Luang Prabang

Hello everyone!

Here I am in Luang Prabang. I took a flight to come here as I read the roads were not very safe. Well, I'm not sure the plane was safer!
How can I describe it? In French, we use the word "coucou" to describe an obsolete-to-be plane. And this one was! Believe me!
Have you seen this film with Harrison Ford where he is the pilot of a "coucou" in a paradisiac island? The plane with Harrison Ford and a nice girl inside crash in a lost island and it becomes a love story bla bla bla. Well, before entering the plane for Luang Prabang I checked if the pilot was handsome!
Once on flight, they turned off the "fasten seat belt" sign. No way! I kept my seat belt fasten!
I honestly never felt so close to my death moment!

But here I am. Still alive... By now!
Oh, yeah! Because I'm sick :(
I was feeling very tired and nauseous. I went to bed super early, like 9pm. And I had fever all night long! When I woke up I was still feeling bad. Back home, I wouldn't care too much. Come on! Everybody has a fever from time to time! But when you are traveling a fever can become really problematic... Like malaria, dengue or any other tropical disease.
You wanna know something funny? My French guide, Le Routard, said that getting sick in Laos was very bad because the hospitals are lame. And before coming to Laos I was a bit nervous about it. Another reason to never get nervous for anything! Otherwise it might happen!

So I went to the hospital. I solemnly swear I will NEVER EVER criticize Swiss hospitals anymore! NEVER!
Hopefully the doctor speaks English... More or less. I explained to him I had fever and wanted to be sure it's not malaria.
-Do you have diallea?
-What?
-Diallea... You go often to the toilet?
-Oh, no.

The doctor said they needed a blood sample to test for malaria. Honestly, no kidding: 4 nurses for a blood sample! And they manage to spread my blood all around! I just closed my eyes and decided I didn't need to see that.
The lab exam took one hour. Hour that I spent in that little bed, suffering like a dog and wondering if it could be worse. And, yeah, it got worse!!!
A guy came with a hole puncher, no kidding, and started making holes in the wall just beside me!!! A hole puncher!!! And when he finished doing holes, he started with a hammer! What's wrong in this country?!
Actually, you need to choose: coming before 8am and pay more, or come in normal hours and get the hole puncher. Your choice.

And the worse in this story is that I need to go back on Thursday to make sure I don't have dengue! Oh, yeah, because they told me I don't have malaria. Ouf! I'm wondering if I don't prefer living in the ignorance and skip Thursday's appointment... Some things are just too hard to live...

I'll let you know how my health is doing. In the meantime... Wait for it, wait for it... BEST OF LUCK!

Rebeca

Vientiane

Hello everyone!

You might be expecting some crispy news about this free whisky thing plus 14 bed mixed dorm. You naughty!
Well... This is Laos guys: everything is very quiet. Except for the That Luang Festival!
It's supposed to be a festival where people bring gifts to the That Luang temple monks. Actually, it became a pagan festival where people sell food, drinks, cars (yep, cars) and all kind of weird stuff.
I headed this festival following three Dutch girls. It was something! Moreover, one of the Dutch girls was and still is 1.80 m tall. Laotian were looking at us all the time !
We reached a sort of party. Wouhouuu!!!... Or not... I felt I was in a school party full of children. Gulliver in a Lilliputian party. It was hard... Very hard... I think I'm done with parties... But still, an experience is an experience :)

Yesterday, I decided to have Laotian food and Laotian massage. I don't know which one hurt me the most!
I asked for a no spicy Laap, Laotian meal with meat, rice, spices, soup. I don't know I the guy forgot the no spicy thing, but I couldn't finish my dish (forced diet, my friends). My mouth, my nose, my stomach were suffering! Hopeful I had a dark beer which was good, very good. Total balance: good dinner!
After dinner, I went for a foot massage. You might think I'm testing foot massage all over Asia. Well, it's true :) so far, I haven't found the best one which means I need to keep looking.
But first, let me tell you about my Laotian foot massage. It was TORTURE!!! No kidding! TORTURE!!! My feet hurt... A lot! I was even feeling them burning!!! How can people believe suffering like this is good for you?
And suddenly I realized being a masseuse was the best job ever!!! You get paid for torturing people who will after that thank you and give you a tip. SOUNDS GREAT!!! No harassment or mobbing threat. People come to be tortured and it's your job to make them happy. Easy!

And finally yesterday night I got some free Laotian whisky. Yep... That's it. Whisky-coke. Me, the receptionist and a Finnish guy. They were watching a soccer game, I was on Facebook. Sounds lame :) and it kinda was! Who cares?

And finally, the night in the dorm was very quiet, like everything in Vientiane.

I'm going to Luang Prabang today. Everybody says is waaaayyy better than Vientiane. I'll let you know :). In the meantime, best of luck!

Rebeca

First month: done!

Hello everyone!

It's been a month (already!!!) since I started this wonderful journey.
I had so many good experiences! Here are the key ones that I would like to share as a recap:
- Malaysian east coast: still charmed by the beaches, the warm water and the beautiful landscapes!
- Malaysian people: they are really very nice and smiley (I include Singaporeans here too)
- India: tea plantations, good food, beautiful beaches.
- Diving: wow! And still wow! The undersea world is just amazing. Moreover, I went beyond my fears and am very proud of me (*1).
- The great people I met: Robin, Julie, Kerstin, Stéphanie, Richard and Sally, Tony, Hazel and so many more to come :)

*1: I don't remember if I already told you this story, but I like it so much that I don't mind telling it again :)
When we were diving we needed to enter into the water from a boat which turned to be very high (even for the instructor...). One way to enter the water is the "giant step". You saw that on TV already: the guy stands very close to the board of the boat and he does a giant step.
Well... When you have vertigo like me, being able to do that equals climbing the Everest! AND I DID IT! More than once!
Moreover, we did a "James Bond" entry: front flip jumping a little bit to turn over your head while falling. And, guys... This lady did it!!! And it was filmed! :D

This "discovering Asia" trip is suddenly becoming "discovering myself". I'm slowly challenging all my limits (cleanness, loneliness, fears). And the outcome is surprising me. I like what I'm discovering :)

And this is just the beginning! I still have two months to go and many places to discover!

I will keep you posted on every challenge I will face! In the meantime, best of luck!

Rebeca

Laos

Hello everyone!

First of all, I would like to apologize for not feeding the blog for a while. Even if I was (and am) enjoying my time, there where no much stories to tell. But that time is over, Ladies and Gentlemen, because I arrived to Vientiane, Laos, today and I already have lots of things to write :)

I need to start with the flight. I took a flight with Airasia, the low costs aircraft company for South East Asia. And if its called low cost, there is a reason.
First one, the cost: the flight was indeed cheap.
Of course only one hand luggage (even if I had three...).
But the best part comes from the gate to the plane. No bus, no tube. We just walked in the Tarmac trying to find our plane. No kidding. I just followed the people in front of me. At some point, we arrived under a sort of roof. There were umbrellas because, yeah, it was raining loads of water! So everyone took a red umbrella and we walked to the plane. I still find hard to believe it!
But anyways, I slept during the whole flight and just woke up to see the plane landing. The landing was so soft that it took me some time to realize we were already on land. Congrats to the pilot!

Once in Vientiane, I took a taxi to my hostel. 7 dollars for 15km. Not bad! In Switzerland, when you sit your bottom in a cab, it's already 6.90 CHF!

The hostel is not bad. I realize I'm in a mixed dorm: boys and girls all together. I thought this was a very European thing. I guess I was wrong. Tonight it's gonna be fun: 14 beds, boys and girls, and apparently the hostel offers free whiskey. Tomorrow, I MUST tell you how it was!!!

Otherwise, I already walked most of Vientiane... I will need to go somewhere else in the coming days.
Road signs are in French and it's full of French bakeries with people (employees and customers) speaking French. It is very weird... I'll see if the south is also like this.

I'll come with more stories soon. In the meantime, best of luck!

Rebeca

Koh Tao - Thailand

Hello everyone,

I don't really remember where I was in my story telling, so I will talk a bit about Bangkok.
Oh, yeah, now I remember! I said it was a bit boring, but it gets better at the end of the day.
Ok, perfect. I know where I am.

So when I was in Bangkok, I took the time to look for a diving school in Koh Tao. I met a german guy in a bus in Malaysia who told me Koh Tao was "the" place for diving and that everybody knew that. I didn't want to argue with a German, so I came to Koh Tao :)
I choose the first diving school in my guide, which is held by a Swiss :) I didn't know that before coming. When I arrive, two British instructors made me fill all the forms and one of them told me: "you speak very good English for a French".
-"It's because I'm not French" (sorry for my French fellows...)
-"Oh, you're Swiss! Our boss is from Lausanne.
-"Me too!!!"
End of the story.

So now I'm diving. I'm doing the PADI Open Water Certification, which is the first certification you can do.
I'm in a group of four with a French guy (26) and two British boys from London (23).
We had the written exam this morning and this lady past the exam with only two mistakes!!! Youhouuu!... Sorry...
This afternoon we went for our first dive in the sea until 12 meters. The days before we were learning all the technical skills in a pool.
Diving in the sea is so cool! Beside the fact that I struggled finding my right buoyancy (a new word that I learned) and was trying to breath normally, I really enjoyed going under the water!
I only see a negative point: my hair. It's a disaster! There is no way I put my mask without screwing my hair!
I know it's a detail beside all the beautiful things you see underwater and fishes don't really care. But if I continue diving I will go back to short hair for sure!
After two not very intensive dives, I'm dead! And tomorrow we will leave at 6am for the two next dives. This time we will go to 18 meters. I really look forward to it!

Otherwise, people are cool, food is awesome, weather is hot, bla bla bla :)

I will continue keeping you posted on my Asian adventure (that I'm really enjoying by the way).
In the meantime, best of luck!

Rebeca 

Bangkok

Hello all,

Here I am in Bangkok. I left India through Thiruvananthapuram airport. You can say Trivandrum...
My flight was via Colombo, Sri Lanka. When we landed I almost regretted not having included Sri Lanka in my tour. It seems so beautiful :) I decided to visit it on my next tour, because, yeah, I will do another trip like this for sure!
The flight Colombo-Bangkok was half-empty. Sorry... but I really cannot say half-full...
I was very surprised because the on-boarding was done very calmly. They did the typical call: "Passengers from rows D to F can proceed to on-board". And, trust me, ONLY the passengers from rows D to F walked to the gate! Unbelievable! In Europe, people start queuing hours before the gate opens!!!

I was a bit stressed because I didn't have a ticket to go out of Thailand. And they seem were strict on that: people entering Thailand need to GET OUT! But everything went perfectly at the customs. They didn't ask.
After getting my luggage, I needed to find the Express Train to the city. Very easy. And arriving to the city was easy as well. It's amazing how everything is super well organized!
Hopefully my hostel was next to the metro station. And when I say next, it means next. The stairs are just in front :) No matter... I managed to take the opposite direction and walk for 15 minutes looking for my hostel!
I really have a hard time with my sense of direction. Don't care! It gives me full of stories to tell and I can discover some parts of the cities that I wasn't supposed to visit... really don't!

This morning I went for a walk. Very early is better, said my head! Well... not in Bangkok.
The city wakes up only around 5pm. The street stores opens, the food stalls serve food, the juice stalls are very active, people invade the streets. I love it! I was walking in the streets as I was somewhere else. A smile on my face, looking everywhere, reading (trying to) every sign in the street, every advertising. Really cool!

In my last post, I talked about Ayurvedic massage. Well, today I tried the Thai foot massage.
I'm a backpacker. It means my feet are carrying my backpack, my weight and my overweight! Poor them :(
So I decided to spoil them :)
Remember I said Ayurveda was an oily torture? Well,... foot massage is not very far! But it feels sooooo good! and it's very cheap. My hour of massage costed my 300 Baht, + or - 9 Swiss francs. In Switzerland, with 9 CHF I can buy... a kebab!
Once the little lady finished massing my feet, she started with my back. She put all her weight (+ or - 25kg) over my back when doing the massage. I almost told her my backpack was heavier :)
And now I feel very light... like a butterfly :)
And it's better like this because tomorrow I need to wake up at 4am to go to the islands to do some diving.
I'm not sure I will have Internet there... probably yes (thanks, XXIst century!).
In case not, I wish you all a nice week-end... a bit in advance ;)

Best of luck!

Rebeca

India - Kerala

Hello everyone,

I've been in India, it's true. But I've only been in Kerala and cannot make any generalities over the Indian Culture. It's like being in Marseille and think you know all French!

Kerala is in the South of India. Rich region, lots of sea food, everything is cooked or prepared in coconut oil.
Lots of churches. The literacy rate is very high in Kerala. It seems a nice place to live...
Lots of fishermen... we went to see the fish market at 6.30 am... Amazing! Two ladies were fighting over coconuts! "I handover 3 coconuts to you 3 days ago..." (Thanks, Tony, for the translation). Surrealistic!
The boats are very nice, colorful! You see fish nets everywhere.

In Kerala, men wear sarongs: large tube of fabric tided around the hips. (I bought two... for the beaches... but couldn't wear them in India). These sarongs seem very comfortable. Men fold it in two and show their knees. Interesting, women don't show their legs... but men do. And you can see men peeing beside the roads very easily :) They just rise the sarongs... and it's done! Easy, fizzy!

However, if you are in a "single4ever" depression... you shouldn't choose Kerala for holidays! There is wedding advertising EVERYWHERE!!!
You can mostly see advertising for: jewelry, weddings (these two go together...) and... CEMENT! True! We took pictures of some ads... so funny... from our European pov!

We had Ayurveda massages. How can I describe them? It's like an hour of oily torture! They mass every part of your body (knees and belly tickled me!)
Once I had oil in my head. It's called Shirodara. You have a sort of sink above your head with don't know how many litters of oil.. and it flows into your hairs (took me three days to wash all the oil...) WOW! It seems you have like dozens of fingers touching your head! Hmmm! that was orgasmic! A whole new world of sensations! I understand why the Kama Sutra comes from this part of the world! These guys know a lot about providing pleasure! (for those interested... oil was all they provided me...).

And if you want to know more about Kerala... you need to come! This place deserves to be known!

Hope you enjoy reading this blog! Best of luck!

Rebeca

Intrepid Tour

Hello everyone,

Who would have thought I would have free Internet in Colombo Airport! Cool!

Just a few words regarding my Intrepid tour.
It was a 9 days tour starting in Kochi and ending in Kovalam.
We had a private bus and a driver, Mahesh. This detail is important, because it says a lot about the standard of the tour :)
Some tours don't have a bus and people need to take buses, trains, rickshaws... not that it's not funny... but less comfortable.

Our guide, Tony, was very friendly and he really knows a lot (I know they should know a lot.. but still...).

During our tour, we stayed in Kochi, Munnar, Periyar, Alleppey (Backwaters), Varkala and Kovalam.
In Munnar and Periyar, we did some walks in the jungle. In Periyar, there is a Wildlife Sanctuary. We went for a walk very early in the morning. Tony told us: Be careful, in the morning it's a bit chilly. But don't get overdressed because you will get hot walking.
Indeed in the morning, my Canadian roommate went out and told me: yeah, it's cold... about 20 degrees!
We laughed! 20 C is summer for us ;)

During the walk in the jungle, we met a lot of leeches. Yuk! We put on some high socks, but they still managed to enter in the shoes...

In Alleppey, we were in the Backwaters. Not sure I will be able to describe it... so google it :)
In few words, it's like villages in the middle of the water. You moved between the villages by boat. Really cool!

Varkala and Kovalam were our beaches places. Full of white tourists... but the beaches were... WOW! stunning!

I'm keeping great memories from this tour (I took 1500 pictures...) and my contact book up to date :)
As said before, people were great and I had a lovely time in India!

I will say more about Kerala and Indians in my next post. In the meantime, best of luck!

Rebeca

Arrival to Kochi - Beginning of Intrepid Tour

Hello everyone,

After talking about my flight, let me talk about my arrival to Kochi and the beginning of my guided tour with Intrepid.

First of all, landing in Kochi was ... WOW! Full of coconut trees everywhere, everything was green and beautiful. Not exactly what I was expecting, even if I'm not sure I had a clear idea of what I was going to see...

Someone picked me at the airport with a taxi driver. Cool, hein?
And I had my first road experience in India ! :) everybody honks all the time!
Well... Apparently it's done in several countries, but this is just the beginning of my 3 months trip ;) I'll tell about the other countries later!

Our meeting point was in a very, very nice hotel. The meeting was a 1pm, but I was there at 8am. I took the time to walk around and discover the feeling of being an alien!!! Young girls were overexcited because they waved at me and I said "hi". How cool is that?
Young boys were looking at me like I was he first blonde they've ever seen... And I maybe was!
That was funny :)

I went back to my room for a shower and some rest.
The room was huge! Big size double bed and a living room with a sofa bed. When I saw the bed I told myself: remember you said you were OK sharing the room... But sharing the bed?! And I laugh thinking: no way you are going to share it! Hahaha! Well... Never say never.

After meeting with the guide, Tony, and the others, Tony told us one girl was coming late.
A few minutes later, someone was knocking at my door... Guess who? The missing girl! Yeah, my new roommate, Julie!
Actually we didn't share the bed. She took the sofa bed which was very comfortable.

And now you know the roommate story (we actually shared a room during all the trip and it was so fun!), I will introduce you to the team:
- Richard & Sally, from Australia.
- Tony and Sue, from UK
- Hazel, UK girl living in Chamonix, France
- Julie, from Quebec, Canada
- Tony Gomez, our guide
- Mahesh, the driver
- and me, the youngest member of the group :)

I have a funny story about Hazel :).
When we met, she told me: I'm from Chamonix, France. (I understood: Chemony... British accent :S )
And I thought: Germany in France... That's Alsace!!!
Pure blonde moment! :) I still laugh about it!

The group was very nice. We didn't have any issues during the trip and we spent wonderful moments together. We were all very lucky, because you never know who will be in the trip...

I will talk about the trip and tour in the next posts.
In the meantime, best of luck!

Rebeca

India - Part I - Flight KL-Chennai-Kochi

Hello everyone!
It's been a long time since my last post. A lot of things happened during that time, but I still would like to start from the beginning: arriving to India.
As you might know, I'm in India since a week. I arrived with a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Chennai first, and then another flight to Kochi.

I should say something about KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport), but will only say that there were a lot of security checks.  Come on, guys! If there was no bomb in the first scan, you really think there will be one just before entering in the plane? Anyway...

I can say without being very original that I was the only blonde on that flight. I was expecting a "Moroccan style flight" with goats and pigeons. Actually, it was a very quiet flight. The crew turned off the lights and everybody felt asleep... After me!!! Because I didn't see the color of the food! I was so tired, I just closed my eyes and let my body find some relief!
Then we arrived to Chennai. I needed to go through the custom in order to get my flight to Kochi.
Wow! I just confirmed the blonde effect works... every time!
The guy checking the passport wasn't very friendly (oh, yeah... I've lost at least 2/3 of the smiles I had in Malaysia!... Indian people are not as smiley as Malaysian...). Anyway, I arrived with my passport and my smile... and the guy smiled! YEAH!!! Entering India was easier than expected :P
He asked me: Füst teim?
-What?
-Füesst teime?
-(I tried answering with another question) How long I will stay?
-No. Is this your füest teim in India?
-Yes. It is my first time (oh, dear! You better get used to the accent very quickly!!!)

Once I had my luggage, another security scan! Just in case the other countries couldn't find the bomb you were hiding in your luggage!

Once outside the airport... Wow! It was crowded!!! Guys, it was midnight, but the streets were full! Amazing!
I needed to walk to the domestic airport just beside. The security man checked my flight ticket and told me: Once inside, you cannot go outside.
-No problem. I wasn't willing to go outside and have some fun, right?

Once inside the domestic airport...there is nothing! Only people like me waiting for a flight.
I tried to sleep. Oh, dear! How can I describe the scene?
I was half lying in a seat, my handbag and camera "hidden" below me and taking the backpack with one hand. Can you see it? Good!
Of course I didn't sleep vey much. Who would? And moreover, I was thirsty. There was a "drinking water" sign... No way!!! I kept my thirst!

Around 4am, the check-in opened.
Another scan OF COURSE! And they sealed my bag with a sticker. Welcome to India!
Do I need to tell I was the only blonde in the waiting area?...
Around 5am, we started the on boarding. I was surprised how quiet and patient Indian are... They queued quietly, entered the plane calmly and we all had a nice trip!
I cannot tell if it was due to the early hour or to some education missing in Europe.

This is more or less all concerning my arrival to India.
Of course, more stories will come later.

Thanks for reading and, in the meantime, best of luck!

Rebeca