agnesola

Tigers!

agnesola — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Sooo... From Varanasi and holy water to Corbett national park for some tigersafari!

The town close to The nationalpark is a dusty noninteresting place, so the first thing we did when arriving at 0500 in the morning was getting a hotel and some nice sleep.

Once that task was finished(after about 4 hours...zzzzzzzzzz) we set out to find some info about the park, for prices and such. We also needed to rent a jeep for the safari. Luckily we bumped in to an italian guy that wanted to share the jeep with us so it got a little bit cheaper. We also wanted to do a Elephantride, but no one could really tell us much about this, apparently ity is impossible to book, the one who arrives first there gets to go. anyway, we just had to hope for the best.

The gates for the park opens at 0600. so we told our driver to pick us up at 0500, because we wanted to be the first so we could book the elephant ride. He was 45 minutes late though(bastard) and the only answer we get is ok ok, no problem... whenever you complain here it is just like that, no problem. Everything is possible...
Well luckily we were first at the gate anyway, picked up our guide and went in to the park. We arrived at the place for elephants and were told that we had to come back at 1400 to book. So pretty much no one could guarantee us anything.

The Park is very nice though and has lots of animals. We saw three types of deer: Samba

deer, spotted deer and barking deer. There is also 2 types of monkeys,

wild boar and lots of peacocks. And lots of other birds like parrots and woodpeckers. There is also wild elephants but we did not see any. We also stopped at a lookout tower searching for tigers and other animals, but only spotted a deer and some

parrots. While we were there it started raining though and there was some massive thunder and lightning. Absolutely beautiful! It felt like a big storm was coming in.
And as for the tigers, they were invisible this day, we did see some tigers pawprints that we followed for a while but unfortunatly we did not see one. We were a bit disappointed but not too much. Agnes did her best to look convincing as a tiger though. She does'nt look like one but I think she can be more dangerous...

Once back at the camp at 1400 we managed to book a Elephantride for 1530! They are just such cool animals! The ride lasted for 2 hours and took us to places the jeep could

not go. In the jungle. Every once in a while the elephant stops for a snack and uses its trunk(the long nose, snabel in swedish) to grab branches of leaves from the trees to eat.
It is totally the best experience in the park, just so quiet and amazing to be on this big

animal going through the jungle. We did not see any new animals during this time except for an eagle, but is was such a different and better experince from the jeep ride.

We enjoyed our day, especially the elephant, but the park is a bit disorganised so it takes some fun of it, I think we would have been disappointed without our bigeared friend to ride on.

So much for now, we are in rishikesh and tomorrow heading for Delhi!

Kiss kiss!

Ola and Agnes

Varanasi! Acha!

agnesola — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

okokok! After the most famous monument in all of India we go to another famous place and probably the most sacred For all the hindus! Varanasi, where many devout hindu pilgrims come to bathe in the Ganges! and wash away their sins!

We had already booked our train to leave Varanasi 2 days after we arrived, because our guidebook is strangely not so positive about the town so we thought that 2 days would be enough. To our surprise it was lovely, and the feeling of the place is very nice, or as the new saying goes, very shanti! Our guesthouse had ok rooms, but the best thing with it was the rooftop terrace where loads of travellers hang out and we met some really nice people that we spent our days there with! We would like to have stayed another day or two.

As in Pushkar there is alot of bathing ghats where the hindus come to wash away their sins, they do this very early in the morning. At other times the people who live here come

to swim, play, wash clothes and massage waterbuffalos(weird, I know...)

For us, being in this water without a very very good reason seems very weird. Actually, it

seems really weird even with a very good reason. It is the most polluted river in the world. And it shows, there is garbage everywhere, and the water is thick and dark. And we heard that an indian said that it is dangerous for people that are not from Varanasi to swim in it. Even so, the people who play and svim take the water in their mouth and spit it out, doing that would probably kill me. There is also a few special ghats where they burn bodies 24/7, one was close to our hostel. When a hindu dies and is cremated here it releases them from the cycle of rebirth. what they don't cremate is holy animals like cows and cobras and holy men. They just go straight in the river...another reason not to svim in it.

We went to the main ghat one night to see a Puja(prayer) ceremony. We met a indian lady there who was a professor in Mombai who had come too see the ceremony and to visit Varanasi. We asked what the ceremony was about and she said that we indians love

light and noise, so it will be a kakofoni of light and noise! She was very funny. We also asked if she had bathed in the Ganges and she said ARE YOU CRAZY! it is so polluted! So not all hindus come to bathe in it. She said that she thought she was a

good hindu by not doing it, to save the river. Not all people in India think like this, and not all of them have the education she does, she is a professor at the

university. But it is good to see that there is hindus/indians that are aware of the pollution problem. We had a great time watching the ceremony and chatting with her.

The day after it was time to take a rowboat in the morning to see people do the morning puja. This is when they come to wash away their sins. They start very early so the

boatride was at 6 in the morning. Just in time to catch the sun climb up over the earth and up towards the sky. It is an amazing thing to see, men and women bath, but at the main ghat you see mostly women in bright colorful sarees perform the ceremony and bath.
Still, it would take a couple of million euros to make me svim in that water. Apparently, if you have an open wound or a little scratch, you can get sick just from getting the water on it...

It is quite a hectic town, but along the ghats it is quite calm too walk, no cars or rickshaws, just people. And you meet alot of different people while walking there. It is cool. The rest of the town is mixed between narrow alleys in the old street to people and cowfilled big streets in the newer part. And with little interesting stores around every corner! even a german bakery, not a german in sight, but still... it had some great food!

On our last day we visited a place 15 km from Varanasi called Sarnath. This is where buddha held his first sermon and where he came after gaining enlightenment under a bodhitree in bodhgaya. There is a few temple ruins here but they are not very interesting. What is nice here is that it is sooooo calm. very non indian. It is a pilgrimsite for buddhists and there was many chinese and thai there. We sat down on the green grass surrounded by trees and meditating monks. It was a perfect getaway for a few hours before we went back to hustle and bustle of Varanasi.

So that is our Holy Varanasi visit...now we are in Delhi, waiting to take a train to Corbett National park for some Tigersafari...

Ciao!

Ola and Agnes!

TAJ MAHAL.... beauty in the world!!!

agnesola — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hello!

There we are... When you ask someone about India, they can tell you probably a lot of things... from saris to Hindouism to ganges and spirituality...
But one thing that everyone knows about India, is that the most famous building there is the Taj Mahal!

So we arrived in Agra from Jaipur... happy to leave the business of the capital of Rajasthan... On the first afternoon, we haven't done much, we just had a lunch on a

rooftop restaurant, looking at the top of the Taj and watching monkeys jumping fom one roof to the other and having fun (with the peoples' clothes!!).

We also went around the area to see where the different entrances for the Taj are, and when it opens...

On the next ay, we got up very early, to be at the Taj Mahal at 6am and see the sunrise

on the building... apparently it is a beautiful sight but we were not lucky and it was far too cloudy that day to see anything at all!!

But that doesn't matter, wether it was sunny or not, we cold discover the Taj Mahal... and it wasn't disappointing.

We entered the site through big ochra gates and little by little the Taj was visible...
I don't think that it is necessary to actually tell you how it looks, I will simply tell you that it is a very beautiful building, looking like a fairytale Castle from the middle east, all made in white marble, which makes it look extremely pure.

We were very impressed of its beauty with Ola... and we stayed for hours just looking at it.

The inside of the Taj Mahal is actually a mausoleum built by Sha Jahan for his wife, when she died... amazing to see what love does...
The light is very minimal when you enter and it takes time to adjust to the dark... Once you do, you discover all the decorations and beautiful details...

No pictures were allowed in the inside, but we could at least enjoy all the details and writings around the main entrance of the Taj.

We stayed a few more moments looking at the outside before leaving the site, still very much impressed by it.

Once out, we decided to go and visit the other attraction of the town: the Red Fort.

And we were very happily surprised too as it was very interesting to walk and wander around the fort, where architecture here as well was pretty impressive, with some very old parts made of red bricks only, and some other, more "royal" made of white marble...

From the Fort, further away, you can see the Taj.

Inside the Fort, are also many green spaces, which makes it even nicer to enjoy...

The rest of the afternoon, we had pretty much only to wait for our next train... so we went top a restaurant and watched movies while it was raining outside! Lovely!

So we left Agra, for Varanasi, our heads still full of images from one of the most well-known site in the world!

Loads of kisses

Agnes and Ola

Jaipuuuur!

agnesola — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

As the guy selling tickets for the bus keeps screaming; Jaipur, Jaipur JAAAAAAAIIIIIPUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUR! We are in Jaipur. It is the capital of Rajasthan and has some 2.4 million inhabitants, that is 1.4 million more than Stockholm and a hell of a lot smaller.

It has all the attributes of an indian big city. It is noisy, dusty and polluted. But it is also filled with old buildings, palaces and forts.
There is also an old part of the town with different handicrafts being sold in different streets.

We stay in a hotel that has two nazi indian brothers running it, they are really careful that everyone turns of the water when they are finished with their showers, and sometimes they turn of the main switch when they think someone is taking a too long shower. I guess this would be kind of alright if I thought they were doing it because of ecological reasons, but they themselves use an excessive amount of water everyday to water the colloection of plants they have on the rooftop, so they are just controlling and weird. Anyway, our room is ok and cheap so we don't complain.

We went to visit something called the Hava Mahal. Which is part of the city palace complex. It was built so that the women of the palace could sit and watch the everyday life of the town from a protected place. It is alot of windows facing the old city. We wanted to see the city palace as well, ut the main exhibition was closed so we did not feel like paying to see only a small part.

The next day we went on a long walk to see the city fort, which is perched on a cliff overlooking the city. It was a 2 km zigzag route to the top, but once we arrived the views were amazing and it was very nice to escape the hectic streets of the city for a while.
The fort itself is not that impressive, but it is nice to wander around there, we also stayed for lunce to relax even more.

So, we did not like Jaipur that much, but it was ok. There was a really nice restaurant close to our hotel and we stayed there during the evenings and we hooked up with some people and chatted away our nights with other travellers. So, not so interesting city, but interesting people!

Thats it. next up is Agra and the Taj Mahal!!!

Kiss kiss

Ola and Agnes

Udaipur!!

agnesola — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hello!

So Udaipur... we arrived very early in the morning in Udaipur after a bumpy bus ride.
So we arrive in the touristy center of the town, and of course everything is closed and a few people try to get us in their "amazing" hotels. After a while walking around not really knowing where to go, we finally follow one of them to his hotel... And we were actually not disappointed at all. The room was relatively big and very charming! So we could sleep for a while and rest from the bus ride.

Udaipur is build around a few lakes, one of them being right at the center of the touristy area. There is an island in the middle of the lake where a beautiful hotel is... but very expensive and you can only go there if you go sleep or eat at the rather expensive night buffet!!! So we only enjoyed looking at it from the outside.

The town is also famous, especially the moosoon palace, perched up on a hill, for being the place where the movie Octopussy, James Bond movie, has been filmed... A lot of restaurants show the movie at night, so we watched it, but it has to be the worst James Bond movie ever!! Anyway, it was fun recognising places from the town!

Across the bridge from the main area, we went for a drink in a garden restaurant and

enjoyed the view from the other side, where the palace of Udaipur stands. We also went to visit inside the palace but we got quite disappointed as is it very busy with tourists and very big but not so much charm... We can't deny that it was quite beautiful for some parts especially some wall mosaiques... but is wasn't as exciting as we thought it would be. We still had fun watching the exhibition of turabn with thew master piece: THE BIGGEST TURBAN IN THE WORLD!! yououohouuou!!
OK nobody can wear it as it is far too big but Ola would have loved to try anyways!!

Other interesting sight is the Jain temple. We got a student following us inside to do some explanations on the temple, who gave quite a lot of nice info, whether or not we

wanted it from the beginning! It is not very big but the main tower has plenty of little statues carved in it which is beautiful and full of details.

And last but not least, we visited an haveli (big old house) which was very beautiful and used to be the Maharaja guesthouse!

We also enjoyed going around town and seing the markets and bazaar streets. And doing a little shopping...

Next destination Pushkar! Over to you, Ola!

Kisses.

Agnes and Ola

Push the car

agnesola — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

From quite big to very small we arrive in Pushkar, a well known backpackers hangout in northern india. there is around 15000 habitants here and somewhere between 500-1000 temples. The town is set around a small lake which has alot of bathing "ghats" around it. The Ghats are where the hindus go to cleanse their soul from their sins(it is certainly not to cleanse the body because the water is quite dirty...)

As I said, the place is quite turisty, but it still has a certain charm to it because it is so small. There is one main road where shops selling clothes, jewellry and other things mix with cows, temples, tourists and motorcycles. Except for the lake as scenery there is mountains surrounding the entire town. This with the lake makes for some very nice sunsets. There is a sunset outlook point where people gather. There is sadhus, drumplayers, jugglers, cows and monkeys. The atmosphere is very relaxing and some people end up staying here for very long.

Our last day here we wandered around the lake and visited a temple. It was called the Brahma temple, apparently one of the only temples dedicated to Brahma in india. The temple is not that impressive, but they give you flowers that you have to donate in the temple, well, half in the temple and half you have to throw in the lake at Brahma Ghat...

So we go to the ghat after the temple to do just this. As soon as we arrive we are approached by someone who says they are a brahmin(priest) that wants to instruct us in what to do and help us. We ask if it costs money, he says no and just says that afterwards you can give a donation if you want...

Agnes and me we both get a brahmin each that talks to us and gives us a mantra in hindi that we have to repeat after him. There is alot of indians around that do the same with brahmins so It is interesting to see how this works. we also have a silver plate with our flowers on, plus some rice, sugar, spices, red color and something more I cant remember now. At the end we will have to throw this in the water.

After the mantra he asks me how many family members I have, then asks if I am married, have kids and stuff like that. And he says some things that will give me a joyous and prosperous life. Then he starts talking about my family again and ask me to donate money for the happiness and wellbeing of my family. And I thought it was just about the spirit, not about money. He tells me the indians usually give a 1000 rupees(around 13 pounds) so he tells me for a foreigner around 500 is ok. I say it is far too much and when i say I will only give 50 rupees and in the donation box later he says that I have to put it on the holy coconut, at this point It was very hard not to laugh. There was a coconut there but I had no idea it was the holy money coconut, anyway, I put 50 rupees on the coconut and the guy says he is not very pleased with me. After this I put my stuff in the water. Afterwards I meet up with Agnes who was sitting further away with another guy and she has decided to give 50 as well, but her guy was not as persuasive as mine and she gave money afterwards, not on the holy coconut. THE HOLY COCONUT! come on...

It was a fun experience, and I am sure there are real priests in this ghat, but unfortunately there are alot of people who try to scam money out of tourists so you never know who you can trust. Anyway, me and Agnes are starting a new religion that worships coconuts. I am sure it will be huge.
This is now year zero, birth of coconutism! Go coconuts!

that is it for now, we have moved on to Jaipur which is the capital of Rajasthan! more on this in a few days.

Pctures to this blog will come when we find a quick connection!

Kiss kiss!

Ola and Agnes

Shanti Shanti!

agnesola — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Namaste! Shanti shanti!

Well! our next destination here in India,Jaisalmer...Is pretty cool!
It is very arabic influenced with a nearby desert, a huge fort made out of golden

sandstone and camels walking around....

It is a very nice little town, easy to walk around and with loads of old buildings. The Hotel we stayed in was 400 years old! pretty cool! The fort that overlooks the town looks like a giant sandcastle! Once again, like in other places in India, it really feels like stepping back in time. There is plenty of things to see and wandering around inside the fort getting lost is a cool way to spend a few hours.

There is old buildings with exquisite carvings, towers and walls with giant paintings of

hindu gods, and of course alot of cows everywhere. Take away the motorcycles and cars and it could be 300 years ago.

Another thing that is possible to do in Jaisalmer is to go in to the desert on a camel safari. We thought about it but decided not to. And a good thing we did not!

Because on the night before we left we were walking home towards our hotel when we

here loud drumbeats! so we decide to check it out, and there is loads of people dancing and eating icecream and lots of light and music. So we ask someone what it is and apparently it is a wedding. The man comes riding on a horse and is going to his bride who

waits 1 kilometer away. And along the way there is a truck with music and drummers fiercly pounding away! It is cool to see and everyone is dancing. So we follow the procession all the way to see the bride, and we dance and chat with people along the way. They hung flowers around our necks as well... It is so much life and joy!

really cool! well except for the bride and groom there is joy, they dont smile much, but I think that is how it is here.

The next day we were going to take a bus to our next destination, but check out was at 9 in the morning and the bus at 3.30, so we had a lot of waiting to do and did not know what to do with our day. We sat down at a cafe to have a tea and after a while we heard drums...hmmm. Another wedding we thought. I went to have a look and see a huge elephant coming towards me! The elephant was painted in bright floral patterns and

looked absolutely stunning. After it comes loads of camels, jeeps painted gold and men on horses. And of course musicians and dancers and trucks with music and

people dancing. We follow the elephant and camels for some time. The musicians dance and perform in front of the elephant. Apparently all these people come

from very far, they are at the end of a 40 day pilgrimage to a temple in this town. They are a special branch of hindu called Jain. They are like hindu but have special rules about food and other stuff.

We stand still and watch people go by, dancing, singing. Then we go with them, talking to some, they give us special shawls around our neck and invite us to dance. All the time there are people throwing a red powder around. Apparently it is for good luck, but we try

to stay away from it as it gets everywhere. But in the end it is impossible as they come with handfuls of powder, throwing on everyone including us. Not much to do but smile...And they want us to take photos all the time, not just kids, old people as well.

One old lady wanted me to take a photo of her hands...

While non of us are religious, it is interesting to see spirituality like this, it is really filling these peoples lives, and they celebrate it with joy and energy like you cant find in religion in Europe. Before we left we went back to our hotel to borrow the shower, that red powder was hard to get off....

So that concludes our trip to Jaisalmer! Fairytale forts, magic evenings and spiritual gatherings! we had a great time here!

Bisous, puss o kram! kiss kiss!

Ola and Agnes painted red!

Jodhpur, the Blue Town

agnesola — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hello to all of you!!

After starting our trip in India with Mumbai, we took a train to go to Rajasthan, which is a region north of India... The train to get there, was very ... how to say... interesting...!! Actually looking like a real moving prison...!! Not very comfy, but hey!! that's travellling!

So we sat in the train, and after some time, our "seat neighbours for the night" arrived: a lady, her husband, her brother and their servant.
They started chatting with us and asking questions, and we ended up sharing some food with them... which was very nice.
When we had to leave the train at our stop (after the night), the brother gave me a little book full of love sentences!!! He knew that Ola was my boyfriend but it seems like it doesn't matter so much there!!
Anyway, it was funny!! And I have his phone numbers in case !!!

So we arrived in a town called Jodhpur, which is a pretty old and big town... the streets are very hectic there, with loads of traffic...

On the first day, we only walked in town, to see all the famous blue houses. Basically, Jodhpur is called the Blue town because a lot of the houses in the old part are peinted in blue, which is said to protect from the mosquitoes. I don't know if it really works but it gives to the all town a very colorful and amazing atmosphere.

One thing which is funny, is that we, as westerners, are kind of superstars for kids in the streets. They all come to us and want to know our names and our country and they shake our hands.... it is very cute and funny! They also love to have their picture taken!!

Of course, and sadly, a few of them want pens or money... but they are all very nice and cute...

On our second day, we went to visit the fort of Jodhpur which is very famous and sits on a hill overlooking the whole town. It is an absolutely beautiful fort. We had an audio tour (you have o take it!) which explains everything about the fort and the region as well.
The old stones are beautiful, the carvings of the walls and the windows and doors are event more fine and impressive...

The fort also holds a museum with items from the Maharaja... like old weapons, carriages, jewelleries... it was very interesting...

On our way back to town, we visited a small kind of temple made of marble which is a burial site for the former Maharajas. Extremely beautiful as well!!

Apart from that, there was a market and very busy streets in the town... but nothing special!! It is just extremely intense all the time, and we love everything so far...

Next episode soon!!

Love you all!!!

Agnes and Ola

Welcome to India!

agnesola — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

So, we are in India after leaving Thailand 1 week earlier than planned.

India is a violent assault on all the senses, and all at once. There is alot of beauty and colors, but also alot of tragedy, there is smells lovely as incence, flowers, food and spices, and also smells that are less pleasant... There is alot of traffic and noise. All this attacks the mind at the same time. Just by going from the airport in to the center I think both our minds raced in many directions and thoughts at once. I do not think we said more than a few words to each other during that trip, just lost in our own thoughts. What you see is just so much poverty, more than anywhere we have been before, but yet this country has some amazing and kind people, curious and helpful, more also than any other country we have visited.

We arrived late at night in Mumbai so we had booked a hotel from the airport, when we arrived the bed was very small, it was very tight for 2 people in the bed but hey, at least the trip brings us closer together =). So the next day we upgraded to something more comfortable with a fan with a noise, well rather a beat, you will all understand when you see our fan dancing video!

We started our first day with walking...we walk alot but it is cheap and healthy. Mumbai

is BIG, very big... so we walked the path that our guidebook suggested. We started at the Gateway of India, a huge port looking out over the Mumbai harbour, it was built in 1924 and when the british left India in 1948 it was through that gate they ceremonially marched out. It is an impressive gate, even though the view was obscured buy some restoration of it.

As we continue walking there is alot of impressive buildings, alot of them built by the british, the most impressive is the Mumbai University, apparently built by the same guy that built St Pancras station in london. It has a 80 meter tower and the surroundings are very nice, unfortunately we could not visit inside...Except for a lot of

traffic and nice buildings, the streets are filled with vendors selling incense, food, giant unbreakable ballons(why, I dont know) and everything in between. It

is hectic though and we did not have to much time because there was something else we had to do this day.

We had been invited by the hotel to work at a indian wedding, well Agnes was going to work(work...I recognise that word...but what does it mean...) and i was gonna hang around. They wanted western girls to dress in sarees and greet people as they came to the wedding party. The place looked more like a event of some kind more than a wedding party. There was a big stage, cameramen and loads of food stands everywhere. As soon as we arrived they got Agnes to change in to a saree and she was put to work straight away. I thought I could just sit down and do nothing for 4 hours, take some photos and
sample the cuisine...

I was wrong, a few minutes after I had sat down at a table some kids came up and asking questions, which I gladly answered. They asked about my country, my favorite sport, are you married, what are you doing in India etc etc. At first this was ok, just a few kids, later it was alot of kids asking the same things over and over again. Then they started asking for autographs, and when I told them that Agnes was my girlfriend they started swarming around her as well. It was kind of like being treated like rockstars. The kids were lovely though, some of them brought me special sweets from the food stands to try, juices and drinks. All of them spoke very good english. I wouldn't say that it was annoying, but in the end it was a bit exhausting, having kids all around and asking stuff for 4 hours, we all know kids have a lot of energy. It was a very nice experience but we both went to bed that night very tired.

The wedding party itself was a bit strange, the two getting married never walked around, they pretty much just spent time taking pictures on stage and shaking peoples hand when they passed them giving gifts. But I guess it is tradition here, htere were fireworks as well, but I could not pay attention to much to the wedding couple, I had my groupies of indian kids to chat with all the time.

The next day was spent with more walking, pretty much the route we walked the day before, but this time we went a bit further, we saw a market that had alot of fruit and veg and live animals. It is a bit sad to see all; the animals; chickens, dogs, birds and more in small cages like that. There was also a cow meat market, the cow is sacred here in india, but not fore the muslim that live here. We just peeked in there becuse it was not open that day but it was just as good, the smell and blood we saw was enough. Sometimes the foodinspectors in Europe complain about a little bit of dirt in between some doors to a fridge or something like that, I think they would have a heart attack if they came to this place. We also visited a nice spiceshop and bought a overpriced bag of spices, it tasted really nice though so it was ok!

Well that is pretty much all of our 2 first days in India, we are now in a town called Jodhpur in the heart of Rajasthan, 18 hours north of Mumbai. We will write about that very soon. It is very beautiful though...

Sorry that we dont have more pictures, but the internet here is very slow so we will put more when we find quick internet!

Until next time, Bisous, Puss o kram and Kiss kiss!

Ola and Agnes

Bangkok!

agnesola — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hello!

So we are now in India, our last destination! (snif snif)
But that will be for the next blog...

After having spend some time on that paradise Island, and having seen beautiful under-water creatures..., we went back to Bangkok, to visit a few more tourists sights and to say bye to Thailand!

First, we went to see a tall Golden Tower, from which you can get a pretty good view at the whole town... but the actual site itself is not too interesting...

Close to there, we visited a temple with 5 or 6 levels that you can climb up... the place is

very quiet and each level has corridors with buddhas inside... it was pretty cool. Once up there, we could see from closer the roof of another building made of very detailed spikes ... (sorry it is hard to describe!!) and you could also get a very good view

of the town. Back down, we had the chance to talk to a monk who was trying to improve his english... he was very nice and very keen to know about us ... it was a very nice experience!

We also walked along the presidential palace which is very beautiful and very white! But Unfortunately we were not dressed to the standards to enter and anjoy the park around... so we just looked at it from behind the barriers!

One of the most important attraction of Bangkok, is the Grand Palace. It is the Royal palace, but you can not actually visit the interior, you can just walk outside, but it is also

the Royal temple called Wat Phra Kaew. It is one of the biggest temples in Bangkok, and one of the most beautiful...

It is made of a lot of different buildings, all rivalising with beauties, gold and colored decorations. Along the side walls, you can admire paintings which explain the history and legends of the buddhism.

Around the different buildings, you can find some very tall statues of soldiers and some much smaller of old angry looking fighters!!

Other figurines can be found all around the temple... full of colour and gold as well.

The main attraction of the temple is the Emerald buddha, one of the most venerated Buddha in Thailand... It is made of Jade, and it is not very big, but it is placed on a massive golden throne which makes it grand. It is quite an impressive religious thing, even for non believers like us!
(just so you know i wasn't allowed to take a picture of the emerald buddha... but I did it anyway... so sorry for the bad quality but I had to be dicreet and the lights were bad!)

Once finished with the tourists sights, we walked around town, enjoying the flowers displays, which can be quite impressive of technique, in the streets.

At night, we went to see a night market in one of the red district of Bangkok... It is a pretty soft red district and most of the people here come to see the market and have a drink... but you can't avoid to see that a lot of them are here for the girls, and in some cases the boys...

It made us quite sad at the end of the night to see how many girls do that to survive... and we also had the bad luck to see quite clearly two pedophiles...

I know it kills a bit the light touch of the blog, but you can not go to Bangkok and not see those things... Unfortunately there is little to do in such a short time, but it is crazy to see how open and accepted it is there... and how many europeans or other westerners think that it is allowed for them too...

Well anyway! Lets not let it get to us!!
We are now in India, and here it is another story as most of the women are very covered when dressed! But we already like very much the country...

All in the next blog!!

Agnes and Ola

a little addition to the last blog....

agnesola — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

hello again everyone, just need to add some stuf to the last blog because now we have gotten our WHALESHARK pictures!!!!!!!!!!

They are quite dark some of them but you can still see this amazingly cool creature that we went diving with!

As we mentioned before it i just such a cool experience and when it happened everyone wash rushing to put gear on and jumping in the water, and swimming quickly to descend into to the deep!

We were quite a few divers, so we kept bumping in to each other as we svam around the shark and it svam around us. but no one cared because we were all so

happy and awestruck to be there...well, i'm gonna let the pictures tell the rest...

Bisous!!!! ola and agnes

SUITE TRADUC... BLOG PRECEDENT

Hello tout le monde à nouveau, on vient juste un peu étoffer notre dernier blog avec les photos de notre REQUIN BALEINE !!!!!
Certaines photos sont un peu sombres mais vous pouvez voir cette créature superbement cool avec laquelle nous avons nagé !
Comme nous l’avons déjà dit, c’est là une expérience formidable et quand cela arrive, on se précipite tous dans les combinaisons pour sauter à l’eau et descendre au fond !

Nous étions quelques plongeurs et nous nous cognions les uns aux autres quand nous nagions autour du requin et qu’il nageait autour de nous, mais nous n’en faisions pas cas tellement nous étions autant heureux que « frappés de stupeur » de nous trouver là… je laisse les photos parler d’elles-mêmes…
Bisous!!!! ola and agnes

ko tao

agnesola — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hello again dear readers....

We have not updated our blog for a very long time, the reason for that is that we have been on the same place for the last 2 weeks, a lovely little island in thailand by the name of Ko Tao.

We arrived by boat very early in the morning and when you arrive it is really like a paradise island, turqoise clear water, palmtrees and beaches...well, the first thing we had to do was to walk with our big backpacks through the woods for about 40 minutes before finding a bungalow that was available. We were very lucky to find one and we stayed at the same one until we left, it became our little home for 2 weeks. We Had a terrace overlooking the water and the sun setting just in front of us each night...

Except for the beaches and the sunsets, the main attraction here for us was diving. We went diving 8 times and on our first dive we went diving with Gray reef sharks and Bull sharks! a really cool experience, they realy look like menacing "i'm gonna eat you" sharks. But they move gracefully and are avesome to watch. They won't attack because here they have plenty of food to eat instead of divers. We have seen alot of ohter things as well...Barracudas, moray eels, Nemo!, tuna, snapper...and one extremly cool thing we saw when diving...i will tell you later...

So our days in paradise consisted alot of snorkeling, watching sunsets and walking around the island. Once we walked to one of the highest point on the Island and could see very far on two sides of it... I (ola) also managed to get a fresh coconut down from a palmtree

and crack it open so we could get some fresh coconutmilk...pretty nice!!!

There is one real towncenter, we lived about 30 minutes from there, close to us there was a small little center with restaurants, a few bars along the beach and some shops
and divecenters, that was it. Nice and small. We had some great food here, Tom Kha and Tom Yam are 2 very nice thaisoups, Massaman curry is a new favorite as well...

As alot of you know, it was my birthday while we were here as well!!! on the 15 th of February... Agnes got me 2 dives as a birthday gift. All the time that we have been

diving here we have been hoping to see some whalesharks...but nothing, so on the morning of my birthday we were hoping but did not really think we would see any... But to our surprise when we are on the boat going out the captain yells Whaleshark! and says they have seen one and asks if we all want to go...OF COURSE! So we quickly get our gear on and jump in the water with our divemaster and descend in to the deep...and there it is a 5 meter long whaleshark, absolutely beautiful and stunning. It

is undescribable in words, but it is one of the best things we have ever done, this graceful animal svim around all of us for 30 minutes before it disappears...a very cool birthday gift! and extreme luck! we are so happy to have experienced it!

On the night of my birthday we went out to have fresh seafodd barbeque thaistyle, really

nice mackerel with thai lime/chili/lemongrass sauce and of course a birthday crepe...!

All in all, our time in paradise was great, and we were a bit sad to leave...but now it is on to new things!

Puss o kram, Bisous! kiss kiss!

Ola and Agnes

PS: We will leave you there with a last picture... and we really ask ourselves...: DO WE REALLY NEED TO WORK???

TRADUCTION POUR LES FRENCH PEOPLE :
Hello again dear readers.... hello de nouveau à nos chers lecteurs….

Voilà longtemps que nous n’avons pas mis notre blog à jour. La raison en est que nous sommes restés au même endroit pendant ces 2 dernières semaines, sur une jolie petite île de Thaïlande appelée Ko Tao.

Nous y sommes arrivés par bateau très tôt le matin et quand on arrive, on a le sentiment de se trouver sur une île paradisiaque, avec une eau turquoise claire, des palmiers et des plages… en tout premier lieu, la première chose que nous avons eu à faire ça a été de marcher à travers la forêt pendant env. 40 min avec nos gros sacs à dos avant de trouver un bungalow disponible. Nous avons eu la chance d’en trouver un et nous y sommes restés jusqu’à notre départ. Ça a été notre petite maison pendant 2 semaines. Nous avions une terrasse donnant sur l’océan et les couchers de soleil face à nous toutes les nuits….

Hormis les plages et les couchers de soleil, la principale activité pour nous, ce fut la plongée. Nous avons plongé 8 fois, et lors de la première plongée, nous avons côtoyé les requins gris des coraux et les requins taureaux ! une expérience vraiment cool. Ils ont l’air de vous menacer « je vais vous dévorer ». Mais ils se meuvent gracieusement et vont voir ailleurs. Ils n’attaquent pas parce qu’ils ont beaucoup de nourriture à manger autre que les plongeurs… nous avons vu plein d’autres choses également…. Des barracudas, des morues, Némo ! des thons, des « snappers » (c’est un poisson mais je –la traductrice- n’ai pas trouvé le mot en français !) et une autre chose très sympa que nous avons vue au cours de nos plongées… je vous en parlerai plus tard…

Ces jours au paradis, nous les avons passés sous l’eau , nous avons admiré les couchers de soleil et nous avons fait le tour de l’île. Nous sommes montés jusqu’au point culminant de l’île et nous avons pu voir très loin de chaque côté… moi, Ola, suis allé cueillir une noix de coco fraîche d’un palmier et l’ai ouverte et nous nous sommes régalés avec le lait de noix de coco tout frais !!!

Il y a un centre ville dont nous étions à environ 30 min, et tout près de l’endroit où nous étions, il y avait un petit centre avec des restaurants, quelques bars le long de la plage, quelques boutiques et des centres de plongée sous-marine et c’était tout. Petit mais mignon. Nous avons mangé de la nourriture succulente ici, Tom Kha et Tom Yam, ce sont 2 soupes thaïs très bonnes. Le curry Massaman est excellent aussi….

Comme beaucoup d’entre vous le savent, c’était mon anniversaire !! le 15 février… Agnès m’a offert 2 plongées. Pendant tout le temps où nous avons pratiqué la plongée ici, nous espérions voir des requins-baleines… mais rien. Et le matin de mon anniversaire, nous l’espérions mais ne pensions vraiment pas que nous pourrions en voir un… mais, à notre grande surprise, une fois sur le bateau, le capitaine s’écrit « requin-baleine » !et nous dit qu’ils en ont vu un et nous demande si nous voulons tous y aller… BIEN SUR ! on met promptement notre combinaison et descendons avec notre maître de plongée dans les fonds marins… et il est là ! le requin-baleine de 5 mètres de long, magnifique et étonnant. Les mots ne peuvent pas décrire cela mais cela fait partie des plus belles choses que nous ayons faites ; cet animal gracieux nage autour de nous pendant environ 30 minutes avant de disparaître… un très beau cadeau d’anniversaire ! et une chance extraordinaire ! nous sommes tellement heureux d’avoir eu cette expérience !

Le soir de mon anniversaire, nous sommes sortis et avons dîné d’un barbecue de fruits de mer dans le style thaï avec du citron thaï/du chili/de la sauce à base d’algues citronnées et bien entendu d’une crêpe d’anniversaire !... ce moment passé au paradis était « géant » et nous avons été un peu tristes d’avoir à partir… mais à partir de maintenant, place à de nouvelles choses !
Puss o kram, Bisous! kiss kiss!

Ola and Agnes
PS. Nous vous quittons avec une denière photo… et nous nous demandons vraiment… AVONS NOUS VRAIMENT BESOIN DE TRAVAILLER ????

Tropical Isalnd!

agnesola — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Helloo to all of you...

Just to let you know that we are in Koh tao now... a little island from Thailand...
It is absolutely beautiful and we are going to enjoy somt very good diving here...

So unfortunately, we are not going to be able to write much on the blog for about three weeks as the internet here cost as much as two Rolls Royce per hour!!!

But we are enjoying dont worry about it!!

LOVE!!

Agnes and Ola

VERSION FRANCAISE.... (rapide, celle-ci !...)
Helloo to all of you... salut à tous….
Simplement pour vous faire savoir que nous sommes maintenant à Koh Tao… une petite île de Thaïlande… c’est absolument magnifique et nous allons nous faire plaisir à y pratiquer la plongée sous-marine…
Donc malheureusement, nous ne pourrons pas venir sur le blog pendant environ 3 semaines étant donné que l’internet ici coûte autant que 2 rolls royce à l’heure !!!!
Mais on a beaucoup de plaisir. Pas d’inquiétude !!
LOVE!! On vous aime !!!

Vang Vieng

agnesola — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

After Luang Prabang We went straight to A village called Vang Vieng.

The village has some very nice scenery around it, all around there is limestone mountains.
The Mekong river also floats through here, as in alot of other places we have visited here in souteast asia...actually, the mekong has been in most of them.

It is a pleasant place to walk around in, seeing the rivers(there is another, apart from the Mekong) and the mountains and the Temples. We did all this, and one night catching the sunset over the mountains...roooomantic!

A very popular thing in this village is a thing called tubing. You get a inner tube from a

tractor and then the take you to a place in the river 5 km from the village and you "tube" all the way back to town. It takes around 3 hours and is very relaxing. You just float around and see the mountains, water buffalos and the nature. It is possible to

stop at some places and use swings(a lot of fun!!!). The swings are quite high(10 meters up) and it is a adrenalin rush to swing out over the river and then drop yourself in...but great fun!

well, that it is, we drifted down the river, walked and partied a little bit at a bar next to our hotel...and relaxed.

We are now in Bangkok! Thailand is nice, hot and humid...and we look forward to going to a nice tropcal island...more info about that later...

Lots of kisses!!!!!

Ola and Agnes

TRADUCTION...... (fidèle ou pas ! mais j'espère le plus possible...)
Après Luang Prabang, direction le village de Vang Vieng.

Le village a de beaux sites et est entouré de falaises de calcaire. Le Mékong le traverse tout comme dans beaucoup d’autres lieux que nous avons visités dans l’Asie du sud… c’est un endroit très agréable pour la promenade, avec ses rivières (il y en a une autre, en dehors du Mékong), ses montagnes et ses temples. Nous avons tout exploré et avons réussi à voir le coucher de soleil au-dessus des montagnes…. Roooooomantique !

Une chose très populaire dans ce village, c’est ce que l’on appelle le « tubing ». On prend un "réservoir" creux d’un tracteur (photos ! pour la bonne compréhension du tubing….) et on vous transporte jusqu’à un endroit de la rivière à 5 kms du village et on vous laisse flotter dans cet engin jusqu’au village. Cela prend environ 3 heures et c’est très relaxant. Vous avez juste à vous laisser flotter et à regarder les montagnes, les buffles d’eau et la nature. Il est possible de faire une halte à certains endroits précis et d’utiliser des perches (c’est rigolo !!!). Ces perches sont assez hautes (10 mètres) et vous avez une poussée d’adrénaline quand vous vous balancez au dessus de la rivière et que vous vous lâchez dedans… mais quelle rigolade !

Après cela, nous avons continué à descendre la rivière, avons marché et avons fait la fête dans un bar tout près de notre hôtel… puis place au repos.

Nous sommes maintenant à Bangkok ! la Thaïlande, c’est beau, chaud et humide… et nous attendons avec impatience de nous rendre jusqu’à une jolie île tropicale… plus d’infos plus tard…
PLEIN DE BISOUS

Luang prabang, beautiful little town...

agnesola — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hello!!

Soo! After Vientiane, we decided to go north to a town called Luang Prabang. The town is Unesco world heritage and you understand why when you arrive! The town is set along a

river, and the vegetation is absolutely amazing and very luxurious...
It is also filled with beautiful Wats (buddhists temples), all rivalising with gold, red and green colors... and with architectural beauty... we couldn't stop snapping pictures every 2 minutes!

We went along the town for a while, watching the rivers and the little streets...
We also visited the oldest temple there, which is about 500 years... there is a mosaic on

one of the praying house which is very beautiful...

While europe is loosing little by little its markets... here it is full on... If you haven't seen enough at the day market, you can see even more at the night market!! And close to that

market, a very clever Laos family had a cheap street buffet where you could eat a whole plate for almost nothing! So it was full of people like us every night!!

On our last day in Luang Prabang, we went to see the Haung Si waterfall a few kilometers away from the town...
Some of you will say: "waterfalls, AGAIN!??"... well yes, each of them are special!!
This one is quite high and you can climb the mountain to see it from different height. We of course went to the top!

The water is of a beautiful turquoise and the vegetation is very green and dense, so the whole place is amazing. But the best is that you can swim there as well... and there is a rope on a tree from which you can swim and dive!!! Cooool!!

Ola was of course the first one on there, and i tried some funny jumps too (I didn't want them funny, but they were!)

Well, that was it for Luang Prabang....

Lots of kisses

Agnes and Ola

EN FRANCAIS....Luang Prabang, une jolie petite ville

Après Vientiane, nous avons décidé de nous diriger vers le nord jusqu’à la ville de Luang Prabang qui fait partie du patrimoine mondial et on comprend pourquoi dès qu’on arrive !
La ville est bordée par une rivière et la végétation y est absolument magnifique et très luxuriante… il s’y trouve également de très beaux « wats » (temples boudhistes) qui rivalisent avec de l’or, des couleurs rouge et verte… une beauté architecturale… toutes les 2 minutes, nous n’avons cessé de prendre des photos !

Nous avons parcouru la ville, regardant les rivières et les petites rues… nous avons visité également le plus vieux temple d’environ 500 ans…. L’une des chapelles est couverte de mosaiques, c’est magnifique….

Tandis qu’en Europe, les marchés disparaissent petit à petit, ici il y en a plein… si on n’en a pas assez vu pendant la journée, on peut en voir encore plus avec le marché de nuit ! et tout près de là, une famille laotienne offre un buffet de rue très bon marché où l’on peut manger une grande assiette remplie de nourriture pour presque rien ! on trouve donc dans cet endroit toutes les nuits des gens comme nous !

Pour notre dernier jour à Luang Prabang, nous sommes allés voir la cascade Haung Si à quelques kilomètres de la ville… quelques uns d’entre vous diront : “des cascades, ENCORE ??”… eh bien oui, elles sont toutes spéciales ! celle-ci est assez élevée et on peut escalader la montagne pour la voir d’une hauteur différente. Evidemment, nous sommes montés jusqu’en sommet ! l’eau est d’un beau turquoise et la végétation y est très verte et très dense. Tout l’endroit est splendide. Mais le clou, c’est qu’on peut nager ici… et il y a une corde dans un arbre pour nager et plonger ! coool ! Ola s’est trouvé bien sûr le premier sur place, et j’ai essayé quelques drôles de plongeons (je ne voulais pas qu’ils soient forcément drôles, mais au final……)

Voilà, c’est tout pour Luang Prabang…
Plein de bisous

Vientiane

agnesola — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

After another long busride, but at least on the same bus all the time and not changing 6 times we arrived in Vientiane! Capital of Laos. Despite being a capital it feels more like a big Village than an actual city capital. There is only 200000 people living here, and for a capital that is not much.

Like the rest of Laos, Vientiane has a very relaxed feeling to it, and it is easy to adjust to the pace. The town is very charming and is mixed with alot of Wats(buddhist temples)

and old colonial french buildings. The Mekong river also flows through the town which allows for nice walks along the Riverside, and cool little places to eat at along

the river, which we did, at night, it was very relaxing...

We also went to see the most important public statue in Laos, it is a 15 meter(more or less) Golden thing, quite impressive with some cool Wats around it as well. Most people in Laos are Theravada Buddhists.

Here there is also an Arc de Triumph, not quite as big and in the same style, but anyway, it very nice!

So, that is pretty much it, walking around, eating, relaxing...it is really a holiday.
Now we are in Luang Prabang, a 11 hour journey north of Vientiane, that is just as relaxing, if not more...but we will inform you of this place in a few days!

Hugs and kisses!

Ola and Agnes!

ET EN FRANCAIS, maintenant...

Après un nouveau long périple en bus, mais au moins dans le même bus durant tout le trajet et sans avoir à changer 6 fois, nous sommes arrivés à Vientiane ! la capitale du Laos. Bien que ce soit la capitale, cette ville ressemble plus à un gros village. Il n’y a que 200 000 habitants ici, et pour une capitale, ce n’est pas beaucoup.

Comme dans tout le Laos, Vientiane offre un sentiment de sérénité et on s’y trouve bien. La ville est charmante et est une combinaison de temples boudhistes et de vieux bâtiments coloniaux français. Le Mékong coule à travers la ville et il y a de jolies balades à faire le long de la rivière. Il y a également de jolis endroits où manger tout du long et nous en avons profité le soir. C’est très détendant…

Nous sommes allés voir également la statue la plus imposante du Laos, de 15 mètres de haut (plus ou moins), assez impressionnante avec des temples tout autour. La plupart des gens au Laos sont des boudhistes Theravada.
Ici aussi, il y a un arc de triomphe, pas exactement de la même taille ni du même style, mais il est beau cependant !

C’est plutôt sympathique de se promener, de manger, de se détendre… nous sommes vraiment en vacances ! nous sommes maintenant à Luang Prabang qui se situe à 11 heures de voyage au nord de Vientiane. Nous y allons pour nous reposer normalement…. Nous vous parlerons davantage de ce lieu dans quelques jours !

A pretty fun trip into Laos...

agnesola — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hello!

So we have now been in Laos for quite a while. It has been quite an adventure to arrive in Laos as we were supposed to take only one bus and we ended up taking about 6 different vehicles! Well, everything ended up fine! And we had quite a laugh being taken from one bus to another and from one car to another and from one tuc-tuc to another!

On the way we stoppped in a restaurant to have lunch and we were surpised to see so many animals in jars... snakes, baby crocodiles, monkeys, scorpions... !! The food there was nice anyway!! ;) lol

So we arrived in Savannakhet, a small town in the south of Laos. As a lot of travellers said to us, Laos is some kind of very relaxed country where the stress of business hasn't catch up yet... and it feels very cool!

The town is on the mekong river, and the architecture is French for some parts. After such a long trip to arrive there, we went for a quick meal and went around to see the local temples and streets. The temples (wat) are all covered in gold and colorful decorations, they are absolutely stunning.

We stayed only one night in Savannakhet, time to enjoy the calm and to go to the next town: Vientiane.

Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisses!

Agnes and Ola

ET EN VERSION FRANCAISE....
un voyage plutôt drôle au Laos

Nous voilà au Laos pour un petit moment maintenant. Ça a été une véritable aventure pour arriver au Laos . En effet, nous ne devions prendre qu’un seul bus mais finalement nous avons dû prendre 6 moyens de transport différents ! mais tout est bien qui finit bien ! et nous avons eu une franche rigolade en passant d’un bus à l’autre, d’une voiture à l’autre, et d’un tuc tuc à l’autre !

Sur le parcours, nous nous sommes arrêtés dans un restaurant pour le déjeuner, et nous avons eu une énorme surprise de voir tant d’animaux dans des jarres… serpents, bébés crocodiles, singes… !! mais la nourriture était bonne ma foi !
Nous arrivons donc à Savannakhet, une petite ville au sud du Laos. Comme bon nombre de voyageurs nous l’avaient dit, le Laos est un pays très reposant où le stress du business n’a pas encore de prise… et ça, c’est très bien !

La ville se situe sur le Mékong et l’architecture est française dans certains endroits. Après un si long périple, nous avons pris un repas rapide et nous nous sommes baladés pour voir les temples et les rues. Les temples sont tous couverts d’or et de décorations très colorées. C’est très étonnant.

Nous n’avons passé qu’une nuit à Savannakhet, moment pour profiter du calme et puis nous rendre dans la prochaine ville Vientiane.
Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisses! biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiises

Hoi an

agnesola — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Ok, after the rain in Nha trang we arrived in Hoi an for a little more rain...but only for one day fortunately.

Hoi an is a very charming village with old french colonial houses, a river flowing through and it is also marked as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The old part of Hoi an has some temples and other important old houses in it.

A specialty of Hoi an is tailoring, and in this town there is around 200 tailor shops...too many if you ask me, since it is hard to choose where to make clothes. I(ola) did not make anything but Agnes made a summer dress and a winter coat, all a lot cheaper than back home! cool....and nice!

It is really lovely at night to walk around close to the river, it is all lit up beautifully in

many colors and there is restaurant and bars all along the riverside. It is all very relaxing!
BUT, to not get to relaxed, we needed to get out of town a bit , so we decided to visit a place called marble mountain, it is around 20 km from Hoi an, and in order to get there we rented a scooter. To drive on the roads in Vietnam can seem a bit dangerous, but this is not a big town so it is not that bad. And as long as you take care and are cautious it is ok...but still, they sure don't drive like back home...

Anyway, the marble mountain was very nice, it is, as the name reveals, a mountain of marble, On this moutain there is a buddhist temple, pagodas and caves. In these caves are various buddha statues carved in marble, it is all very mysterious and nice. There is also a wonderful view of the sea and the surrounding landscape. After our

trip here we ended up at the hotel and decided to vist the beach, which is around 5 km from Hoi an. We still had the scooter to go there and the view on the way there was absolutely great! the river looked like in a movie, there was ricepaddies and...well, it just looked great! Unfortunately,since we were going to the beach, we did not bring any cameras...sorry...

The beach was very cool, no bars or restaurants, no hotels, just a beach with palmtrees. The waves were great to play in and the water perfect, a nice ending to our time in Vietnam.

Today is our last day in Vietnam, we are catching a bus to go to Laos, we should arrive sometime tomorrow....

Until next time

Bisous, kiss kiss, Puss o kram!

Ola and Agnes

TRADUCTION !

Ok, après la pluie à Nha Trang, nous sommes arrivés à Hoi An avec un peu moins de pluie… mais seulement pour une journée.

Hoi An est un très charmant village aux vieilles maisons coloniales françaises, traversé par une rivière, et qui est inscrit au patrimoine mondial de l’UNESCO. On trouve dans la partie ancienne de Hoi An quelques temples et d’imposantes vieilles maisons.
Une des spécialités de Hoi An, ce sont les tailleurs, et il y a environ 200 échopes de tailleurs dans cette ville… beaucoup trop si vous voulez mon avis tellement il est difficile de choisir où se faire confectionner des vêtements. Moi (Ola) ne me suis rien fait faire mais Agnès s’est fait faire une robe d’été et un manteau d’hiver, le tout à très bon marché ! cool… et joli !

C’est vraiment agréable de se promener le long de la rivière la nuit. Tout est magnifiquement éclairé et il y a nombre de restaurants et de bars tout du long. C’est vraiment très relaxant ! Toutefois, pour ne pas sombrer totalement dans la relaxation, nous avons décidé de sortir un peu de la ville pour aller visiter un endroit appelé la montagne de marbre. C’est à 20 kms de Hoi An, et pour nous y rendre, nous avons loué un scooter. Conduire sur les routes au Vietnam est plutôt dangereux, mais nous ne sommes pas dans une trop grande ville, donc ce n’est pas trop compliqué. Et tant qu’on fait attention, ça va… mais c’est sûr ils ne conduisent pas comme chez nous…

La montagne de marbre était très jolie. C’est, comme le nom l’indique, une montagne de marbre sur laquelle il y a un temple boudhiste, des pagodes et des grottes. Dans ces grottes, il y a différentes statues de bouddha faites de marbre. C’est tout à fait mystérieux et joli. De cet endroit, on a une vue magnifique sur la mer et le paysage environnant. Après cette balade, nous avons rejoint notre hôtel et avons décidé de nous rendre sur la plage à 5 kms de Hoi An. Nous avions encore le scooter pour nous y rendre et le paysage tout du long était absolument géant ! nous avions l’impression de nous trouver dans un film au milieu des rizières… enfin, c’était tout simplement superbe ! mais malheureusement, nous avions oublié d’emporter les caméras… désolés…

La plage était très sympa, pas de bars ni de restaurants ni d’hôtels, simplement une plage avec des palmiers. On a eu plaisir à jouer dans les vagues et l’eau était parfaite, une belle fin pour le temps passé au Vietnam.
Aujourd’hui, c’est notre dernier jour au Vietnam. Nous allons prendre un bus pour nous rendre au Laos où nous arriverons peut-être demain…

À la prochaine !

Sea, sun and tan in Mui Ne and rain in Nha Trang!!

agnesola — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Hello to all of you!!

Sooo! After Ho Chi Minh and its beautiful Mekong River Region, we took a bus straight to Mui Ne... Mui Ne is a little town... well it is more a long street along the beach with loads of hotels and restaurants!! To be quick, the main thing to do there was to relax and go to the beach! So, we actually exactly did that, trying to work a bit on our tan (well, Ola especially!!)

On the next day, we decided to hire some bikes and go to visit the little fishing town and the sand dunes some 10 kms away. Unfortunately, after about 15 minutes riding, Ola's bicycle chain broke!! Bad Luck! So he had to take my bike, and ride while I would be on the other bike, hanging on his shoulder to be dragged!
We got the money back, and decided that it was enough adventures for the day, so we took our towels and got back to our tan!

Next destination was Nha Trang... a little more north. On the way, we saw plenty of rice plantations, which are of a very vivid green color...

The plan in Nha Trang was to do a little diving as it is the best diving site in Vietnam... but unfortunately, it has been raining all the time while we were there, so the visibility under water would not be good enough!

So we spent our time visiting the town (under the rain), which is nice... especially the sea side which looked like if a tropical storm was coming with all the palm trees bended because of the wind!

We went to see the harbour where you can see loads of very cute blue fishing boats.

Few meters from there are the Cham Towers build in the 7th and 8th century (I think!). They are basically small temples where people come to pray...

It is very dark and Mystic in there and the smells of incense overtake the all space...

Now we are in Hoi An, which is an absolutely beautiful town... talk to you soon about that!

Kissses!

Agnes and Ola

VOILA... VOILA LA TRADUCTION !

mer, soleil et bronzette à Mui Ne et pluie à Nha Trang

Hello to all of you!! Salut à vous tous !

Bon ! après ho chi minh et sa magnifique région de la rivière du Mékong, nous avons pris un bus pour Mui Ne qui est une petite ville… en fait, c’est plus une longue avenue qui longe la plage avec quantité d’hôtels et de restaurants ! pour faire vite, la chose essentielle à faire absolument ici, c’est se relaxer et aller à la plage ! c’est exactement ce que nous avons fait pour essayer de parfaire notre bronzage (surtout Ola !)

Le jour suivant, nous avons décidé de louer des vélos pour aller visiter la petite ville de pêcheurs et les dunes de sable à qq 10 kms de là. Malheureusement, après 15 minutes de pédalage, la chaîne du vélo de Ola s’est cassée ! pas de chance ! il a donc dû prendre mon vélo et pédaler tandis que je restais sur l’autre vélo, m’accrochant à son épaule pour qu’il me tire ! on nous a restitué notre argent et avons décidé que c’en était assez pour aujourd’hui et nous avons repris nos serviettes pour retourner à la bronzette !

La destination suivant, c’était Nha Trang… un peu plus au nord. Sur notre chemin, nous avons vu beaucoup de plantations de riz qui sont d’un vert très vif…
Le projet à Nha Trang, c’était de faire un peu de plongée étant donné que c’est le meilleur endroit pour faire de la plongée au Vietnam… mais malheureusement, il a plu tout le temps et la visibilité sous l’eau n’était pas assez bonne !
Nous avons donc passé notre temps à visiter la ville (sous la pluie) qui est belle… surtout côté mer qui donnait l’impression qu’une tornade tropicale allait arriver car les palmiers étaient pliés sous l’effet du vent !

Nous sommes allés voir le port où l’on peut voir de très jolis bâteaux de pêche bleus. A quelques mètres de là, il y a les Tours Cham construites aux 7ème et 8ème siècles (je crois !). Ce sont en principe de petits temples où les gens viennent prier… c’est très sombre et mystique à l’intérieur et les odeurs d’encens envahissent tout l’espace…

Maintenant, nous sommes à Hoi An qui est une ville absolument magnifique… on vous en parle prochainement !
Kissses! bisous

Ho ho ho chi minh...

agnesola — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Allrighty! We are now back to traveling, and in hot weather again!!! nice.
We have just been 3 days in Ho Chi Minh City(former Saigon) and it is very hot and humid.

Our first priority here was to get a visa for laos, This proved very easy, actually the

easiest visa so far, it just took 20 minutes, it cost us 50 dollars though...
Walking around in HCMC is quite easy, the centre is not too big and it is easy to find your way, but one thing that can be a bit scary in the beginning is all the motorbikes and vespas, there are ALOT of them. So when crossing the road there is a special technique(and yes Titti and Danielle, we do look both ways before crossing the street) You have to walk very slowly and keep eye contact with the hundreds of people on bikes coming towards you so that they can drive around you, weird as it sounds it works perfectly.

Anyway, our explorations took us to the presidential palace and the nearby park where we saw many beautiful butterflies, some far too quick to catch on a photo though. We also saw the cathedral(well, not very impressive) and the old post office. We did not go to see so many sites, but mostly walked around in the streets and parks.

One day we decided to go for a tour to the Mekong Delta, Rising early(too early) we hopped on a bus for two hours to take us to the Mekong River. The river is extremely wide and big, full with boats and ships. The Mekong area is the largest producer if rice in Vietnam, here they also grow alot of catfish for export plus many other things.

Our first stop on the tour was to see a small candy factory where they make Coconut candy. They use the juice, and then press juice from the coconut meat as well, add sugar and sometimes spices, then they boil it til it is the right texture and let it cool and get hard, then they chop it up and package, tastes very nice. Here we also saw a small beehive and was treated too honeytee with fresh Kumquatjuice, Tasty!

After this We went to have fresh fruit on an island and were treated to traditional vietnamese music. After this it was time go go on a smaller river in a rowboat, it was really beautiful with tropical trees all around. This was the end and we went back to the bus to go back to HCMC.

Every night in the area we live we have been out eating, and the food here in Vietnam is extremely good, it is more fresh than the chinese food, but i guess with this hot climate that is necessary. There was so many nice little restaurants and bars in our area as well, with fresh fruit shakes and juices for very little money... very nice.

Now we are in Miu ne, 4 hours from HCMC. There is not much here but a beach, but we will write about that in the next blog...

Kisses and hugs!!!

Ola and Agnes

TRADUCTION IMMEDIATE !

Et nous voilà de retour pour continuer notre voyage, et avec à nouveau un temps chaud ! chouette. Nous ne sommes restés que 3 jours à Ho Chi Minh (anciennement Saigon), et c’est très chaud et humide.

Notre toute première priorité, c’était d’obtenir un visa pour le Laos, ce qui fut fait très rapidement, en 20 minutes seulement et un coût de 50 dollars… se promener dans HCMH est assez facile étant donné que le centre n’est pas très étendu, et qu’il est facile de trouver son chemin. La seule chose qui était un peu dérangeante au début, c’était toutes ces mobylettes et vespas. Il y en a beaucoup. Aussi, il y a une technique spéciale pour traverser la route (eh oui, Titti et Danielle, nous regardons bien des deux côtés avant de traverser). Il faut marcher très lentement et garder un œil avec les centaines de personnes sur les engins qui arrivent sur vous et vous contournent mais tout ça s’enchaîne parfaitement.

Bon... nos explorations nous ont menés jusqu’au palais presidential et le parc attenant où nous avons vu de magnifiques papillons qui volaient trop vite pour pouvoir arriver à prendre une photo. Nous avons vu également la cathédrale (bôf, pas très impressionnante) et la vieille poste. Nous n’avons pas vu tellement de sites mais nous nous sommes surtout promenés dans les rues et les parcs.

Un jour, nous avons décidé d’aller en excursion jusqu’au delta du Mékong. Lever tôt (trop tôt). Nous avons sauté dans un bus pour 2 heures de trajet jusqu’à la rivière Mékong. La rivière est extrèmement large et envahie de barques et de bateaux. Toute la contrée du Mékong est le plus grand producteur de riz au Vietnam. Ici aussi, on élève des poissons-chats pour l’export plus plein d’autres choses.
Le premier arrêt de l’excursion a été la visite d’une petite usine de sucre où est fabriqué le sucre de noix de coco. Ils utilisent le jus, et puis ils pressent le jus de la chair de noix de coco, y ajoutent du sucre et parfois des épices, et font bouillir jusqu’à l’obtention de la texture correcte, font refroidir et durcir et ils passent à l’empaquetage. C’est très bon. Nous avons vu là une petite ruche qui sert à la fabrication du thé au miel avec du jus frais de kumquat. Excellent !

Après cela, nous sommes allés sur une île et avons mangé des fruits frais au son de la musique vietnamienne traditionnelle. Puis, l’heure était venue de partir sur une plus petite rivière sur un bateau à rames. C’était vraiment magnifique avec tous ces arbres tropicaux tout autour. Promenade terminée et retour au bus pour HCMC.
Tous les soirs, dans cette région où nous nous trouvions, nous avons mangé à l’extérieur et la nourriture au Vietnam est extrèmement bonne. C’est plus frais que la cuisine chinoise mais je pense que c’est nécessaire avec ce climat chaud. Il y a énormément de sympathiques petits restaurants et de bars qui offrent des fruits et jus de fruits pour très peu d’argent… très agréable.

Nous sommes maintenant à Miu Ne à 4 heures de HCMC. Il n’y a pas grand-chose ici à part la plage, mais cela fera l’objet d’un prochain blog….