Hey everyone!
I know it's been awhile, and I'm so sorry! We just arrived in phnom penh, the capital city of Cambodia, 2 days ago. We had spent one week in sihanoukville which was amazing! One week of sitting and relaxing by the beach! Couldn't ask for much more than that :).
We really didn't get up to much while we were there, which was a nice break. I did on the other hand have plenty of time to work on my tan! There's a theater there called top cat cinema, we went there 2 nights in a row, we loved it so much. It's a very laid back place where for $3.50 you get your own VIP room for you and your friends, and your choice of 1000's of movies. Our room had mats on the floors with tons of pillows and blankets, and we watched 3 awesome movies!
I haven't seen any oh phnom penh yet as I've been very sick with a cold. The day we got here is when it hit me, sore throat, bad cough, headache and nausea. It's starting to pass now, because ive been cooped up in my room resting. I didn't sleep well in sihanoukville because of the heat, so that along with the ac... I think my immune system just got run down.
I'll keep you updated as soon as I start doing more! I love you and muss every one of you!
Xoxo always and forever,
Alicia
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Sunday, 20 November 2011
November 20 2011
Hi everyone!!
Today was a very interesting and fun day! When we woke up we went for breakfast and then got picked up to go to the floating village. The homes we drove past in our tuk tuk almost brought a tear to my eye. To see the conditions that these people live in, and how happy they are is amazing. We are so fortunate with all that we have at home. These people have so little and yet are able to see so much positive, and we whine when we don't have enough money to do some fun activity. We really have no idea what hardship is.
When we got to our boat, we met with our tour guide ray. He is a 22 year old Cambodian man. Very friendly and so much fun to be with. He took us first to the market where we bought noodles and water for the orphan children at the school. We then took the groceries to the school where we were so warmly greeted by about 25 children. They were climbing all over us. They kept trying to get us to pick them up and were fascinated by my tattoos and piercings. They were ADORABLE! I took many photos of them. They are from Vietnam and none of them have families, they only have each other, and yet again, they seemed so happy.
After we left the floating school we went further into the lake. Shannon, Lisa, and ray all jumped into the water with their clothes on for a swim, I stayed on the boat and worked on my tan :) haha. They only swam for about 10 minutes, then we took off to the crocodile farm. I held a snake too, he places ir behind my shoulders... It felt so gross and cool at the same time, shannon and i both did it. There we also drank rice wine. Oh my god is it ever strong... It's about 40% and you have to take it all in one drink. I drank as much as I could before I just couldn't drink anymore. As we were leaving ray bought us some beers to drink on the boat on our way back. Lol he was probably the funnest tour guide I've ever met in my life.
When we got back to land we ate bbq'd snake... I was freaked out but it really wasn't as bad ad I thought it would be... It tasted a lot like BBQ chicken... I know people always say that but it's true. One piece I opened up had eggs in it, so that was the end of that for me.. Haha.
Tonight we're going to have a BBQ at the hotel were staying at with the staff and bother guests... It only cost us $5 and they're cooking up pigs ears and tongue, along with other things... They eat some wierd stuff here, but when am I ever going to be in Cambodia again? Better live life to the fullest!
Tomorrow we leave siem reap to go to sihanoukville, it's more of a beach resort type place and will take 9 hours by bus to get to. After that we head to phnom penh. I'm very excited about both places!!
That's all for now. Love you and miss you all sooooooo much!!!!
Xoxo love always and forever.
Alicia
Today was a very interesting and fun day! When we woke up we went for breakfast and then got picked up to go to the floating village. The homes we drove past in our tuk tuk almost brought a tear to my eye. To see the conditions that these people live in, and how happy they are is amazing. We are so fortunate with all that we have at home. These people have so little and yet are able to see so much positive, and we whine when we don't have enough money to do some fun activity. We really have no idea what hardship is.
When we got to our boat, we met with our tour guide ray. He is a 22 year old Cambodian man. Very friendly and so much fun to be with. He took us first to the market where we bought noodles and water for the orphan children at the school. We then took the groceries to the school where we were so warmly greeted by about 25 children. They were climbing all over us. They kept trying to get us to pick them up and were fascinated by my tattoos and piercings. They were ADORABLE! I took many photos of them. They are from Vietnam and none of them have families, they only have each other, and yet again, they seemed so happy.
After we left the floating school we went further into the lake. Shannon, Lisa, and ray all jumped into the water with their clothes on for a swim, I stayed on the boat and worked on my tan :) haha. They only swam for about 10 minutes, then we took off to the crocodile farm. I held a snake too, he places ir behind my shoulders... It felt so gross and cool at the same time, shannon and i both did it. There we also drank rice wine. Oh my god is it ever strong... It's about 40% and you have to take it all in one drink. I drank as much as I could before I just couldn't drink anymore. As we were leaving ray bought us some beers to drink on the boat on our way back. Lol he was probably the funnest tour guide I've ever met in my life.
When we got back to land we ate bbq'd snake... I was freaked out but it really wasn't as bad ad I thought it would be... It tasted a lot like BBQ chicken... I know people always say that but it's true. One piece I opened up had eggs in it, so that was the end of that for me.. Haha.
Tonight we're going to have a BBQ at the hotel were staying at with the staff and bother guests... It only cost us $5 and they're cooking up pigs ears and tongue, along with other things... They eat some wierd stuff here, but when am I ever going to be in Cambodia again? Better live life to the fullest!
Tomorrow we leave siem reap to go to sihanoukville, it's more of a beach resort type place and will take 9 hours by bus to get to. After that we head to phnom penh. I'm very excited about both places!!
That's all for now. Love you and miss you all sooooooo much!!!!
Xoxo love always and forever.
Alicia
Friday, 18 November 2011
November 18 2011
Hello again loved ones!
We arrived in Cambodia safe and sound at around 4pm on Wednesday, when we got here we went straight to our room and crashed until 1030am the next day, clearly we were tired. When we got up yesterday we were prepared to go find a cheaper guest house than the hotel we were at, but they offered us the room for $5/night each so we stayed. We wondered around the city of siem reap during the day, my god was it hot. We came back to our room after a few hours for our daily nap. Ah, what a hard life we live eh? Haha. Later last night after dinner we decided to head down to the night market where we each got a pair of alladin pants! This is my second pair now... I'm slightly addicted... Be warned that when I come home I will probably live in them! We met a nice guy from Germany who is traveling alone so we invited him to join us. We all went to the bar after the market, had a beer or two and smoked sheesha from the hooka... It was chocolate flavored... Yum. Dont worry aunts and uncles, it's not a drug! Beer here is only $2.50 for a giant bottle and it's pretty good too... We even had one with breakfast haha.
Today we went on a tour of the temples. They were amazing. I couldn't believe how the walls are all hand carved with a story in extreme detail... It was the most beautiful art I've ever seen... I really need to get a USB cord so I can load the photos on Facebook for everyone to see. The temples had sooo many stairs!! And because it was so ridiculously hot, we only made it through 2 of the 3 temples. I felt like I was going to faint and poor shannon's hip was starting to really bother her. She did amazingly well though! We all deserve a pat on the back I think ;)
We just got back to the hotel and it's time to take it easy i think. I'm exhausted! We might go to see the floating villages tomorrow, which I am epically excited about, and then the killing fields.
I absolutely love Cambodia so far. The people here are so beautiful inside and out!
I love you and miss you all so much!!!
Xoxo
Alicia
We arrived in Cambodia safe and sound at around 4pm on Wednesday, when we got here we went straight to our room and crashed until 1030am the next day, clearly we were tired. When we got up yesterday we were prepared to go find a cheaper guest house than the hotel we were at, but they offered us the room for $5/night each so we stayed. We wondered around the city of siem reap during the day, my god was it hot. We came back to our room after a few hours for our daily nap. Ah, what a hard life we live eh? Haha. Later last night after dinner we decided to head down to the night market where we each got a pair of alladin pants! This is my second pair now... I'm slightly addicted... Be warned that when I come home I will probably live in them! We met a nice guy from Germany who is traveling alone so we invited him to join us. We all went to the bar after the market, had a beer or two and smoked sheesha from the hooka... It was chocolate flavored... Yum. Dont worry aunts and uncles, it's not a drug! Beer here is only $2.50 for a giant bottle and it's pretty good too... We even had one with breakfast haha.
Today we went on a tour of the temples. They were amazing. I couldn't believe how the walls are all hand carved with a story in extreme detail... It was the most beautiful art I've ever seen... I really need to get a USB cord so I can load the photos on Facebook for everyone to see. The temples had sooo many stairs!! And because it was so ridiculously hot, we only made it through 2 of the 3 temples. I felt like I was going to faint and poor shannon's hip was starting to really bother her. She did amazingly well though! We all deserve a pat on the back I think ;)
We just got back to the hotel and it's time to take it easy i think. I'm exhausted! We might go to see the floating villages tomorrow, which I am epically excited about, and then the killing fields.
I absolutely love Cambodia so far. The people here are so beautiful inside and out!
I love you and miss you all so much!!!
Xoxo
Alicia
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
November 15 2011
Hello loved ones!
Well... per Shelley's request, I will comment on the smell of Bangkok... it's TERRIBLE! haha some places aren't so bad but others are absolutely terrible.
Had a pretty bad day yesterday... I was just very overwhelmed and have had a lot of anxiety. Bangkok is so big and so busy and so hot..... it's hard to take in. Last night was Sydney and Jamaina's last night here, so they, along with Shannon and Lisa went out partying, I decided to stay home and just relax. I had spent the whole day crying and having mini panic attacks... so i thought it would be best to just spend the night reading and listening to my music. I ended up going down to the internet cafe around 11pm and called home, I just needed to hear some friendly voices. The part that makes it so hard is that I am so far from my support network here and with these people I just met (Don't get me wrong, they're wonderful) but it makes it a little tough.
Today I actually have left the room and have ventured around Bangkok. It's so hot out today, but it's been a lot of fun. We met these random group of guys at breakfast today and they helped steer us in the right direction. We went to a travel place this afternoon after breakfast and booked a bus ticket to Cambodia. The girls' Thai visa expires tomorrow so they were going to go to the embassy to have it extended and then we were going to go to Chang Mai, but it's pretty flooded in that area, so instead we;ve decided to go to Cambodia. After Cambodia we will probably head to Laos and then will come back through Thailand and go to Chang Mai where we will visit the tiger kingdom and ride elephants!!!!! I am sooo excited to do that! And Cambodia will be awesome too :)
Love you and miss you all SO MUCH!
xoxo
Well... per Shelley's request, I will comment on the smell of Bangkok... it's TERRIBLE! haha some places aren't so bad but others are absolutely terrible.
Had a pretty bad day yesterday... I was just very overwhelmed and have had a lot of anxiety. Bangkok is so big and so busy and so hot..... it's hard to take in. Last night was Sydney and Jamaina's last night here, so they, along with Shannon and Lisa went out partying, I decided to stay home and just relax. I had spent the whole day crying and having mini panic attacks... so i thought it would be best to just spend the night reading and listening to my music. I ended up going down to the internet cafe around 11pm and called home, I just needed to hear some friendly voices. The part that makes it so hard is that I am so far from my support network here and with these people I just met (Don't get me wrong, they're wonderful) but it makes it a little tough.
Today I actually have left the room and have ventured around Bangkok. It's so hot out today, but it's been a lot of fun. We met these random group of guys at breakfast today and they helped steer us in the right direction. We went to a travel place this afternoon after breakfast and booked a bus ticket to Cambodia. The girls' Thai visa expires tomorrow so they were going to go to the embassy to have it extended and then we were going to go to Chang Mai, but it's pretty flooded in that area, so instead we;ve decided to go to Cambodia. After Cambodia we will probably head to Laos and then will come back through Thailand and go to Chang Mai where we will visit the tiger kingdom and ride elephants!!!!! I am sooo excited to do that! And Cambodia will be awesome too :)
Love you and miss you all SO MUCH!
xoxo
Sunday, 13 November 2011
november 13 2011
Hi everyone,
We arrived in Bangkok today after 22 hours of travelling. That made for an extremely long day, especially after an extremely long night of drinking right before that. We went out on Friday night, even though we were all in rough shape because we figured it was our last night on the party island, so we should go out with a bang! That we did... we all got to bed around 730am, and had to be up around 10 to finish packing and get our taxi at 11am to take us to the boat. The boat ride was only 2 hours, but then came the bus.... we got on the bus for just under an hour and had a stopover at the bus station for about 4 hours. Once the sun went down the bugs came out and we were getting eaten alive by mosquito's.... out came the bug spray! The mosquito's out here are relentless. Finally 830pm rolls around and our bus showed up, we boarded the bus thinking it would be around 1230.... 1am ish by the time we got to Bangkok.... well, we didn't end up getting here until about 9am. We looked at a few hostels, but decided to stay in a hotel for the night because Sydney and Jamaina are heading home in 2 days. It's a really nice hotel with something like 82 floors, looks over so much of Bangkok. Once we got a room, we sort of just took it easy. We were all tired from the long day of travelling and took a nap. Eventually we wandered out to go get some dinner and decided that for tonight, McDonalds would do. It tastes a bit different here... not much, but definitely a little bit. I'm still adjusting to the climate change and everything else, so my appetite is not there at all, I'm lucky if I'm getting one meal a day into myself. When I do start to eat I get so full, so fast. I've been told that too shall pass eventually, and then I wont be able to stay full haha.
I find Bangkok to be overwhelming. It's a big city and there are a lot of people every where... and I just left a small, very relaxed island. Huge change. I don't believe we're staying here long, once Shannon and Lisa arrive tomorrow we will figure out the plan from there. They were supposed to be here a few hours after us but missed their boat yesterday morning.. haha. Oh well! These things happen, there is no problem that doesn't have a solution.
I've met so many wonderful people on my travels. All of which are in the same boat as us, so it makes it really easy to start up conversations. My homesickness is still here, but much better than it has been. I haven't cried in days. I miss every one so much, but I'm really starting to get the hang of this travelling thing and have a good time. It was really tough in the beginning but it all comes together eventually. I still don't like to be left alone in the city... I became fine with it on Koh Phangan, but that was a much different environment. Keep in mind, I'm still only 6 days in!
I love you and miss you all so much!!!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
A.
We arrived in Bangkok today after 22 hours of travelling. That made for an extremely long day, especially after an extremely long night of drinking right before that. We went out on Friday night, even though we were all in rough shape because we figured it was our last night on the party island, so we should go out with a bang! That we did... we all got to bed around 730am, and had to be up around 10 to finish packing and get our taxi at 11am to take us to the boat. The boat ride was only 2 hours, but then came the bus.... we got on the bus for just under an hour and had a stopover at the bus station for about 4 hours. Once the sun went down the bugs came out and we were getting eaten alive by mosquito's.... out came the bug spray! The mosquito's out here are relentless. Finally 830pm rolls around and our bus showed up, we boarded the bus thinking it would be around 1230.... 1am ish by the time we got to Bangkok.... well, we didn't end up getting here until about 9am. We looked at a few hostels, but decided to stay in a hotel for the night because Sydney and Jamaina are heading home in 2 days. It's a really nice hotel with something like 82 floors, looks over so much of Bangkok. Once we got a room, we sort of just took it easy. We were all tired from the long day of travelling and took a nap. Eventually we wandered out to go get some dinner and decided that for tonight, McDonalds would do. It tastes a bit different here... not much, but definitely a little bit. I'm still adjusting to the climate change and everything else, so my appetite is not there at all, I'm lucky if I'm getting one meal a day into myself. When I do start to eat I get so full, so fast. I've been told that too shall pass eventually, and then I wont be able to stay full haha.
I find Bangkok to be overwhelming. It's a big city and there are a lot of people every where... and I just left a small, very relaxed island. Huge change. I don't believe we're staying here long, once Shannon and Lisa arrive tomorrow we will figure out the plan from there. They were supposed to be here a few hours after us but missed their boat yesterday morning.. haha. Oh well! These things happen, there is no problem that doesn't have a solution.
I've met so many wonderful people on my travels. All of which are in the same boat as us, so it makes it really easy to start up conversations. My homesickness is still here, but much better than it has been. I haven't cried in days. I miss every one so much, but I'm really starting to get the hang of this travelling thing and have a good time. It was really tough in the beginning but it all comes together eventually. I still don't like to be left alone in the city... I became fine with it on Koh Phangan, but that was a much different environment. Keep in mind, I'm still only 6 days in!
I love you and miss you all so much!!!
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
A.
Friday, 11 November 2011
November 11 2011
Hey everybody!
Last night was the full moon party and it was such a blast!! I ended up drinking 2 buckets! That's a lot for me... as you know. We were all covered in fluorescent body paint, as was every body else. We ended up dancing on the beach all night long, with the exception of the times we were standing in front of our room and Shannon was offering to paint free hearts on people with our paint hahaha. I didn't end up even going home until about 9am.
Today was the perfect hangover day. We didn't wake up until around 1, went for breakfast, and then were going to go back to our room but the sky completely opened up and it rained like i've never seen it rain before in my life. We were all absolutely drenched. So, we decided to run into the ocean with all of our clothes on, because what difference would it make? We played around in the warm ocean with the huge rain drops falling on us. When we went back to our room to shower, we found that our shower wasn't working. It ended up getting fixed and we're all feeling much better now. Just taking it easy tonight, in our room.
Tomorrow we're heading to Bangkok on the bus, so we'll be leaving the island. It'll be sad to leave here, but I'm much looking forward to the next adventure. :)
I love and miss you all so much! I will update you again as soon as I can!
xoxoxox
Alicia
Last night was the full moon party and it was such a blast!! I ended up drinking 2 buckets! That's a lot for me... as you know. We were all covered in fluorescent body paint, as was every body else. We ended up dancing on the beach all night long, with the exception of the times we were standing in front of our room and Shannon was offering to paint free hearts on people with our paint hahaha. I didn't end up even going home until about 9am.
Today was the perfect hangover day. We didn't wake up until around 1, went for breakfast, and then were going to go back to our room but the sky completely opened up and it rained like i've never seen it rain before in my life. We were all absolutely drenched. So, we decided to run into the ocean with all of our clothes on, because what difference would it make? We played around in the warm ocean with the huge rain drops falling on us. When we went back to our room to shower, we found that our shower wasn't working. It ended up getting fixed and we're all feeling much better now. Just taking it easy tonight, in our room.
Tomorrow we're heading to Bangkok on the bus, so we'll be leaving the island. It'll be sad to leave here, but I'm much looking forward to the next adventure. :)
I love and miss you all so much! I will update you again as soon as I can!
xoxoxox
Alicia
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