OUR BLOG

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Green hair be gone!

Those of us who know me and Mark well know how much we love Vietnam. We find when traveling though we meet people who don’t love it as much as we do and we just don’t get it. How could you not love Vietnam? The food, the people, the landscape, the cities, everything is just as it should be. After spending some time in Koh Chang speaking to other travellers we think we realised why people love other Asian counties more than Vietnam and it’s because most people we meet are from Europe escaping the winter there so they want amazing beaches. We love going to the beach when on holidays but they don’t need to be amazing beaches – we have amazing beaches back home.

Phu Quoc is an island south of Vietnam that is becoming increasingly popular year after year. It’s still at that stage where is quiet enough that we could ride a motorbike (something we never think of doing in other Vietnamese cities) but built up enough that we could go get a decent burger when we were over Asian food.

One thing Phu Quoc didn’t have was a lot of grocery stores so when I was searching for bi-carb soda (after a lovely message from someone back home) to tackle my green hair I quickly gave up and started searching for tomato sauce as I had read that the red and acid from the tomatoes removes the green from hair. I figured there would be tomato sauce at the store as I had seen it at pretty much every restaurant we ate at. Turns out I was wrong. Hardly any stores had it and then one store that I was certain would have it had sold it so heading back to our hotel one night I was certain I was going to have green hair for weeks to come which made me deeply distraught. What if I left it too long and it just stayed for months? Once we got back to our hotel Mark walked to the reception desk and asked for some tomato sauce for my hair. The girl who spoke relatively good English was really confused. By the time I walked in Mark was sitting at the reception desk on google translate explaining what the tomato sauce was for. Her response was “oh I thought that was what you said but I didn’t understand” she then wanted more information about why it happens so there we were at 10pm explaining why blonde hair goes green in chlorine and why she doesn’t need to worry because she has dark hair.

I read that I should wash my hair before putting the tomato sauce in so that’s what I did and half an hour later my dirty hair was washed and then subsequently covered in tomato sauce. I didn’t take a photo of my experience- I was slightly disgusted the whole time as I don’t eat tomato sauce let alone cover my hair in it on a regular basis… I must say though that despite the smell it actually worked! Pretty much all of the green was removed in one go.

Besides tackling my green hair we spent a couple of days on a motorbike riding to different parts of the island checking out the beaches and heading to the market at night to eat. It was there that we found ice-cream rolls. We have these back home at a place called Scrolls so we were stoked to find them on an island in Vietnam for 30,000 Vietnamese Dong (approx. $2). We ate them nearly every night for desert 🙂

We spent Easter Sunday face timing back home and spending the morning booking flights and hotels for the next part of our trip. We have 2 more weeks in Vietnam but are yet to book anything in so will just see how we go once we leave Phu Quoc on Tuesday.

We are really looking forward to coming back to Phu Quoc in years to come to see how much the island has changed. Mark is looking forward to coming back to try out all of the golf courses. Every time we pass one he always notes the name and when we get back to our hotel he is on google looking it up. I’m pretty sure he has a list going in his phone for places we will go back to just so he can play golf. #caddylife

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How relaxed can you be?

We are in Bangkok at the moment. Arrived here from Koh Chang – an island in the Gulf of Thailand – this afternoon.

We’ve spent the last 5 days so relaxed it was brilliant. We stayed in a hostel dorm room which we try to not do on a regular basis but the hostel we stayed at was really good. The beds were huge for dorm standards and the facilities were pretty good too. We slept in everyday, generally missed breakfast and chilled by the pool for the morning until we decided to go out and actually do something. For a couple of days we hired a motorbike and rode around the island. Generally in places like Koh Chang you can circumnavigate the island by following the same road. You can’t do that in Koh Chang, you can only go so far one way before the road stops and you can’t go any further so like what we did, you stop, have a look at your surroundings and drive back the other way until you reach the other end. We stopped occasionally to look at the views and one time even stopped to go check out a waterfall. The waterfall was more like a pool of water than actual running waterfalls. The climb up there was via a barely visible track covered in leaves which I was adamant would contain snakes, spiders and other things I’m scared of. Safe to say I did not enjoy the walk up to the waterfall while wearing my havaianas, especially because Mark has a tendency to walk off ahead and I was helped down a steep slippery section of the path by some locals.

So apart from riding around the island and checking a few things out we sat by the pool at the hostel because it was so hot and humid. Now normally I don’t actually go into public pools because they kind of gross me out but when it’s too hot outside I had no option but to go in constantly. When I was younger and did go into pools throughout summer my hair would always get a slight green tinge to it. I remembered this and mentioned it to Mark but didn’t actually think it would happen after only a couple of days. I was wrong. My hair is now green at the ends and I have to find a way to fix it while in Vietnam over the next couple of weeks.

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See! I’m not lying, my hair is actually green.

Koh Chang is different to other islands we have been to in Thailand. Phuket & Koh Samui can be relaxing but they also have a huge nightlight area which just isn’t present in Koh Chang. As well as the nightlight Koh Chang isn’t as built up and although there are a lot of travellers there, they all seem to be there for the same reason – just to chill out – and we did meet a couple of people who had been to Koh Chang weeks or even months earlier but were back there to take it easy before their next stops.

We are looking forward to having no plans the next couple of weeks and just travelling through one of our favourite places – Vietnam!

Until then, B 🙂

 

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Learning English

We had an overnight stop in Ho Chi Minh City so that we could organise ourselves and buy a couple of things we needed. I don’t think either of us expected Ho Chi Minh to offer much in the 24 hours that we were there as we will be going back soon and have been multiple times before. It did however offer up something to us that for some reason we had never experienced there before.

We were walking to a camera shop opposite Ben Tanh Market when we were stopped by a girl around my age asking us if she could speak to us as she was practising her English. When we looked behind her there were groups of Vietnamese students surrounding a number of different foreigners all practising English. We had to make it to the camera shop before it closed so we told her we were be back. I don’t think she believed us because she looked totally surprised when  we walked up to her half an hour later. She quickly sat us down with a couple of people and before we knew it we had people coming and going trying to get a few words it. It was a really nice experience as many of the people were our age and each had a different reason for studying English although all were loosely based around getting a good job.

Mark and I ended up having separate conversations with people. My conversation was around real estate, because go figure, the guy who first started talking to me wanted to work in real estate.I’m not sure what Mark spoke about but apart from really just talking and getting to know them we helped with any words or phrases they were stuck on. At one stage I had my group of 4 repeating the word ‘island’ multiple times each time with the ‘s’ disappearing more and more until it was silent.

We only planned on staying for half an hour, but didn’t end up leaving for an hour and a half, when we checked the time and realised that we had to race and pick up our laundry before the store closed.

We really enjoyed our experience and I honestly don’t know we had never seen the group before, especially considering they meet everyday… Maybe we’ve always just rushed past and never actually noticed.

B xxx

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It’s a colourful world we live in

We’ve decided not to go to India for the Holi festival. The costs were adding up very quickly and when we stopped to think about it we didn’t want to be rushing around trying to fit in a festival just because.

In our investigations though I did do a bit of research about the Holi festival and it’s meanings. Good old wikipedia told me that “The festival has many purposes; most prominently, it celebrates the beginning of Spring. In 17th century literature, it was identified as a festival that celebrated agriculture, commemorated good spring harvests and the fertile land. Hindus believe it is a time of enjoying spring’s abundant colours and saying farewell to winter. To many Hindus, Holi festivities mark the beginning of the new year as well as an occasion to reset and renew ruptured relationships, end conflicts and rid themselves of accumulated emotional impurities from the past.” (taken straight from wikipedia) So if I am to focus on the most prominent purpose of the Holi festival being the beginning of Spring then I don’t need to go to India to celebrate Spring’s abundant colours because if I was to take a screen shot of our Instagram posts I could see so many colours, if not more simply in the places we visit each day.

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Just a quick look at our Instagram.

Of course it isn’t the same as being at the festival but I am happy with simply enjoying the colours this world has to offer each day and I don’t feel like I will regret the decision we’ve made. How can I regret not going to one place when I’ll see more of the world than the average person? I count myself lucky to be in the position I am in and I know we won’t get to see everything this colourful world has to offer but we sure as hell will see a lot of it and I’m so happy with that.

love, a colour happy B xxx

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Beautiful Boracay

2 flights, many tricycle rides and a ferry ride later we arrived in Boracay. As soon as we checked into our accommodation we walked straight down to the doctors so Mark could get his foot checked as some of the sea urchin stings were starting to get red and puffy. Turns out though that there isn’t really anything you can do about from cut and pick at each sting without anaesthetic which I could have done myself had Mark let me. We left after Mark got a shot of something and some other prescriptions that came in the form of a scrap piece of paper with the names of the medications on it.

Boracay itself is extremely small when you consider how much they have managed to squeeze onto the island. There are so many hotels here and even more being built. Restaurants and bars are everywhere and so many stalls and shops. It is a lot more touristy than El Nido but it is set up well that we didn’t mind at all. In fact we probably preferred it. If we wanted to be around people we could head in the main part of town, but if we preferred to be by ourselves we just stayed at our accommodation and hung out in the rooftop hammock or patio.

There are so many different beaches here and they are all so picturesque. They are exactly what you see when you google Boracay. I’m glad we came.

  

 
We’ve used the past few days here in Boracay as a really laid back and relaxing holiday. The weather here has been so hot that we have been hanging out at our accommodation most mornings and venturing outside for lunch and the afternoon. Andy, one of our hosts told us we were definitely on island time.

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You could definitely check out all of the activities on Boracay…We were too relaxed to try anything of the sort
Andy and Stephen have been great throughout our stay and I feel like they have made our time here more enjoyable especially when they invited us to celebrate Stephen’s birthday with them. They had a roast pig, which the locals call a lechon as well as a banquet full of food. It was so nice of them to invite us. The food was amazing and we got cake for desert, which for us backpackers was a real treat. First time in 2 weeks I’ve eaten desert and I love desert!

Yesterday just after breakfast Mark got a message from a guy we met in India inviting us to celebrate Holi Festival with him and his family in Jaipur. In a normal circumstance I wouldn’t rush back to India but we thought it would be a great experience so we spent the morning looking into it. I don’t’ think we will end up going though and the cost is quite huge and some of the experiences from other travellers in previous years haven’t been so positive so I don’t think we will regret not going. We will look into a bit more though before we decide.

love, a very relaxed, B xxx

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Oh you little sea urchin.

The flight across from Australia to the Philippines was pretty good considering it was during the day so I wasn’t totally exhausted by the time we landed. I’m in 2 minds about whether I prefer day or night flying. I’m sure I’ll come to a conclusion by the end of our trip.

When we arrived in Manila I can’t say that I really took notice of much. We got to our hotel, checked in, ate some not so nice food at the restaurant downstairs and then went back up to sleep. The next day we were up and back at the airport for our flight to Palawan.

Ahhh Philippine Airlines. Thanks for the ₱3400 (approx. AUD$100) extra baggage cost – you made my day. Normally we never need to check our baggage. We always make sure we have checked baggage with our ticket and if we don’t we are well aware of it before we fly. This time we weren’t and the surprise was not a welcome start to our trip. The flight from Manila to Palawan was pretty normal and when we arrive in Puerto Princesa it started to feel like we were on more of a holiday so we were in pretty good spirits despite the baggage expense.

We walked around for a while after our late lunch/early dinner and came across a talent contest for the local schools. Each school performed a routine with drums, dancers, what I think is a xylophone and a leader with a whistle. Sounds weird I know but we were slightly mesmerised and watched 2 schools compete before it all started to sound the same and we went back to our hotel to get a decent sleep before our 5 hour van ride to El Nido.

5 hours in a car or van would normally be ok for me but I discovered on that van ride that I may suffer from motion sickness. Thankfully I wasn’t sick in the van but I was so glad to arrive in El Nido and get to our hotel.

We didn’t do much during our few days in El Nido. We got a kayak one afternoon and paddled across to another island which took us over half an hour one way! It was pretty amazing to sit on a deserted beach by ourselves. There was nothing there apart from an old boat and some wild dogs. We made our mark in the sand but who knows if anyone would have seen it before it was washed away by the high tide.

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Our destination from our kayak adventure.

On our last day we went Island hopping. We met a lovely mother of 2, Indre, who was doing the tour on her own while her husband looked after their daughters and we spent most of the day talking and getting to know her which was nice. On our second stop there was the option of getting a kayak and kayaking to the lagoon or walking/swimming. The 3 of us took the second option and early on we should have just turned back and got a kayak. Mark was leading us through, pointing out any jellyfish we should avoid on the way and as Indre and I were making our way to shallow water where he had stopped she thought she had been stung by a jellyfish and then a minute later I thought the same, but we both agreed it didn’t feel like a sting it felt more like a bite. Further along the way as we were trying to avoid the jellyfish and now what we thought were biting fish, Mark swore really loudly and told us he had stepped on something spiky. Now, when he said spikey I just thought he meant a spikey rock but as I got closer to him and saw he was in pain we back tracked a bit to more shallow and clear water so we could sit down and examine his foot. It was then he told me it wasn’t a rock but a thing with spikes that had been stuck in his foot that he pulled out. I immediately thought poison being the ‘worst case scenario person’ I am and told him to sit and sure enough there were still thorns in his foot. Indre went back to get a kayak so we could actually go look at the beautiful site we were there to visit. Back on the boat we all investigated our injuries. Mine looked more like a scratch so I was fine, Indre definitely had bite marks on her leg and Mark had thorns in his foot which the boat operator told us was ‘just a sea urchin. You need hot water and pee’. So Mark got both. Hot water from the boat and later pee from himself. Ha! All I could think of was that episode of Friends when Monica gets stung by a jellyfish and Chandler and Joey are there talking about peeing on it!

You can watch the Friends clip here!

Our next stop was another lagoon which we didn’t hesitate in getting a kayak for. This one, even though it was smaller was much more beautiful and mystical even than the first. It also didn’t have any jellyfish so after our kayak we were able to swim around. We stayed close to the boat though to avoid all sea urchins! Despite the seemingly disastrous start to our Island hopping tour we had an amazing time and we so glad we decided to go ahead and do the tour. We had been trying to decide for days before finally booking it.

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This is a local who I swear followed us from Island to Island selling beers to Mark. He must have known he was a sure sale. 

The tour was a great way to end our time in El Nido and I wish it just stopped there and we were teleported to the airport in Puerto Princesa except we weren’t. Mark got sick that night from the sea urchin sting and the 5 hour van ride the next day was so bumpy I actually think I fainted at one stage while trying to stop myself from being sick and Mark was pale faced the whole drive hoping he wasn’t sick again.

We leave tomorrow morning to get 2 flights and a ferry to make our way to Boracay which I think will be just as beautiful as El Nido was. I’m looking forward to more relaxing by the beach, although the weather here is so hot and humid at the moment we are trying to stay cool where ever we go.

Much love, B xx

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Part 2, starts now

Our 2 weeks back home are over now. It’s been a long 2 weeks but it has been nice spending time with our family and friends even though we didn’t get to see everyone we would have liked to.

It was different being back home. We saw things differently. We saw Melbourne through tourists eyes. There is so much to do here. The NGV is a must see when they have some of their amazing exhibits. Bourke Street Mall is a great place to shop or just to sit down and chill out while listening to one of the many buskers you can find there. China Town is great for a cheap meal and the quick trip out to St Kilda will give you a place to hang out and meet fellow travellers. Of course most people wouldn’t ever really think of heading out to the suburbs unless there was a specific thing they were going for but I would recommend people making the trip out if they could. The beaches are cleaner and quieter, some suburbs are so multicultural that you feel as if you have travelled to a different country. Our trains in Melbourne I will admit are confusing and not as straight forward as you will find in many other places around the world but if you can get out of the hustle and bustle of Melbourne you will experience a completely different atmosphere.

I don’t know about Mark but I also saw our family and friends differently. I tried to really focus on what they were saying and how they were acting. We’ve been out to dinner a lot this past week and on numerous occasions I tried to just stop and pay attention to what was going on around me. I watched a group of our friends walk towards their cars joking around with each other and laughing and I knew that I wouldn’t just miss them but I would miss how I feel around them – happy, young and carefree. I did the same when my family went out to dinner. Everyone was talking and eating and I knew that I would of course miss them but also miss how they make me feel – safe and loved.

I’m looking forward to the next year though. I can’t even begin to imagine what is in store for us but I know it will be worthwhile!

All our love,

The Places We

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Goodbye Vietnam

I thought Nha Trang was hot. Ho Chi Minh is even hotter.

After arriving at 4.30am yesterday and getting a cab to take us to our hotel we weren’t too impressed when we arrived and the hotel had double booked and given our room to someone else. After a few frantic calls from their end they organised another room at their ‘sister’ hotel and we walked there, got our key and slept for 4 hours. It was a decent solid sleep and if we didn’t sleep I can just imagine how angry the 4 of us would be, especially after our train ride. Which was non-eventful for me and Mark but a first time for Chris and Jess.

Chris and Jess were leaving in the afternoon so we went to Ben Than Market for them to get their last minute shopping in. Unfortunately, the market was closed for Tet Holiday so we wandered the streets and found a few stalls for them to buy some shoes and souvenirs for family.

The one thing I didn’t realise about the Tet Holiday is just how long everything is closed for. I really wanted to take them to eat at my favourite restaurant in Ho Chi Minh but after driving for half an hour in search of it, we realised we had already passed it and it was closed. We then asked our taxi driver where we could eat and Chris jokingly said “Imagine he says McDonalds”, well sure enough, after a few calls to his friends he suggested “McDonalds?”. How could we say no to that? It did seem like fate after all. After a large quarter pounder meal with a free apple pie, Chris and Jess got a taxi to the airport and that was the end of their trip. A seemingly quite end to what I think was a rather enjoyable trip for them.

Mark and I wandered around for a bit like we normally do and then ate our usual plate of fried rice, stir fried morning glory and spring rolls and enjoyed our last night away.

Today we didn’t do much apart from more walking and eating while we waited around to go to the airport.

Now that we are at the airport I’ve been thinking of our time away and have so far really enjoyed where we have been. Some places have been very testing but overall I’ve loved it and I can only dream about what the next part of our trip will be like. We do have a whole 2 weeks back home in Melbourne with so much to do, I don’t think I will be thinking about the next part until we are on a plane flying to Manila.

I hope those who have been following our trip have enjoyed it so far and I’m looking forward to sharing the next year with you all.

Mark says hey as well!

Love, THE PLACES WE

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*knock, knock* “House keeping”

So Chris and Jess arrived on Thursday and it was the oddest thing. We didn’t hug them or kiss them hello we just kind of smiled at them. They walked into our room, sat down and we talked and shared stories just like back home. I think something like that only happens when you are really comfortable with people. It was nice. Chris also thought it would be funny to continue everyday after they arrived to knock on our door and yell “house keeping” he also thought it would be funny to yell “come in, it’s open” when we knocked on their door. We combated this by constantly ringing their door bell to drown out the sound.

We’ve seen and done heaps of things while they’ve been here, things I’ve seen before and things I haven’t. Of course we saw the temples here in Nha Trang. After a while things do start to look the same but I always think it’s important to go and look anyway. I’ve learnt that we don’t need hours to look at most attractions while we travel but each place, no matter how similar to the previous is still different and I like knowing I had the opportunity to see those differences for myself.

Apart from seeing the sites here in Nha Trang we’ve been trying to tan in any bit of sunlight we get. It was a bit overcast the other day and I’m constantly reminded by Mark and Chris that it was a lot sunnier that I think but that’s besides the point. I got so burnt while I was reading that I was barely able to walk the next day which is the same day we decided to go to look at yet another waterfall – Ba Ho Waterfall. I was so sore that I considered not going but I’m glad I did. That’s not saying getting to them was easy. Yes there were red arrows painted on the rocks showing which direction to go, but it’s a bit hard when one rock has 3 different arrows pointing in all different directions. We had to turn around a few times but once we made it the water was amazing and the view was just as good. I’m glad I toughened up and went.

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Ohh we have friends this time!

It was Lunar New Year on Sunday night and we really shouldn’t have left dinner so late – so many restaurants were closing early because of all of the celebrations but our Italian favourite was opened. The boys were definitely happy with the outcome and stuffed their faces with pizza, acting as if they hadn’t had one in year when in fact they had one the night before. Tet (Lunar New Year) is the major celebration for Vietnamese and there were people everywhere. The city square had been set up with a stage, decorations and was packed. We didn’t stay for long as we were constantly being pushed from pillar to post, but we were able to watch from Chris and Jess’ hotel room. To get into the spirit of things we ordered cocktails and a cheese platter on room service and played Monopoly while we waited for the fireworks, which in the end were simply amazing. They went on for a good 15 minutes and while the Vietnamese were celebrating the end of the year and start of the new year, Mark and I were in a way celebrating the end of the first leg of our trip. It was a fitting end for us.

Yesterday we took the cable car across to Vinpearl Island, something I had never done on my previous visits to Nha Trang. We were all pleasantly surprised. It was super quiet because of new year so we went on pretty much all of the rides and even waited over an hour for the Apline Coaster at the end of the day. After the ride we wandered over to the cable cars only to find a massive long line. You should have seen us. First Mark realised that there was a ferry leaving at 5pm on the other end of the amusement park. Then we all checked the time – it was 4.55pm. Then we all looked at each other and ran. There was no way we were lining up again for an hour just because we missed the ferry. Turns out that just because they say it leaves at 5pm doesn’t necessarily mean it does, so we sat on the ferry for 15 minutes waiting for it to leave.

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I’m still learning how to use the GoPro.

We’re sitting at our hotel lobby now waiting to go to the train station (we are getting a taxi this time) and waiting for Jess and Chris to experience their first overnight train. Mark and I are waiting to see what they think of the whole overnight train thing. I think it will be slightly amusing.

Cheers 🙂

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We meet again Nha Trang

It’s so hot here in Nha Trang. I love it. This is my third time here, Mark’s second and I oddly find myself relishing in the fact that I know what it’s like here. I normally love experiencing new places but it was nice to arrive somewhere and know what to expect.

The walk from the train station to our hotel was a bit full on in the heat but we made it eventually and I downed a whole bottle of water as soon as we got to reception. It’s a bit frustrating though when you’ve walked for half an hour in the heat and arrive at the hotel to check in to find that they’ve checked you into a dorm. We’ve spent 3 days here so far and are super relaxed.

My brother Chris and his girlfriend Jess arrive here tomorrow afternoon from Hoi An and it will be nice to see some familiar faces. We’ve not really done anything the past few days as we are waiting for them to arrive and it would be pointless to go and do something only to go do it again with them. That’s probably not the only reason why we haven’t done anything, the other reason is probably because we just haven’t cared that we we’ve been doing. We’re ok with doing absolutely nothing and that’s unusual for us but a relief. We are finally truly relaxed. Yay!

much love, (a very relaxed) B