Confessions of a Shopaholic

Monday, August 30, 2010 Katie and Taylor
Ok, so sightseeing wasn’t really on our agenda in Hoi An there were just too many distractions so the sightseeing was left till the last night… oops.  I mean its not often you find yourself a millionaire in a country so some shopping had to be done!

Hoi An is well known for its tailors which was obvious when we arrived as every second shop (at least) was a tailors offering to make us anything for the following day. We eventually picked one, a girl who didn’t chase us down the street who offered us a good deal. As well as the displays she had an extensive range of Next catalogues and fabrics and said she could copy any design and make it for us. I chose a couple of dresses from the displays whilst Taylor bravely chose a shirt and shorts from a catalogue.. all for under £25! We paid our deposit and hoped for the best!

Success, well almost, Taylor’s clothes were great and one of my dresses turned out wonderful so we were really chuffed. Dress number 2 was a slight disaster due to my inability to chose the right kind of fabric but turned out nice enough – I’m just not sure I’ll ever wear it. You might spot it on E-bay in a few weeks – bids start at $1!

So that wasted a good few hours and we only had 2 full days to explore so we chose one of those days to sit by the pool, talk Simon and Ben into getting some clothes made and generally do nothing – it was great! Our first pool that wasn’t closed, empty or inside the whole trip so we had no choice but to try it out and see how long it would take us to turn to prunes (3 hours!)

That night we went for a meal and managed to taste all the local Hoi An dishes for £2. We started off with white rose – a shrimp dumpling, then had fried wontons – almost like nachos with veg on top, then Taylor had fried shrimp on sugarcane and I had spring rolls and we finished off with cao lao – a pork and noodle dish. That’s a whole lot of tasty food for £2!

Continuing with the cooking theme, we signed up for a cooking class on the last day with Neill, Kylie and Kay: The Thuan Tinh Island Cooking Tour. This started with a walk through the market where we picked up some herbs and then took a short boat ride to the cooking school across the river. We had our welcome drinks and then headed off to the magic table (nothing to do with the cooking part of the class).

An old man assembled the table and told us that the table could hear our thoughts and do what we asked of it – I know what you’re thinking; what a load of ***P but as we put our hands on the table and thought left or right it moved the correct way, when we asked it to stop and go the other way it did so too.. still sceptical?? We turned our hands over and placed them in the middle and it still moved, very weird! We all tried it individually, while Kylie, Kay and Taylor could move it Neill and I could not (not very spiritual I suppose) and even when Taylor held Neill’s hand (aww) it moved but as soon as he lifted his hands it stopped. After all that fun it was time to visit a local village to buy some veggies.

The village was a small island only accessible by boat and had 10 houses on it and families who had been there for generations. They prepared some rice cakes and iced tea for us before we headed off to pick one of our favourite ingredients morning glory, it’s kind of like spinach but better! This would form part of one of the dishes we would later prepare.

Back at the cooking school we were shown how they de-case the rice and grind it up to make batter (another ingredient for later) and even had a go ourselves, the girls were definitely better but it was hard work!



We then got started with our 4 course meal. Everything was chopped up and ready to use, each of us had our own cooking stations with little dishes with the correct amount of ingredients – kinda like they do in Blue Peter! No chopping and no dishes, definitely my kind of cooking! Our first dish was a rice paper fresh spring roll (pictured left) which we had to roll in the correct way and served it with a hoi sin peanut sauce. The next was a pancake (made with our batter) which was stuffed with shrimp and pork then rolled up and served with home made sweet chilli – My favourite thing to eat and I can now make it all by myself, yey! Our pancake tossing abilities were not bad, Kay managed to loose some of the ingredients but ended up with a great result. The final dish was lemongrass chicken with chillies and morning glory – yum! We got to eat our dishes as we finished them, the fresh passionfruit juice kept flowing all day and we finished the afternoon with some fresh fruit, it was all excellent and well worth a visit in the future!

We headed back totally stuffed for an afternoon of souvenir shopping. The markets here are great and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity of buying a few things for our non existent house as well as a few Christmas pressies (sorry mum but I couldn’t resist). We finished off what was a great day with some fancy cakes and a coffee and managed to take a few pictures of the riverside and the Japanese bridge - told you we did some sightseeing! Grand total for day of cooking/shopping/eating…….a couple of million Dong.

Just arrived in Jungle Beach for 2 days relaxation. Need I say more?
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GOOD MORNING VIETNAM

Friday, August 27, 2010 Katie and Taylor
Hue – Pronounced “waaaaayyyyyy” is a funky wee town and our first stop in Vietnam and involved us driving through part of the Demilitarised Zone to get there from Laos. Hard to believe the country was fighting a war so recently so we’re keeping Ben on a low profile doing our best not to sing Born in the USA while we are around him.

Anyway “Waaaaayyyyy” is famous for its Imperial citadel which is great for a stroll around and me and Katie opted to walk to the Thien Mu Pagoda around 3 km walk from the citadel (10Km round trip). Surprisingly in this heat and humidity we got accosted by various scooter/motorbike/cyclo sales folk but we stuck to our guns and walked it, and arrived rather damp and thirsty but was well worth the effort as the grounds and Pagoda were stunning.


As you already know Pete joined us again after his adventures in Tibet/Nepal, so the DMZ bar was the venue for the reunion and the first round of the Odyssey Blue cocktail for the 2010 trip. Great and much needed night out and we kind of stole a cyclo thing to get us back to the hotel, which is pretty much like a buggy with a bike attached to the back……weird.  I wouldn’t like to cycle these during the day as the daily swarm of scooters is a nightmare to negotiate.

Currently writing this on our air conditioned coach to Hoi An on the same route used by the Top Gear team on their Vietnam challenge, so if you haven’t seen it, give the episode a watch to give you an idea of the stunning landscape and roads we are enjoying. Just got our first glimpse of the sea and looking forward to our first trip to the beach, can anyone lend me a bucket and spade??

Awaiting us in Hoi An is shopping galore as tailors whip up all kinds of clothes in a few hours, so a new dress in on the shopping list for Katie and perhaps a even a silk kilt for myself….hhmmmm maybe not?!




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He's Back and we're in Vietnam!

Thursday, August 26, 2010 Katie and Taylor

Pete's back and we celebrated in style with our first taste of Odyssey Blues!
Also did a little decorating of the DMZ bar walls.


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Rock The Boat

Tuesday, August 24, 2010 Katie and Taylor
We left Vientianne in style.. a 40 seater air conditioned coach - with a few people headed for other adventures that means a double seat each and lots of leg room… it’s the little things! We set our sights for the “King Kong” caves (real name is Konglor) in Phu Hin Bun National Park which would be our home for the next few nights, well not the actual caves but a small resort nearby only accessible by longboat. Longboat isn’t quite the words I’d use to describe them, 3 seater wooden paddleboats with removable engines …. not everyone’s cup of tea but at least we got guides to help us bail the water out (ours was named banana man).

The accommodation here was pretty basic but all that you need in the jungle; a bed, mozzie net and we were lucky enough to even have a fan! There was a restaurant on site which served really tasty food – good thing too cos there wasn’t anything else for miles! In particular the grilled fish in banana leaf was fantastic! The main reason for coming to this part of Laos was the caves which last years group raved about so our hopes were high as we got on our boats and headed into the dark. 2009 didn’t let us down, the 7.5 km of caves were amazing. We were taken through at some speed and managed to stop off to see some stalagmites and stalactites which were somehow provided with electricity?!  We were then entertained by a few of the guides getting into the water to what looked to be a bit of a splash around but ended they were moving a rock. Laos men in their underwear – not something I particularly want to see again. We almost lost James, Kay and Ben as they drifted off but our guides didn’t let us down and rescued them meters from where they started. We stopped off for lunch before heading back for a much deserved swim in the river (no Ben.. it wasn’t the Mekong but one of its tributaries!). A definite highlight of the trip so far and a real hidden gem, if these caves were in Europe they would be overrun with coach tours probably.

Savannakhet was our final stop in Laos where we got to see our first glimpse of Thailand across the river, we’ll be there in a few weeks but first we’re heading to Vietnam and Cambodia. One last Beer Laos and we say a fond farewell to the country currently number 1 on our list of places to return!

Our easiest border crossing since Europe and we arrive in Vietnam, first stop Hue where we hope to be reunited with Pete tomorrow for one big drink… he deserves it!!
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One Inner Tube £3, Bucket of Whiskey £2, Day of Tubing.....Priceless

Friday, August 20, 2010 Katie and Taylor
Vang Vieng is Laos version of Blackpool or Benidorm and is a backpacking mecca, home to a fast flowing river, dozens of river side bars selling literally buckets of alcohol.. A perfect place to sell tubes and tell everyone to drink their way down? Apparently so! In fact 2 weeks before we arrived a local bar owner went "tubing" as its called, only to drink/smoke too much and that was the end of him. 


Thus a perfect place for Odyssey to sample some "local culture" and it was superb, it all made sense at the time anyway as I'm sure health and safety would outlaw it most places especially considering the rip slides and lack of hand rails to get out the rapids. 


Vang Vieng itself doesn't have much to it apart from hundreds of British/Irish/American/Ozzies all drinking and watching Friends or Family Guy. In fact we even met a guy wearing a Hearts strip! It's good to see some Jambos in South East Asia considering how badly they travel in Europe *Boom Boom*. All in all though we would definitely come back here to endanger ourselves again.


On to Vientiane next, the capital of Laos and a wee touch of France in South East Asia. The food quality is amazing even if the price has jumped a bit from what we are used to, every corner has a coffee shop and baguette stands. Plus Phimphone Grocery which had some names we even recognised from back home including Boots and Kettle Chips. 


Spent the first day tuk tukking around the sights including the Pha That Luang (Fat Cat Pat as I call it), Buddha Park and even a version of the Arc de Triomphe. Built using concrete donated by America to build a runway during the Vietnam war, the government used it instead to build this Monument and is now known as the vertical runway. Sneaky!


Our Tuk Tuk for the day
Pha That Luang
Buddha Park

"Arc de Triomphe"
Vientiane was also the venue for a new Odyssey fashion first- board shorts and bowling shoes. I don't see it taking off but it worked anyway while we embarrassed ourselves trying to bowl even if a few of us managed to injure themselves falling over a lot on the surprisingly slippy alleys.




More photos on the signpost!
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Mekong Madness

Tuesday, August 17, 2010 Katie and Taylor
Our slow boat trip to Luang Prabang down the Mekong river brought us through the jungle amongst some stunning limestone cliffs and very remote villages. 6 hours and a numb ass later we arrived at the Pak Ou Caves 1 hour away from our final destination. The caves are supposedly the best thing to see when staying in Luang Prabang so since we were passing we dropped in. Unfortunately it’s write up does more for it than actually being there,  however it was cheap and a nice break to get the circulation going again.  

We soon arrived in Luang Prabang and scouted out the city for some fruit shakes (the current tipple for the majority of the group). Luang Prabang is very similar to Luang Nam Tha, but probably has ten times as many tourists which we are still adjusting to as we are used to being the only westerners for miles around. Anyway Luang Prabang offers the same outdoor activities and has a general holiday feel to it. It is also home to a handicraft night market which has added some weight to our bags, there’s everything from stunning lanterns, paintings and snake wine to the infamous Beer Lao T-shirt of which Taylor is now the proud owner of! We ate at the food market to save on the pennies and ended up with a great buffet meal for about 60p.. bargain (and the food was really good!). We’ve also hit into monsoon territory and found ourselves stuck in the night market when the heavens opened! We eventually made a run for it and swam into the next bar looking like a bunch of drowned rats just in time for some more fruit shakes!

Our first full day was taken up by the internet, we’ve started planning our next move and found some cheap flights to Borneo and Oz so we’re all booked up for our next adventures.. you’ll have to stay tuned to see what they are!

Our next day was probably one of the best days of the trip so far; swimming with elephants. We trekked with them for half an hour then got to go in the water and bath with them. It was great! Ben had trouble staying on in the water and ended up facing the wrong way while Maggs was having problems getting on as her elephant didn’t want to stay seated long enough for her to get up so it was all a bit of a giggle and an amazing experience. After a short swim in the waterfall we headed back to prepare for the birthday celebrations for Kaye – a wine and cheese night. That might not sound too exciting for you back at home where cheese and wine is available 24hrs.. but when you’ve not had a blue cheese, Brie or even Cheddar for so long and a good bottle of white wine has been tricky to find, a wine and cheese night was luxury and just what we all needed before our last chance shopping at the night market before we head for Vang Vieng the next morning.


Currently in Vang Vieng preparing for a days tubing – i.e. Floating down the river in a rubber tube whilst stopping off at bars for some drinks,  I could see this catching on in Leith! This is the thing to do here so Team Odyssey are going on mass to try it out.. wish us luck! Record of this event probably won’t make the blog as river + alcohol = broken camera!
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Livin La Vida Laos

Saturday, August 14, 2010 Katie and Taylor
Thursday 12th August

Ah well this is the life! We are currently sitting in a café in Nong Khiew overlooking some stunning scenery that looks as if we have been dropped in the set of “The Beach”. This is our jump off point for the slow boat trip along the Mekong to Luang Prabang and is a great place to chill overlooking the river from our own bungalows and our first encounter with local wildlife. Neill and Kylies encounter with the local rat munching on their fruit made us laugh this morning!

Anyway prior to here was Luang Nam Tha where we had the luxury of cocktails and proper fresh fruit shakes, bliss! We stopped for 4 nights here and all around were perfect places for trekking, kayaking and cycling. We opted for a day kayaking with Mike, Alice and Heather (who the guide took quite a liking to after serenading her, the majority of the trip) plus some randoms who due to their inability to row ended up forcing us into a tree and covered us in spiders. We visited some Lanten villages along the river which remain relatively untouched by the western world and only 2 months ago had electricity connected to their villages. Women are married relatively young and from that moment onwards they have their hair tied up in a bun, and have their eyebrows removed. Saves visiting the beauty salon every few months I suppose!? Lunch was served on bamboo leaves in the middle of the jungle which was rather unusual and Heather can add various foods now to her ever-growing list of new foods on the trip.

The next morning at silly o’clock, we went cycling with Neill Kylie and Kirsten to visit a Stupa, a temple and some more villages while cycling through some stunning rice paddies. Needless to say most people were rather sore the next morning, including the group which went for a 2 day trek/kayak which included a night in a hill tribe village!

We celebrated Neills birthday on the last night with even more beer Lao, “yellow monk” cocktails and sweet and sour chicken from a wee restaurant, which consisted of 1 man and his frying pan. He will be able to retire now after having to serve the whole group at once.

We’ve now hit back into backpacker territory and it’s hard to convey to others what we have being doing the last 4 months without Calypso being by our side, so we are hoping Pete can hide Calypso in his luggage for his return. On that note; latest news from Lhasa is that Pete is still evading the police as the Yoghurt festival has kicked off, meaning the government offices are closed till Monday so no permit yet so Pete is getting tucked in to Muller Corners and Frubes as we speak.
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Goodbye China.... Hello Laos!

Saturday, August 07, 2010 Katie and Taylor


At the moment we’re sitting in Luang Namtha in Laos sipping cocktails, yes that means we’re out of China! Thanks to Pete and Kirsten we actually made it out on time without any more hiccups and even managed to see a few great cities on our way out.. bonus!

From Lhasa we flew to Chengdu, home of 90% of the worlds pandas and well worth a visit. It was the first Chinese city we have visited which felt like China, lots of lights, busy streets, skyscrapers and smog, but it was great. The first day we headed to the panda sanctuary where we saw baby pandas, not so giant Giant pandas, young ones, old ones and even red ones. We could’ve spent the whole day watching them watch us whilst stuffing their faces with bamboo leaves but we headed off for a wander around the city in search of Starbucks (it’s been a long time and Kylie was having withdrawal symptoms).
 




Chengdu is a pretty big city and we wandered through the peoples park, an extremely laid back part of the busy city where we watched locals playing Mahjong, sipping tea, and got a little snap happy with the photos of pagodas, they are all so pretty.  Our search for Starbucks was still underway and although there were over 10 in the city we hadn’t passed one. So we headed for a renovated old part of town where there were plenty of tea rooms and souvenir stalls and tucked away in the middle was a Starbucks and a frappucinno of some sort was had by all.  Our day of wandering didn’t stop there, we continued to the riverside where we found a great restaurant and enjoyed pizza and a few drinks by the lamp lit riverside.

The next day we were booked on an 18 hour train to Kunming, our second last stop in China. The Odyssey group had the top bunks of one and a half carriages, which required a few members to have a bit of a night cap to get through the night. The majority of us however settled in and had a great night people watching.

Our visit to Kunming was very brief, one night in the hotel and we were off the next day. The tour guide instructed us that the things to see and do in Kunming was to visit the Green Lake which we did and go shopping in Wall Mart which we also did, Kunming.. done! From there we caught a direct bus to Jinghong where we checked in, had a swim, had pot macaroni (just add water) finished the last of our Chinese money on 40p beer and left the next morning for Laos! yey!

The bus to Luang Nam Tha was £7 (bargain) and 5 hours later we arrived at the Laos border. We sailed through the border and managed to get a few refugee Canadians across too.. go Odyssey! So that brings us up to date.. did I mention we’re currently sipping cocktails in the sun??


Big thanks to Douglas for keeping everyone up to date with the blog!
China photos are on the signpost!

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Goodbye Calypso

Monday, August 02, 2010 Katie and Taylor
Sunday 1st August

Well where do we begin.....after being told we cannot proceed past Nyingchi before the 30th due to the road being washed away, there was more heavy rain on the 29th resulting in a bridge collapsing-along with our plans. The government wouldn't give us other permits to drive any other road but the one that was blocked, the security police were telling us to get out of Tibet as our Tibetan permits were about to expire so we were kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place.

It became apparent that we couldn't proceed any further east out of Tibet as planned and to get round the floods it would be around a 2-3 week detour. Thus Plan B was formulated to get back to Lhasa to renew our Tibet permits and reroute to Nepal. Woohoo! No such luck though as once we arrived in Lhasa we were advised it takes Mr Chinese Man at least 2 weeks to stamp the extension forms, so team Odyssey were back to square one.

Most of the group are now getting frustrated by how simple tasks take so long in China, one minute you are told everything is ok by the police/government and then told conflicting information around 2 minutes later. God knows how anyone survives here without having a copious amount of alcohol at hand, which is such a shame as the country is beautiful its just the Chinese government control pretty much everything!

Plan C has now been kicked into action and tomorrow morning we shall fly from Lhasa to Chengdu which means we can finally get out of Tibet plus we even get to catch up with our Panda friends at the Panda sanctuary. Then we shall jump on an overnight train to Kunming and the trip shall continue as planned. Inevitably though this means losing the truck so Pete is taking the truck to Kathmandu to send her back to the UK which is a real shame as we have all became quite attached to Calypso as she has been our home for the last 4 months. Don't worry though as Pete shall be catching up with as soon as possible once the endless paperwork is sorted.

Anyway the show must go on and the weather shall always be the weather and unfortunately Calypso doesn't float or fly, so we gave her all a good send off to clear the bar stock and food last night. We shall miss her!


Blue line shows our intended route after Everest and the red line details our new route


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