We arrived in Dublin on Tuesday 1st of March after an exhausting trip from Melbourne through Singapore and Frankfurt. There we were greeted by our dear friends Misa and Martin, who patiently endured our presence at their place for the remainder of our stay in Dublin. The Czech, Greek, Brazilian and Danish alcoholics had dinner the same night, there was so much to say! During the rest of the week we did nothing but meet with friends, eat and drink! It was so nice to see everybody again and we will miss each and everyone so much!

We said our last farewells on Friday 11th of March and "sailed" to England, where we spent the weekend at Northampton with our dear Greek friends, Violetta and Herakles. On Monday we started our big drive to Athens with a stop in Torino, Italy to see our friend Nikos who works for the Torino 2006 winter Olympics. It took us 3 and 1/2 days to get to Greece, so on Thursday 17th of March, 6.00pm we finally arrived at our new home.

Now we are here and we have to get used to being in Greece again, it's just so different from Ireland! I am really glad to be here again though, with our family and friends. We've spent this week unpacking, trying to find a place for everything in our house. We're also catching up with our friends, not too bad a lifestyle :D.

We'll be adding blogs here from time to time, keeping yis (:D) up to date with our new life here in Greece. We'll also upload some pictures as soon as OTE (the greek telecoms company) decides to install the broadband connection I ordered.

Take care!

Pinelopi

Hey guys! Hope you're all well!

As Vassilis mentioned in his blog entry we are now in Darwin at the Top End of Australia. We did a 2-day tour in Kakadu here, which was quite nice. Unfortunately though because it is the wet season at the moment (i.e. 40+ degrees, extreme humidity and tropical showers) the majority of the important sites are closed off, plus the animals are hiding away to escape from the sun. So we didn't get to see much, we just got the general idea. We did see some vicious crocs (crocodiles) though, among them "Hannibal the Cannibal", 6.7m long, 1.5m wide. I am glad I was watching him from a 2 meter height distance. We also saw sea eagles and kites these amazing, big birds of prey. Some nice waterfalls and aboriginal rock art (this is paintings on rocks :D). It was a nice trip although it was extremely hot and humid. The last day we were rewarded with a nice tropical shower in the evening it was really cool, this is when I realized what they mean by "wet to the bones". I really enjoyed walking under the fierce rain unlike Vassilis who was carrying our bags with the cameras etc in it and was cursing all the way through ha ha!

We reached Darwin on the "legendary Ghan" (short for "Afghan", the Afghan camels they used to have to transport goods and people in central Australia until they were replaced by the train). People say it's an amazing experience, I don't know what's so amazing about it, it's just a train, perhaps this comes from people who have travelled on the "Gold Kangaroo" seats, i.e. luxurious cabins, posh restaurants etc. We travelled in our humble 120 dollars reclining seat :D. The landscape of course is beautiful, although we did not get to see much of it as we travelling overnight. The train stopped in Katherine for 4 hours, really a place in the middle of nowhere, where the hairdresser comes every Thursday and weekends :D.

We travelled together with some very nice people we met in the Uluru-Kings Kanyon-Kata Tjuta tour we did from Alice Springs. I loved this tour, both for the tour itself (people we were with and a really good guide) and the places we visited. To me this is definetely the highlight of our journey in Australia. We had a really good time, slept under the stars in "swags" for 2 nights, did not take a shower for almost 3 days (thankfully we were all so smelly so we couldn't smell how bad it must have been :D), we ate kangaroo and the witchetty grubs Vassilis mentioned, and we did some beautiful hikes in Kings Kanyon and the Olgas. It was really-really great and the cheapest tour in town, Mulga's adventures for only 250 aussie dollars. It is defnetely a place worth visiting in Australia! The flies were indeed relentless as Vassilis mentioned, I looked so hot in my fly net :D. Vassilis of course refused to wear it :D.

I also liked Alice Springs, I thought it is a very special place. This is where the first telegraph station in central Australia was built, we visited that original setting and it felt like a time travel back in late 1800. We also visited the "School of the air" (http://www.assoa.nt.edu.au/" title="http://www.assoa.nt.edu.au/" target="_blank"http://www.assoa.nt.edu.au/), which I found amazing, it is basically a "virtual classroom", a system whereby children that leave in remote areas, cattlestations etc attend school over the radio waves. It was really really cool, I was so impressed and moved.

Tonight we are flying in Melbourne where we will stay for the weekend. On Monday the 28th we embark on our long journey to Dublin and then Athens. I can't believe we are already at the end of our journey :(. We do feel a bit tired but I will miss travelling so much. We're already contemplating our next journey (you get so many ideas by fellow travellers :D). Once you start, you can't stop!

Take care guys! Oh, and by the way, Vassilis goes beserk at the sight of a single, tiny leech! Jumping up and down, screaming etc. How I wish I had a video camera with me :D!

Pinelopi

Picture this: It's 10 p.m. in Byron Bay, you were on a bus for 13 hours, you carry 20 kg on your back, it's 35 degrees, you smell like a pig, all accommodation is booked out because there's a market fair the next day and an English girl comes to you and asks: "Do you know where the Cheeky Monkey is?" Do you blame me for suggesting to look up her arse for the cheeky monkey? The funny thing is that this stupid woman was running around in a 20 meters radius and was asking the same people all over again about the bloody monkey. Short memory problem obviously. On top of everything else, it was quite obvious that the people she was asking had only just arrived, checking in at receptions and stuff.
Apparently though we were the only people who didn't go to the Cheeky Monkey. We met Kate, a nice English girl (it's so funny how everybody was telling her that she was a nice English person and how not nice are usually the English tourists) and she was dragged to the bloody cheeky monkey. The main attraction there was that they had the boys and the girls dancing on two separate tables and the aim was to pull a member of the opposite sex to your table. Kate was wondering whether that was civilization.  

Next stop was Airly beach and the Whitsunday Islands. We went on a sailing boat with a skipper that looked just like Keith Richards and 11 of the most boring people in the galaxy ("as long as there are sausages, I'm happy", guess the nationality). We had 45 knots wind, only in the opposite direction, so we couldn'd go anywhere and we spent two days anchored. On the first night everybody got romantic and they decided to sleep on the deck. When they finally shut up, after some drinking and singing stupid songs, the wind and the rain came and they crawled back to their beds. Nobody dared to brave it the second night, hehehe. Anyway, we saw some nice coral, swimming in our stinger suits cause the y have two species of deadly jelly fish there, of course.

And then we experienced the life in the tropics. Rainrainrainrain until we reached Cairns. Flew to Alice Springs, nice e xperience landing when the temperature is 40 degrees, bumpy as hell. We booked a 3 day tour to Ayers Rock and off we went. The night before the tour I got massacred by bed bugs, some very nasty ones that left a trail of bites on my devine body. I know the name in Greek (korios) cause I had made their acquaintance in the army, please translate if you know the English term. On the first day the temperature was 41 degrees. Then we got of the bus and that's when it started. Have you seen pictures of cows in Africa or India with flies in their eye sockets, ears, mouths and everywhere? That's exactly how we were. The flies would go in your ears, up your nose, in your eyes and they are so persistent that they won't budge even when you chase them away. People with glasses get the bonus effect of having flies walking on the inside of their glasses. The highlight was that what I thought as toasted bread at lunch time was actually white bread covered in flies. It's undescribable really, we must have eaten a few flies each. Despite the heat and the flies it was quite interesting though. On the second day we dug up a few fat white worms, called witchetty grubs which we grilled and ate. Funny enough, they don't taste like chicken, they tasted like roast walnuts. As for the toilet experience, aka "the shovel", I just have to show you. Actually we can arrange a demonstration in M&M's garden.

The plan after that was to drive to Melbourne but we couldn't find a relocation (=return a car to the company for 1$/day) so we decided on the fly to go North by train, to Darwin. A small diversion equivalent to the distance Vienna-Athens. We'll do the Kakadu national park there, same camping style and then it's Melbourne and then the 36 hour trip I'm looking for to Dublin.

Vassilis

I'm sitting at a computer in Hervey Bay in Australia and the thing is slower than the ones in Laos, great...

First of all I want to thank our Italian friends Stefano and Elisa (whom, after careful planning, we met by chance and at the wrong place. The phone calls to organise this have cost us more than the entire trip) for introducing us to the joys of the free camping and smelly life. But that was OK, we saw some great places while looking for a place to camp. And some great public toilets too. I particularly liked the ExeLoo. Everything is automatic there, from the doors to the soap dispenser and it also self-cleans. The only minor anno yance is that it runs on a timer and after ten minutes an alarm sounds and the door swings open much to the delight of the next user. Believe me, I had nightmares about this.

Other than that, I think I liked the North island in N. Zealand better and not just to disagree with every other person on the planet. It's just that apart from the wild west coast, the rest in the south is a lot like Ireland, which although pretty wasn't a novelty for me. Plus it's full of little towns where the main entertainment options include sheep shearing and grass carting.

The sheep though in N.Z. are picture perfect. They are unebelievably cute and wooly. And some of them have wool that runs down their forehead and they look a bit like Elvis. You sort of understand how Gene Wilder and the Greek guy, Titos Vandis fell in love with that sheep in "Everything you wanted to know about sex". (I know, I'm a very sick and twisted person).  

The best thing with the N. Zealanders is the pronunciation of vowels. They say "i" for "e" and v.v., e.g. yis=yes, sex=six.
At a zoo, the guide was telling us how the eels feed on "did (=dead) animals". There was an English woman there who had to ask 3-4 times "They feed on what?" And the answer every time was "did animals". Hilatious how the native speakers couldn't communicate. BTW, we didn't see the Seven-Eleven store chain in N. Zealand. Small wonder, try it in N.Z. accent.

As mentioned we're in Oz, somewhere on the east coast, just came back from a 3 day safari on the world's biggest sand island. You could pick your way to die there, from the dingos that mauled a boy to death in 2001, to the sharks and the undertow in the sea. To that I would like to add the python that had made his home just behind our tent (kills the mice they said, yeah right) and the venomous spiders that were in abundance where we stayed. No matter what Penelope writes in future blogs, keep in mind that I had to bring her to the toilet cause she was afraid of the dingos (if she writes anything about a leech and me screaming like a little girl, don't believe her either).
Plus, I think she's gone completely mad. She was crossing the chaotic streets in SE Asia like nothing and she won't cross the road until it's green in N.Z. and Oz. Plus, whenever I was driving our car she was always jumpy and afraid that I'd kill us both and now that I was driving a van with the wheel on the wrong side and on the wrong side of the road, she was sleeping. Psycho I tell you, I have to get rid of her before she kills me in my sleep.

Vassilis

    & nbsp;

Hi guys! Hope you're all well! It's been a while since we updated the travelog, but we have been on the move a lot lately.

We did the Tongariro crossing after all, it was a long, exhausting walk, which took us approximately 8 hours to complete, 17 kms over volcanic terrain mostly and some reaally steep parts. And because I am as fit as a fiddle I had to stop every 5 minutes or so to rest :D. Plus I had Vassilis reminding me constantly how resilient he is despite the fact that he is a smoker :). BTW, he is trying to give up smoking now or rather reduce it and he is doing very well :D. It was a nice walk I am glad we did it, we reached an altitude of almost 2000m. This place was also the setting for "Mordor" in the "Lord of the rings" and you could really see why.

Although we couldn't move the next day we decided to go to Napier, a nice little town full of art deco style buildings. From there to Wellington, New Zealand's capital where we spent 2 days (a bit to much for a small city like this though). Wellington is nicknamed "windy Wellington" and this is so true, it was extremely windy everywhere. We took the ferry from there and crossed the Cook strait to the South Island.

There we went straight to the Abel Tasman N.P. where we met our dear Italian friends, Stefano and Elisa. It was so great to see our friends after such a long time! We did sea kayaking in the Abel Tasman together, which was great. They are useless, could not keep up with the mighty Greeks and were slowing us down all the time. Anyway, what can you do they are our friends after all :). We only stayed together for 2 days which was very little, there was so much to talk about! The guys also introduced us to free camping which is great not only because it's free, but also because you get to camp in some amazing spots near lakes and rivers. We are really thankful to them for this! It was really sad to part, we really enjoyed the company. We moved on to the south of the South Island and the guys went north where they would do a 3 day walk (they are mad) and then on to the North Island again.

So we drove along South Island's west coast, where we saw so many amazing natural wonders. Mount Aspiring, the Milford Sound, you name it. We were a bit unlucky with the famous lake Matheson and the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers as we happened to drive by in the worst possible weather.

New Zealand is an overwhelmingly beautiful country, you have to see it to believe it. You want to keep taking pictures constantly, so you end up driving 100kms in 5 hours instead of just 2 or so (BTW the N.Zealand highways resemble a lot the Irish ones and when I am driving, distances seem almost infinite :)). We camped in some really nice spots with our campervan, we had breakfast, lunch, dinner by lakes, rivers and beaches, it was amazing! We ended up staying for a total of 25 days in N.Z. instead of the originally planned 14 days, and I could easily have spent one more month here. I would love to have done a bit more walking or "tramping" as they call it here, but with such limited time we were rushing from one place to the other trying to see as much as we could, so we ended up spending a lot of time driving. But still, N.Z. is a great place, it's almost a must-see-at-least-once-in -your-our-lifetime :).

Our final stop was in Christchurch, South Island's biggest city and a very English-looking one too. We dropped the campervan there and boarded the plane to Sydney where we are at the moment. Sydney is an amazing city but more on that in our next entry :D.

Take care!

Pinelopi 

NOTE: we are NOT responsible for the bush fires in N. Zealand, as somebody suggested. We were NOT responsible for the tsunami either.

The true story.

Singapore was OK. We spent 2 nights there and changed 3 rooms because the bloody air conditioning was making a terrible boiling noise that kept us up all night. And the girls there all look exactly like the psychotic Japanese girl with the ball and chain in "Kill Bill 1" - scary stuff.
We landed in N. Zealand and the first impression was that it looks a lot like Ireland, only the people here have noticed that it rains and most walkways are covered. Quite handy too cause the weather was crap.
We had several options of transport and of course we went for the most expensive one. We hired a camper van and we got the filthiest and oldest ever (never use Ezy Cars guys, they didn't deliver according to the agreement), but we didn't have a choice. The seat covers were shining with a kind of oily dirt. We washed them of course, but the laundry wouldn't do a hot wash so they weren't clean the first time. Then we washed them again but I forgot to push the button on the dryer and then they didn't have time to dry and these seat covers are our bed covers basically, so you can imagine our night. Plus the van feels like driving a lorry. It took me 300 km to switch to fourth gear, no kidding. I thought I was bad until Penelope took the wheel. The day time stood still. The kilometers became light years, the hours became aeons (in fairness, she drove through a very demanding bit, with killer bents and the sun in her eyes and me in the passenger seat and she did very well).

And then you have the holiday parks. The first one we went to looked quite OK. My first job was to check the toilets. There were 30 toilets, another 30 showers and the place was empty, so you could see the smile on my face. I thought all of them must be like this and then we arrived at the second one which had 2 toilets, 2 showers and the place was packed. For some funny reason whenever you check out the toilet, it's free but when you really need it, it's occupi ed. My work-around is to use the facilities at around 2 a.m. 

And then there is also the sadistic devices they have in the holiday parks. Like the shower that operates with coins, 20 c for 5 minutes. In my case it was 20 c for 1.5 minutes. Nothing beats the feeling when you turn on the hot water tap and nothing happens.
I also like the shower that operates with a dial sort of thing that only turns in one direction in this order: OFF-Cold-Warm-Hot-OFF. So, if you want warm water, you first get the cold surprise and when you turn it off you lose your skin from the boiling water. Repeat as many times as required.
My favourite though is the one that cuts the toilet paper. This satanic invention limits the paper and at the moment of truth you are left basically with something the size of a post stamp. 
And when we thought we had seen everything we ended up in a holiday park that's still under construction and is just a car park. In the morning we were woken up by the builders operating the bobcat right next to our van. Nice.  

Vassilis

Hi guys! N. Zealand is an extremely beautiful country, we are sooo impressed! Loads of green, varied scenery, so many things to do. The weather has been very good the last few days as well, which is great as it reveals this unbelievably blue sky! We are really really impressed!

We stayed 4 days in Auckland in particularly bad weather (very similar to the Irish "summer"), trying to figure out how to move around N.Z.. We opted for a campervan in the end, we definetely did not get the best deal we could, but everything seems to be booked out, so we had to settle with what we got at the price we got it. We thought it would be a nice experience and it is. It gets a bit of getting used to driving this relatively big vehicle, but Vassilis seems to have gotten the hang of it by now :). I only drove it today for the first time and I am sure everyone driving behind us did not appreciate it at all :).

We started of from the Bay of Islands at the north east side of North Island, a beautiful bay with islands as the name suggests :) where we went for a nice cruise. We then drove to the north-west side and visited the largest and oldest Kauri (gum) trees, they are really-really huge! As the L.P. guide says you have to see it to believe it :). We also did sandboarding on a beach with steep sand dunes. That was fantastic! You basically place your upper body on a boogie board and of you go, it was great fun! It was us and a couple of 10 year olds that where showing us how to do it he he!

We then started our descent to the central part of the north island, to a place called Rotorua. The area there is filled with thermal pools, mud pools and so on. There I had one of the most fantastic experiences of my life so far: white water rafting, and moreover going over a 7 meter high waterfall! It was INCREDIBLE, there are no words to describe the feeling. I was of course scared s**less until such time as we actually went over the waterfall, but it was of course much easier than I thought and sooo much fun! We also watched a Maori concert and had Maori dinner called hangi at the same evening. The Maori concert was fantastic, they also did the war dance called "haka" and it was sooo funny!

Today we drove past a place called Wai-o-Topu where walked among some mud pools & thermal pools and witnessed "Lady Knox" geyser's erruption. We are now in Lake Taupo, a beautiful big lake, the weather is great outside and Vassilis can't wait to go for a swim in it.

Living in the campervan is relatively easy, it's a bit cramped but we are only in it for the night really. It has a fridge and a kitchen, so we can store and cook food. We usually use the kitchen facilities of the holiday parks though. As you would expect and because campervans are so popular here in N.Z., almost everywhere you go there is a holiday park as they call them, with communal kitchen, toilets, showers etc where you can spend the night. A lot of them are also in really nice spots. The one we are staying today for example is right beside the lake.

In general people here think it's cool and wicked that we come from Greece, because apparently they do not see that many Greek tourists. That makes us feel a bit proud :). N.Zealanders are very friendly and they seem to know and love their country. They are eager to tell you which places to visit and there are so many of them! Also, they seem to be a rather suicidal nation and they have invented some of the most masochistic adventure sports ever, for example there's one called "Zorbing" where you enter a huge plastic ball filled with water and then they push you off a hill. Excuse me? :)

Tomorrow we will attempt to hike the Tongariro crossing, we'll see how the weather looks like and if we feel like it in general. It is a 7-8 hours walk after all :).

I will try to upload some photos next time, yahoo photos does not seem to work at the moment :(.

Pine.

Dear all, we would first like to thank you all for your interest in our well-being! Thank you very much it is very moving! We are still aliving and kicking (just as you thought you got rid of us :D). Secondly we would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year, make sure you enjoy it as much as you can!

When the earthquake/tsunami hit we were on the island of Penang in Malaysia. We did feel the earthquake but it was mild in that area. We did not realize what had happened until Vicky my lovely friend called to make sure we are OK. In general, due to the lack of TV throughout our stay in Malaysia we were not fully aware of what was really going on. Terrible tragedy. Some of the places in Krabi in Thailand we had just been to, are now gone as we found out, it's crazy :(.

In Malaysia we stayed in a hut in the jungle, we visited Kuala Lumpur with its huge Petronas twin towers, we stayed in a lake retreat called Suka Suka (a small island in a lake) and finally visited the pictursque little town of Melacca (to all our Greek friends this is pronounced "malaka", he he). Malaysia in an amazingly multicultural country where Chinese, Indians and Malaysians of course blend together in a fascinating way. You really don't know where you are at times :).

We are now in Singapore, an extremely clean and "posh" city! Chewing gum is not allowed he he, you get fined! Everything is of course much more expensive than the rest of the SE Asian countries we visited, but still cheaper than Europe. We are slowly getting used to more expensive accommodation and food :).

We are leaving tomorrow for N.Zealand and we'll write more from there!

We uploaded some more pictures at http://photos.yahoo.com/kouleri" title="http://photos.yahoo.com/kouleri" target="_blank"http://photos.yahoo.com/koule....

Pinelopi

I will only write this today. Penelope was attacked by monkeys on the beach today. The funniest thing I've ever seen, can't really describe it. One of them tried to steal her trousers too.

Happy Xmas to everybody again, hope you all have a brilliant time.

Just to answer some questions we got:

No, we haven't tried domestic animals. There were dog meat restaurants in Vietnam but we didn't go. I was also offered by street vendors lovely crunchy crickets and juicy black spiders (you know, the ones that explode in a creamy surprise in your mouth). You can guess whether I tried or not (although I know some Spanish people who would).
Vietnamese fanny tastes great though, I really enjoyed it (Fanny is an ice cream brand, perverts).  

No, we don't wear local clothes either. Penelope bought something (actually a lot of things) here, but so far I haven't seen any locals wearing them and all foreign women have bought the same. Does it qualify as "local clothes"?  &nbs p;

My cousin was writing that at our age we only go to places with a plug for the blow dryer. In this area you're lucky if there's a wall in the first place.

Yesterday we met some Cambodian 6 year old girls who sold us some small stuff. Those poor girls were so clever that it seems such a waste of potential that they can't have a proper education. At their age I doubt that I was even able to speak yet, let alone hold an intelligent conversation. And their English was a gazillion times better than some managers' in MS who have spent 15 years in the States. And don't even get me started with the IQ, it doesn't even begin to compare, it's so unfair. At the end they even gave us a couple of the braceletes they were selling for free. I was more impressed by these girls than by the temples.  

Vassilis

PS: More photos added http://photos.yahoo.com/koule...

- There is MTV Asia in case you were wondering. They play the same stupid R&B music, with the same video clips: guy dressed like a pimp in white furs and girls shaking their bums - only with Asian features.

- Quick quiz 1) Q: What is more annoying than 15 hours on a bus with Thai stand up comedy on TV? A: 9 hours on a Laos bus with a woman with a high pitched voice talking non-stop to the driver. (Extra credits if you can guess how long will it take before the driver gets distracted and drives off a cliff).

- Quick quiz 2) Q: What is even more annoying than the above? A: 7 hours on a Cambodian bus blasting local hits on the TV and the Cambodian passengers singing along passionately karaoke style.

- real estate business in Vietnam. Picture available as well. To let: Luxurious cottage&nb sp;on the lake with attached storage space for the fish. High quality sturdy styrofoam, pack-n-go constructi on, you don't like the neighbours, just sail somewhere else. Ideal for kids, they learn to swim fast or they die. Ample parking for the boat. NTL ready. (Yacht in photo extra).

Some very few photos finally added at http://photos.yahoo.com/kouleri" title="http://photos.yahoo.com/kouleri" target="_blank"http://photos.yahoo.com/koule... (Laos, Vietnam)

I have travelled on jam-packed buses for days on end, I have eaten things beyond any description, I have hallucinated to the smell of disgusting feet/bums/armpits, I have slept in beds crawling with creatures that my brain in an effort to keep me sane chose to forget, I have brushed my teeth with sewage water. Have I redeemed myself yet? Can I go home now? Please?
It's not that I don't find this trip interesting, it's only that I don't like the things I see. The good points so far in Laos and Vietnam is the food/fruit and coffee/juices. But there wasn't really anything that you wouldn't like to miss in Laos. Luang Prabang was OK, but nothing spectacular. Phonsavan is a waste of space. We missed Vientiane though and I don't have the complete picture.
Hanoi is an extremely noisy and filthy place, with people who live, eat, urinate, pick their toes constantly and sleep on the exact same spot on the street and there's nothing to see there either. Even if you go to the best and up-market looking restaurant and you get to see the kitchen, you realise that they cook your meal on the same rat infested floor (flattened soil basically) as out on the streets. And there's probably a child peeing next to your food. The food is great though probably just because of all these spices. In one "restaurant" I had the stupid idea to go to the toilet. The toilet was next to the kitchen, where a dog was leicking a pan that was lying on the ground amongst spilled remains of food (to be recycled as suppose). When tried to flush the toilet (just a bucket of course), I realised that the toilet bowl was leaking al over the floor and into the kitchen. Plus a woman opened the door (curtain) and emptied a bucket of dirty water on my feet.  
Ordering food is sometimes a big adventure as well. When you order mackerel for example, you end up with something completely alien and then you realise that are several possibilities:
1. The mackerel in Vietnam is different than the one you know
2. The mackerel is the same but they ran out and they brought you any fish they had
3. The translator made a mistake (and actually they meant snake). Additionally, they prepare one order after the other and they bring them to the table when they are ready. So you either wait for 15 minutes until your meal is cold in order to eat with your company, or everybody eats alone.

And that would still be OK if you weren't hassled every 3 nanoseconds by somebody going "ouououououou" or "buy-buy" or sticking a banana/bag/map/shoe/any-k ind-of-shit-you-could-pos sibly-imagine under your nose. Our friends told us that you just say "thanks no" and it's OK. BLOODY LIARS! It's not. People follow you even after 10 "thanks nos". On a boat cruise, I sat on a bench to relax and enjoy Halong Bay and a girl wanted to sell me pearls. First she showed me photos of real pearls and then she brought out the plastic marbles on a string and for ten (10) frigging minutes she was sitting next to me saying "buy, very cheap, buy, very cheap, buy, very cheap". I didn't mind at all sitting for almost two hours in Vinh with some schoolkids who wanted to see the guide and were asking for the English words fo this and that. But nobody really warns  you enough about the harassment. But imagine carrying 20 kilos, both hands full, ready to board a boat through a dodgy plank and somebody jumps in front of insisting that you buy the bloody water. With what, the third arm? Or trying to take a picture and suddenly in the viefinder you see somebody's ugly face. They don't care if your busy, tired or even intimate with somebody.
And that would still be OKish, if everybody wasn't trying to rip you off. We met some lovely people who offered us fruit and stuff but they were all Vietnamese living abroad, either France or the States. I think that 80% of the people you meet as a tourist are trying to rip you off. And the funny thing is that they prefer not to make a sale instead of getting a fair price. Once Penelope wanted to buy some corn. Two Vienamese girls had just bought some and we were waiting to see how much they would pay for it. The vendor told them apparently to wait and she quoted a ridiculous price. Same with the cigarettes that have a set price (I think). Some people try to sell them for more and when you explain that the vendor next door sells them for the standard price they prefer to loose the customer. You are far better off in the places where the locals go, better quality and better prices (OK, they stare at you but that's fine).
Plus they'll con you with every chance they get. We got hustled twice already (and about the same exact thing, are we thick or what?). We bought train tickets to Hue at the hotel and for 3 days they were telling us they had booked them but they didn't have them. Apart from the fact that I was getting worried that we'll be stranded in Hanoi, we found out that of course they had the tickets all this time, but they only gave them to us when we were boarding the train so that we didn't have a chance to see they had overcharged us 20 dollars. I even gave the guy who brought us there a tip, yes, yes, laugh with the Greek retard.
And this thing about saving face that we heard so much about is a joke. They told me that you'll get further by smiling than by getting upset. I had been smiling like an idiot for 3 days in Hanoi and nobody was smiling back. I found out though that when you raise your voice (and it happens a lot lately) they burst into a hysterical, hyena-like laughter. And that's saving face for you.
Plus, they sleep everywhere, any time. In the internet cafe in Hanoi, the owner was sleeping behind his desk while we were online. On the floor I mean.
And I wouldn't mind any of the above too much either if there was some culture and colour. But nothing is too old or very nice or historic or anything. In Laos and Vietnam the oldest sites are 200 years old. Even the US a have longer history that that (OK, they bombed everything and partly that's why nothing remains.) But it's mad to call a city that was built in 1883 "ancient". Come on, please.
I'm really sorry if I'm offending anybody, but these people, although by no means stupid, need another 50 years to become human. At least. And everything I wrote is absolutely accurate and not just my opinion, you see it in other people's comments too. I even consider sending some of our experiences to Lonely Planet although I don't want to contribute for free. But I just feel people have to be warned and then they can decide whether to visit or not.

Hanoi and Hue were bad but Hoi An is quite pleasant. Stand by for some nice comments for a change.

P.S. Did I mention that the food is good?

Dear all hello again! We've been on the road so many hours during these last few days that it feels we've been travelling for ages although we're only on our second week. We left you at Luang Prabang with our last blog. We stayed there for 2 1/2 days and enjoyed it greatly. Last Wednesday we took a bus to Phonsavanh a small town central-north west of Laos. The bus ride was nice we had great weather and could enjoy the really fascinating landscape. The road was a bit winding and scary at times but, unlike others we refrained from Lao-lao the previous day :-). As you would expect the bus was packed with travellers but also a lot of Lao people sitting everywhere! Phonsavanh itself is probably an ugly small city, nothing to do. The next day we did a most bizzare tour to the nearby "Plan of Jars", 3 fields with sandstone, huge jars, that nobody knows how old they are or how they ended up there. According to the guide, the chief Lao archaeologist is studying at the moment in Australia for an advanced degree so he can research and explain this jars phenomena, he he! We also went to a village where a Lao wedding was taking place. We drank so much Lao-lao I barely remember anything from the rest of the evening :-) These Lao people will not take no for an answer!

Early next day (5.30am) and with a bit of a hangover we set off for Vietnam with a "V.I.P." bus. One of the most bizzare, shocking and exhausting experiences ever! "V.I.P." bus means they put your luggage inside the bus, they stack them on the back seats, instead of on top of the bus like the "public" bus we took for Phonsavanh, it's hillarious! Apart from our luggage the bus was packed again with a few foreign travellers and loads of Lao people again sitting everywhere, carrying all sorts of stuff with them. Plus, they spit everywhere, inside/outside, all the time! Anyway, we had our seats so we were OK, but I was feeling a bit sorry for them as they had paid the same ticket and they had to sit on the floor or who knows where. The weather was (and still is) a bit bad, it was raining all day, so the bus took a long time to reach the Lao-Vietnam border (a new border opening at Nam Can). When we finally made it there it took us about 2 hours to clear immigration in Lao and Vietnam. Did Lao first, into the bus, 10 meters ahead stopped again, out of the bus again to do the Vietnam immigration he he! This was quite an experience, the Vietnamese were sending us through a muddy road to customs and then back again to get stamps and what not. They're quite intimmidating as well. And of course they did not know that Greece and Hellenic Republic (as it stands on the passport) is the same thing, so it took us a while to explain. When all of this was finally over we set off again for one of the most mortifying rides of my life. 1200km altitude, muddy and narrow roads, a jam-packed bus, it was reaaaallllyyy scary! After 7 hours we reached a small village where we took another bus to Hanoi. This bus ride was OK, during the night, you couldn't see too much and the roads were a bit better. In the village we were attacked by locals that were trying to practice their English, they even brought their English-Vietnamese books haha! We reached Hanoi at 5.30 this morning and now we are completely wrecked. The wholel trip lasted exactly 24 hours non-stop!

More on Hanoi and Vietnam in our next blog!

Pinelopi

PS: The funniest thing ever is that from Bangkok to the most isolated village in Lao, G-l-eece has gained international respect and recognition by becoming football no.1 Eulope :-) !!

aaah flom gleece = oh, you come from Greece!

belao = Beer Lao

blooleady? = have you got a room already?

Today was my last day at work, it really feels strange. My empty desk, everybody saying goodbye. I've enjoyed working there so much. We have made some great friends and we will hopefully keep in touch!

For the time being we have to worry about how much stuff you can fit in a 50 litre backpack! :)

Pinelopi

So this is it! This is our blog. We will be posting our experiences from our journey as often as we can, and we will be very anxious to read news and comments from our friends! Use the "view/add" beneath the blog entry to send a comment or the "Send A Private Message" link on the left to send a private message. You can also use the "Bot This Blog" link on the left pane to receive e-mail notifications whenever we post a new blog entry.

Our journey begins in Bangkok where we arrive on the 18th of November. We are only staying there for one night. Then on a bus & slow boat to Laos for a week, by bus to Vietnam for two weeks by boat on the Mekong to Cambodia for one week. We fly back to Bangkok where we will meet the Intrepid group for a guided excursion across the Thailand - Malaysia leg all the way to Singapore. From there to N.Zealand where we might also meet our Italian friends Stefano & Elisa and lastly Australia for more or less a month. Well, that's the plan anyway :D.

After coming back to Dublin we will take our car and drive through Europe to Greece, our final destination... for the time being :lol:.

We have 18 days to go and still sooo many things to do!

--Pinelopi

PS: It's all Micha & Martin's and Stefano & Elisa's fault. They started it! :D (see their travelogs via the links on the left)