Much Easier this Go Around – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Jump to the full entry & travel map Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Making it out of Cambodia was MUCH easier than making it in! We left our guest house in Siem Reap around 6:25 yesterday morning by touk touk which took us to the ticketing office for the bus to issue us a real bus. They told us that the straight through bus hadn’t made it back from Vietnam, so we would be required to travel through the capital of Pnomh Penh, and change busses for the Ho Chi Minh bus. This was mildly annoying, but we had been warned by numerous travel sites that we check when going to new places. We then took a shuttle bus to the bus station where we boarded our bus bound for the capital. This was quite an experience. First of all the bus was pretty full, much more than we are used to, although we were relatively comfortable. The first interesting thing was that people kept loading their motorbikes into the luggage area (it was a double decker bus with all the seats on the top). The next interesting thing was that people were bringing roosters on the bus, 3 in all. During our ride, which was pretty uneventful, it was tough to sleep with the Cambodian children screaming and running around, with the occasional cry of the roosters which seemed to come in spurts. And all this was on the “VIP” bus that was several dollars more than the other option (although we only paid $20 each for the trip). After a while the bus stopped off for people to run and get snacks, although ewe opted to stay on the bus since we didn’t know what we were doing. Then the bus stopped for lunch. The options were fried grasshoppers or some rather sketchy looking Cambodian soup with “chicken” and noodles in it. We opted for the soup, although I’m not sure if that was the best choice, haha. In the end we haven’t gotten sick from it, so I guess it was ok, though the 6,000 riels seemed pretty expensive for it.
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Much Easier this Go Around – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Jump to the full entry & travel map Hanoi, Vietnam I can’t say that Cory and I did too much to celebrate American Independence, but we had a decent enough last day in Hanoi. We slept until around check out time in our really beautiful hotel (which had still only been $10) and packed our things up to return to the first guest house we stayed in during our time in Hanoi. When we finally checked out and made it back across the street, we were told that there were no air conditioned rooms left, and we were offered the same fan-only room from the day before. We declined that, and asked about the hotel we had just come from, but were told that it was booked solid already. So we decided to leave our packs at the guesthouse and go searching around. We must have gone into around 10 hotels and guest houses looking for an acceptable place, the prices ranged from $9 up to around $55. In the end we opted for a place very close to where we stayed the previous nights in Hanoi for $12, which was a private room with two beds, hot shower, AC, and free internet downstairs. After check-in we decided to go find the mini-bus pick-up point for our trek to the airport the next day, and have lunch at a Vietnamese fast food restaurant called BBQ, which is known for the chicken dishes. It was recommended to us the night before by an American we met who is working for the government in Korea. Our guest house generously provided us with a city map (like a real map, not a photocopied sheet of paper) and showed us the location on the map of the mini-bus and the BBQ. We made it to the mini-bus location in short order (about a 10 minute walk from our guest house) and looked at the times. It looked like 6:30am was going to be the best option for us (turns out it wasn’t, and we had to catch the 4:30 bus). We also found out that the ticket cost was only 25,000 VND (Cheaper than the $2 USD we paid on the way in from the airport). After checking out the mini-bus situation (which is across from a large Vietnam Airlines office, for reference of anyone looking for it), we headed down the street to BBQ.
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A Lazy Independence Day in North Vietnam – Hanoi, Vietnam
According to an AP article by Nicole Winfield and Alessasndra Rizzo , both the UN Chief and UN Secretary-General strongly criticized the Group of Eight for not doing enough to curb the practices that result in harmful climate changes. They report the UN Chief “rebuked” the group “for failing to make more commitments to reducing climate change in the near term, saying they must do so if the heavily polluting developing world is to follow suit.” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also weighed in on the subject saying “industrialized nations must come forward with financing for poorer countries to change their carbon-heavy growth patterns and adapt to the effects of global warming.” The discussion about climate change is part of a meetingof a ” 17-nation group called the Major Economies Forum , which has become the G-8’s main forum for climate issues.” Want to know more? Read what BlogCatalog Bloggers are saying about the G8 Summit: Key Climate Meeting Looms at G8 : http://www.nigerianbestforum.com/blog/?p=17889 G8 Message 2009: “People First” – G8 Asks for Online Public Comment : http://vitalvoicesonline.org/blog/2009/07/08/g8-summit-message-2009-people-first-g8-asks-for-online-public-comment/ Climate impasse at G8 leaves nations mired : http://www.president-obama.org/climate-impasse-at-g-8-summit-leaves-nations-mired G8 sets Iran Deadline for Nuclear Talks : http://updatedfrequently.com/g8-sets-iran-deadline-for-nuclear-talks
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Strong Words About Climate Change at G8
Every morning, I check my Twitter , Google Reader and Facebook for my social media breakfast. They’re the best ways to get the most relevant news based on who I subscribe to and because of this, I trust shared links even when they don’t correspond with my immediate interests. One of my favorite wielders of social media is NPR —especially effective on FB—and they had posted a new story on applying for jobs in our digital age
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Social media, get over yourself
To all travelers to Cambodia, do your part to punish the evils! e-Visa project was first launched in year 2006 . The original Team is a w eb design company in Malaysia , who also donated funds to build schools in Cambodia . The team worked hard day and night to improve, to fund, to market and to support the system till it became a valid and trustworthy site and received overwhelming feedback from customers , friends and even other web developers .
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The Evils of New e-Visa Provider
Food for thought from my literary crush: I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it
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An addict’s words of wisdom
Cambodia hopes to become a leader in the development of bio-fuel in the face of increasing global oil prices, say government officials. The development of bio-diesel produced from Jatropha curcas, a plant native to Cambodia, has drawn attention from investors, said Sat Samy, deputy secretary of state for the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy during a workshop on Cambodian bio-diesel held recently in Phnom Penh. Bio-energy industries are present in a number of countries, said Secretary of State for Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy Ith Praing, adding that European Community (EC) countries will increase their use of bio-fuels from 15 percent to 20 percent of the total by 2020 with the intention of reducing green gas emissions
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Cambodia hopes to develop bio-fuel sector
VDPCS School was first established in early 2005 by two Buddhist monks, Rathana Nn and Togh Main, who wanted to give some of Siem Reap’s poorest children a positive future by offering free education, and thus the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty in which many find themselves. With occasional donations and the help of local and foreign volunteers, they struggled but managed to teach over a hundred children and teenagers in 2 simple, thatch classrooms for about a year. In spring 2006, enough funds were raised to rebuild a very basic new school at a more suitable location with 3 classrooms.
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Volunteer Development Poverty Children Association
3 Days Of Love, Peace & Photography, Braga, 29-30-31 Desember 2007Events on Braga Photo Festival :1) Photo Exhibition2) Photo Contest3) Photo Cinema4) Photo Bazaar5) Photo Mozaic6) Photo Kids7) Biketography8) Photo Speak Contact details: Panitia Braga Photo FestivalAir FotografiJl. Taman Pramuka no.181Bandung 40114Telp : 022-70160771 Fax : 022-7234570Hp : 0856-24689844 (wini) & 0812-2122839 (ulis)Email : air_fototainment@cbn.net.id This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it http://airfotografi.multiply.com
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Bandung Tourism News
Formerly just a plain fishing village it has now grown into a lovely holiday resort, more and more visited by holiday makers from Jakarta and Bandung, a mere three-hour drive from either city through cool mountain villages with picturesque sceneries. Gradually but surely this area will catch up with the pace of development as is the case with Carita on the extreme West coast of Java. Pelabuhan Ratu-Cisolok is a 15 km stretch of breathtaking beauty with hills, mountains and very wide sandy beaches everywhere around you, set against the deep blue Indian Ocean.
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Pelabuhan Ratu Beach
The City Parks “Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris” Jon Parkinson, 1629 Since the Dwhich were made in the 1920′s are Taman Maluku ( Molukkenpark ), Taman Citarum ( Tjitaroemplein ), Tamanutch times, Bandung already has many parks which were made for the beauty of the city. The city parks in Bandung Pramuka ( Oranjeplein ), Taman Ganeca ( Ijzermanpark ), Taman lalulintas ( Insulindepark ), Taman Balaikota/Merdeka ( Pieter Sijthoffpark ), Taman Cibeunying ( Tjibeunjingplantsoen ), Taman Kebon Binatang / Taman Sari ( Jubileumpark ), etc.
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The City Parks