in Vientiane. Just outside the city (well 25km outside) was a place called Buddah Park where as the name suggests it is a place full of Buddhist sculptures. I had this bright (?) idea we should cycle there and Rob, Yehel, Arthur and Kat agreed. It was a scorching day (high 30’s) but we hired bikes and set off. The route was pretty much flat which was one saving grace for the whole adventure but the heat made up for that! We cycled for what seemed to all of us like an age and saw a roadside bar/café on the side of the road so decided to stop and cool down at next to one of the fans. We all thought by this stage that we were really close and were all getting excited about our destination. This was shattered by the woman telling us we still had about 11km to go! So we jumped back onto our bikes and after watching many public buses sail by – undoubtedly stopping at Buddah Park – and cycling on a road that resembled Swiss cheese we finally arrived. Thankfully it was worth it! There was a statue of a large face and you could climb inside through the open very toothy mouth. Once inside there was a series of narrow corridors and steep steps which lead you to the top of the structure and outside to look over the whole park.
There was a large variety of different Buddhist statues – everything from snakes and crocodiles to birds and rats. After a well deserved ice-cream (well I thought so!) we headed back home – the journey seemed to take much less time and we arrived back in the city tired but very content, and slightly more sun-kissed than when we left.
Our 3rd Day was spent looking at the main sights of the city. The main one is called Patuxia. This is a replica of the Arc de Triomph; it is quite a bizarre sight. You can climb to the roof to take in the sights, so after several floors of absolute tourist tat inside we got to the roof and enjoyed some nice views of the city. It was a stinking hot day so after some sight seeing in the city we grabbed our swim stuff and went to one of the local hotels and spent the rest of the afternoon in the pool. Lovely. The day ended with a goodbye meal for Arthur who was back to Bangkok for a few nights before flying back to Oz land. It was a lovely evening of beer and pizza and a reunion of all the people we had met and travelled with in Laos.
The last day in Vientiane was spent pampering! After a tough day of cycling a few days previously we were in need of something more sedate so we opted for a traditional sauna and massage in a temple just on the outskirts of the city, which has a great reputation with the locals. We walked through the gates of the temple and then into an area slightly separate from the actual temple. It was an open wooden deck enclosed only by a roof. To one side of the deck there was a wooden shed which we were soon to discover this was our sauna. We were all given sheets of material and told to get undressed and wrap this around us, when we emerged from the changing area we were greeted by a very refreshing fragrant tea. The sauna was then ready, we went in. It was pitch black with a series of benches running the length of the shed. Between the benches there were gaps where a wonderfully aromatic steam was rising. It felt great but within 10 minutes the sheets we were wearing were completely saturated! Yehel, Brian and I dived out after about 15mins but Chris, Roald and Rob stuck it for about 20 mins. We all managed 3 rounds and then we were all ready to stop! Once finished in the sauna we were given a fresh sheet and could go and wash under a tap outside – the cold water was divine!
Next we went onto the deck area where there were 6 massage tables. The main idea behind Laos massage is to work pressure points, which was almost slightly painful – but overall tremendously relaxing. The massage ended with the masseur getting me to sit up – he then placed his knees behind my back and twisted until there was a very satisfying crunch sound. We left feeling very relaxed – it was a great way to finish in Vientiane.
Gomez
Just had to tell you what an awesome time we had recently in Christchurch, the highlight of which was catching one of our favourite bands, Gomez, kicking off the world tour of their new album A New Tide.
This was also our first gig in New Zealand and a very different experience to the Manchester we're used to - no scumbag ticket touts or long cold queuing outside and inside the venue boasted an ample bar, relaxed security and many friendly music fans, both locals and expats. We positioned ourselves comfortably right at the front to see the support band The Chills and secure our front row spot for the main event.
So we all know that Gomez went off the boil after their first two LPs and there's always a risk when you go to see a band touring their new album that the new stuff is all you'll get, however they started in fine style with How We Operate and Hamoa Beach, the two best tunes from their last album. Warm memories came flooding back from seeing the group headlining the Summersundae festival in Leicester three years ago when this was their latest material, and from then on we were treated to a selection of great tracks from the last 11 years including standout performances of Tijuana Lady, Warm Trombone and Devil Will Ride. Loved the classic rock parcan lighting too which helped me grab a few great photos, although I felt like I was the only one snapping away in there, gone were the sea of mobiles and cameras you'll see back at home!
This was also our first gig in New Zealand and a very different experience to the Manchester we're used to - no scumbag ticket touts or long cold queuing outside and inside the venue boasted an ample bar, relaxed security and many friendly music fans, both locals and expats. We positioned ourselves comfortably right at the front to see the support band The Chills and secure our front row spot for the main event.
So we all know that Gomez went off the boil after their first two LPs and there's always a risk when you go to see a band touring their new album that the new stuff is all you'll get, however they started in fine style with How We Operate and Hamoa Beach, the two best tunes from their last album. Warm memories came flooding back from seeing the group headlining the Summersundae festival in Leicester three years ago when this was their latest material, and from then on we were treated to a selection of great tracks from the last 11 years including standout performances of Tijuana Lady, Warm Trombone and Devil Will Ride. Loved the classic rock parcan lighting too which helped me grab a few great photos, although I felt like I was the only one snapping away in there, gone were the sea of mobiles and cameras you'll see back at home!
Tuesday, 6 October 2009
Salmon Farm - Golden Bay - South Island NZ
Just to confuse things we thought we would give you a really up to date blog entry as it is a really quick one. Apologies for being so far behind - but we are getting there slowly......
If you didn't know (which you won't by the state of the blog!!) We are in New Zealand now. While in the Abel Tasmin National Park we went to a place called Golden Bay and went to a Salmon Farm. I know that doesn't really sound altogether that interesting but the great thing was they supplied all the equipment (for free) and you could go and catch your own in the lake at the one end of the farm. You then paid for what you caught.
So rods in hand we wandered to the lake and as you can see from the photos below caught some beauties! Rob caught one in particular which was huge! We had them all filleted and smoked while we were at the farm, and for about a week afterwards pretty much every meal we had contained salmon. We managed to catch 6kg of Salmon in all!! As a result I have many recipe ideas for Salmon - all which can be cooked in a campervan!!!
The fish tasted delicious, not only because of how fresh (the first piece we ate had gone from lake to table in about 30 mins...) but because of the satisfaction of catching it yourself.
More news soon... we're nearly ready with the next Laos entry - just to keep you all on your toes!!
If you didn't know (which you won't by the state of the blog!!) We are in New Zealand now. While in the Abel Tasmin National Park we went to a place called Golden Bay and went to a Salmon Farm. I know that doesn't really sound altogether that interesting but the great thing was they supplied all the equipment (for free) and you could go and catch your own in the lake at the one end of the farm. You then paid for what you caught.
So rods in hand we wandered to the lake and as you can see from the photos below caught some beauties! Rob caught one in particular which was huge! We had them all filleted and smoked while we were at the farm, and for about a week afterwards pretty much every meal we had contained salmon. We managed to catch 6kg of Salmon in all!! As a result I have many recipe ideas for Salmon - all which can be cooked in a campervan!!!
The fish tasted delicious, not only because of how fresh (the first piece we ate had gone from lake to table in about 30 mins...) but because of the satisfaction of catching it yourself.
More news soon... we're nearly ready with the next Laos entry - just to keep you all on your toes!!
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