I've been sensored

So Internet access in Vietnam and Hing Kong was not worth it, as all the sites we would usually log onto are banned. It was frustrating to be censored as we are aware of what is out there and that we cannot access it, i wonder if many Vietnamese feel like this, or if not knowing makes them less frustrated.

Vietnam was a wonderful mix of extremes, i doubt i will visit again, but some of the beaches were the quietest we have seen and some of the streets the busiest. I don't think i will forget rush hour in Hanoi! Xss and I got some items of clothing tailored in Hoi An, a tiny old town of tailors, cobblers and cafes. If you like Ubud, you'd like this. These items will be revealed when we go to an Australian Wedding as we are now no longer going to India.

We wanted to see India, but after the third person said to us, 'don't go', even though they knew it was on our trip and we were going we reviewed it. All these people also say, 'oh, i LOVE India, its great, the downside is that you can see people dying by the side of the road, or dead bodies, and the poverty is unbelievable but you get used to it'. Well, i'm not sure i want to see people nearly dying! how would i get anywhere, surely if you see someone in need of help you have to help. I'd spend our days running between dying people, feeding them money, in the form of notes so they don't choke. So when ex flatmate Stan emailed saying she was preggers and getting married on the 21st of May we changed our tickets to Kuala Lumpur, brought new flights to Australia and off we go. So now we are off to Australia for 8 days instead. I've always said i'd never go there, principally because their immigration laws have been so racist (up until 1981 you could not move to Australia if you were black!) but our love for Stan (who was an indescribably great flatmate) and the knowledge that a baby will prevent her from travelling over for the Olympics, our next agreed meet up, we had to go.

Things i want to do in Australia:
- See a Wombat
- Have a BBQ and cook Shrimps, and then say ' lets put another Shrimp on the Barby'
- See the street that Neighbours is filmed on (did you know i like Neighbours?)

We fly out tonight and I'm looking forward to seeing some films on the plane! Since we met a fellow English teacher in Siem Reap, she has offered us her flat to stay in, so its exciting to stay in a real Australian house. I wonder if they have XXXX beer in the fridge and a pool in the yard?

In other news, i got my haircut yesterday. Does anyone else persistently think that they look like Nicky Clarke every time they get their hair cut?

My new androgynous look. The necklaces are new too.

Travel sickness.....

I wanted to write this entry on the Perhentian islands where we have just been staying. It would have gone a little like this:

As i write this my feet are resting on the white sand of an isolated white sandy beach. I can hear the small waves repetitively relaxing my subconscious and in fact i can see the sea only 5 meters away as the 'Internet cafe' i find myself in has no walls and nothing more than a corrugated iron roof to protect the three laptops clustered on a table on the sand from the glare of the sun, and the rain. The sand here is idyllically soft, but annoyingly so, as it is as fine as dust and has many dust like qualities, most notably being hard to get off towels and bodies wet with sea, suntan lotion, rain or sweat (so there is never a moment that we are not intimately acquainted with it). There are several shacks of hotels (5) and restaurants (also 5) along the beach, and not much else as this island is part of a protected marine park. Despite the fact that it has rained heavily for half our time here, it has not made the place any less beautiful and i would be tempted to hide away here for months if we were not due on our next project in Cambodia imminently.

However, i did not write this yesterday as the laptop stopped working, and now i am writing in the Cameron Highlands, in a town that looked grim as we pulled in and as we took our first breath of highlands air thought, this is not a good place to be (THE GUIDE BOOK LIED). We took a walk immediately and it was neither scenic nor quaint as it was implied. All food places have tables with sticky plastic table clothes on with garish fruits and faded yellow implements that scream of food sickness or blandness. There are a million hotels and restaurants clustered along a busy road, swamped by a village of fruit and veg growers who have covered the lovely mountains with poly tunnels, large farm shops and plastic strawberries as big as a car. To think we left the Island for this. The only reason was to see a tea plantation; we will do that tomorrow and then leave.

I'm not really home sick, although i miss some things and people from home, but i am travel sick. I yearn to go to places i know, eat food i can identify and not be always preoccupied with who is ripping us off the least. I don't want to seem ungrateful for this wonderful opportunity Ive been given, but some evenness in this weird weird world would be great. Luckily for me, there is a Starbucks in the Cameron Highlands!!