Ko Samui, Khao Lak and the Simillan Islands

Hi all, from lovely sunny beautiful Thailand!!!

Hey, after flying from Chiang Mai into the amazing airport of Ko Samui (it is just like being in the resort already) head off to the beach... It had been a month since the last time I got in the salty water... and I really needed, trust me :)

Chiang Mai has been special, and there are very special moments to remember... but the palm trees at the beach... that is amazing, ok?? and the sunrise... and the sunsets...pfffffff... they are owesome... and the water... sometimes it looks exactly like in the brochures... at first I couldn't believe it. Now I'm getting awfully spoilt, and used to this paradise.

From Ko Samui we've come all the way to KhaoLak, to do some diving... well... Osku is learning, but I took a boat to the Simillian Islands, and loved it. I was lucky. I had an amazing weather all day through, great visibility, and saw all the fish I wanted!!!! There were lots of Nemo fish (clown fish) and tropical fish, and trigger fish, and a turtle, and... and... and a Giant Morey (don't know how to spell it :oP). It was like being in Gareth King's Fish Tank :oP... more or less!!! All that with the incredible landscape of multicolour corals of all types... there are no pics of that... you will have to move you a*** here and experience it. Do it!!! It is worthy!

Khao Lak is one of the points were the famous big wave hit more than a year ago. Today I went for a walk towards the north and I saw a police boat that is lying in land, that was dragged from the sea about one or two kilometres inland. It is really impressive. It gives you an idea on how strong the earthequake was, and how much effort this people is putting into carrying on with their lives, and, in some cases, get them back. It is something to learn from.

Tomorrow, I think I will Osku with his course, and head off to Ko Lanta... but I will decide that while having dinner, tonight... planning is not my best quality!! Ah... and I will be going to NZ a couple of days later... Will get there on the 11th... same day as Mum!!! I can't believe she's coming!!! She is really cool!! And I am going to be eating mummy's food... in NZ!!! Sooooooooo good!

Have fun... and keep on enjoying each day... I know you do... and I try to do it as well ;o)

Muchos besos a todos... este paraiso me esta volviendo loco... va a ser duriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisimo tener que dejarlo para ir a NZ... aunque claro... seguro que partir de alli sera igual de duro. Cuidense... que yo hare lo propio ;o)

Ciao ciao,


Heiwa XX

Chiang Mai

Hi everybody!

I've been the last two days trekking in the Doi Inthanon National Park near Chiang Mai and it has been great. Rode elephants for the first time in my life, did some bamboo rafting, swim in the waterfalls, camp fire with guitars and local instruments... really good!

The places around Chiang Mai are really nice, but we are in the dry season and there are lots of fires trying to get the things ready to grow the diff veggies when the rain comes... so it is not as beautiful as it normally is.

Appart from that, I have been visiting CM, taking my little travelling bodies to see the temples (there are like three hundred... we've seen two... and the three of us agree that is enough!) and enjoying the easylife of this town. Backpakers hang around in the same area of the town, so it is like a small village inside the second biggest Thai city... I recognize lots of people everywhere... weird!

Now I've decided to buy a ticket and head to the south... specially after reading Osku's blog... I should be in Ko Samui tomorrow Sunday at around 16.00... and ready to go swiming the morning after. Can't wait to be in the beach! A little bit of sun before I go towards the cold in NZ!!!

Make sure you carry on having fun! I will do my bit from here :oD

Un beso muy gordo para todos... cuidense mucho, ok?!? Y esos planes de BA querido... que me vaya la gente poniendo al dia... ;oP

Ciao ciao,


Heiwa

Estimada Luang Prabang

Hola a todos!

Por aqui siguen los cambios de ciudad, pais, companhia, etc etc... Ahora estoy en Chiang Mai, Tailandia, y otra vez solo. El Osku se ha ido a disfrutar directamente de las preciosas playas del sur. Yo por mi parte queria seguir el Mekong hasta la frontera y ver como era el famoso Chiang Mai.

Pero de todo... lo mejor ha sido Luang Prabang. Hasta la fecha la ciudad mas bonita que he visto en el viaje. Rollito frances, del que me gusta a mi, con sus teterias y casitas pequenhas. Buena comida (croissants de lujo... os lo prometo) y la gente superfeliz. Unos cuantos templos en los que ocupar el dia y la camara de fotos. Y unas excursiones con muy buena pinta. Yo al final solo hice una... pero fue de lujo... a una cascada en la que nos pasamos el dia banhandonos como crios. Ole! El tipico rollo de Laos!!

El viaje por el Mekong, un poco rollo... pero tenia ganas de hacerlo, asi que no podia seguir viaje pensando en como seria. De todas formas siempre es bueno tener tiempo para leer... y ya casi me he acabado a los Karamazov... que falta me hacia.

Chiang Mai es chulo... pero despues de la trankilidad total de Luang Prabang la comparacion es inevitable... y no se lo que aguantare aca... por lo pronto hoy me he dado un supermasaje tailandes (de los normales... del massage boom boom todavia no he probado, pero espero que sea mas placentero...) que me ha dejado para el arrastre. Quiza manhana necesite uno para recuperarme. Que vida tan dura!!!

Bueno, besines a todos y cuidense mucho mucho. Pronto habra mas fotos... para aquellos que se quieran aburrir con estas historias.

Hope you are all fine!!!! See ya soon!


Heiwa X

Vientiane and Vang Vieng

When I started this thing... don't know if I should call it experience, trip or luxury year... and decided to keep this other thing called blog, diary or "cuaderno de Bitacora", never thought that anybody would be interested in reading it. I thouhgt of it for myself, and just a way of saying "hey, I'm still alive in case you were worried". But it is great to see that, more than any thing, it's keeping me in touch with all of you .

There are lots of moments, lots of instants, where I felt the need of sharing them with you. I felt how much some of you would have loved to be there: meet this or that person; have this conversation; dive in those waters; listen to Moonman and share a beer while watching that beautiful sunset; walk those temples. And, why not, be far away from the smoke.

Well... I am glad that this "cuaderno de Bitacora", has become the way of sharing parts of this with you. For those that don't like internet... well... I still have 9 months ahead of me... just use this thing to find me!!! I won't be waiting... but I will be very happy to see you!!!

If you move fast, tomorrow you can find us in Luang Prabang. We're off to this UNESCO heritage town after a few days in Vientiane and Vang Vieng (Lao Capital of "Happy Lassies"... don't worry Andy, I left the kids at the Bungalow. They are too young for this sh*t!).

We had a couple of disappointments in here. First one is that the Myanmar embassy was close, and that the Visa will take too long... so we decided to cancelled the idea of visiting Myanmar. Shame... next trip! Good thing is that we gave ourselves a day to discover Vientiane. Enough to take my little travel mates for a cultural visit :oD.

Second was Vang Vieng. This area is beautiful... I would say: incredibly beautiful. But is full of places selling happy shakes, happy pizzas, happy lassies, magic mushroom sh*t... and they have "Friends" full volume in every restaurant :-O!! Upppppsssss... a bit too old for this cr*p. And the worst thing... there are no kids to go swimming in the river!!!!! The best, actually, is to get something that get you away from the village... a bicycle for example... and destroy your legs while pedaling up and down the hills!! We went to see some of the caves, and that was very very good. And the people was smiling again!!!

Then sunset by the river... more fresh milkshakes... and a conference with mum to find out that she is coming to NZ with me in a couple of weeks!!! Isn't she brave!!!!!!! Does anybody know any "decent" (and I mean DECENT) guesthouse in Aukland?!?!? Just joking ;o) That is great news!

Well... Lots of kisses to all of you, and please... keep on working hard. Make sure that one of you becomes a boss soon, and offers me a job in a few moths ;oD

Muchiiiiiiiiiiisimos besos a todas/os. Espero que esteis disfrutando de la cercana llegada de la primavera... yo en breves paso del verano abrasador al otonho fresquito!!!

Ciao ciao,


Heiwa

Si Phan Don & Tadlo

Hi all from SuperRelaxing Lao!!!

Time seems to stop in this country... well you know that the watches keep on counting because the sun moves... but people seem to keep still in the shadow the whole day.

Well this is not exactly true. There are, at least in the south, three parts of the day. From Morning until 3.30 - 4.00 p.m. when people stick to the shadows, and they are sleepy (might have something to do that green thing they smoke ;oD). Don't even think saying "sabaidee"... as you might wake them up!

Then is bath time 3.30 till 6.00 p.m. Everybody is off to the river and they are really alive. Believe me... it looks like a methamorphosis (do you write this like this??? :oP). Then everybody is happy, loud and cheerful. Great! This is my favourite part of the day!!!!

And finally... night time. It just gets dark... and is bed time... there is nothing you can do. Specially when the black outs are normal and internet is not so common when you get out of the cities. I.e. we had been sleeping between 10 and 12 hours a day!!!!! Pfffffffffffff.

We got to Lao last Thurs and we headed directly to Si Phan Don also known as the 4 thousand islands (well... actually both things mean the same). There were some "canelada" moments, but we manage to do it right!


There is not much to do around there but chilling out visiting WaterFalls, look for river dolphins (we manage to see their backs... ehhhh, well, we think they were dolphins ;D), swim in the Mekong and play with the kids (main attraction of the last few days!!).

As that was all we could do we decided to try in Tadlo. See if it was more lively than Si Phan Don. Nope. It was as quite as the other!!! More waterfalls, more swimming in the river with the local kids -picture- (I'm sure that if you check in the LP they are part of a Minority group... pfffffff... somebody should burn the LP!!) and more relaxing time for us! Well... we enjoyed a good 3 hours trekking while the sun was really burning... yeah, that was good (and really stupid!).

We are now in Pakse ready to go to Vientiane in a night bus (we had another "canelada" moment while buying the ticket this morning... nothing serious!!!!). We see if we can sort out our VISA to Myanmar tomorrow morning...

I hope you are all fine, and that keeping happy!

Muchos besos para todos!!! Espero que esteis bien y que nos veamos pronto!!!!

Ciao ciao!


Heiwa

Splurge in Siam Reap

Hi all!!!

If any of you has looked at a Lonely Planet guide before you've seen the little box that says "Splurge"... well... normally when you check that out is disappointing.

So... Osku and I decided to create our own Splurge... and went to a 5* hotel to spend the worst hours of the day (cause' of the heat) in the Gym and the Swimming Pool... Excellent!!!! It was like being on Holidays (the rest is not holidays... it is just travelling, visiting monuments, having milkshakes and pancakes... i.e. hard work!).



We added a homemade icecream to the plan of the day after the swimming pool and a sandwich of "Lomo Iberico" (Thanks Natacha!!!!!!!!) while watching the sunset.

And just to finish the day... and recover our boddies for such a long day: A full 1hr massage (a normal one ;oD). Pfffffffffffffffff... I am so tired!!!!

Well... that is to say that Cambodia has been great, and that we are sorry to leave this wonderful smiling people (that offer you tuk-tuk, drugs and ladies every 20 metres). Tomorrow morning we will fly off to Pakse in Lao, for a new leg of the trip. We are also planning to get to Myanmar in the next couple of weeks... we'll keep you inform.

Make sure you all keep well, and hope to see you soon along the way!!!

Besos fuertes para todos y cuidaros mucho!... Nos vamos para Laos a buscar el dinero del Roldan... si en una semana no hay noticias nuestras es que dimos con el ;o)

Ciao ciao,


Heiwa X

La ciudad "perdida" de Angkor

Al Oeste del pais de Camboya, antigua Indochina, se encuentran los restos de una ciudad inmensa que devora a los arboles que devoran la ciudad. Piedras, Garudas y Apsaras de mas de mil anhos que cambian de color con el paso del dia. Ninhos que te persiguen con una sonrisa para venderte agua fria para apaciguar el sol abrasador.

El lugar es magico, pese a que en la ciudad ahora habitan ordas de comerciantes y grupos de humanos con camaras de fotos (y no sabria decir de que grupo hay mas numero). Las petreas miradas que te observan desde lo alto, las seductoras danzarinas Khmeres y las miticas batallas entre dioses, demonios y angeles nos transportan en el tiempo. Algunos de los templos se pueden ver como eran hace mil anhos... y otros se ven como los encontraron los exploradores hace apenas doscientos. Imposible decir cual de las dos visiones es la mas epica, o al menos la mas bonita.

Pero es imposible evocar la imagen de semejante lugar y olvidar los ninhos de los que hablaba antes. Comerciantes profesionales que juntos podrian construir una torre de babel y que son capaces de luchar con todas sus armas por sacar medio dolar mas por unas postales, un chal de seda o unos pantalones de hippie "wanna be" (i.e. "wanna be hippie"). Esos mismos genios siguen teniendo claras las cosas importantes, las prioridades en la vida. Saben perfectamente que una partida de Escondite ha de jugarse sin prisas y terminarse antes de volver a la tediosa tarea de vender chuminadas a los aburridos turistas. Esos comerciantes, son ninhos ante todo. Tienen historias que contar. Tienen suenhos que compartir. Tienen ganas de escuchar "you are very pretty" or "you are very handsome" en lugar de un regateo o un "no thank you" o un "leave me alone".

Esos ninhos estan cargados de sonrisas que regalar. De dibujos de flores y princesas para alguien que les mire a los ojos. Están encantados de estar en fotos que recibiran por email, aunque nunca hayan visto un ordenador. Tienen flores escondidas para aquellos que se atrevan a esperar a su lado y escuchar alguno de sus bonitos suenhos.

Nosotros, quiza sin querer, o quiza porque siempre nos han atraido mas las cosas que estan vivas que equellas inertes (por bonitas que sean) fuimos afortunados y disfrutamos de este Angkor. El de los habitantes de la ciudad perdida. Los que duermen en una casita detras de un templo... puede que igual que hace 8000 anhos. A lo mejor todos los que visitan Angkor tambien ven esta parte. En ese caso, seguro que todos se van sintiendose unicos. Sintiendose especiales. Sintiendo que han vivido ese algo que sin estar en los libros es la esencia del lugar.

Quiza sea esta, y no otra, la magia de la ciudad de Angkor. Que devora los arboles que devoran la ciudad...

Buenas noches a todos... donde quiera que esteis!


Heiwa
XX


PS: Para fotos visitad el blog de Osku. El resto estaran disponibles en un par de dias... cuando Chiqui se recupere de su agotador viaje.

Lost with out Internet!

Uaaauhhhh... I can't remember the last time I spent so much time with out connecting to the internet... I think I was 12 and my computer broke down... hehe... joking!

Well... it's been a while since the last post and lots of things have happened, lots of things have changed, and a couple of countries have been left behind (I love to be able to say this :oD)

Well... so what has happened??? Well... I met Chiqui in Mumbai when I wrote the last post... that was almost a fortnight ago... ok... to prove it, here is a pic of the two of us. Who looks like he has been travelling??!? :oD

Chiqui and I more than visiting India... we did a good visit to Indian Public Transport during a week. We visited Ajanta and Ellora (Miguel was right: This is a five star place... incredible!!!) caves near Aurangabad. From there we travelled to a beach in the south of the Maharastra state called Ganpatipule where everything was written with Sanscrit characters and the light went off every night after 7.30pm... wicked!!!! and from there we went to see the capital of Goa: Panjim. A very nice colonial town. Ah... and we took the risk of seeing the apocaliptic view of a Goan Beach, Calangute. I only have one word for it: Disgusting... but it might be only this one beach.

From there back to Mumbai, and fly to Bangkok (a bit of a surprise when they said that I couldn't fly cos' I hadn't confirmed the flight and that my reservation had been cancelled... It was all solved 20 minutes before the departure... pffffffffffffff!).

In Bangkok the expected encounter happened!!! Chiqui appeared in the Guest House (near Kao San, following Isabella's advice ;D) bringing superOsku with him. Both safe and sound (Specially Chiqui... after a disgraceful flight with Air India!) and ready to hit a restaurant and a couple of beers!

In the morning breakfast with Gemmmmmmma's parents to catch up about Myanmar (and to finish the hotel buffet :oP) and then off to the island of KoChang. A paradise island near the Cambodian border. We manage to get ourselves a hut 10 metres away from the see... i.e. wake up early in the morning... run, swim, hire a bike, water falls, some other falls... and see food to recover from all the intense day. The surprise was that the morning after it started to rain cats and dogs... so we changed plans and decided to leave to Cambodia that very day. It was a shame, because it was Osku's birthday (26th Feb), and instead of celebrate it we spend the whole day travelling.

We spent a night at the border in a place called Koh Kong (I think...) and in the morning we took a boat to Sihanoukville. 4 hours of beautiful scenery. Little islands everywhere, and little fishing boats. We burnt ourselves completely... but it was more than worthy.

Sihanoukville was beautiful and relaxing. Also we had the chance to celebrate Osku's birthday with a "Bocadillo de Jamon de Grijuelo" with French bread and proper stuff that Chiqui brought from Spain. However after one day the rain catch us again... and we left to Phnom Penh.

And in Phnom Penh finally we experienced a bit of proper rain... as you can see in the picture the whole lake area got completely flooded... amazing view, honestly... never seen rain so much for so long!

This morning the sun was shining again, so Osku and I started the research to go to Myanmar and also bought our ticket to Lao. We fly to Paksi on the 8th... fantastic! We will sort out the stuff for Myanmar when we get to Vientianne.

We then splitted. I went to the Russian Market (didn't buy anything... as always) and the other two went in their motos to the Killing Fields. We met up to see the Royal Palace... and well that was all falks!

Sorry for the long a boring post... but this is like a quick summary to say that I am fine, I miss you all, and I keep on having fun with all this stuff!

Love you all!!! Besos fuertes para todos!!!


Heiwa