sai-gone

Hello All Greetings from the beautiful spanish city of Barcelona! After a quick 2 hr flight from london, Jam and i arrived last night. We´re couchsurfing with a lovely host called Josep who lives close to central barcelona. Last night we went and had some traditional food and it was amazing! tiny fried fish, potatoes with spicy sauce, salty fried peppers and mini mushies! delicious! The vibe of the city is really nice with all the arcitecture, warm weather, friendly people and delicious smells. It is a relief being here afeter coming from london, it got so cold on the last day, i only left the house once to get some cake and chocolate...oh and icecream (inspired by the cold weather). today Jam and i are going to make our way to the markets and see what we can find...and eat ourselves stupid no doubt! bye for now Claire Barelona

Sorry about the 'speechless' post the other day! I was going to write something about my flight but i pressed enter by accident and couldn't be bothered fixing the mistake. but anyhoo, I am here in the swanky suburb of chelsea,london. I have been most cordially welcomed into the hotel of deares jess who has given me a room for free, I have saved quite alot of money so thankyou Jess, you are the best! The First day in london was ok, though i was fairly buggered, the next day it rained a little when we went exploring the city and the three days after that were lovely and warm, Jamima and I had a great time chatting to randoms and seeing the sights. The last few days have been rainy though it kinda feels like the real british experience walking in the rain. London is fairly expensive though you don't have to spend all that much (besides public transport...OUCH!) if you don't want to. Tonight we made a massive delicious and healthy meal for at least 6 people for £3.50 (...

DSCN6272 Originally uploaded by Bickenchurger . This shot is kinda trippy, it was taken at Zi's house

So Bec, I have been thinking...following various circumstances involving food poisoning i have come up with the following theory! I have realised that the only times i (and many fellow travellers) have been sick has been when i have eaten at restaurants...we have the veggie spring roll ordeal in Sapa last year and Kaz and i had the killer seafood in Koh Chang, Thailand. This trip i have been mainly eating at food stalls in markets and roadside and never been sick (not including the koh chang prawns of death). my theory goes as follows: The restaurant is more likely to carry bacteria and have cross comination due to the fact that it isn't packed up, cleaned and moved everyday like food stalls. Also you can't see how they cook the food or how the food is stored! The food at stalls is fresh everyday because there aint no fridges! So far my theory has proved me right, though i won't hold my breath! ;)

DSCN6206 Originally uploaded by Bickenchurger . Here i am in lovely SaPa with some hill tribe ladies

Hey all! Well we spent a few more days in Vang Vieng, we went cycling and swimming in the river one day and sat and watched sex and the city and friends (which you can't escape...they play it in all the restaurants, as well as the simpsons) the next because it rained ALL day. though it just so happened that it was the rocket festival! this is an important day in Laos where they all party hard and shoot rockets into the sky to welcome the rainy season...it seemed to work coz the rain didn't stop! And with rain we all know what happens...MUD!!! MUD MUD AND MORE MMUUDDD!!! There was a massive mud fight as part of the festival, i tried my hardest to stay clean but i got dragged in! We partied at night and the rain stopped, we had a bonfire too which was lovely. The next morning i had to get up to go to luang Prabang...that was hard! there wasn\t enough room on the bus so i was up with the driver, the view was amazing though at one point i fell sasleep on the driver, he had to elbow...

Hey all, I arrived in laos yesterday and it is lovely! After a 22 hour bus ride we arrived in Vienine. The Laos countryside is lovely, my first impression is that it is very similar to melbournes bushland near standrews, it felt a little like home. The further we drove the more stunning the landscape became, it looks a little hike ha long bay on land with rocky cliffs and mountains. We spent one night in the capital and had a great night, we ate dinner by the river (a little dried up but nice anyway) we had about 6 beer lao longnecks each and partied the night away. The next day we mucked around a little then caught the 6pm bus to veng vieng The tubing capital of the world. We are staying in these cute little bungalows for $5 each ($2.50 each) similar to the ones in koh Chang but more clean and fancy. We have gathered quite a posse, there are 2 canadian girls with us a british girl, dutch guy and me. Today we went tuing, the ain attraction of vang vieng. it was so much fun! floating ...