Jamie's Travel Blog

Mumbai

2007-12-07T22:09:00.000+11:00

Arrived in Mumbai last night, landed around 10pm local time, didn't get out of the airport until midnight. Very busy.

Wasn't as bad as I expected as we'd heard some terrible stories and Vietnam prepared us well. Mumbai is so expensive though, basically like Melbourne prices. Half the shops are high class the others are just little shacks. We so two cows crossing the road in front of a Porsche dealership, bizarre.

Computers far too bad to upload pictures unfortunately, will update when I can

Jamie

meh

2007-12-02T14:44:00.000+11:00

I waste so much time trying to do this blog it's annoying. I dont know what ADSL means in australia, but im pretty sure here it means shit slow.
Anyway I will try and write something when I can but I don't think I'll even attempt to put photos up until I can find a decent computer.

Anyway yesterday Rick and I got some tailor made shoes which I will be picking up today. They traced our foot of a piece of paper and mine nearly didn't fit on the page. Also it turns out my left foot is .5cm longer than my right.

Our hotel is pretty cool, it even has a pool, but is one of the more expensive at US$8 a night each, but it does have a swimming pool which I think I shall have to try out later. We are going tohire motorbikes again and go up to see a temple carved into marble, I can't recall the name just yet though.

Will write more when I can.

Ho Chi Minh, Nha Thrang & Hoi An

2007-12-01T12:05:00.000+11:00

Sorry about the lack of blogging but the computers here are so bad even typing emails are a hassle.

Anyway after our large night we decided to take it easy and looked around the city some more and discovered the 'Go 2' bar which was full of backpackers and little children trying to hussle you. At first they act all cute but if you're too nice you end up which them all over you which is what happened to Karl. There were two on his back and more yanking at his money belt from the ground. They didn't get any money but took some gum and stuff that was in his pockets.

The next day we travelled to the Reunification Palace and did more exploring of the city and booked out train tickets to Nha Thrang. We departed for Nha Thrang at 1.05pm and arrived at 8.10pm. Checked into our hotel which was 10metres from the beach and learnt what a Vietnamese happy hour is, and in the case of the first place we visited, 9am-4am. They have these drinks called 'jam jars' which is a mixture of something in a plastic jam jar around the size of a pint. Somehow we all made it back to the hotel but in the morning I had to throw my shoes out as they were the most disgusting thing I have ever seen.

In the afternoon after getting annoyed at walking around we decided to hire some scooters. It took me a little longer to get used to it, but in no time we were weaving in and out of traffic like the locals and drove right up along the beach all night. Our next stop was Hoi An but as no trains travelled there we booked a train to Danang in sleeper class to leave at 8.13pm. This left us with all afternoon to travel around on our scooters. We decided to travel to the Long Son Pagoda, a Buddist temple which was very interesting but we seemed to be forced into a 'voluntary donation'.

Got some dinner and had a few drinks in a bar before heading to the train station. The train was a little late but we ended up getting into Danang at 5.45am and took about a 20minute journey to our hotel in Hoi An. Had bacon & eggs for breakfast and will be heading into the centre of town shortly. It is 8.30am right now as I am typing this.

Will add the photos when they finish uploading

Vietnam Day 2

2007-11-26T20:49:00.000+11:00

Last night we all ended up getting rather krunked due to the drinking of a bottle of absinthe we picked up from duty free. Slept until 1pm today as we were making up the lack of sleep from Friday and Saturday nights.

Had a nice lunch at a cafe and went into the CBD area which was crazy. Took Rick about 5 minutes to cross one of the streets it's so busy. Pretty much used to just casually walking in between about 10 scooters at a time.

Spent about 30minutes trying to find this restaurant from the Lonely Planet guide only to find out that it no longer exists. For some reason we were craving pizza so had that for dinner and headed off to an Australian themed bar. Really relaxed and it had free pool and the Blackburn V Fulham game playing in the back ground which I think was a repeat. On the way back stopped off a at place with a cover band playing who were rather impressive. Heading back to the CBD tomorrow to check out some more stalls and find a trip mascot.

Got a memory card reader for US$5 so I can upload some photos.

Looked like we missed a pretty big weekend with the election and the final of Australian Idol, haha.

Thailand/Vietnam

2007-11-26T01:44:00.000+11:00

Plane trip was pretty good, managed to consume a fair amount of free alcohol including Jack Daniels, all the beer on offer and cognac which was hilarious. Played Mario, watched about the first 10 minutes of about 5 movies but for some reason our row of seats was screwed and only 1 headphone worked so you couldnt really hear anything.

Arrived in Thailand really tired and still feeling the effects of our going away party, recieved a message from Dave that he was celebrating a full moon party. Jumped in a taxi at about 11pm Thailand time and met up with Dave. The taxi trip was fairly scary with a total lack of seatbelts and all the other cars driving 5 aside in a 3 lane highway. Hit a bar until about 3.30am and then did the standard thing of getting MacDonalds before crashing in Dave's hostel room which had 2 single beds.... fun times. The MacDonalds was about double the size for the drink and fries.

Plane to Ho Chi Minh city was easy, only took about 90 minutes. Although before the flight even left my tv screen broke so that pretty much sucked. The airport in Bangkok is outrageously huge. I didn't really realize when we arrived but leaving we walked for about 10 minutes once through customs to get to our departure lounge.

Got a taxi back to the airport to fly out to Vietnam the next day with about 4 hours sleep. As soon as we got out of the airport all we could hear was cars honking. It's non-stop. There are so many motorbikes and scooters on the roads it's crazy, we were inches away from hitting so many cars and scooters at least 20 times. I saw a whole family, dad mum and 2 toddlers on a scooter weaving in and out of traffic, and no one wears helmets. Got accommodation right in the centre of Ho Chi Minh City for US$6 a night each. We have air con and a tv. Had dinner in a restaurant 3 stories up and it cost under AUD$12 for all 3 of us including beer. I've been offered marijuana from randoms in the street so many times since we arrived (6 hours ago) I've already lost count.

Will try and add some photos to this tomorrow if possible. Also I recieved 2 msgs from Dave on my phone but no others. I can't receive or make calls or send messages and I don't think I can receive messages from overseas either. Will post my Vietnamese phone number when I get a sim card if anyone is interested.

Jamie

Trip

2007-11-17T13:41:00.000+11:00

Just 1 week until we leave on our trip.
Check this for updates and photos if I can upload along the way.

Itinerary so far is something like this... Tried to plan it as best we could as we don't have much time in each place to start arguing about where we should go.

24-Nov-07 Depart Melbourne 1530
24-Nov-07 Arrive Bangkok 2240

25-Nov-07 Depart Bangkok 1355
25-Nov-07 Arrive Ho Chi Minh 1525

28-Nov-07 Nha Thrang

30-Nov-07 Hoi An

2-Nov-07 Hanoi

6-Dec-07 Depart Hanoi 1240
6-Dec-07 Arrive Bangkok 1430

6-Dec-07 Depart Bangkok 1905
6-Dec-07 Arrive Bombay 2200

8-Dec-07 Goa

11-Dec-07 Depart Goa 1750
Spicejet New Delhi 2015

15-Dec-07 Kota

17-Dec-07 Udiapur

19-Dec-07 Jodhpur

21-Dec-07 Jaipur

23-Dec-07 Depart Jaipur ???
23-Dec-07 Arrive Chennai ???

24-Dec-07 Depart Chennai 0015
24-Dec-07 Arrive Bangkok 0500

2-Jan-07 Depart Bangkok 0810
2-Jan-07 Arrive Melbourne 1325

Yea!