Ane*s blog..

What to do...

2010-03-15T16:51:00.003+01:00

I don't know if I can resist..

Langkawi - Malaysia

2009-10-25T16:07:00.009+01:00

We arrived in Malaysia on Friday the 23rd of October. We went to Langkawi which is a big island between Thailand and Malaysia. We got a room 5m from the beach and we were so tired of traveling so we jumped straight into the sea! The water was not even close to being refreshing, it must have been over 32*C, so so so HOT! We watched the sunset on the beach and realized that this was a place for relaxing.. We've had a couple of really lazy days, which we needed after crazy Phi Phi.. Went running on the beach in the morning and ran past a massive stingray which looked more like an alien. It was so big both me and Ingrid had to lift it up together to get a better look at both sides of this weird looking creature:) It was kind of pink underneath and brown with mad eyes on the other side. We actually got a fright when we saw it's eyes.. Felt really sorry for him/her/it you name it..

We've met a swedish boy called Peter, and we went missioning into the Malaysian jungle with him today. Went hiking, saw some waterfalls, got savaged by a lot of mad and blood thirsty leeches! While we were in the jungle the rain started pouring down, but we carried on and those crazy creatures obviously woke up and started throwing themselves at us!! I had at least 12 of them trying to penetrate my skin but I'm so quick to remove them so they never got a chanse, haha.. The only ones they got to was Ingrid and Peter, and THEY went crazy, screaming and waking up every other jungle animals and insects. I saw a couple of at least 2m long iguanas, massive ones.. Started thinking of those meateating ones at Galapagos Islands.. Aaaaah..! And YES I saw a loooong, thin, ugly snake which gave me goosebumps as well..
We've made friends with a baby monkey, well it likes me more than I like him so we've had a couple of good laughs.. You will see it in the pictures:)

Anyways.. Ingrid, Marthe and Peter are leaving for Panang (another Malaysian island) tomorrow without me.. I'm going back to Koh Tao to see Toby, Calum and John.. Will hopefully do some diving , maybe a nightdive even..;) Excited!
And the adventure carries on and on..

Phi Phi Island - Thailand

2009-10-20T14:11:00.004+02:00

Amazing, crazy, party- place!

Marthe and Ingrid left Koh Tao 3 days before me, they went to Railay Beach and did rockclimbing and other cool things.

We all met up at Phi Phi and it was time for new adventures! We have spent a lot of time on the beach with Miranda from Holland, two german guys, Phil and Mo and Kealy and Mel. This place is all about beaches, parties and dancing! So that's what we've done to be honest, haha..

We went diving one day and we were lucky enough to see two Leopard sharks and turtles! So so cool.. We've seen Maya beach (where the movie "The Beach" was filmed..) I must say I prefer the beach in the movie.. Our instructor brought his camera under water so we've got some really cool pics from the dives!!

We don't know how long we're gonna stay here, but we have to be in Singapore on the 1st of Nov, because we are flying to Australia! The time is running too quickly, I need more time...

Koh Tao - Thailand

2009-10-18T13:24:00.006+02:00

We left Cambodia after seing amazing temples and experiencing a flooded Siem Reap. We got on the plane and went straight to Bangkok, then Koh Samui. When we arrived at Samui we found out that we just missed the boat to Tao, AND that the full moon party had been the night before! Pretty ridiculous to be honest.. So we stayed one night at Buddah Beach and left with a boat to Koh Tao. Marthe was going to do her Open Water Diver License and Ingrid and I was going to relax on the beach for a couple of days.. Well, what happened was that I also decided to do the course so we started the course the night we arrived. After 4 days we were certified and had some amazing moments under water! I am not scared of fish anymore!!! Too stoked about that! After finishing the course we decided to do the Advanced Adventurer so that we could dive down to 30 m. We had the scariest night dive, swimming around with tourches and we saw glowing algues!! AMAZING!

We met a lot of cool and interesting people, and had so much fun! I will never forget the adventures of Koh Tao and the under water world!!

Siem Reap, Cambodia

2009-10-05T15:09:00.003+02:00

We left Vietnam early in the morning on Friday the 2nd of October. We jumped on the bus at 07.30 and arrived in a flooded Siem Reap at 20.00. I slept most of the trip, I was exhausted and the bus always makes me feel like sleeping.. Our backpacks were soaking wet from the floods we had been driving through, so we swore a couple of times before we jumped into a tuk-tuk. Rocked up at a nice hotel in town and started planning our stay in Cambodia..
We spent the whole of Saturday watching temples and taking millions of photoes. We got up at 04.00 on Sunday morning to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat, pretty amazing I must say!
We went out to a floating village by boat and tried to do as much as possible for three days in Siem Reap. We went out with a cambodian friend last night, he showed us how cambodians party! It was very interesting.. Haha!
We woke up this morning and booked tickets to Koh Samui, Thailand. So we're here now, enjoying it!!!
One thing is for sure, I'm going back to Vietnam and Cambodia!!!

Ho Chi Minh City/ Saigon

2009-10-05T14:54:00.005+02:00

We woke up on Wednesday morning the 30th of September. I was on my way downstairs to the hotel reception when I saw that the whole first floor was flooded with brown water.. I freaked out for a moment before I helped the staff to move the computers upstairs. We were supposed to leave for the airport that day.. We called the embassy in Hanoi and asked them what to do. We didn't have any information or access to any media except our cellphones.. Anyway, the hotel refused to give us our passports before we had paid our bills, fair enough.. But the ATM's had been out of order for 3 days.. In the end we had to give our creditcards to some australians and they went to Danang (another town) in a taxi and drew money for us all.. Pretty ridiculous indeed! So we missed our flight at 12.00. Anyway, we were evacuated by boat from the stairs inside the hotel and taken to a place where the roads were dry. We caught a taxi to the airport and jumped on the first plane to Ho Chi Minh City.. When we arrived in Saigon, we had no idea of where to go.. We were thinking of going to Malaysia, Thailand or basically anywhere.. We really wanted to go to Cambodia so we decided to stay one night in Saigon. We found a hostel in the backpacker part of town, met some crazy english guys and danced all nigth long.. We ended up spending to days in Ho Chi Minh before we left for Cambodia on the 2nd of October. What a crazy mission!

Hoi An

2009-09-28T06:44:00.007+02:00

By the river in Hoi An.
Vietnamese Ane.

Banana lady.

Missioning around town.

Nice little cafe.

After eating a delicious meal, we carried on walking until we found the bus stop for the bus to Hoi An. A taxi driver told us we must pay 300.000 dong from Danang to Hoi An, but we tuned him no! We payed 20.000 dong (which is double price) pr. person to get there by bus, but that's OK, it's only 3,50 NOK. We jumped on some motorbikes at the bus station and went to the hotel that Lonely Planet recommended. So we're staying at a great hotel with free internet access, swimmingpool, A/C and the room is great. Very different to the bustrip from Hai Phong.. I don't think I've ever been or felt as dirty as after that bustrip. Not even being out in the bush for 10 days in the army can compete, hidious! Never enjoyed a shower that much in my life!

We've been walking around town and been to the market. This town has a great atmosphere and it is very romantic:) Only problem right now is that it's raining and it's super windy.. So we're staying in the hotel today, reading our books, updating travelblogs and booking tickets for the rest of our stay in Vietnam. It looks like we're heading south to Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday the 30th, flying from Danang. Then going from HCMC to Cambodia by bus.

If the weather gets better we will probably go to the beach and mission around town a bit more before we leave.. Would be great to go back here sometime.. ;)

Hai Phong to Danang

2009-09-28T06:10:00.012+02:00

Storm in Cat Ba town.
Waiting for the bus in Hai Phong.

Inside the sleeping bus.

Sleeping bus 2.

Eating in Danang.

We left Cat Ba Island on Friday the 25th. The weather was absolutely crazy, it was a storm and it rained so heavily. The streets were like rivers and people's belongings were flying around. We heard that during the storm 3 greek tourists and their guide drowned after their boat turned upside down. It was the same type of boat that we were on a few days earlier, hectic..

We arrived in Hai Phong in the afternoon and were pretty excited about the sleeping bus. My friend Andre had told me: "Never go on a sleeping bus in Vietnam", but it was the easiest option for us, specially when people told us that the train in Ninh Binh sometimes just goes by, not stopping for more passengers. So we got on the bus and it looked kind of cool.. Well, the beds were dirty and made for small Vietnamese people, and the TOILET was a hole in the ground and it was NOT clean! I almost vomitted twice, but asked the driver to give me some plastic bags to put on my legs before I went in.. Haha, and they played disco music all freekin night, and some European music, covered of cousre.. And it was loud, all night long. Haha, I've got a couple of friends who would never be able to stay on that bus at all, because of the music.
But come on, what a cool experience!! :D I must say that I'm going to appreaciate Norwegian standards even more from now on..

We arrived in a city called Danang around noon and walked around town until we found a place to eat. Noone could speak english and the menu was in Vietnamese. I tried to speak a little bit vietnamese mixed with fingerlanguage, and after a couple of misunderstandings they came to our table with some wonderful vegetarian food! And they had soy sauce!!! And YES I'm a vegetarian, since two weeks ago. Feels great!

Pictures Cat Ba 3

2009-09-24T16:59:00.002+02:00

Pictures Cat Ba 2

2009-09-24T16:57:00.003+02:00

Pictures from CAT BA 1

2009-09-24T16:45:00.002+02:00

Cat Ba Island, Vietnam

2009-09-24T16:09:00.002+02:00

We left Hanoi on Sunday and headed down to the coast. We sat on the bus for about 4 hours before we went on a ferry. After 1 hour we came to Cat Ba Island in Halong Bay. There is 3000 islands in Halong Bay, in the Gulf of Tonkin. Cat Ba is the only island with a human population.
We arrived in the afternoon and saw the a crazy sunset.. We missioned around for a while to find accommodation and ended up at a hotel called Sunflower Two. It was heaven compared to the other places we've stayed at. Two massive beds and we had our own bathroom:)
We've spent 4 days here. We've spent 4 hours on the beach (ONLY), we rented motorbikes and drove around the island. Went for a hike in the national park, spent some time with cool Australians (Matt the hatmaker and Jason), and yesterday we chartered a sailboat (or something) and headed for the sea.. We were the 4 of us (Carrie has been travelling with us since Hanoi) and Dough (Germany), Ben and Chrystal (USA). We went kayaking through some caves and around Halong Bay. We went snorkeling, jumped off the boat and swam to a deserted beach, ate the most delicious food, slept on top of the boat (until we had to escape a storm), walked into amazing caves and saw the most beautiful sceneries.
We're leaving the island tomorrow, don't know if we're going back to Hanoi to fly to HoChi Minh city or if we're going down the coast from here.. Time is running by too quickly!

Arrival in Hanoi, Vietnam

2009-09-24T15:36:00.003+02:00

I haven't been able to write anything on this blog since Bangkok, so I guess it's time for some updates..

We arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam on Sat 19th of September.
We landed around 20.30 and it was a bit late.. We drew some money from the ATM and found out that we're millionairs in this country! 17.000 Dong is 1 US Dollar, 2500 is ca 1 NOK. We met one Australian girl called Carrie and two Mexican guys Mauricio an Victor. We jumped into two taxis and headed for town. Carrie was supposed to go in the same taxi as us but changed her mind right before we left, so her bag was in our car. We drove for a long time and after a while we reached the city centre of Hanoi. The driver dropped us off at the hotel and left. The only problem was that it was the wrong one. So we were basically stuck with Carrie's backpack and we didn't have her name or any details, so yes I freaked out.. (Not as much as she did though, haha..) So we had to jump into another random taxi and the taxidriver freekin went to another wrong hotel, but then Ingrid saw Mauricio outside and she yelled STOOOP! They had been dropped off at the wrong hotel as well. So we got off and gave Carrie har bag! How big was the chance that we would find eachother again! Hanoi has hundreds of hotels! We decided that we don't trust anyone, at least not taxidrivers, haha.. So the receptionist at this wrong hotel called his friend and made sure he took us to the right place.. What an adventure!!!
Mauricio, Victor, Ingrid and I wanted to see more of Hanoi and went out on our own little mission.. We went down the road from our backpackers and met two Vietnamese guys, sat down and spoke to eachother in fingerlanguage. Had so much fun on ridiculously small chairs, as you can see in the picture.

More..

2009-09-22T07:32:00.002+02:00

More pics..

2009-09-22T07:31:00.002+02:00

VIETNAM

2009-09-22T07:22:00.002+02:00

Hanoi and Cat Ba Island!

Pics from the beginning!

2009-09-22T07:09:00.002+02:00

On the way to Bangkok and pics from Bangkok!

BANGKOK BABY!

2009-09-18T12:05:00.002+02:00

Da er vi paa plass i Bangkok. Etter en laaang flytur var det godt aa komme seg i en taxi og kjore inn i byen paa en 16 felts motorvei! Bangkok er en STOR by, og vi tre smaajentene folte oss ganske smaa der vi satt paa vei inn i det ukjente.. Oslo er en landsby i forhold..
Uansett, vi kom i gaar og i dag har vi vaert og sett diverse templer og hatt litt sightseeing rundt i byen. Etter noen timer var vi utslitt og la oss rett ut paa hostellet for en times tid. I kveld skal vi ut til en gate som er kjent som "backpacker-gata" hvor vi skal smake litt thaimat og thaidrikke! Gleder meg.. Dette ser ut til aa bli en utrolig bra reise med godt reisefoelge og god stemning!
Det er SINNSYKT VARMT her, og luftfuktigheten er vanvittig! Viktig aa faa i seg nok drikke;)
I morgen reiser vi til Hanoi, Vietnam og eventyret fortsetter der..
Ane..

Valgseier!

2009-09-15T02:06:00.002+02:00

HURRA for RØDGRØNN seier! Takk og pris! Gratulerer Norge! Min stemme gjorde nok susen;)

Late hours..

2009-09-14T01:48:00.003+02:00

..Patience is bitter, but it's fruit is sweet..

Hunting high and low..

2009-09-12T17:51:00.004+02:00

It's autumn and the woods are full of nice berries, and pappa wants to shoot birds! Here are some pics from yesterday.. It's weird to think that we're leaving for Asia on Wednesday, only 3 days from now.. Going to a different planet, can't wait!

...

2009-09-03T22:43:00.004+02:00

Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get -
only with what you are expecting to give -

which is everything...

2009-09-01T20:32:00.001+02:00

Lost! by Coldplay

Just because I'm losing
Doesn't mean I'm lost
Doesn't mean I'll stop
Doesn't mean I will cross

Just because I'm hurting
Doesn't mean I'm hurt
Doesn't mean I didn't get what I deserve
No better and no worse

I just got lost
Every river that I've tried to cross
And every door I ever tried was locked
Ooh-Oh, And I'm just waiting till the shine wears off...

You might be a big fish
In a little pond
Doesn't mean you've won
'Cause along may come
A bigger one

And you'll be lost
Every river that you tried to cross
Every gun you ever held went off
Ooh-Oh, And I'm just waiting till the firing stops
Ooh-Oh, And I'm just waiting till the shine wears off
Ooh-Oh, And I'm just waiting till the shine wears off
Ooh-Oh, And I'm just waiting till the shine wears off

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjYjKNGt18k

Palma, SPAiN

2009-08-30T00:42:00.006+02:00

I'm a bit of a crazy person, trying to live life to the max! So I went to Palma, Mallorca for a weekend to visit an old friend of mine. Jonathan showed me around Palma and we spent two days cruising around on a scooter! Almost went out of petrol and that would've been the funniest thing! 3 years after, haha.. Here's some pics from that trip..

I'm gonna do it!

2009-08-30T00:33:00.000+02:00

The time has come for me to create something in this world of internet!
I'm going on a three months adventure that I've dreamt about for years. My dream is now about to come true. On the 16th of September I'm missioning to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. I'm making a blog so that I can share my trip with anyone who's interested! So sit back, and enjoy.. Let's hope that there's plenty of internetspots in Asia, so that I can keep you updated!