Same, same...but different

Yesterday I visited Khao Sok National Park, and normally I consider myself to be an adventurous type of girl: one who doesn't mind rain, insects or other such outdoorsy tribulations. Whatever nature has to throw at me, I can take.

I set off on a hike around the park to visit two waterfalls, and take in the scenery of some of the oldest trees in the world. Trundling along the path and listening to the sounds of the animals in the trees, I felt happy and content. The park was well sign posted, and although the scenery was not as beautiful as expected, I was just happy to be free of my old friend, Bangkok.

About an hour into the hike, I found the waterfalls...which actually were not waterfalls but rocks dumped in a river, creating a rapid effect. Dismayed, I turned around to walk back and found a manky dog with open sores on its tail, sitting next to me.

The dog seemed to appoint himself as my companion back through the park and despite trying speeding up, slowing down and eventually stopping to lose this thing, he was having none of it and I accepted that he was here to stay.

5 minutes later, the heavens opened and Thailand showed me what rainy season was all about. It literally bucketed down, so I quickened my pace and Boris, as I christened the dog, ran with me through puddles and across fallen bamboo leaves. Boris kept shaking himself free of water, which annoyed me slightly as I considered he may have leeches on his coat and I did not want them on me. I made sure to steer clear of him when he looked like he might shake.

Nearing the halfway point on the trail, I stopped when I heard a familiar noise from my old zoo living days. A family of monkeys were sitting overhead, sheltering from the rain. As I was drenched by this point, I thought nothing of stopping to admire them and watch as they took it in turns to shelter the others with leaves.

Suddenly, I felt something brush along my leg. I absentmindedly moved my hand over my shin to brush the leaf or mosquito away whilst keeping my eyes on the monkeys, but the invader was here to stay. Looking down, I saw the biggest leech I have ever seen in my life, on my leg. On my leg!! (Now, admittedly, I had never seen a leech before yesterday but it was 0.5cms wide and 3cms long, which I think is big).

I started screaming, shouting, Boris was barking and a lot of profanity was coming out of my mouth (sorry Nan), but I didn't know what to do to get this giant bloodsucker away from me. I swatted it and tried shaking it away but to no avail. In the end, I must have dazed it with my handbag because it attached itself to the leather and I was able to scrape it onto the floor and make my getaway.

I left the park after 2 more leech battles (neither as big as the original monster), and was glad to get to the jungle lodge; soaking wet and with manky Boris for company, but at least all of my original blood was intact.

I don't think I'm cut out for the jungle, which worries me for Borneo as that is 3 weeks of pure jungle living. I asked a local guide if Borneo has leeches and he responded in the typical South East Asian answer that I have come to know very well: "Borneo... hmmm, same same..but different".

Amazing Angkor Wat!

Earlier this week, I crossed the border into Cambodia, and was instantly shocked at the poverty here. American dollars come out of the cashpoints and food is expensive compared with Vietnam and Laos, yet people are so much poorer. That said, everyone I meet has a great big smile on their face and is happy to meet tourists to show us their country.

Visiting Phnom Penh was a sobering experience; we investigated Tuol Sleng, a notorious school-turned-prison which housed many tortured prisoners before they were driven to the killing fields. Room upon room displayed photos of inmates who had committed no crime more serious than being educated, or in some cases, wearing glasses, which was taken to mean that you were educated.



After visiting the prison, we journeyed to the Killing Fields. Walking around the fields on such a sunny day, I could hardly imagine what took place there. The dirt path leading visitors around the mass graves was littered with remnants of clothing, fragments of bone and victims' teeth. Seeing where these atrocities had taken place and hearing stories of how soldiers smashed babies against trees to kill them in a cheaper method than using bullets was harrowing... Cambodians are not taught about the genocide at school and members of the Khymer Rouge still sit on the Government, which to me, seems incredibly wrong.



Having learnt about Cambodia's depressing history, it was time to visit Angkor Wat, something I had been looking forward to immensely. Ta Prohm was my favourite temple at the site. Some of you may know this as the temple used to film 'Tomb Raider'. Angkor Wat itself was impressive for its size, but Ta Prohm has the atmospheric advantage of trees growing out of the ruins, which are breathtaking. Bayon Temple is also worthy of a mention on 'Reedy's Roams': smiling faces adorn numerous walls of the temple, which was the last state temple to be built at the Angkor site.

Siem Reap (the town next to Angkor Wat), is known as a party town so for the past month I have been excited to find out if the town lives up to its reputation. Last night was earmarked for dancing and although initially I was disappointed that the bar seemed to be full of customers wanting a quiet drink, the atmosphere soon turned upside down and by the end, everyone was dancing with everyone else on tables and benches- brilliant fun!

It seems crazy to me that another section of my journey is coming to an end, as I return to Bangkok tomorrow. My plan for next week is to hit the islands but sadly I miss the full moon party, which happens tonight. I am starting to get nervous to go to Singapore/Malaysia as I am on my own (literally!). I am studiously planning potential things to see and do, so hopefully the only real worry I will have is whether my speech will hold up under the toughest pressure to date. As long as I take it slow and steady and do not avoid, that is all I can ask of myself.

Hiding out in Ho Chi Minh

On Friday we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, a 200km network of tunnels under Vietnam countryside leading to Ho Chi Minh City, that enabled the Viet Cong to fight the Americans during the war. The site had been preserved in a brilliant way; we wandered along the path and randomly the guide would ask if we could see any tunnel entrances, which of course we could not. He would then point an entrance out, which would appear as if by magic. I can totally see how the Viet Cong were able to sneak up on the Yanks- the tunnel design is incredible.

We entered a section of tunnel about 50 feet long but I got quite claustrophobic and had to leave at the first exit (after 20 feet), which made me respect the fighters even more for living and working in those conditions. We saw booby traps which were absolutely ingenious; some were created by holes dug under the ground which remain hidden until you happened to walk over them and were instantly impaled on bamboo sticks, or stuck with rusty nails driven into your leg/arm/face. Nice...!!!

After our tunnel explorations we visited the War Remnants Museum, which was harrowing and shocking. I am quite ignorant about the Vietnam War (I'm ashamed to say) but visiting the country has made me want to read more about it when I come home. We learnt how the destruction of the country was total: not only were bombs dropped on major cities but napalm too. Trees and countryside were burned to ensure crops couldnt grow (therefore people would starve). Vietnam still experiences high numbers of children born with birth defects as a result of the chemicals the parents were exposed to. It is hard to believe this happened so recently and it made me think of how lucky I am to be healthy. I might get frustrated sometimes that I stammer, but to be honest, that is nothing compared to the trials other people face.



My time in Vietnam concluded with another day trip on the Mekong River, this time to see floating markets and local village life. Boats attach a sample of their wares to the mast to ensure potential customers know what they sell and all boats on the river have eyes painted onto the front to scare away crocodiles. We also saw coconut sweets being made and then ate lunch accompanied by a husband and wife singing team, who sang the story of a lady boat owner who is attracted to her customer, but she doesn't know what to do about it because she doesn't want to break customer rules. The conundrum was very intriguing indeed!

Vietnam was wonderful and I would love to come back to see more- this was only a whistlestop tour and I'm keen to get to Cambodia where there is much more to discover, including Angkor Wat next week!



PS: 400 people read my blog last month...wow!!

The day of 17 spring rolls

Hoi An was the destination this week, and I wasted no time in getting a few clothes custom made for me in the famous tailor shops. I chose my shop from the guidebook, sat down to flick through designs and decided on a dress and a skirt for work.

Despite searching high and low through the racks, I could not find the material I wanted so the lady took me to her warehouse on a rickety motorbike (the second in two days! This time I wasn't sure if it was ok for me to grab her waist so I ended up digging my fingernails into the edge of the seat to hold on. I started screaming as she whizzed through the hectic traffic into oncoming bikes and it was not agreeable. I thought I was going to die at certain points). Having found the material, she made the dress perfectly (despite being a terror on a motorbike) and I think I shall wear it to my cousins wedding next year, but I do wonder if I am just telling myself this to justify the purchase!



I hired a bike yesterday to cycle to Cua Dai beach. Coming from Bournemouth, I am a slight beach snob but the sea had warm, clear water with dusty sand and beautiful palm tress swaying in the breeze...just how I like it! It was brilliant.

To top the clothes and the beach, Hoi An also had an amazing bakery selling deliciously chocolatey brownies- could a town be any more perfect?!

My speech is better this week and I am determinedly hammering the fear of D. The old mental rolodex is constantly spinning to search for D words for overkill usage, unlike before when it would studiously look for any alternative. I'm heavily utilising McGuire laws 6,7 and 8:

6). Respond immediately to turbulence
7). Respond intensely to turbulence
8). Your response to turbulence must be for long enough

There is a reason these laws exist and I am fast finding out why!

Some of you may wonder why this post is entitled "the day of 17 spring rolls". On Wednesday, I inadvertently ate 17 spring rolls. I did not intend to, but it happened and although I felt quite sick, I would do the same again!

Next post: Ho Chi Minh City for Cu Chi Tunnels

D-Day in Halong Bay

I went to Halong Bay over the weekend and it was stunning. I did lots of sunbathing whilst drifting past the limestone karsts, and finished the day with a sunset kayak into a lagoon. We also visited a huge cave which was lit like a grotto and could have been a lunar landscape. Our local guide gave an informative talk on Vietnam's marriage situation, mentioning how certain hill tribes enforce women shaving their eyebrows off once they get married, and other tribes deny women the right to cut their hair so it grows to their feet. After a seafood dinner, I chatted with friends on the sundeck until the stars started to appear.

For the past week, I have been experiencing lots of tension/blocking badly on words beginning with 'd'. D was always my arch-nemesis before I joined the McGuire programme, and I studiously I avoided saying any D word. I would use every trick in the book to get out of using that sound and as such, it still frightens me quite a lot. Having said that, I have put lots of work into overkilling the fear of D, but it seemed that D wanted to rear its ugly head one last time to really test my progress.

Things came to a head in Halong Bay where I started avoiding using D words that I would normally say because I was blocking so badly, and as soon as this started to happen, I was very concerned indeed. I wasn't sure what to do, as my usual options of calling Terry (my primary coach), or Matt (the Regional Director for UK South) were not available to me as:

1. I was on a junk boat in the middle of the sea with no working telephone
2. There were only 14 other people on board so no chance for contacts to start to batter the word down.

What's a girl to do?

Luckily, I am travelling with 3 amazing girls: Ali, Adele and Danielle. I explained to them the problems I was experiencing. They very kindly agreed to make me say dreaded D words, to ensure I would not avoid using them. It turned into a game of "What is the longest sentence we can make Hannah say using D words?" and the winner was "Danielle is dearly disappointed at this dreadful, dreary, damp, depressing day". Throughout the day, they randomly came up to me and would quietly say, "Sentence time!", but thanks to them, the fear is receeding and D is going back down. Tomorrow when I get to Hoi An I will do contacts to overkill this, and this will be D's last hurrah! This dreadful D dilemma (hee hee!), made me realise that recovering from stammering doesn't have to be a serious drama- it can be fun if you include other people and ask them to help you on your way.



In more positive news, today I went on a motorcycle tour of the countryside surrounding Hue, the famed 'conical hat' city. The motorcycle tour was excellent and my driver did not mind in the slightest that I hung onto him for dear life! Everyone else just held the bar on the back of the seat, but I have only ever been on Mark's bike on paved London roads and at some points, the road was nothing more than a dirt track, a grass path through a cemetary (really!) or a hilltop road strewn with large chunks of rock. We stopped at the only tiger colosseum in South East Asia, the Minh Mang tombs and a hilltop pagoda which is famous for something but I can't really remember what as it started raining and I was cold and ready for a cup of tea.

I thought I would blog today as my last post was quite long and I think it was too long for everyone to read but this ended up being quite long too, so that plan didnt really work. Sorry everyone! I hope this was slightly interesting, at least!

Good Morning, Vietnam!

I would like to let you all know that I am officially a millionaire...in Vietnamese Dong, at least! Withdrawing 1,000,000 from the cashpoint was the best feeling- although it only equals about 30 pounds, so I think I might spend it quite quickly!

My last few days in Laos flew by and I absolutely loved the country. On Monday, we went tubing along the river, which is effectively a river pub crawl. I spent the afternoon sitting in a tyre, floating along the river and stopping off at riverside bars to watch people swing from ridiculously high ropes into the water. It was brilliant, but I saw some serious belly flops so I wondered if some of the jumpers might have some regrets the next morning...How alcohol makes people brave!

Vientiane, the capital of Laos, was quite a boring city. The main draw was a Lao version of the 'Arc De Triomphe', an ugly concrete monster (their words, not mine!) constructed from concrete donated by the Americans for an airport runway...I can't imagine how the Americans felt when they realised how the concrete had been used!

After the Arc, we visited 'Cope'- a rehabilitation centre for people affected by unexploded bombs dropped by America during the war with Vietnam. It is estimated that 260 million bombs were dropped on Laos, making it the most bombed country in history, and there are still 80 million unexploded bombs in the country. A harrowing documentary was showing at the centre which explained how children are encouraged to search for the bombs to earn money from the scrap metal. Unfortunately, they do not always know that these bombs may explode and serious injury and death occurs. We learnt of a woman who was preparing lunch for her family, when the heat from the fire ignited an unexploded bomb under her house. She would have had no idea the bomb was even there... It made me so sad. The link to the charity is below and more stories like this are on their website.

http://www.copelaos.org/

Yesterday we flew to Vietnam on Lao Airlines and were served a doughnut filled with ham and cheese, which was quite random. After this, we arrived in Hanoi to find crazy traffic and an intense humid atmosphere. Last night, the evening meal was the best meal I have had travelling (pan fried seabass followed by chocolate cake) and today, I took several friends on a walking tour of Hanoi which I had printed off the internet prior to coming out. Yet more efficient use of time!

The tour took in Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, "Hanoi Hilton" aka the Hanoi Prison (where John McCain was imprisoned) and the Old Quarter. Whilst visiting Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, we caused a slight security alert because our tour guide was at another entrance, and we had already gone through security and were waiting at the ticket office for him to arrive. He wasn't sure where we were, so in the space of the 20 minutes it took him to find us, we were kicked out of the site not once but TWICE; the second time causing chaos because the guard was so annoyed at us re-entering the site that he whistled profusely and shut the whole gate to stop anyone from getting in. It was really funny afterwards though!

Hanoi has so many scooters; they are everywhere. Items I have seen strapped to the back of a scooter so far include:

1. A potted plant
2. A large TV
3. 11 medium sized boxes
4. Numerous bunches of flowers
5. 4 people and a sleeping baby (on the same scooter!)

I would like to share two good things that happened this week with my speech because I think I am quite mean to myself and I need to focus on the positives:

1. I led the walking tour around Hanoi with my friends and did lots of reading out loud about specific points of interest on the tour. In the past, I would never read out loud because it reminds me of being at school and the humiliation of sitting in English class unable to participate in reading chapters from whichever book we were studying, so this was a nice step forward towards a total cancellation. (Maybe that will come next year when I am able to go back to my school!)

2. Tonight, I assertively introduced myself and made small talk with 7 new people. Again, something I avoid so I am proud of this.

Fluent speakers: I know these may sound like silly little situations but to me, they are huge! Most of you know how I am so I hope you will be proud of this weeks' achievements.

I'm sorry this blog update is so long but I do pack a lot in. Tomorrow we leave for Halong Bay at 8am so I have my coach stash of M&M's and I can't wait to see the scenery!

Rolling on a River

This week saw me floating down the Mekong River from Thailand into Laos. The scenery was absolutely stunning but after two days in solely each others' company, the group had cabin fever. To break the monotony, we decided to play a joke on our tour leader, Shane, who was sleeping off a fervent hangover. Whilst he was dreaming, we drew a luigi-style moustache on his upper lip and whiskers on his cheeks in thick, black permanent marker. To add to the fun, we all decided to pretend that everything was normal until he realised for himself, which was really tricky as he looked so ridiculous and I frequently had to bite my cheek to stop myself from bursting out laughing.

Shortly after the escapade, lunch was called and Shane woke up bleary eyed. Throughout the meal, numerous photos were taken for 'posterity' and Shane was blissfully unaware of the mess on his face. He was also unaware during the afternoon stop off to the Pak Ou caves, an cavern system filled with Buddhas, despite a large number of locals and tourists laughing at him and miaowing when he walked past...

He only realised when the boat captain tried to clean his face as we disembarked, and although he saw the funny side, he vowed to get us back, so watch this space! I do not have a clear photo because every time I tried to take one, I started laughing and my whole upper body shook, which blurred the camera. Damn having no self control!

Last night we went for a traditional Laos meal in a local family home. They welcomed us by each family member tying white string around both of our wrists, and saying a prayer to wish us good luck and safe onward travels. The food was delicious, particularly the local 'chicken lap'- minced chicken with herbs and spices. I wasn't overly hungry as I had made a stop off to the local bakery earlier that day but I managed to squeeze a few spoonfuls in!

This morning the group went to a local reading project in Laos called 'Big Brother Mouse'. Many Lao children have never seen or read a book, which for me is completely alien as my mum is a librarian and we had a mini library in our family home. Helping local children with their pronounciation was so wonderful for me, especially when I think that 5 months ago I struggled to speak and now I am able to help others to say words as they are meant to be said. Another speaking challenge that reminds me how precious my speech is and how thankful I am that my Nan kept badgering me to do McGuire!