Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Le big apple

We arrived safe and sound and have enjoyed our time with our wonderful friends here in NYC. It's $2 per 10 minutes in this internet cafe- so expensive in this town!!

We will be going back to MTL on Thursday morning.

Ciao for now!

W et C

Friday, March 14, 2008

Hong Kong (airport) (still)

Last night was wild. But I have no time so will explain later. Contacted our friend Joe in New York city, so we will be staying with him when we arrive tomorrow. Yay! There is free 15 minute internet to be found at the Hong Kong airport, alors voila, j'ecrit un petit note. I miss Thailand already. I miss you too. Short and sweet. Will write more later.

OK.... this is later....I am currently editing this blog as.. well, I'll just come out and say it-we missed our flight! We were all settled in near a little jazz bar in the airport and somehow missed our plane! We didn't realize there was an hour's difference from Bangkok to Hong Kong, so we showed up and surprise! We felt to regretful and stupid and scared about how many thousands of dollars extra it would cost us-It was a total nightmare. For a moment. But then.... the little woman who worked for Cathay Pacific told us to follow her and well, after calling the right people, she got us on a flight to NYC tomorrow (actually today as it is now the dawn of the 15th!!) The ladies were so awesome- we didn't even have to pay anything extra- and we originally bought the restricted economy tickets!!? Anyways, no complaints- we will make more of an effort of hovering beside the proper gate this time! Unfortunately we couldn't leave the airport unless we wanted to pay hundreds of dollars to spend a night in Hong Kong, so we opted to stay in this mammoth airport mall complex. Looks a bit like the mother ship in Star Trek-actually a very sterile but beautiful architectural aestehtic. There are these lounges in the airport that you can pay to sleep and shower in, but they cost like $100 us dollars each, so we decided to sleep on the reclining chairs and benches in the airport- and well, I'd finally fallen asleep when this couple recently struck up a loud friendly conversation and I started thinking very nasty thoughts and decided to vacate my chair. You know when you are tired and then passive aggressive and then full out bitchy- that's me about 15 minutes ago. So here I am confessing our mistake to you at 5 am, Hong Kong time. When in Rome and sleep deprived, write a ranting blog- makes you feel better.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

C'est fini...

C'est fini... Ok pas tout a fait fini mais presque . Il nous encore quelques heures a Bangkok et 5 jours a New York. Bangkok est definitivement une des villes les plus intence que j'ai connue .Ca grouille de partout tout le temps.Tellement de gens partout c'est etourdissant mais tres interressant.On a passer deux nuits chez des connaissances ici a bangkok avec qui nous avons partager un exelent repas que Aum nous a prepare .Hier nous avons visiter le chinatown et le marche de fleur. Le dernier soir nous sommes alle feter dans une discoteque et par chance Carabao, le groupe le plus respecte de Thailande, ont fait un concert surprise.C'etait comme si les rolling stone fesait un consert surprise dans un bar de montreal .Tout le monde avait le sourire fendu jusqu'au oreille et dansait comme des dements. Ont s'ait serieusement torcher la face ce qui a surement quelque chose a voir avec la mesaventure qu'il nous est arrive le lendemain. Nous avons manquer notre vol a cause que nous avons oublier qu'il y avais une difference d'une heure entre Bangkok et Hong kong. Anyway nous avons eu enormement de chance, les gens de Cathay Pacifique  ont change notre vol sans frais. Nos avons due passer une tres longue et penible nuit a l'areoport. J'aimerais avoir plus de temps pour visiter l'asie . En fait 2 mois et demi c'est pas suffisant pour visiter tout les endroits que nous avons visiter. Ah le prochain voyage sera plus long, J'espere...

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Kho Chang Ile paradisiaque

Nous nous sommes accrocher les pieds a Kho Chang, comment resister a une iles tropicale avec plein de plages ,de bars, peuple a 75% de filles! Un petit paradi pour touriste.Nous avons fait du snorkel, c'était vraiment intence de voir la vie sous la mer, des centaines de poissons et coraux aux formes et aux couleurs les plus allucinantes wow j'en oubliait presque de remonter a la surface pour respirer.Les gens avec qui nous sommes aller plonger etait merveileux.En particuler Bahar et FIrat Deux etre d'une extreme geneureusite qui nous ont heberge chez eux. Nous avons voler dans un ultra leger avec un de leur amis histoire de voir l'ile sous un autre angle et avons fait de l 'hebertisme dans les arbres a plus de 30 pieds dans les air. Nous Mangeons des fruits de mer et du poisson a presque tout les repas Mmmmmmm; des crevettes geantes, des langoustes, des huitres , des moules et plein de poissons.Nous fesons la fete a presque tout les soirs et passons nos journees sur la plage ou dans des hamacs a sirote des cocktails.En gros on profite de la vie au maximum, et ont fait tout notre possible pour vous rendre jalous! Il ne nous reste que quatre jours en asie et aujourd'hui est notre dernier jour a Kho Chang nous retournons a Bangkok ou nous prendrons l'avion pour New York ou nous passerons cinq jours avant de finalement retourner par train a Montreal le 21 mars. Alors a bientot!

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Koh Chang or elephant island





We arrived in Koh Chang a few days ago by boat and have enjoyed the sun, white sandy beaches and funky nightlife area along Lonely beach. We met this amazingly nice Turkish couple Bahar and FIrat(see the vampire with coral fangs photo)who work for Ploy Scuba diving (they had just swam with a giant and rare whale shark that day) and so we went out snorkelling yesterday. The world beneath the sea is so amazingly colourful - I think I might come back to Thailand some day and become a certified Scuba diver because observing fish...well I've always loved it. Last night we went to a famous seafood resto in Bangbao (still in Koh Chang) and tried giant shrimp, a mackerel curry and rock lobsters. It was truly delicious. The taxi driver wanted us to pay far too much for returning to Lonely beach, so we set out walking along the dark road. A couple passed us and stopped a little farther down the road looking at something and I heard them speaking French. I yelled out to the 'Excuse-est-ce que on peut poigner un lift avec vous?' They agreed to we hopped onto the backs of their scooters and they drove us back to our home. Turns out they were Quebecois and we had some beer with them and the Turkish couple and a bunch of their Turkish friends. We have come across alot of Francophone travellers- it's been fun to practice French along with the south-East Asian languages. Today we went to something called Tree-top adventures and climbed, swung and screamed from the tops of trees in an elaborate obstacle course. Fun stuff. Koh Chang is a little like Vancouver island here- you have the gorgeous beaches, lots of tourists (but the good kind) jungle (monsoon instead of rainforest.) Tomorrow we may go to the other side of the island to Long beach (2 hours away- Koh Chang is Thailand's biggest island) Perhaps we will have a bucket of Mojito soon. They put fuschia coloured orchids in it and they are so tasty when cold. We will stay in Koh Chang for 1 more day and then get on a boat and bus to go to Bangkok where we will visit some friends. -Mtl possibly around the 21st. Now for a swim in the ocean.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Siem Reap update


We arrived by small plane to Siem Reap from Laos safely and spent 2 days at the world famous Angkor Wat. Very beautiful- wonderful carvings and structures. I read over 40% of the population of Cambodia is under 14 years of age. The food in Cambodia delicious- comparable to the quality of Thailand- surprised it's not more popular world-wide. Laotian food apparently had less variety in their diet than Khmers, from what we can tell. The town Siem Reap is quite nice- this morning we booked a bus ticket to go south stopping for 1/2 hour in Phnom Penh and then continuing on to Sihanoukville the south (finally going to a beach.) Tired but happy at 5 am, over and out.

Les temples d'Angkors





Nous sommes maintenant a Siem Reap, Deuxieme ville en importance et definitivement la plus touristique du Cambodge.Siem Reap est situe a quelques minutes du plus grand site de monuments religieux au monde. C'est tres dispendieux ici, visite les temples, la bouffe, les transports, en tout est un peu plus cher qu'ailleur dans le sud est asiatique.Mais les temples vallent definitivement la peine d'etre vue. Nous en avons visite au moin dix en deux jour. Les plus beaux sont ceux qui sont envahis par la jungle comme Ta phron et Phrea Khan. Nous aurions voulue visite deux autres temples situes plus loin de la ville mais c'est tres couteux, le temps nous manque et en fait, je crois que nous avons notre dose de temples pour le moment. La bouffe Khmer est l'une des plus interessante que j'ai mange en asie du sud est . Plus sucre, plus fruite et moin epice que la cuisine thaie mais d'une grande finesse. Cette cuisine gagne a etre connue et est plus accessible que la cuisine thaie car moin epice.Quand ils n'ont rien a nous vendre les Cambodgiens sont tres sympatiques, mais ceux qui depende du tourisme sont vraiment ennnuyant.Ils ne savent pas ou arrete. L'extreme pauvrete les a transformes en betes assoifes d'argent. Apres Siem Reap nous nous dirigerons vers Sihanookville pour un jour ou deux et ensuite nous irons sur l'iles Ko chang en thaillande.