"Buy something lady"

There are a few places in the world, where every time you turn your head you see something that makes you think "holy shit, did that just happen." Ladies and Gentlemen...Saigon, Vietnam.

We arrived early in the day, had an interesting cab ride into town with a cabbie who didn't really have a sense of direction, were led into some dark alley ways to find a hostel, and were ready to find a spa for some pedicures, manicures, and body scrubs. We walked in circles around town in the pouring rain looking for a spa, how is it that Vietnamese nail shops are on every street corner in Canada, but nowhere to be seen in Saigon? Finally we found one and couldn't have been more excited. I was led into a room for my body scrub. Not the same room that other people were laying in for their massages, but what looked like the over flow room. No dimly lit lights like next door, but high powered industrial sized light bulbs. This woman gave me a pair of disposable underwear and told me to "take off," and so I started to as soon as she left the room, but she quickly reentered half way through my change and I guessed that this is how they roll, no need to be shy. She began scrubbing the back of my legs and at first it felt really good and she slowly added more pressure with the salts and then she asked me "do I hurt you, hahha ?" My answer was no, because at this point it was all tolerable. She continued and that's when it started to hurt. I told her she was hurting me and she just said "that's ok." I was convinced that she was trying to scrub the melanin right out of my skin considering how dark I've become. I told her a few more times she was hurting me, but it didn't stop. I saw a drop of the solution hit the white floor, it was a glossy looking orange. I was sure I was bleeding. She continued, and her hands moved further and further up my legs and I began to think that I was put in this secluded over flow room because I was gonna get some sort of a happy ending. Before I could panic I was asked to turn over so she could scrub the front of my body down to the bone. I looked at what she was using and it was an orange solution, I wasn't bleeding! Finally it was over and I couldn't wait to get away from this woman.

We spent the night walking around town eating and drinking. We ended up at a bar and asked for a seat on the patio (sidewalk facing an intersection,) prime people watching real estate. We watched scooters packed with people drive by in every direction, bicycles packed with people, cars, and people on foot walk through this intersection with complete disregard for anything coming at them. It's sort of an organized chaos. If you walk into the street people will make room for you, they'll honk their horns till your ears bleed, but they won't hit you. Packed scooters...in Cambodia I was surprised to see 4 people on a scooter, Vietnam one-upped that. Toddler in front standing, dad behind toddler seated, another child, and finally mother seated side saddle holding an infant. Other outrageous things I've witnessed - parent driving scooter while child is standing, but sleeping and almost falling over in front. And if the child is too small to stand they are held, but still asleep. As we sat here watching this outrageousness like it was a TV show, people selling things started walking by. My favorite was this woman who looked like she was selling dried up squid/jelly fish on a rack, with a light, attached to a bicycle. She walked back and forth so many times and with so much poise I couldn't help but stare, this meant I was interested so she slowed down every time she walked by.

The next day we went walking around town to do some sight seeing. War remnants museum was the first on our list. I don't really have much to say about it considering the exhibit sent chills up my spine. It was graphic, very graphic, and at times I had to step away to avoid being the girl crying in a museum. We headed to the Notre Dame Cathedral afterwards and just walked around a beautiful, but busy, city...in the pouring rain.

Angkor WHAT?!

Cambodia was one of the top two countries I wanted to visit. To say it exceeded my expectations would be an understatement. We spent two days visiting the temples. Bayon, Baphuon, Ta Prohm, Angkor Wat for sunrise, Preah Khan, Banteay Srei, and Phnom Bakheng were my must sees. I got to enjoy them all as well as some others along the way. I have so much to say about Cambodia with no words to describe it. The people were the most friendly I have ever met and they're main concern was that we enjoy their beautiful city. Even the ten year old homeless girl I had a conversation with was super friendly! It's hard to imagine that Cambodia had such a turbulent history, because it was one of the most peaceful places I've been. The country is beautiful, with the most gorgeous trees I have ever seen and it just felt like such a mystical land.

The only thing I know forsure is that I didn't have enough time. If ever I have an opportunity to volunteer my time somewhere, Cambodia is where it will be.

Vietnam....here I come!

Going going back back to Bali???

So as soon as we got into Sengiggi and realized there weren't any baby waves for us to learn on, we had to get back to Kuta to get some surf lessons. We booked our boat and were off to a city I thought I would never return to. We gave shopping another go and were successful this time, besides the guy who said "F*^# you" when we wouldn't buy his jewelery. We shopped the rest of the day away and walked the streets of Kuta dodging motorbikes and cars.

We got up early the next morning to hit the waves....or they hit us more like it. We found our instructor, Dennis, but he had plans so his non-English speaking friend would be teaching us. The sea didn't look as calm as the first time I saw it, so I began to get a bit nervous. We walked into the water and after I was hit in the face by a wave and had a wardrobe malfunction, I caught my breath to realized the water was up to my chin. I had a minor freak out but the water quickly receeded and we began our lesson. The water was rough and I'm sure if we were anywhere else in the world, we wouldn't be allowed to learn in that. The goal of my first attempt at surfing was to stand up...success! I stayed on my belly a bit but did end up standing up at least twice! We were just about to call it quits, because the waves were slightly too rough for us beginners, but then Christina's surf board hit her in her face and she got a black eye. Then we called it quits.

We packed up and were headed to the airport. A flight from Bali to Kuala Lumpur, a night in the Kuala Lumpur airport, and then a flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia.....at last.

A little place I like to call Paradise!

People have said that Gili Trawengen is one of their most favorite places on earth...you can add me to that list.

We met another Canadian girl, Natalie, on our boat ride to Gili T. We decided to share a room since it would be cheaper for all of us, and she was travelling alone. She had a bunch of cuts on her legs from falling off of a scooter in Bali, and later that day she fell into a sewer with open wounds. That gets more interesting later...

We were itching to lay in the sun without people annoying us to buy things, so we liberally applied the SPF 70 and hit the beach. The water was warm, green, and absolutely perfect. Paradise. As we roamed around town we realized that we could easily walk on the streets without near death experiences, this is because bicycle and horse drawn carriage are the only method of transportation on this island. We spent the day relaxing and doing nothing and decided to go out later that night. I failed to mention that drugs flow freely in these parts of Indonesia. People were sitting in huts smoking weed openly and every once in a while a server would go to a table with a small cup with a toadstool print and say "your ticket to the moon." Mushrooms are just as available as water. We sat on the beach watching a perfect scenery of water, perfectly placed white boats, and some of the brightest stars I've ever seen. We had to head home a bit early to tend to Natalie's wounds, because by this time in the night her ankle, up to mid calf, was swollen and red. God only knows what was in there from the sewer. We went home and I got to play doctor with my first aid kit (zip-loc bag filled with all the essentials.)

The rest of our time in Gili T consisted of biking around the whole island stopping at remote beaches and restaurants for fresh fruit juice, lying like a starfish in the sea, and snorkelling to see bright fish and sea turtles. Unlike Kuta, I can definately say I will be back! My only issue with Gili T was that when a horse carriage is coming by, you must get out of the way quickly. I learned my lesson even quicker when I couldn't move my bike out of the way fast enough, and the man driving the carriage slowed down just enough to punch me in the arm with his whip in hand. I didn't get angry or upset...just a little confused as to what just happened and now it's pretty funny.

We went to Sengiggi, Lombak for a day and couldn't leave fast enough again. Vulgar men, again, and people trying to sell you stuff ranging from necklaces, massages, to boat rides. We tried to rent motor bikes to drive around the island, but after the men trying to sell them to us kept making extremely rude comments (I even had to ask them to stop while we negotiated) we decided to scrap that idea. Instead we got to watch some local surfers in some aggressive waves and enjoyed a beautiful sunset on the beach to some live music. Life could be worse. If it weren't for unfriendly people, I'm sure Bali and Lombak would be much more enjoyable.

I can see the temples of Angkor Wat Cambodia just around the corner!

RRRrrrrrrr you Indian???

We were super excited to get to Bali because of all the wonderful things we've heard about it. I think those wonderful things people were saying must have been another Bali. Few words could describe what Kuta, Bali is like. Let me try a couple...busy, hectic, sidewalks used for motorbikes, vulgar men, aggressive women, and almost all people here play a mean game of rip of the tourists.

We got in late at night and had to walk a while with our packs to find a room, it seemed like everything was full. This was the first time we had this problem and it was a bit frustrating. We finally found a room and met a couple of Canadians staying a few doors down. We started chatting and soon enough we figured out that not only had I finally found 2 Canadians, we also had 2 mutual friends! Makes Canada seem so small considering we were on the other side of the world. We went out for drinks and what we thought would be a night of dancing, but the club we went to seemed like a daycare so we took advantage of the free drinks and few dances, including what looked like a couple of chip n' dales dancers gone wrong, and called it quits.

We hit Kuta beach the next morning. The waves were amazing and we couldn't wait to get out there to try surfing the next day! When I say Kuta is busy and hectic that's not only the streets, but the beaches too. It was hard to lay on the beach without someone coming up to you every 5 minutes trying to sell you something and/or making vulgar noises and comments to 2 girls laying in the sun. We decided to go shopping instead, and after I got royally ripped off and my blood started to boil, I called it quits on that too. We had begun to search for tickets out of Kuta and to the Gili islands already, since clearly we weren't having a relaxing time in Bali. Prices ranged by about 300,000Rp($33)from booth to booth (also a common trend when trying to shop) and finally we managed to secure us some tickets to paradise.

We went for some great local Indonesian dinner. at a restaurant we returned to over and over, and out for some dancing again, but this time a rolled ankle was the cause of an early night. (I knew the biofreeze would come in handy!)

The next day we roamed around the busy streets and ended up hiring a car, with the 2 Canadians Darren and Auria, to experience a different Bali. A great decision to lessen the sour taste that Kuta left in my mouth. We went to a small, semi busy, beach with beautiful water and a few monkeys! We followed this up with a visit to a temple with lots of monkeys. We were told to remove all jewelry and to hold on to our belongings because these monkeys....are kleptos, they hold your stuff ransom for foos. We were enjoying the great views and a beautiful sunset when one of the monkeys dug it's HUGE teeth into Darrens unopened water bottle for a little drink. Monkeys gotta drink too :)

We left Kuta early the next morning. I don't really say this about places, but if I never return to Kuta I would not be upset....

Next stop - Gili Islands (Paradise)

Hello!...Who is it???

We flew from Phuket to Jakarta and took a cab straight to the train station. Jakarta is an interesting place to say the least. Lots of traffic, smog, garbage, and slums. It is on Java, the most populated island in the world. The people were incredibly friendly and also some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. There were little to no tourists and we were a bit nervous getting on the train knowing that Bandung would have even less foreigners. We took a 3.5 hour train ride to Bandung and met 2 girls from Denmark, Hilla and Camille, who were also just as nervous as us. We checked into a hostel together and explored the area a bit. There were no foreigners in sight and the locals knew no English. You would think that being with 2 white girls we would have been stared at like no other, but people barely turned their heads, it was kinda nice not to be gawked at by locals. It got a bit frustrating when we tried to order food at a night food court/market, with the slim to no English, but a neat experience anyways.

We got up early the next morning to hike a volcano. The drive there was great, Java has some of the most beautiful countryside. There are rice fields carved into the side of hills higher than I could climb, makes me wonder how these farmers do it. As we got closer and closer to the volcano, little kids knew foreigners were approaching in a jeep with darkly tinted windows, and would stop to wave and say hello. Indonesian kids are some of the cutest I have ever seen. They would drop everything to say "Hello! Who is it?" and I felt like some sort of a celebrity. It was nice to see kids having such a good time playing with kites and rocks and anything else they could find. It makes you realize how much technology impacts our lives everyday, we have become so used to Nintendo DS, Wii and iPods and these kids have probably never heard those words and are still having the time of their lives. A few hours later we made it to this volcano and never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I could get this close to a volcano, in it actually. We hiked up to a point where we could smell the sulfur and feel the heat coming off the rocks, I thought we were done but the guides continued, taking us to a stream of boiling water and steaming rocks. The smell of sulfur got so strong we had to cover our faces and hope not to choke. We saw what used to be a forest with only burnt tree stumps left and a few new plants. It was a beautiful contrast of old and new. We finished the day with a much needed dip in a hot spring.

The next morning we were to catch our train back to Jakarta and back to the airport for Bali. A walk in dawn with packs and no idea where we were going. We were told the station was close to our hostel, and it was, but things are different in the dark. Things were also complicated by the fact that no one knew English when we stopped for directions. For those of you who know India, imagine doing this in India with all of the traffic minus the cows. Words can't really explain that exact situation, but we made it!

Next stop - Kuta, Bali

Moment....because the rain

The last I posted, I had mentioned that we were in town in Ko Phi Phi...I failed to mention that during one of the downpours we decided to go into a tattoo shop to pass the time. This is where some sketches were drawn and the persuading had begun. Christina and I decided to sleep on it.

The next morning after our trek back to our secluded beach in the dark we decided to do an island boat cruise to see all of the satellite islands of Ko Phi Phi. The long boat taxis weren't able to pick us up right from the beach because of the current, so we had to do part of this trek with our packs on. This was great fun. We finally got into town and it started to pour. Our boat tour was canceled and we checked into another hostel. This hostel seemed ok when we saw it at first, I don't know what we were thinking. This place was so gross that we decided to use the tourist bathrooms a 10 minute walk away, and party all night so we wouldn't have to sleep there. Sacha's Guesthouse was one of a kind, so was its smell...which was sucked up by all of our clothes and followed us to our next destination. We were determined to party all night and this is exactly what we did. We met some people at a Muy Thai boxing ring in a bar, as I was chatting up some Canadians (because it was Canada Day,) Christina told everyone who was having neck and back pain that I am a Chiropractic student. By the time I got back I had a line up of people wanting adjustments....and of course I did it. Seated cervical adjustments in front of a boxing ring were followed up with supine thoracic adjusting on the floor of a straw hut.

The next morning we hiked up to the Ko Phi Phi viewpoint. There were a lot of stairs but the view was amazing. We could see the beaches on both sides of the town and the storm clouds rolling in from the sea. It poured rain, once again, so we waited at the top of the hill for it to pass. It didn't, so we walked home in the rain and got the closest thing to a shower we had had in 2 days...Sacha's just didn't cut it. The rain was relentless and we were running out of things to do...so I got a tattoo...blame it on the rain. It was a traditional Thai bamboo tattoo so there were no machines used, just a few needles at the end of a long bamboo stick. There is no tearing of the skin and no blood...so walking through dirty rain puddles and stepping in the sea right afterward was ok.

We partied all night to avoid Sacha's guesthouse and had a ferry to catch at 9am. We woke up at 11:20. Check out was 11. I have never moved so quickly to get out of a place. We went to the tourist bathrooms, again, to clean up and repack before we caught another ferry. We made it into Phuket in the evening and met a guy on the bus from England (Surprise,) but he knew where Edmonton was and had been there! That was refreshing. We went for dinner and got amazing Thai massages. We saw a few sex tourists in Phuket, this was weird to see because I had heard so much about it, but never experienced it. Kinda gross....

Next Stop - Indonesia