Archive for January, 2005
Thailand…well the story if I had blogged two days ago would have been very different to the story that I am going to share with you today.
Arriving in Thailand was the biggest culture shock we have faced to date. After being in Singapore for a week and quite comfortable, to arrive in Thailand was a bit of a shock. We walked the streets the first day in absolute shock at how overt the sex tourism industry is over here. The images that we saw on our first day included many older western men with young asian girls in bars, walking down the street, at restraunts; many young girl scantly dressed hanging out in bars, flashing other customers; men on the street flashing cards of children “for sale” to westerner walking by… it was a bit of a shock after being in such conservative Asian countries. After the initial outrage – and Matt wanting to beat up some middle aged western men with young Thai girls – we have realised that it is quite a complex situation.
The next morning we sat in our quaint little back packers “Suk 11″ and spoke with a lady who is doing research into people trafficing. She is actually here to see what NGOs are doing to work on the issue inorder to impliment some interventions in Australia, where apparently we have our own problems! Talking with our friend Wei who has been working in Bangkok for the last twelve months, she said that most of the women that we see as tourists are there (to some degree) of their own volition. It is seen as a big status simble for Thai women to marry western men and the western men generally help the entire families. From what we can gather it is not uncommon for lonely western men to come to Thailand in search of love. Love is a concept for those who can offord it and many of the Thai women see it as their duty to their families to make a good match with a wealthy westerner. So that begs the question who is using who…etc, etc…it is only when you are on holidays that you have time to think about these things.
There is a problem with people trading here, however, apparently they are the “workers” that you generally don’t see on the street. Generally it is the women, girls and boys that “service” the Thai population that are the ones bought from the poor rural families. It makes my blood boil and hence my 10 year plan to change the world is beginning to take shape :) …in Maccas were we took refuge – somewhere familiar and safe.
So that was our first day. Since then we have realised that there is a bit more to Thailand – thank God – because we were wondering what we were going to do for our four weeks that we are here for! Our mate Wei took us out to a restraunt last night called Condoms and Cabbages, which was established to raise awareness of family planning and combat the spred of HIV. It was a very classy restraunt with a bit of a fun twist – the food was fantastic too! It was great to see Wei and she was very generous with her local knowledge, letting us know the amount we should pay for a Tuk Tuk ride and telling us the places to visit around town. She also took us to the largest open air market in the Southern Hemisphere today – it was great! There is a really good range of clothes, homeware…everything, things are cheep and they seemed to be a decent quality. I am beginning to see why people recommend Thailand for good shopping. As Matt and I have been saving so much to go away we are finding it difficult to get back into buying things, especially for ourselves. So in four hours of shopping all we bought was a singlet top for $3 for myself!
This evening we caught a movie…”Meet the Fouckers”…prior to the movie we had to stand for about a minute while a tribute to the king was played prior to the feature. They love the king over here. The really beautiful thing is that the king really seems to love his people as well. He has no problem speaking against the corruption in the government, though I think that he has little real power.
Tonight we were feeling a little home sick so we decided to dine at the Outback Aussie Restraunt. We learnt a bit about what Australian cuisine is :) I think that I will stick with the local tucker from now on.
We are heading to the travel agents tomorrow to make some plans for the next three weeks, I can see beaches and northern hill tribes will probably enter into it.
Thanks for the emails, prayers, SMSs, phone call…we feel very loved…even if we do get a little home sick from time to time. Oh and my registration has come through from the UK!
We are sitting at the FREE Internet terminal at the Singapore airpot, about to board our plane for Thailand and I thought it was appropriate to write a quick blog about how wondeful Singapore is. The streets are clean, the people are wonderful and the services are exceptional – where else can you get FREE Internet access.
Yesterday we thought we better venture out a little beyond Orchard Road and the Sim Lim Square (more on Sim Lim Square later); we decided to go to Santosa Island — A little island just south of mainland Singapore (a bit like Phillip Island cross with an amusement park). Santosa was great, we caught the cable-car from the mainland and explored the island on the free mono-rail. Our first stop was the Santosa beach, with it’s beutiful sand and clear water – we decided to relax for a few hours in an outdoor recliner with a few beers as we watched the sun go down. Second stop was the amazing sound and light show (apprently it cost 4 million to produce) – it was truely incredible, I could just imagine my nieces screaming with delight at the show!
Sim Lim Square is one of the many IT shopping centres, 6 floors of IT goodness! There were litterally hundreds of shops selling every gadget you could possibly imagine. I was in heaven!! After about the 5th hour of window shopping, Philippa mentioned to me that if we stayed for another minute she would jump over the edge of the 4th floor. I guess I was a bit selfish :P
Our plane leaves in 20 mins, so I better scoot. Love you all heaps and will try and upload the pics of Santosa in Thailand!
As the rooster crowed I woke up and re-packed my bag – emptying out the contents to ensure that there was no items that was likely to get me shot or caned in Singapore. We arrived in Singapore, picked up our bags and as I turned to find customs, I was sorely disappointed when I noticed that no one was manning the customs desk and we walked straight through to the airport shuttle bus.
Efficiency is the word for Singapore – especially after being in Indonesia. The queue are orderly, the taxis are metered, there is quality control measures on everything and the buses run every six minutes. The guide book describing the public transport system is literally a novel and has about 10 pages on public transport safety, it is a bit of an ergonomist’s dream city.
Matt hasn’t wiped the smile off his face since we have arrived. He is enjoying looking at all the IT gadgets that we cannot get in Oz, the clean water and of course the variety of fast food outlets.
Today we went to Raffels and enjoyed a Gin Sling in the Long Room Bar and then a buffet afternoon tea in the Tiffin room – which we had to book in advance. Matthew almost keeled over when he saw how I loaded my plate – he knew that I had an appetite when he married me. The food was exquisite! We had a fantastic time catching up with Gail (dad’s partner) and her mother who had a stop over in Singapore on their way home from Europe. It was all a bit posh – the poor people who have to polish all that silver!
We have also finally found a decent internet pipe and hopefully tonight is the night that we will be able to upload some photos.
Unfortunately dad had to delay meeting up with us, so we are catching up with him in Bangkok and he is staying with us through Cambodia and Vietnam. Matt and I are also looking at our own travel plans, we are thinking about extending our stay in Singapore and reducing the time we planned to stay in Malaysia, we are going to try and track down a travel agent tomorrow.
Thanks for all the emails, I am really enjoying getting news from home!
I would like to make it clear that I’m not trying to claim that the Indonesian’s have developed a fantastic Time Machine hidden in a phone booth that can zoom us to any place or time in history, but where else in the world can you complain when you pay 40c for a bottle of coke (which is in a glass bottle, and requires a bottle opener to open) as it is to expensive. Bali is amazing, and not what I was expecting at all (pffft… Lonely Planet Guide… You SUCK!!).
Last night we were invited to a “special school function” by Jimi Hendrix himself. Apparently some of the local school kids had put together a show of local Balanise dancing and Kung Fu. We were offered a lift by Jimi and were told that there was no cost (which obviously made us VERY suspicious). At anyrate, fearing for our lives we agreed… but weighing up the pros and cons we realised that there was little chance of anything happening as we knew that other westerners would be attending and also the fact that Jimi was pretty well known around town – he is the barber, taxi driver and music club teacher; fortunately we accepted the offer – we had a great time watching the four and five year olds perform. I hope that the photos (when we get a chance to upload them) do the evening justice, so far the highlight of the trip!
I decided to follow my big brother Miks lead and get a hair cut the following morning,… how many people can say they got their hair cut by the one and only Jimi Hendrix!
At 11.00AM our lift arrived and we headed towards Ubud, the trendy arts district of Bali (a bit like Daylesford or Montville). Thr trip took about 5 hours via the famous Bali volcanic hotsprings (*yawn*), waterfall, water temple and monkey forrest (which was soooooo cool). Philippa won’t let me get a pet monkey ;(
Off to McDonalds, umm, I mean Singapore tommorow. Looking forward to the Gin Sling and will try not to get arrested for ashing in public :P Miss you all heaps and can’t wait for my first bloody email (you slackers)!!
So we have gotten a little streetwiser since our last blog. A little wiser at identifying scams and at engaging in the art of barginning. We hit Kuta art market with a new fury bargining, haggling and walking away with our 2 dollar T-shirts.
We have learnt a new phrase which seems to stop people from hasseling us, not because our Bahasa is great but because they kill themselves laughing – Tidak, Terima Kasih, which literally means “No, thank you”. We seem to be the laughing stock of the market, which we don’t mind, we’d rather be clowns than prey! We were doing so well until we went to post a present home for our nephew and it hit home that we should have bought him something a little smaller (I will not disclose what we bought because it is in the mail), the postage cost four times what the present cost!!! Another lesson learnt, when buying presents to send home keep them small!!
Yesterday we packed our bags and boarded a bus to Lovina (via many craft shops, temples and apparently a volcano which we couldn’t see because it was fogged in). It was a really interesting day learning about the impact the Hinduism has on the Balinese everyday lives, from the way they build their houses to the way they conduct business.
Lovina is a sleepy little town – and apparently we are pretty sleepy too! After getting caught in a tropical down-pour this morning we decided the day was against us and went back to bed for three hours! We have a very fancy garden view room in a very fancy resort for USD$17, because it is the low season at the moment. Our resort is right on the beach, however the beach is a bit off putting because it has black volcanic sand and doesn’t appear as inviting as our Australian beaches. It is beautiful here though, it is much more tropical than the southern part of the island, with surrounding hills, banana trees, coconut trees and rice fields everywhere. Loving it!! The pace is a lot different here than Kuta and Matt and I are soaking it up!
Love you all (sorry if we haven’t replied to your emails, we are having trouble opening g-mail at some of the internet cafes). Will post soon – promise the next one will be from Matt! And photos coming soon also, probably when we hit Singapore in a couple of days with faster internet connections :)
Phew…Kuta…what can we say???
In 48 hours we have been the major prize winner of a hotel giveaway and then had it declined because we are not over 28; we have walked km’s of dusty roads looking for an air conditioned shopping centre; we have paid US$35 for a manicure and peticure for both of us (they saw us coming); and have paid at least double what we should have for all of the souvineers that we have bought – and we’re loving it! Well it took us a little while to recover when we realised how much we had been ripped off by….we just had to get it all into perspective again! We have been offered drugs and sex more times than you can count on all our fingers and toes combined…
Kuta beach isn’t much to write home about, Matt has taken some photos that only Tom would appreciate (artistically speaking of course). The $14 dollar a night hotel is comfortable and the complimentary “American Breakfast” sometimes comes as we ordered it and tastes, um…..um…okay. But we’re having the time of our lives!!!!
Last night we stumbled past Poppies and the name sounded familiar…some famous restraunt…then Matt realised the reason it was so familiar is that we had read about it in the travel warnings before we left home :) seasoned travellers we are, going to all the places that we shouldn’t go. It is very quiet over here at the moment, which makes us a little sad for the Balanese who primarily rely on Tourism for their income. That’s why we don’t mind being ripped off so much.
We’re heading up north in a couple of days to see the country side and the northern, quieter, dutch built resorts…the pictures look amazing!
Love you all and am really enjoying reading your comments.
Just a quick note to anyone who may checking here that we have arrived safely. We are sweltering in a dodgy little internet cafe here in Kuta that won’t let us check our email (the browser is too old). Will write again soon with a proper update and hopefully some photos! xxooxx
We are still putting the finishing touches on our site, please stay tuned cause there is going to be something really exciting here soon. (Mondayish)
Matt and Phil