no, i didn't actually...but the option was available...
so today was an adventure and a half...
there's no better way to start your day then by shooting an AK-47...
doug and della should be proud.
we are still in phnom penh and today we did a city tour which included a shooting range, the killing fields, the russian market, S-21 museum and the royal palace and silver pagoda.
the shooting range was by far the highlight...the other things we went to were very interesting but incredibly depressing...
we got to the shooting range and immediately had a menu plopped in front of us.
AK-47 with 1 magazine (25 bullets).............$30
Tommy Gun with 1 magazine (25 bullets)........$30
hand grenade (1).......$30
M16........(25 bullets)$30
M60 (machine gun)........(50 bullets)....$60
rocketlauncher (1)..........$200!!!
anti-aircraft (50 bullets)....$60
you get the picture...
some of those guns were HUGE!!
i shot the AK-47 and it was innnnntense. not a lot of kick back, but enough to scare you everytime...it was really loud too, but MAN was it fun!
after we left the shooting range we went to the killing fields...mega downer.
just in case you don't know what the killing fields are all about i will give you a quick briefing:
it's basically a number of sites in cambodia where large numbers of people were killed and buried by the communist regime Khmer Rouge.
the massacres ended in 1979 with a total death count of between 1.7-2.3 MILLION people of a population of about 7 million. ridiculous...
there's a large building called a stupa filled with the skulls of the victims...
once that was done we headed to the russian market...nothing like a bit of shopping to try to cheer a person up...don't know what made it russian. looked pretty cambodian to me...
next on the list was the S-21 museum...another downer visit...
it's a museum dedicated to genocidal crime....it used to be a high school and was later used as the notorious Security Prison 21 ...it's pretty messed.
after that we got a bite to eat and then went to the Royal Palace and the silver pagoda...
tonight we're meeting up with our friends from ireland-vince and veronica, for dinner at a place that claims to make food "just like your mums"...we'll just see...
we bumped into them last night at a wonderful restaurant called "friends" which is a non-profit organization that helps street kids and their families...and the food was amazing to boot!
tomorrow morning we are leaving at 7:30 for yet another bus, this time to siem reap.
a few days there and then back to thailand to meet my brother!!!
gotta run, dinner awaits...
love love love
fritz.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
angelina and her sidekick sambeth bo...
well my passport is quickly filling up...
today marks the 9th country of our journey so far...
everywhere we go the countries keep getting better and better and Cambodia is no exception.
we left saigon this morning at 8 am, circled around the block for about an hour picking up more stragglers and then went on our merry way.
the travel agent told us it was a 6 hour ride in total...that included stops and going through customs, getting everything stamped etc...
well if that were true we would have been here 4 and a half hours ago...
and of course i got sick approximately 15 minutes before our bus was set to leave.
i won't bore you with bus stories, we got here safely, 10 1/2 hours later and so far i am loving this place.
we have spent $3 dollars each in the last hour and that includes our guest house for a night AND dinner...it's really really cheap here...
we're staying right on the lake, our guest house is sooooo dope-hammocks all over the place, Christmas lights are up and it's all built on top of part of the lake...just a really cool, laid back atmosphere.
speaking of dope, we were already offered large quantities of weed at least 4 times in an hour and pizzas can be made "happy" for only a dollar, so crazy...
the only thing so far that i haven't enjoyed is the CONSTANT bombardment of locals trying to sell you crap.
there are little mini sambethe bo's running around pant-less trying to sell photocopied books or postcards. the kids are unbelievably cute, but i'm not interested.
tomorrow we're gonna go to the killing fields, and a shooting range to shoot a cow possibly, as well as the national museum and the silver pagoda....should be a fun day!
well,it's been a long day and by bum is sore from sitting so much, so i'm outta here.
love love love
fritz.
today marks the 9th country of our journey so far...
everywhere we go the countries keep getting better and better and Cambodia is no exception.
we left saigon this morning at 8 am, circled around the block for about an hour picking up more stragglers and then went on our merry way.
the travel agent told us it was a 6 hour ride in total...that included stops and going through customs, getting everything stamped etc...
well if that were true we would have been here 4 and a half hours ago...
and of course i got sick approximately 15 minutes before our bus was set to leave.
i won't bore you with bus stories, we got here safely, 10 1/2 hours later and so far i am loving this place.
we have spent $3 dollars each in the last hour and that includes our guest house for a night AND dinner...it's really really cheap here...
we're staying right on the lake, our guest house is sooooo dope-hammocks all over the place, Christmas lights are up and it's all built on top of part of the lake...just a really cool, laid back atmosphere.
speaking of dope, we were already offered large quantities of weed at least 4 times in an hour and pizzas can be made "happy" for only a dollar, so crazy...
the only thing so far that i haven't enjoyed is the CONSTANT bombardment of locals trying to sell you crap.
there are little mini sambethe bo's running around pant-less trying to sell photocopied books or postcards. the kids are unbelievably cute, but i'm not interested.
tomorrow we're gonna go to the killing fields, and a shooting range to shoot a cow possibly, as well as the national museum and the silver pagoda....should be a fun day!
well,it's been a long day and by bum is sore from sitting so much, so i'm outta here.
love love love
fritz.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
ho chi minh city
okee dokee...
so we've been in ho chi minh city for about a day and a half now and we leave tomorrow morning for cambodia.
we left nha trang two days ago and were lucky enough to squeeze in a beach day before we left!
there was a typhoon that hit central vietnam this week.
it rained for the first two days we were there and was supposed to continue but the sun managed to stay out long enough to hit the beautiful beach for an afternoon with our friends we keep running into...
we spent the day soaking up the sun, drinkin cheap beer and keeping the little kids from selling stuff to us. this one little girl put a curse on me for not buying a pack of mentos off her...she told me i was going to have ugly babies, IF i would even be able to have babies at all. but if i did they would be ugly as sin.
later on that day we went out for mexican food and then wandered to a bar for bellini's and to watch the manchester united game live (they are HUGE fans to put it mildly).
the next night we were all ready to leave and there was a big misunderstanding at the place where we were meant to catch our bus...the guy in charge told us that the busses weren't running to saigon, but he meant hoi an....
apparently there was crazy flooding...neck high water, so all busses were cancelled.
luckily we had just come from there and missed out on the bad weather...
and now we're in hcmc (saigon) and before we know it we're outta vietnam and into our 9th country of the trip!
so we are staying in a hostel on the 5th floor....but if you wanna get technical (and i do) it's really the 7th floor.
our backpacks were pulled up to our room with a home-made crane thru the home-made sky-light (a hole punched through the roof) and we had to trudge up 16 flights of stairs. retarded...
today we took a taxi to what we thought was dam sen park, but ended up in the wrong part of town, walked around aimlessly for a bit and then hopped on the back of two guys' motorbikes.
OH.
MY.
WORD.
i think my knuckles are still white!
the traffic out here is completely ridiculous, but hey i'm alive so it can't be that bad...???
dam sen park ended up being pretty much an abandoned theme park...it was very odd.
the rides weren't running but there were a handful of people wandering...
they had a bunch of creatures and figures made out of dishes...a bird made of spoons, dragon out of plates...it was pretty neat.
the highlight for me was definitely a swan ride paddle boat on the lake...i've always wanted to ride in a swan, don't know why.
well that's all i got for now...
love from saigon.
fritz.
so we've been in ho chi minh city for about a day and a half now and we leave tomorrow morning for cambodia.
we left nha trang two days ago and were lucky enough to squeeze in a beach day before we left!
there was a typhoon that hit central vietnam this week.
it rained for the first two days we were there and was supposed to continue but the sun managed to stay out long enough to hit the beautiful beach for an afternoon with our friends we keep running into...
we spent the day soaking up the sun, drinkin cheap beer and keeping the little kids from selling stuff to us. this one little girl put a curse on me for not buying a pack of mentos off her...she told me i was going to have ugly babies, IF i would even be able to have babies at all. but if i did they would be ugly as sin.
later on that day we went out for mexican food and then wandered to a bar for bellini's and to watch the manchester united game live (they are HUGE fans to put it mildly).
the next night we were all ready to leave and there was a big misunderstanding at the place where we were meant to catch our bus...the guy in charge told us that the busses weren't running to saigon, but he meant hoi an....
apparently there was crazy flooding...neck high water, so all busses were cancelled.
luckily we had just come from there and missed out on the bad weather...
and now we're in hcmc (saigon) and before we know it we're outta vietnam and into our 9th country of the trip!
so we are staying in a hostel on the 5th floor....but if you wanna get technical (and i do) it's really the 7th floor.
our backpacks were pulled up to our room with a home-made crane thru the home-made sky-light (a hole punched through the roof) and we had to trudge up 16 flights of stairs. retarded...
today we took a taxi to what we thought was dam sen park, but ended up in the wrong part of town, walked around aimlessly for a bit and then hopped on the back of two guys' motorbikes.
OH.
MY.
WORD.
i think my knuckles are still white!
the traffic out here is completely ridiculous, but hey i'm alive so it can't be that bad...???
dam sen park ended up being pretty much an abandoned theme park...it was very odd.
the rides weren't running but there were a handful of people wandering...
they had a bunch of creatures and figures made out of dishes...a bird made of spoons, dragon out of plates...it was pretty neat.
the highlight for me was definitely a swan ride paddle boat on the lake...i've always wanted to ride in a swan, don't know why.
well that's all i got for now...
love from saigon.
fritz.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
hoi an-nie k style.
hello from hoi an, vietnam.
the town that has forever put me in debt.
my mastercard will never be the same.
and neither will my shoe rack/closet...
this town is pretty much my version of heaven, seeing as how i have giant feet and picky taste.
on every corner and in between there are little shops with rows and rows of fabrics/leathers and samples of shoes and coats, i knew i was in trouble after 5 minutes of walking around here.
basically if you can dream it (and pay) they can make it. in a day.
so far my boot count is at, ummm...11 i think.
4 jackets, one dress and i just handed over my credit card to derek...
i am like an energizer bunny in this town, it's retarded.
thanks to me our hotel room reaks of leather...i love it!
the weather has been pretty lousy, and it looks like we're in for more...
there is a typhoon heading our way shortly....but hey i'd take rain over snow any day.
we had planned to go to Hue after we were done in Hanoi, but the town was completely flooded so we just stayed on the bus and came straight here to hoi an.
one or two more days and then we are off to nha trang and then down to ho chi minh city.
in a week we will head to cambodia for another week and hen back to thailand to meet mike!!!
time is flying by, it's absolutely ridiculous...
i should header...gotta meet with the tailor and pick up the last of my boots!
see you cats in 6 weeks.
peace
fritz.
the town that has forever put me in debt.
my mastercard will never be the same.
and neither will my shoe rack/closet...
this town is pretty much my version of heaven, seeing as how i have giant feet and picky taste.
on every corner and in between there are little shops with rows and rows of fabrics/leathers and samples of shoes and coats, i knew i was in trouble after 5 minutes of walking around here.
basically if you can dream it (and pay) they can make it. in a day.
so far my boot count is at, ummm...11 i think.
4 jackets, one dress and i just handed over my credit card to derek...
i am like an energizer bunny in this town, it's retarded.
thanks to me our hotel room reaks of leather...i love it!
the weather has been pretty lousy, and it looks like we're in for more...
there is a typhoon heading our way shortly....but hey i'd take rain over snow any day.
we had planned to go to Hue after we were done in Hanoi, but the town was completely flooded so we just stayed on the bus and came straight here to hoi an.
one or two more days and then we are off to nha trang and then down to ho chi minh city.
in a week we will head to cambodia for another week and hen back to thailand to meet mike!!!
time is flying by, it's absolutely ridiculous...
i should header...gotta meet with the tailor and pick up the last of my boots!
see you cats in 6 weeks.
peace
fritz.
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