31 October 2008  Singapore

Now been here 2 weeks longer than expected but to be honest, I'm quite enjoying just chilling out having gone full pelt at Asia without a proper break first.  Been around China Town and Clarke Quay, visiting the odd museum but getting more involved in the international culture. Quite an eye openener actually.  Rudeness prevails in EVERY culture I'm afraid folks.  Went on the Night Safari last night around Singapore Zoo would you believe and really enjoyed it.  At least the animals don't talk back  (so far!!)

Have booked my flight to Sydney next Thursday 6th November returning 10th December to Singapore.  Have also been introduced to a few of Linda and Stephen's friends and have 2 new contacts for New Zealand so am hoping to get a flight across there before coming back.  In fact, without going into too much detail, there could be a business opportunity there for me.  I'll tell more once I've been.  Right now, concentrating on getting Emma off to Malaysia (hopefully this time without any problems).  Rugby Sevens here this weekend at Singapore Cricket Ground.  Last saw them 9 years ago so am looking forward to this weekend.  Have my Isle of Mull shirt and sevens T shirt with me.  Bring on the Guinness!!

Will try and download more pics but Linda's computer is an Applemac and I'm still adjusting to the weird configurations.  Look forward to any comments guys,  good or bad!

21/10/08 Cambodia - Siem Reap

Flew directly here after my encounters in Ho Chi Minh with the sole purpose of at least seeing one sight worth the journey.  When I say "encounters" it looks like that will be the substance of the rest of this blog.  First off, disembarking and immigration.  Guide books, previous tourists and travel agents maybe forget to mention the 100% bureaucracy here. Check passport - no visa- that will be $25 please - no photo - (well no, if I don't have a visa then I won't have a photo) - other 3$ please and over there- pointing to a long row of officialdom.  Waited in line as directed- passport moving down the row of officialdom- stamped here and there and finally ending up at passport control- photo? look into camera please and in one click my sweaty screwed up mug is forever embossed on a visa which I've yet to see even although I paid$28  for the privilege.

Next stop - taxi to hotel.  OMG here we go again - "you want scooter madam, nice bike or car" "where you go - you take scooter"  "I can't drive a scooter says I in my not such a civil tone". "No problem madam, you go on back and driver take you to hotel" Que??? So I have to hang on to a driver with my rucksack pulling me backwards while negotiating more crazy driving systems - --   I don't think so!!  "I'll just take a car and driver please"  "OK, $7 please madam".

Now why I am not surprised.  Pay money up front, get ticket stamped, take ticket to waiting car and hopefully on to hotel.  Did I forget to mention I had just changed $100 into Cambodian riel??    "we take dollars" seems to be the war cry.  "Which hotel madam?" Heritage Suites please says I, by this time longing for the 5* luxury I had booked as a present for surviving 2 days in Saigon.  "ok madam, I am Tann, your driver".  We pulled out onto the ever familiar red dusty pot holed roads that abound and I though at last things could only get better.

Car stops.  Driver gets out. Takes down "taxi sign". Climbs back in and the all too familiar dollar questions start. "Heritage Suites hotel? you sure? you booked there? I take you to nice hotel.Lotsa dollars cheaper"  "OMG, PLEASE just take me to my hotel. It's booked AND paid for!! " OK, but you need a driver for tour? I take you to temples and show you all good sights.  Ok, leave me your card and I'll let you know.

How can you be driving along a fairly respectable street one minute, taking in the local scenes, recognising the odd western signs, an then turn a corner onto abject poverty.  Crossing rickety bridges, driving through a local street market, and seeing slops being chucked into the river, and wondering how the hell a 5* hotel is going to emerge from all of this.  But lo and behold, a calm oasis appears and I was never so grateful to see beautifully dressed staff arrive and take my dusty rucksack, guide me to reception and show me to my upgraded bungalow, complete with private outdoor garden and shower, indoor steam room and stone bath at the end of the bedroom.  Bed was 6' wide, crisp cotton sheets and luxurious pillows. YEAHHH!  thats more like it.

It was mid afternoon and I took a quick look around the place, noting the gorgeous salt water swimming pool and poolside bar, the colonial main lobby and restaurant and dark furnishings with the ubiquitous white linen.  I decided to spend the rest of the day here, chilling out and planning my "tour of the temples" tomorrow.

Forgot my bloody bathing suit didn't I.  What the hell, a T shirt will do fine.  Dined in the restaurant alone although I know there are other guests.  Lovely meal, glass of wine, and off to bed early.  Next morning I asked the staff to phone the driver (Tann) and he duly arrived to take me off on a tour.  Price as always in dollars. Sounded Ok but not sure about the 50 kilometer drive to the "pink" temple out in the jungle.  Anyway, he took me to Angkor Wat and waited patiently while I explored.  Running the barrage of the inevitable street hawkers (mainly children) became second nature to me after a while.  Can't say I like it or will ever accept it as part of their culture as I kept being told (like I don't know that).  It still doesn't make it acceptable that children so young should be encouraged to "sell" their wares.

Anyway, nuff said on that.  Met a few interesting people, a retired Australian couple who were in Cambodia on voluntary work.  He is an accountant and came over to set up the vol organisations books.  His wife Wendy assisting.  They became quite bored and got talking to some street children who were desperate to be taught English so after visiting the families they now teach basic English to a group of children (as well as the boring financial stuff).  They were keen to hear more about my exploits and asked me to visit them when (or if) I got to Aus.  I've already receive an email from them so will try and follow this up although I did tell them I was planning to go to Tanzania after the New Year. Maybe they'll come too --  who knows!

I then met an American teacher (lone female) who was struggling along having injured her knee coming off a bus. She had travelled from Korea (where she had been teaching English), through part of China into Asia and doing it the way I had planned to....i.e budget accommodation, bus and train travel.  However, she did say it had its moments, no air con, overcrowded buses and some scary incidents, but she survived to tell the tale.  As we walked along exploring the temples together we met other people on the bus she arrived in.  A young German couple from Stuttgart who had cycled all the way!!  Yes!! cycled.  Apart from the time they couldn't get a visa into Nepal and side tracked into Kyrkdistan or one of those post Russian places.  They were heading south through Thailand and Malaysia to Singapore so of course I gave the Linda's email address (mine too).  That's the way things work when  you meet fellow travellers (although I have a cheek to call myself that, flying from one place to another) Ingo and Heike were REAL travellers and quite put me to shame, but at least they were young, fit and healthy, three adjectives which quite definitely DON'T describe me.

Both Roxanne (teacher) and Ingo advised about the border crossing between Cambodia and Thailand and although they didn't encounter any problems on the bus, they had been told they couldn't travel across on their bikes, hence bikes on roof of bus.

I was considering much of this when deciding what to do next.

What I haven't mentioned and probably should have as it weighed heavily on the decisions I made, was that Emma had come back from Thailand after 6 days, heat exhaustion, badly swollen feet from bites and complaining about the lack of sanitation at the base camp.  She had been out in the Jungle with only one guide from 6.30m till 4.30pm each other day, tracking the rehab gibbons and was suffering badly.  She emailed me before I left for Vietnam, crying to come home.  She had complained after the first day and agreed to give it a few more days to see if she settled.  After the 6th day she was still utterly miserable so I booked a flight back to Singapore the next morning.  She arrived on the Saturday an I was leaving first thing Sunday so part of my original plan which was to catch up with her just as she was due to leave Phuket, fell apart.  Having spoken to Linda on the phone from Vietnam and Cambodia, we felt I should come back and reassess options.

So,  instead of moving on to Thailand and down to Malaysia, I flew back to Singapore (another $25 to leave the bloody country) and am taking my time right now before jetting off again.  Emma due to go to Malaysia on 5th November.  I'll either go up there at that point and on to Thailand for a bit. At least I can take trains and buses this time.  Or I might cut my losses and head to Australia.  The one thing I have made a decision on though is to return with Emma on 15th December to Scotland.  From there I will arrange to go to Tanzania.  It was going to cost me roughly the same anyway, to change my flights at Dubai to Dar Es Salaam as it would be to come home and start again.  My travel agency had already gained a further #600 from me with all the changes so far.  With the economy in crisis , fuel surcharges are making flying even more expensive.  

This is the Indian Festival of Lights just now and In Little India in Singapore it's a great atmosphere so will enjoy it while I can.

More later

 

19/10/08 Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City)

Hindsight is a wonderful thing (so they tell me) or I wouldn't have been so impulsive as to set off in the opposite direction from my supposedly ultimate destination, Thailand, which I may add, cost me #25 for  visa.  Anyway, landed here Sunday morning and thought I had stepped into a time warp.  My Vietnamese visa (again another #25) sufficed to get me through immigration but from thereon in, everything was $dollars.  "you pay me $5 and I do this" was the recurring theme. Of course that was AFTER I had exchanged my US$ to Vietnamese dong. The fact that $1 equalled 1.600,000 dong might give you some idea as to the complete panic which overtook me, try as I might to fathom the conversion from dong to dollar (American by the way) and then into pounds.  The sweat emanating from every pore of my body was not, I assure you, caused by the 33% humidity alone.  When I thought I had agreed a price with the taxi driver, we were heading into what I can only describe as a maelstrom of thousands of scooters, each one more heavily ladened than the next.  Whole families travelled on one single scooter, babies crushed between mum and dad with the 2/3 year old hanging over the speedometer sound asleep. Each junction brought with it a scream from my already nerve jangled body, and my driver shouting "its ok, me good driver".  That's all very well sunshine, but what about the other maniacal drivers?  By the time I reached the hotel, in backpackers district, I could have wept ( a mixture of fear and trepidation as to what had happened and what lay ahead). I'll not go into the haggle I had with the taxi driver either, just use the imagination. Of course the hotel itself (shabby chic ) or as the award called it in 1999 "best small boutique hotel", had me booked in as 2 people and would have to charge me more as a single person as well as change the designated room.  By this stage, I was ready to turn tail and head back to the airport. The room itself was OK and had air con so at least one plus thus far.

Mistake number 2 (or is it already 6) DO NOT GO OUT FOR A WALK IN THE MID DAY SUN!!

especially alone and female, AND without carefully reading the map provided. With a little luck more than direction, I stumbled into a decent looking cafe, I say decent, because there was at least one other western there who could possibly have helped in an emergency (or so I thought).  That was until I saw him fondle the ar.. of the Vietnamese waitress every time she went past.  Did I really forget where the hell I was?  Am I that stupid? 

Yes to both, but true to the very essence of social work, I put all discrimination aside, drank my sickly black Vietnamese coffee with an equally sickly croissant, and decided to blow all caution to the wind and ordered a beer.  Then I sort of sauntered off into the complete unknown, a vague idea that I was heading towards the city centre and completely forgetting that "pavements" don't really exist in Saigon, and that scooters rule.  By rule, I mean the pavements.

A very nice elderly gentleman on a tuk tuk bicycle offered to take me to this shop where I could arrange my onward travel and accommodation.  Did I happen to mention that I was only flying one way to destinations?  Anyway, the words bicycle, tuk tuk and Saigon conjure up not the most endearing of sights in the " city of ten thousand scooters". One hour later and having circled the same area at least twice, taken at least a dozen heart attacks criss crossing the horrendous traffic, he finally deposited me outside this nondescript building, the sign being the only thing I recognised from information given to me by this nice couple from Seattle.  Once inside, I quickly learned that there were two branches of the same agency, the first one being exactly across the road from where the "nice elderly gentleman on the tuk tuk" picked me up.

If I say I was by now in a complete state of apoplexy, you'll understand that to have to return the same way caused me to break down in tears, the "nice elderly gentleman" of course still waiting for me outside the shop.  The shopowner seemed indifferent to my tears, thinking I was hot (understatement of the year) and pushing me in front of a fan which seemed to recycle the same hot air I was trying to avoid outside. 

A further hour later and another mind numbing experience on the Saigon roads, I had had enough.  I told my driver to stop at a church I recognised near the hotel, and being a Sunday, joined the rest of the throng entering for evening service.

Now, everyone who knows me also knows my feelings on religion.  Right? The last thing anyone of you would expect is to see me on my knees praying for SOME god to get me through the rest of the day.  In fact, my belief in Stargate, Jean Luc Picard and  Doctor Who all rolled into one wasn't enough to beam me away from Saigon onto pastures green, cool and welcoming.  Mary, Joseph and Jesus were right there in front of me and I actually asked them to take me home.

But no, not even they were a match for the "nice elderly gentleman" who was still waiting outside the church to take me all of 100 yards back to the hotel.  My insistance that I walk was met by more perplexity when I tried to pay him for the trip we agreed at the start.  Dong and dollars reared up again and before I knew it I was being called a cheat by the "nice elderly gentleman".  Having finally paid a hefty $10 for the most frightening experience of my life, I stumbled the last yards to the hotel, went to my bed without anything to eat (the stomach just wouldn't cope with food) and watched Vietnamese television till my eyes dropped.  I knew I had another day to contend with and made a pact with myself that if I got out in one piece, I would head straight back home and never complain about social work and Scotland again!!

Day 2 I emailed my sister and brother in law.  He told me to check in at one of the "posh" hotels in the city centre and he would arrange a driver etc.  I decided against it.  After all, why was I travelling?  To experience different countries, cultures and peoples.  I planned my day in advance and set off more determined this time.  Slowly Caroline, slowly!!  The heat only allows you to walk at 1 mile an hour.  Through a nice park, watching people doing tai chi, seeing kids playing, thats more like it.  Now, where is the peoples palace again? Take photos remember!

OK, camera out, focus, aim and NOTHING!.  The message read, "there is no memory card in the camera"  WHAT??  I definitely used it in Singapore, packed it in my rucksack and this is me using it for the first time in Saigon.  How could it possibly have disappeared? What next?  A thunderstorm would you believe!   "Monsoon season now ma'am" I was told by another tuk tuk driver waiting to save my day.  Forget it sunshine, I have my trusty mack brought all the way from Arran Brewery and so I plodded on, finally finding a shop which sold me a new camera card (at a price of course) and managed to take some obscure photos when the sun finally reappeared.

I have changed my mind about travelling up the east coast of Vietnam to Hanoi.  Next stop Cambodia.  If I see Angkor Wat that will do for now.

singapore

Arrived Friday to steamy hot weather and as crabbit as hell due to long haul uncomfortable air conditioned flights which stopped off at Colombo without telling us. Had I known that I would have jumped off and started my eleohant journey there!!! Anyway, been swimming in my sister's pool every day and just getting acclimatised. More to follow when I get to Thailand next week.

Live for Today!!

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