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Hello! long time...I am so sorry to those who are actually interested in this that I haven't done a blog for so long, but just take it as a sign of how much of a great time I've been having! however, after having had a bit of a telling off, I have dedicated some computer time to doing a mega-update!
Right, here goes- a catch up in bulletpoint form!:
-Left Koh Tao for Koh Chang, which was absolutely lovely. Stayed in a ladyboy brothel (was very nice and the women were lovely)- bamboo hut on the beach which completly leaked when it rained on my last night- i got very wet and slept on the floor, but now being a hardened traveller, I found this comfortable enough- ooo, i'm hard.
-Went elephant trekking, which was of course wonderful- first we went into the river with the elephants for a bathing session and got on and rode back up to the main section wet and bare back! Then went for a lush trek through the jungle on another very obliging elephant.
-There met a nice guy from New Zealand called Mike and that afternoon we rented scooters, since he rides a bike back home so could show me what to do. This was an amazing way to see the island (which is 85% national park). Went on a walk to a beautiful waterfall which had a huge pool that we could swim and cool off in.
-Then went to Cambodia. Met two great Bristish girls- Jen and Maxine- on the nightmare journey from the border to Siem Reap. They delayed us for hours in various ways so that they could collect commission from hotels which pay them to deliver us as barely human at 1am (which we of course refused to stay in!)
-Siem Reap was ace. we went to Angkor Wat (as the photos show: STUNNING). Also went to an orphanage run by a very nice Indian nun and I gave blood at the children's hospital (they gave me a t-shirt, a bottle of water, a packet of biscuits and some vitamins- the NHS has a lot to learn!).
-Took a boat from Siem Reap to Battembong throught the floating villages. It was gorgeous but 9hours on a small and hot boat with the beginnings of food poisoning was NOT fun.
-Phnom Pehn was very cool, though the torture prison and killing fields were obviously really harrowing.
-Then went down to Sihanoukville which is Cambodia's main beach area ao I could do some diving. Wasn't a huge amount of of fish life due to a history of dynamite fishing (ah, a subtle art), but it was ace to be in the water again and the coral was fantastic.
-Here got an email off Lucy and Becca, two of my favourite friends from uni, telling me their dates for going to india for a month and inviting me to join them...so I am...! Not quite ready for my trip to be almost over so am just going to tack on an extra month in India with them- yay! will be so good to travel with two of my best mates...
- SAIGON! met up with Chloe who I travelled malaysia with, which was great as she is ace and also Jonny, a mate from home. This was brilliant because he is lovely and has also been living in Saigon for the past 2years and his girlfriend Vy is Vietnamese so they could introduce us to loads of great local ladies and an enormous number of local bars and restaurants! Saigon did almost entirely consist of eating and drinking cheap beer and rum, which is why I stayed for 2weeks rather than the 5days originally intended.
-Eventually left Saigon (with great difficulty) and got the night bus with Chloe up to Nha Trang so we could do some diving together- hurrah! it was really fantastic diving and Nha Trang was really fun, though rather mental cos they were having a beach festival so the place was packed with vietnamese tourists eating the very smelly dried squid. I tried some- it was not good.
-I'm now in Hoi An with a really nice Swedish guy I met diving. This city is so beautiful- a fabulous mix of Vietnamese, French and Chinese architecture- wow. also the home to cheap tailoring so we have had so clothes made! We rented a bike and rode to My Son today, which is a little disappointing if you've been to Angkor Wat, because although very pretty it is a hell of a lot smaller than Angkor! The ride there was stunning though and I really am starting to love being on bikes (don't worry mother- we were very careful and rented helmets as well and I'm not going to turn into some kind of hell's angel...though that would be cool...)
Right! that's me up to date...I really will try not to leave it so long til the next time so you don't have to read such a mamouth email again (if you did make it all the way through- well done and you have my respect, I probably wouldn't have bothered)
Love you! I have now booked my ticket home and will be arriving in London on the 21st august...
Rose xxx
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