Snap back to reality

Saturday 29^th August 2015

This morning I left Vietnam! I woke up early and checked out. Annoyingly the breakfast wasn’t ready even though it was supposed to start at 6.30am so all I got was bananas.

I shared a taxi to the airport with another girl and checked in straight in and walked about the airport where I bumped into a guy I met in Cambodia we caught up for a while then I went and boarded my plane.

I slept most of the three hour flight but woke up to a swollen throbbing arm I had to wait for everyone to get off the plane as everyone was in a rush to get moving.

I got out of the airport and got on the bus into kl Sentral along the way we stopped a few times to watch the Bersih protest at the station I got the LRT (train) to Pasar Seni and came out in the midst of the protest and had to navigate my way to the hostel.

I checked in and was upset to find I had been allocated a top bunk and also that there was 6% GST on the cost as well making it more expensive. So I had to go out for more cash.

I found some food and chilled in the common area for a bit before going to bed to watch a movie.

Sunday 30^th August 2015

Today was a really lazy day I woke up and waited for ages hoping someone else would wake up so that I could get down from the top bunk without smashing my face. Unfortunately no one got up so I had to brave it and successfully landed on my feet.

I got ready for the day and then went down for breakfast and ended up chatting to a girl for several hours. Eventually I had to go back upstairs to move beds and ended up having a nap for a while when I came down I went out to get some food but it was a struggle to find anything vegetarian.

On the way back to the hostel I picked up some cookies and sat drinking tea and munching all evening whilst watching big hero six.

At about 10.30pm I went out and got some food and watched the end of the Bersih protest and the countdown to Merdeka which was an amazing experience it was like a carnival atmosphere which was really interesting. We spent some time talking to a really lovely family who explained everything and translated things the crowd was chanting etc.

By the time we got back I was exhausted and fell into bed tired.

Monday 31^st August 2015

This morning I woke up needing the bathroom and thinking it was the middle of the night so was surprised when I came out and it was really light and it was actually 8am so I got up.

I had a shower and had some breakfast and then around 10am went to the Merdeka (Independence Day) parade but it was mostly over which was a shame but we saw some huge balloons and lots of people cheering.

I walked through the central market to the train station and got a train to KLCC where I walked around and killed a few hours having a picnic for one in the park.

Back at the hostel I sorted the last of my Vietnam photos and chilled out for a while in the evening I went for dinner in Chinatown then watched a movie in the hostel.

Tuesday 1^st September 2015

I had a last lazy morning sitting around watching CNN news but began to feel a little depressed by all of the stupidity and doom and gloom of the media so headed out.

I got the train to KL Sentral with another girl and we had amazing pancakes at a place in the mall before walking to little India.

We spent the late afternoon strolling along looking in the many shops and chatting to people who stopped me to comment on my tattoo (and take loads of photos)

We weren’t really hungry but a really nice woman recommended a vegetarian Indian restaurant so we had an early dinner before continuing on our way. While we were eating it started to rain heavily and was still drizzling as we walked back to the train station.

Back at the hostel we sat about for a bit then walked to Chinatown to get some fruit then chilled out till it was time to seep.

Wednesday 2^nd September 2015

For some unknown reason I booked a haircut for 11am so had to actually get up and moving. I had a shower and some breakfast then got the train to KL Sentral and found the salon. The result wasn’t exactly what I had in mind but hopefully after a wash I can fix it how I want as currently it’s very sleek.

After the cut I walked around the mall a bit and then went back to the hostel to watch a movie. I sat in the common area and streamed a couple of movies interspersed with occasional conversation with other people hanging about.

In the evening a friend and I went to the mall at KL Sentral to get some food we ended up at a burger bar right next to Celebrity Fitness and stuffed our faces whilst watching spin and Zumba. I’m not sure I’d be happy to exercise while people stared through the windows some people were even filming the Zumba class on their phones…

We felt pretty stuffed so when we got back we took a walk around Chinatown arriving back at the hostel just in time to farewell another friend. I watched a bit of a movie on the TV in the common room and then retreated to bed.

Thursday 3^rd September 2015

So today was my last full day travelling and I spent it doing nothing so spectacular. This girl in my room woke up around 5am and spent an age rummaging around her bag and going in and out of the room only to finally take a shower and go back to bed! It was hugely annoying and I couldn’t really get back to sleep.

Eventually I got up and had a long breakfast before sorting through and packing my bags. Once that was done I sat about waiting for things to charge so I would have movies and books for the plane.

Around 2pm I went for a walk just to get some fresh air and ended up walking to Bukit Bintang which is s huge shopping area. The pavilion mall there is huge and I got lost in there searching for something to eat. I ate and then had to search for my way back out and walk back to the hostel. Along the way I encountered (yet another) literal wanker calming jerking himself off on a bench.

I got back to the hostel and chilled out in the cool ac before getting an early dinner the food was pretty good but overpriced and the place lacked atmosphere so we didn’t stick around long.

We walked through Chinatown and picked up some sacks as we were still a bit hungry and then went back to the hostel and spent the evening watching movies.

Friday 4^th September 2015

Last night it was a bit hard to sleep as I knew that today I would be getting on a plane back to the UK. I got up and dressed and went to meet my old KL flatties for breakfast. We were supposed to meet at 9am but due to traffic there was a bit of a hold up.

Emily and I had breakfast and then walked about ten minutes to the bookshop where she works (as she had to be back at work) and we met the others there. Mic arrived with a friend who is staying with her and a bit later Sidney arrived as well.

We walked to another café close by and I had tea while the others ate and we caught up on the last two years! Around 11.30am I had to leave to get back to the hostel in time to pack and check out. I checked out and then had a shower and got all my things together ready to go.

I spent my last few hours willing time to move a bit quicker and drinking endless cups of tea in preparation for England.

Now I have less than an hour before I leave or the airport! The last 291 days (yip that’s how long I’ve been on the road!) have been amazing! Huge thanks to everyone who has been a part of the journey I hope that our paths will cross again somewhere someday! See you all on the other side (of the world!!!) Peace and Love xxxx

Hoi An

 Monday 10^th August 2015

The night bus arrived in about 2.5 hours late but it actually made things better for us to not arrive at 6am we had a hotel transfer which we all piled into only to be taken back to the bus station to pick more people up and eventually get to our hostel. We couldn’t check in until about 11am so I went out to find some food with one of the guys from the bus.

We found a little café in the ancient city and after eating took a walk around for a few hours we didn’t have the ancient city ticket so we couldn’t go inside everywhere but popped our heads through the door and carried on. Around 10.30am we started back to the hostel where we had to hang around for about an hour before we could check in and the staff were super rude about it.

Eventually we could get into the room I dumped my bag and got changed and then went with a couple of other people to rent bikes to cycle the 4km to the beach. The ride was easy it’s a straight flat road so didn’t take much time but when we arrived there seemed to be a bit of a scam to pay to park we did it as it was cheap and that seemed the safest way to ensure our bike didn’t ride away.

We arrived about midday and spent most of the day swimming and sunbathing I took a book from the hostel which kept me occupied and I enjoyed getting a bit more bronzed. Around 4.30pm we set off back to the hostel where I had a shower in a dingy bathroom with a grey towel (this hostel is the worst in Vietnam!!!) and then chilled out a while before dinner.

We went to an India restaurant for dinner which was amazing and the portions were huge and delicious which was just what I needed. After we ate we walked around the ancient city for a while before heading back to the hostel feeling pretty exhausted.

Tuesday 11th August 2015

This morning I woke up and wanted to sleep more but it was one of those days were sleep eluded me and so I got up and had breakfast. It was an all you can eat buffet and I ate all I could eat. After breakfast I booked my next bus and then rented a bike to go to the beach.

We went to Cua Dai Beach which was about 7km away from town and was much smaller than the other one it was a pretty beach but the coastline was clearly suffering from erosion and there was sandbags along long stretches of sand.

We set up a little place on the beach under some trees and spent an enjoyable few hours reading in the sunshine. After a bit a couple of girls I met in Dalat arrived and we sat and talked to them for quite some time before they had to head off and onwards to their next destination.

We stayed sitting on the beach for quite some time and headed back into town around 4pm. After a quick stop at the hostel we went to the ancient town to a café we had been told about at breakfast. It was called reach out café and is run by deaf and speech impaired locals. It’s a silent café and all ordering etc. is done by hand gestures, writing things down and little wooden blocks with words on.

It was a really tranquil place to sit and drink several pots of tea and eat plates of cookies for an hour or so. Afterwards I walked back to the hostel via the post office to post some postcards and then back to the hostel where I had a shower and chilled out before dinner.

This morning at breakfast I had overheard a girl talking about a vegetarian restaurant and had asked her where it was. It was an amazing little place and I had a huge bowl of pumpkin it was so exciting! All the food was Vietnamese but without the stress of making sure it didn’t contain fish so was an absolute win after eating we just headed back to the hostel and I read until late.

action, adventure and a lot of pagodas

Wednesday 5th August 2015 

This morning I was up early as I had booked a day trip to go canyoning which is basically just abseiling down waterfalls. I was up and ready for breakfast by 7am and then a van came to pick a group of us up at around 7.30am for a full day out on the river.

Altogether there were 15 people on the trip which was an ok size defiantly wouldn’t have wanted it to be any bigger. It took about an hour to drive to the start point where we enjoyed 3km of rafting. We split into two boats and off we went. Although it was a laugh the river really was too low for this to be taken seriously. The rapids are only grade 1-2 which is extremely easy but more than that the river was so low our boat was consistently stranded on rocks.

We had a few close calls where we almost tipped but this wouldn’t have been an issue at all as the river was only waist deep in its deepest points and a few times when the raft was really stuck on a rock and the guide got out to push the water was only ankle deep. But like I say it was a bit of a laugh (even if we did all almost suffer black eyes from low hanging electrical wires, bridges and trees)

Once the rafting was completed we had to wait for the other group who spent even more time stuck on rocks then we did. Once everyone had arrived we gave back our paddles and were given harnesses and carabineers as well as belay devices (to add to the life jackets, helmets and gloves that we already wore) we then piled into two jeeps and set off down a horrible bumpy dirt track where the driver alternated between driving like the next rally car champion and a grandma.

We got to the spot where we spend most of the day and walked a few hundred metres to a tree where we were to learn the basics of abseiling. The practice run was no higher than 1.5m which made it a bit of a lousy place as it wasn’t high enough to really allow you to get the feeling of the positons but as I have abseiled many times before I felt pretty comfortable after my first go and didn’t bother with another attempt.

After only about 10 minutes everyone was happy to get stuck in to the real thing. It seemed we had all be told different things to expect and most of us were a bit shocked to find that the first abseil would be 30m high. It was a ‘dry abseil’ meaning that there was no waterfall but we still ended up in the river.

Getting to the start point of the abseil was probably the worst part about it as it was steep and slippery and narrow with barely enough space for the five people who came down first. I happened to be second which was good as I didn’t want to hang about waiting. As soon as I was clipped in I dropped myself over the edge and started down.

The first section we had to walk ourselves backwards which was pretty easy and once I got the hang of really leaning back I felt pretty confident. About half way there was an overhang which is where we had to start jumping which is pretty fun. Before I knew it I was waist deep in the river at the bottom scrambling over to the side to wait for the rest of the group.

Once everyone was down we spent some time sliding down a natural waterslide in which my foot got caught and I was chucked upside down under the water the shock of that as well as the cold knocked the wind out of me but as soon as I had paddled back over to the rocks I was fine.

We all hauled ourselves out of the water and took turns jumping from a rock into the river it was only about 4m high so wasn’t really scary at all. By this stage we were all pretty cold but we jumped back into the river for a group photo and then swam over to the bank got out and walked to the waterfall.

We sat and had lunch looking at this huge thundering 30m waterfall and wondering how the heck we were meant to come down it. We watched as the guide set up the ropes and then came down himself. He is a strong guy and even he was struggling against the current.

Lunch was actually a little feast and by the time it was over we all felt ready for a nap but that also might have been because we were so cold!

Eventually it was time to head up the waterfall we had to wade across the river which meant getting back in the freezing cold water and then climbing up the very slippery rocks alongside of the falls. On this side the water looked even more powerful and we were all quite nervous.

Unfortunately I ended up right near then end which wasn’t ideal as I saw so many people slip and fall and wipe out in the waterfall but all made it down (except for one girl who came back up after a few steps and did a much less powerful abseil as she wasn’t strong enough to move her feet against the current) by the time it was my turn I was a nervous wreck but I sucked it up and waded into the waterfall.

I had a few hairy moments when I lost my footing and fell once but thankfully it was out of the most powerful stream and I landed on my butt with my head above the water. After taking a few breaths to compose myself I went further. A few steps later my foot was trapped in between two rocks and after managing to pry it loose I then lost my footing and slammed it into another rock causing me great pain. Thankfully I was through the worst and made my way gingerly to the bottom where I joined the others.

We waded back across the river and watched the last few people before heading back up to the jeep. My foot was in agony and I had to limp up but got to the top feeling pleased I had done it. We had to ride in the jeeps a fair distance back to the van where we got changed into dry clothes and continued back to town.

We arrived back at the hostel around 5pm feeling pretty knackered I had a hot shower and then walked to the bus ticket place to sort out my next bus then it was back to the hostel to chill out for a while until dinner which was another family style dinner but this time with rather a lot more guests. We had Vietnamese rice paper rolls which were delicious.

After dinner we all sat about chatting and what not until late when it was decided to be bedtime

Thursday 6^th August 2015

This morning I didn’t want to wake up I had a bad sleep and was feeling tired and grumpy but I hauled myself out of bed and had a fun day. I started off with breakfast in the hostel and saying goodbye to new friends before renting a scooter for the day to buzz about on.

I started out stopping for some petrol and then it was about a 20minute ride to Linh Phuoc Pagoda. The entire thing is tiled in a mosaic of broken earthenware and it looks stunning its huge with one section going up seven floors which you can climb up to and look at the different Buddha seated on each level as well as take in stunning views of the countryside.

 

There is also a huge standing Buddha as well as two prayer halls full of beautiful ornamentation and then two big exhibition halls with beautiful carved wood and huge carved rock pieces. There is also the weirdest little ‘fun house’ attraction which I think is meant to be the levels of hell but it’s all in Vietnamese so I wasn’t sure it’s pretty dark down there and full of paper mache creatures and scenes of torture it was weird and a little bit disturbing but also very funny

                 

After taking a quick bathroom break in which I afterwards realised was the men’s I was back on the road heading about 25minutes to Datanla Falls. This place although beautiful is a bit of a money making scam, first you pay an entrance fee which at 10.000VND wasn’t much (less than USD $1) but then inside there was a roller coaster to get down to the falls which of course I went on because why would you not???

But little did I know that once down there was another waterfall you could go to but it could only be accessed by lift. Had I known that I would have spent my VND going to see the thing that I came to see instead of playing on the roller coaster but no matter I saw the main fall and walked as far as I could to see the big one and then headed back to my scooter to carry on my merry journey

Next I was heading to Truc Lam Pagoda but on the way stopped off at Ho Tuyen Lam Lake to take a picture since it looked pretty stunning there wasn’t much lakeside except for some touristy shops and a few stalls selling boat rides but I passed on them and kept going up the hill.

Truc Lam Pagoda is also a working monastery and is very peaceful and beautiful the grounds are amazing full of Bonsai trees and flowers everywhere as well as immaculate lawns and beautiful views. I spent quite some time walking around the grounds as well as visiting the many prayer halls.

                    

                 

Back at my scooter I headed back towards town driving into dark stormy clouds. Firstly I popped into the post office and got a bunch of stamps and to post my last batch of postcards. It was a bit of a mission to find and the stamps were more expensive than in HCMC so who knows if the other ones will arrive!

I went from there around the Dalat Lake to the flower park admission was a bit more than it should be but the place was pretty nice with vibrant colours everywhere, bushes cut into bizarre shapes and a ton of bonsai trees! As well as a garden centre a rose nursery and if you walked all the way to the back a lake full of rubbish and a sinking rusty barge. The water features in the park really let it down as they were so polluted. The other lake was full of slime and smelt pretty bad.

                                                                               

                                                

                      

                                

At the end of my visit the clouds really rolled in and I turned to see a wall of rain moving towards me so walked briskly for cover in a shop that sold tea. None of the staff seemed to mind me sitting in the corner at one of their tasting tables until the rain passed.

When it eased off I made my way towards the golden Buddha statue but I couldn’t find it and the rain was getting on again so I abandoned further sightseeing and went back to the hostel it was 5pm and id been out since about 9.30am so I felt like I’d made a decent go of it.

Back at the hostel I had a shower to dry off and then went and got some food at a nearby vegetarian restaurant then went back to the hostel where I uploaded some photos before our “family dinner” the food was incredible as was the company and after eating (and checking out in advance for the early morning) I was social for a while before heading up to pack up my stuff and get some sleep.