enormous elephants

Catchy heading hey,

You wouldn't have guessed they were enormous would you?

Liar.

Well, surprise surprise no-one started vomiting so it was all good haha!

Actually I was still pretty fragile from being sick but I perservered (the moon was in aries!!!)

Its Harriet by the way, that moon bit might have got you thinking it was Bella, But I have fooled you all.

So, we woke up really early (I set the alarm for 06:25 regardless of Isabella's violent protests!)

We decided to go for a quick coffee before we left because the mini-bus was supposed to pick us up from our guest house, which was right across the road from this (apparently amazing) coffee house.

So we went ther and Isabella ordered a cup of tea and I ordered a coffee, Bella's tea came in a cute little brightly coloured teapot sitting on top of a big cup (She didn't even realise the cup was there at first! So IsabellA!) But then guess what, our tourbus arrived and we had just ordered, so we asked for take-away cups, not actually expecting any but we got them and Bella poured her tea and honey and milk in one and I poured my coffee in the other with milk and lota of sugar.

They gave us these really really really long spoons to stir it with cos the cups are really big and they were so cute!

So the tour bus started the engine and we were basically running to catch it!

Well we did and we started driving through and picking people up from their guesthouses and hotels, all up there were about ten people at the end.

So Isabella sipped her tea and I gulped down my coffee.

Well, we have to go catch a boat to champon, get as bus to surat thani and catch a plane to bangkok

here are two photos

xXx

Chiang mai & its charming laneways & enclaves!

Well hello there,
Here we are in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand!!!!
After we left our last post ready for bed & an early start to visit the waterfall; Tashi (Harriet) became violently ill & remained sick all night & the next morning I had to cancel the waterfall trip:(

I felt she could barely get on the long plane which we had to arrive 2 hours early for ; then it was delayed!!!!

We made it; met a nice guy in the waiting room & as I'd prayed & set some deliberate intention to find the perfect palce to go. You see now, we have no bookings, no lonely planet, no maps, no idea where we are!!!

And sure enough... I chatted with this really nice guy. who it turned out had been living here & travelling thru northern laos; & he gave me the word " rendezvous" well we managed a taxi but when we arrived it was sunday & the road had been closed for the night market!! so we had to walk through these markets with our suitcases & ah.... we are

finally out of the stuffy hotels & in the more organic style guest houses!! theyre sooo cheap & still OK. we are very grateful to be here & to be better!!!
So we met an irish woamn who sent us wandering down some back lanes & here we are : weve found a great thai/italian restaurant & a massage for the blind & an internet cafe!!!

We have heard its very wet over there!!!!
well here its 30.c & perfect, no rain, mild & balmy to cool at night!!!!
spending lots of money, not the least sending extra baggage back to our dear friend lizzie bauple!!!!!!

We have booked a day tour: elephant ride & rafting/village trek tomorrow; & the next morning we head to bangkok for t/fer to surat thani to get the overnight boat with the locals ( thanks for the tip GiselaXXX:) )
to Koh Tao. Our blissful rest for 4 days before returmimg to bangkok for 2 nights before our departure home;
Hopefu;lly next blog I'll get to load some photos. They take so long. & theres no delightfully heplful dean shawcrosses anywhere here;

Lots of love to you all
Stay well & grateful...
Be gentle with each other..............

The travelling tandem!!!!

Laidback Laos

a lot of stairs to climb!!!! down!!!

Sugarcane juice in a bag

Well,

Its our last day in Laos and we did shit all!

Yay!

Well, tomorrow we're going to a freezing cold waterfall 40mins away to experience a rare case of hyperthermia, well, I can't wait!

We were going to go bike riding today but the people here are silly and tried to charge us a full day fare for a half day?!!!!

I'm shocked!

Not happy Jan...

Victims of Landmines playing beautiful music at Angkor wat

Ok Its me, isabella now, Im only allowed 4-5 minutes!!! so best hurry lest harriet goes home in disgust!!!

Im under a tight rein these days, she tells me off most days, but she especially hates it when Im careless withe zipper on tha bag!!!!

But... all fOR good rEASON.... i LOST MY GOOD NEW SUNNIES YEsterday, but me thinks they were stolen!!!!

There is a sad sobstory asian soap in the background & its hard to concentrate!!!

Gosh... Ive been taking the most amazing & repetitious photos under the sun !!! It takes me 3-5 shots and approximately 52 minutes to get the 'non blurred' look!!!

Most days Harriet is furious when I suggest " lets take the camera!!"

So, I think this time we will upload or is it download some of them!!

You see we have such different tastes!!!

I like churches, temples & the sexy monks with their umbrellas & she likes taking pictures of anything that i cant take pictures of or take too long to take it!

Ho hum!!!!!: (

so.............

We love laos.. the people here are soft & gentle..... & they dont hassle like the last 2 countries!!!The begging in cambodia was the worst for me/us :

The people didnt seem to reach out & touch our hearts in the same way that the vietnamese did!!

Most boys we talk with seem to love cambodia; maybe its a boy thing... or maybe its the "killing field" experience!! who knows. here is where you get to fire guns each one a different price; you can even buy a cow for $100. & shoot it for another $200.00!!! work that logic out!!!!

I know Im generalising here; perhaps, if you had more time & could do a jungle trip or a treetop zipper( stay in a tree house & be zipped in a flying fox type contraption to another tree top house) you would love cambodia more; but we found it very americanised ( no surprises here!!!) & combined with reading the awfully shocking novel "sex slaves" didnt help either....

so back to laos....

& heres harriet...

The way she speaks of me its like Hitler has been reincarnated and put in the body of (to his disgust) a girl with 'brown eyes'.

Well, no, I'm sorry that I have to inform you, I am not hitler, nor his predecessor or wife... or child for that matter (hang on!), merely an innocent adolescent with boundaries unlike feral Isabella. I swear we are NOT related. It's just inconceivable!!!

Anyway..... Laos is amazing, I love the people, just tonight we were at the night markets in Luang Prabang (they are on every night) and we were looking at the handicrafts/textiles at a local H'mong ladies stall (but not really stalls they are on the ground) and her and her friend dressed me up in their traditional clothing (headdress and all!) I thought I looked like someone with downs syndrome let loose in Lucille Ball's wardrobe!!!

Isabella took a ('a' meaning a few hundred and my patience, once again. rapidly deteriorated) picture and we will show you them as soon as she fills up the memory card...for the 4th time (it won't be long soon!).

so, yeah here are some seriously outdated pictures cos we dont have a memory stick that works.....

So yes, just before the photos!!!;;;;;

we are off to thailand tomorrow... chieng mai.. Here we will stay for 3 days before we head down to bangkok & then fly to surat thani; where we will attempt to find a night boat to ko tao..

wish us luck... We'll need it!

more later.... as we need to pack to get up @ crow fart to get to the waterfall before we rush off to the a/port to catch a plane (

Angkor Watt Siem Riep

Brief Overview

I think I'm grounded ^^^^
hahahaha!!!!
Isabella is sooo photogenic!
hehe just kidding... shes not!
Ok, ok, seriously.
This post is by the horrible harriet (if you hadn't already noticed)
hope you enjoy!

So, this post is to sort out any confusion which translates literally into "descending dragon" 'ha' meaning descending and 'long' meaning Dragon, like our monkey tourguide that I told you about, oh and thom called in case you were wondering... she lost her retina.

Now, I have to appologise most sincerely as a lot of you will be quite confused with our posts because we are jumping from past & present to future simultaneously.

I'll just give you a brief run-down on our whole trip:

We arrived in Hanoi, then we travelled to Sapa by bus, then caught the train back to Hanoi, we waited in the gutter in the dark for Mr Hai (our evil travel agent) to come to work, then we caught a tour bus to Ha long bay where we embarked on a boating/kayaking quest overnight in a junk (boat for those of you with a vocabulary as developing as mine), once fulfilled we caught the same bus back to Hanoi agaion while in three seconds Mr Hai went over our itinery which said things like "stay overnight at hotel in Siem Riep" *clears throat* Which one and where?!!!

And that's not mentioning all the extra money we had to pay for our 'own' transport like Taxi's and so on.

We rushed to the airport with extra baggage but no extra charge "yay!" then found out that our plane to Hue' was delayed.

I was pissed of, Isabelle didn't seem to be affected by it (she bought her belgium chocolate, she was satisfied) then caught the plane (when it Finally arrived) and they gave us a small container of water and a hamburger with a sprig of weed-like lettuce on it and 3 slices of salami... Isabella and I being half-veggo were disgusted, well 'I' was, she just pulled the salami off hers and ate it anyway.

I, on the other hand, took one bite and spat the horrid thing out... (p.s 'WHO' is the complaining goat? Thankyou very much!)

We Arivved in Hue and were picked up at night by a (as Isabella would inappropriately call it) 'speedy-gonzales' Taxi Driver. When we got to our hotel I let out a sigh of relief because the hotel brought us glasses of warm passionfruit juice and there was a sign with isabella's name saying 'welcome' and there was a christmas tree and whatnot.

After Hue' we got a taxi to Danang then a train to Nha Trang where I got my first marriage proposal. We went to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) by bus, arriving, rather inconveniently, on New Years Eve!

After a hectic 2 nights in Saigon in our cramped little hotel room, we travelled on three different buses to chau doc (Close to the Cambodian Border) then we caught a fast boat (it was isabellas birthday by the way) to cambodia.

Arriving in phnom Penh, still on Isabella's birthday, we stayed two nights at the New York Hotel (More about 'that one' later). Another fast boat brought us from phnom Phenh up the mighty Mekong Delta (which travels through Vietnam, cambodia and Laos) to bring us here to Siem Riep (more about THAT later too!)

We leave in the morning to say 'ciao ciao Cambodia and xin ciao Laos'.

So we must go and try to found our new aqaintances (the two Germans from Berlin) and see if they want to get a drink :)

More about our trip later!

xXx Ciao

perplexing phnom penh & getting here was somehing else!!!

Greetings dear ones

Well thought Id give young harriet some space & come down & spnd some time with my friends!!!

I really wanted to wite a blog last night on my birthday but I was just too beat!!! I did spend about 2 hours down here in the "business centre" at the 'new york hotel where we are staying though;
One of the lovely receptionist guys helped me down load some burnt cd photos onto the memory stick that I bought in Vietnam (to make it easier to upload the photos to the blog; s you guys all get to see the photos & not just the boring words!!! but......

guess whaT????

tHE MEMORY STICK IS F......... & DOESNT WORK PROPERLY!!! harriets annoyed with me for spendind the money & as if we can return it!!
I could have cried... but I didnt... I just went to bed!!!!!


So here I am the day after my birthday. Thank you for the happy birthday emails. I erlly appreciated them. It means a lot to get emails when we are soooo far away from home or should I say Aus.!!!

Thanks for the comments too....!!!! really appreciate them

Well wewerent really sad to leave saigon!!! Just getting out on the 3 buses to get onto the tour where we were wedged in like sardines rushing/beeping all the way across the bottom of Vietnam.

We kept having to change buses for some strange reason. lots of people kept getting on along the way!!!
12 hours of driving with a few stops where you are forced off the bus to have a food/toilet stop (probably one of the driver/tour guides relations) We never know what condition the w.c's will be in. Harriet never goes!!!! Dont know how she manages, but I just have to!!! Most are awffffful!!!! No details though else Harriet wont speak to me for days & I am so in need of conversation!!!
You all know how I love to talk & engage!!! It can be difficult!
Anyway in the middle of this long day we ende up on a type of boat & there we were on "the Mekong Delta!!!"WOW!!!!!
Amazing 20 million people live on this river!!!! Theres barely a gap anywhere!!!
A lot of these people live on these boats & the advertise on a bambbo pole at the front what they are selling. Its incredible the conditions they live under.

we went to visit an island where we watched them make coconut candy & rice paper. Fascinating && rush rush back onto another boat (and another guide. "This boat faster .. we have to hurry... we are late!!! we went to another realtive (probably) 's house for simple island lunch. these people live so simply but they seem so incredibly happy!!!

Back on th boat down the river, & eventually back onto another bus till we were rushed off & running down back streets.
Everyone is in a rush here!!! ^
Eventually we were on a ferry crossing another part of the river (which we couldnt acces by bus?) &it all felt so creepy. Other travellers warned us here to hang onto our luggage!! gosh some nice travellers, germans, danish & costa ricans helped us up & down narrow stairs with our giant suitcases!!!!

My bag's wheels broke after 2 days of this harsh travelling!!!
but we got across & thei was our bus waiting for us???!!!!
work that one out????

I think it was the fee if we crossed in it? no one ever explains anything, so who knows what it all means!!:)
Wed struck up a bit of a friendship with these 2 german boys & by 730 pm we arrived in chau doc which is very close to the cambodian border!!!
Left90% of the bus in this really crappy hotel & walked down to our nicer one.!!!
Determined to get a massage after the nightmare bus trip with its scare/break tactics & charming roads;

walked to the fancy victoria hotel on the river in town (5 *) only to be told by thereceptionist that it was closed so back home for a bath & TO BED!!! exhausted


At brekfast the next day, the german boys & the tour guide sang happy birthday to me!! so sweet!!!
Anyway we decide to catch the fast boat & pay the extra $25 US ; no erfund for the slow boat ticket & no receipt!!!
But it sure felt exciting on my bithday morning to be zooming along on the mekong delta heading toward the border, wind rushing through the boat, the steady banging of the waves beneath us; its no calm river, its turbulent, choppy & dark brown from the heavy silt deposits.

There is soooo much going on on this river & Im fascinated to stare out; Its gjard to hear & hard to talk or read, but its so exciting. We pull into a house on stilts on the water. A young guy gets on & asks us for our passports. some peole dont evn have visas for cambodia; but they can buy now & pay extra for photos. they all dothis exercise amongst the "bang bang of the boatride!"

We step off at the border of Vietnam!! we are swamped by children selling fruit, water & money exchangers. I ignore the selling tactics & ask them questions about themselves, their lives; they get frustrated by this but I can tell they like it too. Its hard to break the pattern of what theyre in but I always try & have eye contact with them & open my heart to them.. Their lives seem sad to me but thats my perception!!!

Then were on the boat again & eventually are crossing into cambodia where were loaded off again & go through the customs. Only a fw rabndom people are checked!!!
Our suitcase our still strapped onto the front of the boat. Some of the random people who are checked dont even have their luggage; but theyre waved on anyway. The people who payed for photos never even get them taken...
were on the boat again!!!
Its been a wild exhilarating different & intense 41/2 hours & just like that we are there!!!!
Were off the boat & swamped by taxis/tuk tuks; & I just get tashi & we jump into a cab to our hotel; we leave all our new friends behind!

we dont even get to say goodbye to them;Ifeel sad.... Humans form bonds so quickly. we are not meant to be alone!!!
Anyway tuk tuk's here are different...
They are a motorbike with a nice carriage; & we take to one guy instantly; weve been with him vere since; from thai airways to laos airlines office.. to the palce... to the museum......
Now its the night & we will go for dinner & leave at ist light ........
Yes another 5 hour boat trip to siem riep.........
Cambodia is a lot different to Vietnam.... its more expensive...... more western...... more normal even....
there are lots of western eateries (all expensive!!!) & lots of young asians with dirty old western men. they were probably in vietnam too,,,,, but we just didnt seem to see them... here the bars are more in our faces..
we managed to find a nice cambodian/western place to eat & I had a fetta salad!!!!
It was heaven!!!
weve learnt a few words & have become close with one family restaurant. I nursed the gorgeous baby today. So beautiful...
Well I will try next blog to download some photos for you>>>:)


Leer hi!!!!!!
PS I found another blind massage place & Ive had 2 shiatsu treatments. Amazing!!!!
The guy Mr Chea who I had yesterday was soooooo good; today I went back & had another one!!!
It was an unbelievably incredible experience & today after the massage I gave Mr Chea a rose & $5.00 us tip & I gave him a kiss. It was so amazing to watch his reaction.
How about that these blind people serving the non blind. How cool is that?
so we couldnt speak & he couldnt see, but it was an experience I will never forget!!!!
love from Harriet & IsabellaXXXXX

Ho Chi Minh City- Is this really possible????

Hi dear ones !!:)

Happy New Year!!!:):):)
Well we ahve finally arrived to Saigon; what used to be the capital of Vietnam (before re unification!)

We are still alive; still talking. Although Harriet complains that I talk far to much for her health & well being!!!
Sometimes it gets a bit difficult because of course we are of different ages & likes & have very different interests.; ie tashi doesnt really want to go see imperial palaces & Im a bit over shopping!!!!
It must be a bit boring for tashi sometimes & I often get sad when she wont help me with the computer cause I learn so slowly.
we are still having lots of technical challenges with the internet & often thei/net is slower than dial up & still, weve never been able to look at our blog site.

Early in the trip we sent some stuff home & it seems we had 2 usb & meant to send 1 home but must have sent 2 so now Ive bought a memory stick to try & put the burnt cds weve got done of our photos. Its all very quick stuff for some of you guys but for me Im slow & it sometimes takes so long just to open gmail!!! we then put the burnt cd & then try & upload them onto the blog site, but along the way many things go crazy!!! & I think weve left our photo folder on the desktops of a few computers in a few hotels because thats as far as we get in one sitting!!!!!
very frustrating!!!!


hope you all can get on Ok(unlike us!:: :( ) Wed love some comments! & enjoy the stuff. its a bit all over the place cause also some times its 3-4 days in between computers etc. One week in 3 days we travelled by boat, taxi, car, plane ,bus , train& cyclo (its like a tuk tuk- these old men pedal this apparatus where you sit (squash into) a seat & feel guilty about the poor old thing cycling along with your fat western bum!!!

We did nothing for xmas & new year. Its a long story ; but...
last night was new years eve; I wanted to go have a cocktail, but we only arrived here in Hoi chi Minh City late yesterday & there are 10 million people here (half the ammount in the whole of australia!) everybody rides motor scooters & its grid locked; & you have to walk between this swarming, pulsing engine roaring smoke producing mass of motorcycles. Its like a sea of moving, swarming locusts except theyre motorbikes & most have 2-4 people on them.
God its so fucking overwhelming I cant describe it to you; That was the first obstacle; then there was the streets; I still cant even pronounce them let alone remember them or work our way through them; then theres the language: trying to ask where theres a bar thats close, safe???? well what can I say? it was just too hard; so we had some food ( in the open where people can see you eat; which Harriet always hates!!!)& then we walked home said happy new year & went to bed!
We leave Saigon in am & head towards Cambodia by bus and boat trip up the mekong delta & arrive in Phnom Penh sometime on my birthday 3rd. then later up into laos &eventually across to thailand where well spend our last week before coming home.

Weve been travelling for 3 weeks now; sometimes seems like nothing; other times feels like forever; & I woke up today wanting to go home !; till I realised I dont really have a home anymore & then felt totally depressed; just wanted to hide in my bed & never come out!! Sorry, I know this is all meant to be exciting travelling fun stories , but I just couldnt bring myself to face the traffic, dirt. poverty, hassling street sellers &cyclos & taxi drivers to do anything!!!
ho hum... so tashi & I went to breakfast & then sat & watched television, heaven forbid!!! Yes me watching television!!:( shows how bad it feels!!!)

till we got strength to get out & get a taxi 2 km away to the Vietnamese Traditional Medicine Institute to get a massage from the blind people who Ive heard are fabulous; but guess what ?

when we got there ,it was closed as its a public holiday!!!! can you believe it? this place is open 24/7 every day all day. nothing ever closes; but the one day I need to have a massage & change my ticket @ thai airways, theyre closed because of a holiday that they dont even celebrate!! work that one out!!! so we walked along & found a way out hair salon & I pushed Tashi in to get her hair cut by this eccentric guy who was like a magician cutter. cost $60,000.00 dong (about $5.50) thats high end market!!!
We walked around looking for another massage place but it was just a logistics problem & evnetually we gave up; We found this full on supermarket with security everywhere & walked around for a bit, but our hearts just werent in it; I really want a massage!!!:(
Tashi was getting sick by this stage, & its a lot like like Hanoi although different, you can only stand it for short bits!!

I really want to tell you that I like the hustle bustle, crazy, exciting, pulsing,brewing, dynamic energy of this place. Im so sorry to disapont you & say that I just cant seem to deal with it. Theres something missing in me that everybody seems to have a coping mechanism or some'filter switch' that I cant get to work.

Sorry, Im even looking for western food signs. We just saw today " Burger Grill" "Big man Beer" & it looked enticing . We actually ran in & I had a watermelon juice & a cup of tea; but harriet, after reading out the whole menu of western dishes!! wanted to go (back to the tv no doubt!!)
How pathetic are we????

We leave at 730 am. so thats the way it goes hey. that was ho chi minh city!!!
Best give you a few facts:

ready?......
7 million people living in hanoi, 4 million motor bikes!, 10 million in ho chi minh. ( ? 5million motorbikes!!!?)
In all of vietnam 84 million.people.! Now there are20 million in Australia & Australia is 4 times as big as vietnam. so here there are half the whole population of Australia living in this city!!!*******!!!!!


say a prayer for me on my birthday in 2 days!!!


Love you all & miss you

Isabella & tashi

sapa& beyond to Dalat!!!

Hi there everyone,
Im getting so confused about where we are up to; because on every computer in Vietnam, we have never been able to view any previous posts!!!!! so I keep wondering where the hell were we????
So, today or should I say tonight.... I think Ill just confuse myself & you a little more by writing about today.......
because I keep thinking Im never going to catch up. now weeks have rushed by & you probably dont even know where we are!!!!. 2 friends have thought we were in Thailand; we haven't described or shock horror!!! even sent photographs of the food that weve been eating!!!!
OK... ready....
I am sitting on a plastic chair, at a round steel table; there is so much noise around me. Possibly added to with the dalat markets which are about 50 metres away. Its busy, alive & vibrant. There is a scrawny malnourished cat slinking around the other tables in this cafe; I can tell it doesnt want to be noticed.The night is slowly moving in. Its cold ,but I have my eskimo jacket (as tashi calls it) wrapped over me; so I sit calmly holding this moment close to me.
I am the only westerner here, but that too feels like an advantage. Many people stare shyly at me; sometimes I smile at them; sometimes I giggle just for no reason other than it feels good. They often respond in a similar way.My food arrives. Its Pho Bho pronounced fir birr!!!( but without the red meat or pork, instead its chicken!)
I eat joyously. The food here is exciting, delicious & different. Ive just finished my papaya shake, tashi had a strawberry shake. The total bill comes to 31,000 dong ( less than $3.00!)
Here in dalat the tourist stats are different from other places in Vietnam; 90% of tourists here are from Vietnam. We have a respite. The hawkers harrass the vietnamese.!! I like it!!!
Whenever we said we were going to Dalat next, locals from vietnam sighed softly & said " Ah, Dalat.... Romantic!!!"
Its so cute. we cant really determine why this place is so romantic to them, except for the weather!! It is winter & it is cold!! Here is the only place where there is no air conditioning in the rooms; & the" Valley of Love"( vallee' le mour) where the tourists get their photos with these guys on horses dressed as (american) cowboys!!! but the cowboys are vietnames anyhow. The ultimate in vietnamese kitch is to get married in this valley of love. It all sounds sooooo tacky but I think it could be fun, ( to see!)although we decided against it because instead we had this strange exhilarating experience !!!!
We were told by the 2 aussies on the train to Sapa, that in Dalat if you get the lucky the "easy riders" will find you. ie. you dont find them!! they have to find you ! The easy riders are a group of about 75 ex vietcong who ride large motorbikes (not like the 4 million other scooter riders here!) & will take you on a tour of dalat & surrounds for around $10 (USD); anyway as tashi & I were arguing in the street today about how to get to the cable cars (about 5-8 kms away); she wanted to get a taxi & i wanted to get a motorbike taxi!!!!
Its very weird. in many ways we have reversed roles!!! she has become the parent /mother & I the child!! she wants safety & security & propriety & i often dont care!!!
Anway, next thing I hear. "Hello Madame!!!" Thats another thing here that I really like; "AGE" is respected & revered. Teenagers are like nothing , which is of course the opposite in Australia!! We all know "teenagers rule!!" But here, everyone defers to me & treats me with so much respect; & it annoys Tashi, that no matter what ,they always honor me!!!
So this guy starts talking with me in quite good english & then he says "We are the easy riders & we would like to take you on a tour today!!" Well this was my answer come true!! but not so for tashi.; her pout became longer & she wasnt playing!! Please (Mum) I pleaded with her but no, she wanted the safe taxi. I wanted the thrill of these guys & the bike experience. Maybe bring back a bit of the freedom that I felt as a teenager on the back of my boyfriends speeding karge motorbikes!!!!
Well, I won & we were off up the mountain. My rider was called Biens. I liked him & felt really safe with him. It was a cloudy cold day & it was exhilarating. They dropped us off at the cable cars which we went across the valley in; all very exciting & challenging for me as I hate heights. Tashi got hers back by rocking the car & reminding me the windows were open, & "Oh its only perspex!!!!" we met them at the other side & walked down to the beautiful Tuyen lake& Truc Lam meditation Centre. Beautiful flower gardens, views, a couple of forlorn caged monkeys, incredible architecture & a young girl weaving silk on a hand loom brought us back to the easy riders & another thrilling ride to the Datanla waterfalls. But this time Tashi got hers back again with the sight of the "Coaster bobs" a little car that runs on a rail built for asians but not for long legged aussies!! well I am not going on that 90 degree drop (dream world like) ride. But how could I say that when tashi had begrudgingly come on the easy riders tour with me.
So off wewent !! she worked the brakes & promised to go steady. It was wild & scarey but wild & fun!!!. My rider calling out "would you like me to protect you madame.??over the railing I so wanted t say yes!! but refained !!!
Now, this guy Biens, was so nice to me. He kept saying "with me by your side, you will always be safe!!" good line huh? but I think he meant it! We talked a lot. I asked him lots of questions about the vietcong. Its all very fascinating. After the war these guys were sent to reeducation camp for 3 years! to work & be brain washed. Anyway its about time I got so much attention from someone. he said he will be waiting for me when I return.....
Tashi is normally the one getting all the attention!!! The vietnames guys almost fall over when they see her!!! She has already been proposed to in Nha trang by our lovely friend Huan we met at the 'sailing club' on the beach (even though there were no yachts!) When he real;ised tashi was only 15, he said he could wait 5 years or could he marry her sister celeste who is 19; I said I didnt think he & celeste would be such a good match; he then said " well could I please be his Mum, cause I didnt have a son & then he would be tashis brother & could he have his other sisters birthdays & addresses please. he was so cute!! Calling me Mum all night!!!
He was an aquarian & we had such fun with him it was delightful!!
Its amazing how close weve become to a few people, its been hard to leave them & when they touch you physically, its euphoric!! I cant explain it but its true.
I have a lot more to wite but every thing is shutting down.
Our days are usually packed full. the trip with the boys was only half a day. Theres a whole other story.. but I must pack now as we leave at 7am tomorrow for Ho Chi Minh city for new years eve tomorrow night.
We have visited the dalat foreign language school here & sat in on some classes.
If accepted & all goes to plan I'll be on probation for 1 month & then Ill consider a 6 month contract.
Tashi & I both love Dalat!! Its very french & very picturesque. The traffic is still wild but Im praying I could get used to it. Many do....... I might even get a scooter!!! OMG!!!! I can see us living here!!!! We will find a 3 br apartment so you can all visit us 1 by 1!!!!:)
Happy New Year My loved ones.
I love you & I miss you. Ill try & wrte more.regularly.... so much to tell..... keep well. be kind & loving with yourselves.....
All our love from the travelling tandem
Isabella & tashiXXXXX
PS Ill try to load some photos afterXXXXX