http://robbertenmartine.zijnevenweg.nl Reisblog van robbert en martine Fri, 28 Sep 07 12:13:26 Fri, 28 Sep 07 12:13:26 nl http://robbertenmartine.zijnevenweg.nl/images/rss.jpg http://www.benevenweg.nl De reissite van Nederland http://robbertenmartine.zijnevenweg.nl/index.php?ftl=bericht.php&berichtid=113 From Yuanyang we went al the way to Lijiang, up north. From here we hiked through the Tiger Leaping Gorge. A nice gorge to hike through but if the Chinese will decide to built a series of dams there is not much going to be left of this gorge, it will all be flooded. Even though this is more the countryside where we are, you can still see that they are building everywhere. Especially the infrastructure is being worked hard at. In Lijiang we were. . . robbert en martine 12:10 28.09.2007 http://robbertenmartine.zijnevenweg.nl/index.php?ftl=bericht.php&berichtid=112 We skipped Sapa in Vietnam to visit this place because they have even more rice fields here and fewer tourists. Hardly any English is spoken in this place. So it was quite extraordinary that we managed to make a beautiful hike through the fields without a proper map and without getting lost. In the end we got pointed the right direction by school children who understood we wanted to go back to the main city. Even though this area of China is. . . robbert en martine 12:07 28.09.2007 http://robbertenmartine.zijnevenweg.nl/index.php?ftl=bericht.php&berichtid=111 From Hanoi on our way to China we took a sleeper train. Normally that is a moment where you have to really look after your stuff since a lot of things get stolen on these trains. But luckily a family stayed on the other two bunks in our cabin. Not so lucky was that they had a 2 year old with them so no sleeping for us on the sleeper train since the kid did nothing but cry. And being a good Chinese, the mother shouted at the kid the whole night.. . . robbert en martine 12:06 28.09.2007 http://robbertenmartine.zijnevenweg.nl/index.php?ftl=bericht.php&berichtid=110 On the way to Hanoi we stopped in a couple of towns. And since the weather was still so good it involved a lot of beach time. In one of the towns we had some clothes made since it is really cheap to do that here. So after dumping a few old clothes we found a spot in my backpack which now weighs about 30 kg and gives me a hard time putting the thing on my back. In Hanoi we found a nice hotel in a very busy street. And since life starts very. . . robbert en martine 12:03 28.09.2007 http://robbertenmartine.zijnevenweg.nl/index.php?ftl=bericht.php&berichtid=109 From Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon. Not a very exciting ride but made more exciting by our never-use-the-break bus driver. Also the border crossing was rather interesting. You have to give your passport to the guy on the bus. He then has them exit stamped and them gives them to the customs guy. Who them shouts the persons name and looks if the face in the passport matches the face of the person entering the bus. A waterproof system?. . . robbert en martine 18:31 05.09.2007 http://robbertenmartine.zijnevenweg.nl/index.php?ftl=bericht.php&berichtid=108 We did our homework before crossing into Cambodia because the people at the borders are notorious for their tricks and scams. So after dodging the bus in which they charge you rip of prices, not paying double for a short tuktuk drive to the actual border crossing and telling the guy who claims that the border is closed and only he can get us a visa (for more money of course) to stuff it, we thought we were doing a good job. So then when we. . . robbert en martine 18:30 05.09.2007 http://robbertenmartine.zijnevenweg.nl/index.php?ftl=bericht.php&berichtid=107 From Koh Tao we went straight to Bangkok. And for nostalgic reasons we went to the same guesthouse where Martine went 10 years ago. And although the city has changed a lot since then, the guesthouse was pretty much the same, apart from the name change, or better; they put the word “new” in front of it, indicating that the place had changed. After going to the Grand Palace and seeing the declining 45m big Buddha, a really impressive thing at. . . robbert en martine 18:29 05.09.2007 http://robbertenmartine.zijnevenweg.nl/index.php?ftl=bericht.php&berichtid=106 Koh Tao was our next stop. Entering Thailand from Malaysia we immediately discovered how many tourists go to Thailand every year. It is so organized that even the independent traveler can not escape the tourist busses and the nice sticker they make you wear to show where you are going. The most local way of traveling is a train. Arriving on Koh Tao by boat the next day, on the east coast, we were happy to see that this was a good decision. . . robbert en martine 18:29 05.09.2007 http://robbertenmartine.zijnevenweg.nl/index.php?ftl=bericht.php&berichtid=105 Of course after the busy city life we needed to unwind a little bit. So what better place than a nice sunny island. Unfortunately the sun more than once made place for some heavy rainfall, especially the time when we rented two mopeds and left in sunny weather but got back soaking wet was a memorable time. The island itself is beautiful but also Malaysia’s number one tourist attraction, so very busy! We did not expect to see much wildlife here. . . robbert en martine 18:28 05.09.2007 http://robbertenmartine.zijnevenweg.nl/index.php?ftl=bericht.php&berichtid=104 From Tioman we went straight to Kuala Lumpur. We arrived in the middle of the night in the middle of Chinatown. A quiet street at that time. A couple of hours later when we went down again we could hardly move through the streets, that many stalls had been set up! And all of it very cheap to buy, and all fake of course. An ideal place for backpackers to buy stuff. Of course we also visited the Petronas towers. Or actually the skytower next to. . . robbert en martine 18:27 05.09.2007