From Best to Bad, to Worse, to Better: of tummy bugs and tsunamis

First off: YES we were in Thailand at the time, (actually on a ferry), but NO, we weren't in the tsunami, so YES, we're alright... But let's start from where our last email left off:

In the Asian tradition of Yin and Yang, we've lately been maintaining a fine gastronomic balance between the good and the bad:

Best: When we last emailed, we were about to meet our tuk tuk driver for dinner and when he turned up, he surprised us with the news that he was taking us to meet his family. We rode in his tuk tuk for about 45 mins to the dirt streets where all of the locals live, stopping on the way to grab some dried snake and fish sauce. He lived in a tiny stilt house with his wife and five children, and we dined on snake, fish and beer with him and his mates. We had a great time, and made some really good friends. It was fantastic to spend time away from the toured side of things, and do as the locals did.

Bad: Perhaps we shouldn't have done as the locals did. The next morning I woke at 3am, with vomiting and diarrhea. This carried on till 6, when we met the "minibus" to the ferry. The minibus turned out to be a ute that we had to sit on the back of in the freezing morning, with our bags precariously balanced on the roof of the cab. On the boat, I kept vomitting for the next 5 hrs as we motored from the top to the bottom of Cambodia. In Pnom Penh, I started feeling better, and Pip began to feel worse. From there we caught a local bus to the very bottom of the country. The bus had air conditioning, which seemed to keep the top 2 cm below the ceiling very cool, but did nothing for the rest of the bus, and Pip started burning up with
a fever. Four hours later, we made it to our hotel, and continued with our vomit and diarrhea routine. That night we went to bed, both running high temperatures, running to the toilet, and expelling runny stuff.

Worse: At about 4am that night I woke to hear Pip on the toilet calling out to me that she was burning up. I got out of bed to find her swaying in the bathroom doorway. She started saying that she couldn't see and collapsed towards me. Her body had gone completely limp, and I managed to get her to a bed. It turned out that she had fainted, but because her eyes were still open, I assumed that she was still conscious. When she wouldn't respond I began to have a panic attack as I realised we were in the middle of nowhere, in a foreign country, with the nearest known hospital 4 hrs back the way we'd come. It was probably less than a couple of minutes before she came around, but it seemed to go on forever, and because her eyes were open, I kept calling (more like quietly screaming actually) to her if she could hear me or see me. All of a sudden she took in a breath, looked at me, and said: "I had a great dream".

Better: After that night, we took it easy and stayed another night at the hotel before moving on. Pip got steadily better and we were both still diligently doing diarrhea every hour or so.

After a day of rest, and a visit to the doctor, we felt ready to move on to our little island of paradise, so we booked a ferry and headed off. In a nice little compact version of Yin/Yang; Good/Bad events, Pip did a one day performance: straight from 'Feeling the Best'; to 'Feeling Very Bad' (on the motorbike ride to the ferry); to 'Feeling Worse' (vomiting next to monks in the
back of the ferry, with old men rubbing tiger balm on the back of her neck); to 'Feeling Better' (once we ended up in Eastern Thailand).

The next day we caught a ferry to our island, Koh Chang, and tried to find a hotel. Because it was peak season, everything was either booked out, or very expensive. The rooms were at least 3 times what we were paying on the mainland, so we hiked around in the heat till we found a hotel with a spare room. The next couple of days we moved between two hotels depending on which had vacancies. Neither of us was well but if I was sick, Pip was better, and vice versa, so we managed to get by.

Our hotel luck ran out on Christmas day though, and we found all of the accommodation full, but in a dramatisation of the Christmas story, the innkeeper, (played by the receptionist at Boutique Health Resort and Spa) allowed two homeless wanderers (played by Pip and Damen) to sleep in his (her) stable (massage and aromatic therapy room) for the night with the animals (lizards and such) looking on. Though no child was produced, the show was deemed a major success, and hopefully will never have to be performed again.

The next day we left the island. We were on the ferry when the tsunami would have struck, but because we were on the Eastern side of Thailand and much further North, we didn't see/feel/hear any effects of it. The next 5 or so hours we spent in a van, traveling back to Bangkok, so we didn't find out about the tsunami until we switched on CNN that night. The next morning we flew out for NZ.

Now we're back in New Zealand. Still with frail bellies and diarrhea, but glad to be back. We won't miss the haggling, the ripp-offs, the snakes, the roads, the omelette that turns out to be just an egg, or the french toast that turns out to be just toast, or the muesli that is oatmeal; but we will miss a lot of the people we've met and the places we've seen. We've had a fantastic time, and I guess we'll tell you all about it when we see you next time! Have a happy new year everyone and we'll see you soon,

Love
Pip and Damen

When Is A Straight Road Not Straight?

When it's winding...

Been through Thailand... but couldn't handle the tourist overload, so did some temples then bailed to Cambodia. Had a genius plan to spend time in Laos, but there were no tickets available to leave the country, so we had to forget that idea.

The trip from Thailand was interesting. We took an air conditioned double-decker bus to the border, then spent about an hour in a small room waiting in line to get to the single counter for foreigners. From the border to Siem Reap was a single straight road of hell. The only problem was that there are craters all the way through it, so the cars have to wind all the way
through. Fine if you like 4 hours of 4WD off roading in a crappy mini-bus covered in dust - but we were VERY happy to get to our destination. In the end it took 6 hrs to drive 150 kilometres, and Pip's back and neck were out of place.

Spent 3 days in Siem Reap, the temples have been amazing, but it's soooo hot. We've met some really nice people and had a great time here, but are moving on down the country, then West again to an island of Thailand to have Christmas with some friends we made at the beginning of our trip, and keep running into.

Gotta go. Our tuk tuk driver has offered to make us the local specialty with some fish from the local lake, and a case of cheap beer.

Happy Christmas to everyone... think of us here on a lonely deserted beach in the sun when you're onpening your presents.

Love
Damen and Pip

Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh

Welcome again to another update to the chronicles of Damen and Pip.

Haven't written for a while, so can't really remember half of what's happened. But here's some interesting stuff:

Last time we wrote we were in Hoi An. From there we took a 12 hr bus ride through to Nha Trang, leaving at about 7pm. There was still a lot of damage to the roads from all the flooding, so a lot of the way was very bumpy. At about 3am while we were driving the next morning, there was an almighty BANG! The driver got out to inspect, then got back in and we kept driving very slowly, with a bump and a thump noise, everytime the wheel made a full turn. We drove for about 1/2 an hour, and just when I thought it was ridiculous trying to drive the remaining 4 hours with a flat tyre, they stopped at a makeshift tyre shack on the road, and woke the owner to get us going again. Made it to Nha Trang, although a little late.

(Here's some news on the flooding in Hoi An, if anyone's doing a research project on holiday misadventures.)

Nha Trang is a beach town, lined with palm trees and hagglers. We paid $2 NZ to sit on a beach chair each and basked in the hagglers... I mean sunshine. Services included: massage; food; drink; shaving with string; manicures; lighters; newspapers. While these people provided great shade as they crouched over us and told us we were hairy, it just wasn't the same as a Pohutukawa, so we bussed it to a more remote place the next day.

Mui Ne was BEAUTIFUL, (bar the dead chicken that floated past us as we were about to dive into the water). We flagged the beach and hired a scooter to do a mission ride out to their famed white sand dunes. After driving and driving and driving, we finally made it, and found that sand is pretty much sand wherever you are. But the journey was the real adventure, and we jumped back on the scooter and wheelied on outta there! Saw a pitiful waterfall, and an alright tower. Got hassled to buy some marijuana again. Basically there's not much to see there but the weather's great and the people are so much more laid back, and the roads aren't insane, so you can ride a scooter!

Now we're in Ho Chi Min City, (or HCMC for short), (or Saigon for completely different name). Yesterday went for a river trip down (or up?) the Mekong river. The company was called MEKONG ADVENTURES! When we looked at the itinerary we thought - "Yeah right": 'Visit to coconut candy workshop and taste honey tea'. After we tasted the honey tea, our guide stood behind us and said: "This is a snake." We turned around and he was holding a python over 2 metres long! He started walking towards us and we got ready to run back to the boat (or swim back to Saigon), but thankfully he went to someone else. Some people draped it around their neck for a photo, but we weren't game. Afterwards we stuck our fingers into a tray of bees to taste their honey. Only 2 people got stung.

So we have 1 more day in HCMC, then we're back to Thailand to sort out our Cambodia part of the journey.

Hope you're all doing well. They're setting up all the Christmas decorations here in the city, so we're feeling a bit homesick. Wouldn't mind a good barbeque at the beach... mmmmm.

See you all soon, we should email before Christmas, but in the case that we're having too much fun, have a good one, and we'll see you just after!

love
D&P

Hoi An Herald: HEADLINES

Gidday Mateys!

Here are the headlines from the latest edition of the Hoi An Herald in Vietnam:

SURPRISE AS "TOUR-BUS" NOT WHAT EXPECTED:
A Vietnamese "Tour-Bus" from Hanoi to Hue was not what two travellers expected when they caught it a week ago. "While there were fully reclining seats and air conditioning units, this generally meant that the person in front was lying on your lap, and you caught everyone elses cold" said Damen, as he complained of no sleep in the ride which took over 16 hrs. Pip said: "I thought it was fine". The journey was scheduled to take 11hrs.

TOURISTS HOLED UP IN HUE AFTER FLOODING DESTROYS CROPS:
Two young tourists have been forced to spend time in Hue as they wait for flooding to subside. Water borne snakes and floating debris almost kept them from leaving the hotel for dinner, but eventually they overcame their fears. One of the two, Damen, said that the knee high water in the riverside city meant they had a romantic water-view from every direction of their hotel, including inside the lobby, which was flooded up to their heels. After a couple of days they booked a bus and left. The flooding caused US$8 million dollars worth of damage to rice crops.

TOURISTS HOLED UP IN HOI-AN AFTER FLOODING DESTROYS MARKETS:
Two young tourists were forced to spend time in Hoi An, as they waited for flooding to subside. After 2 days the water came down and the markets re-opened. The 2 say they will remain in Hoi An for a while longer as they're getting clothes tailor made.

WESTERNER IN ASIAN INTERNET CAFE APOLOGISES FOR LACK OF PERSONAL MESSAGES:
A tourist in Vietnam has expressed regret at his inability to send personal messages to people in New Zealand and blames it on a lingering cold and abundance of things to do. "I promise to talk you all through it when I get home" he said today.

BUSINESS:
Bargaining skills are on the up, as experience increases, but the Vietnamese Dong is experiencing a slow decline downwards, due to 'haggle factors' and sightseeing.

WEATHER:
Flooding in Hue and Hoi An, but not too bad. Definitely not hot, but a little muggy.

And that's the news... hope you're all doing well, will talk soon!

Love Damen and Pip