Funny Signs - Lost in Translation

We took photos of some of the funnier signs we saw on menus, in airports, and in shops on holiday.

Where's Lisa?

When Tim took a photo of Lisa outside a bright temple, she was camouflaged into it because of the floral top she was wearing. It gave us an idea to begin 'Where's Lisa'. Ten points for every Lisa you find hidden in South East Asia.

Diary entry: 17/04/10

After a lovely lie-in we headed for the Science Museum which had an exhibition on Pixar movies and how they were made.

It was fantastic and we saw plaster cast models of characters from movies such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Bug's Life and loads more.

One of the best things there was a carousel of models of characters from Toy Story. Each model was in a slightly different pose.

The carousel spun around and then a strobe light was put on. It really looked liked the models were moving and had come to life. It was a brilliant way to illustrate how the movies were made.

After hours of fun looking around the exhibition we headed to the Night Safari. Yep, in Singapore they open the zoo up at night time.

It was really cool to see the animals however, it was only dimly lit and we weren't allowed to use flash photography so we have no photos to show!! We did watch a flame throwing show and went to an animal show where they pretended they had lost a python. They got all of the members of the audience up from their chairs and then found it under someones chair!!!

While there Tim's flip flop (thong) broke. They were an old pair he was hoping that would make it for the trip. Sadly it had been raining all day and we were miles away from our hotel. Lisa thought long and hard about it before pulling out her hairband and removing her friendship bracelet she had bought in Sapa. She managed to repair them and they lasted just long enough for Tim to get home!!!

Diary entry: 15/04/10

Today was another travel day. Unfortunately Lisa had got a little over excited while planning her trip and booked a flight for Kuala Lumper rather than Singapore so we had to go there first and then fly to Singapore (which made it a longer day than it needed to be). Still,we were in by 5.30pm and as we got on the metro into the town centre we could see a heavy black storm cloud heading over. It waited until we checked into our roon and then the craziest storm started!!!

It is a lot cooler here, around 33C which feels very comfortable but hasn't stopped raining really.

Singapore is really expensive too. Around 5 pound for a small beer. Our hotel room cost a fortune and in a way we are pleased we will only have a couple of days here.

We really feel like we have got back into civilisation. We haven't been asked for any money off beggers, seen any rats and everyone speaks English!!! Cars stop for traffic lights and we have even walked on carpet - a strange feeling after seven weeks of walking on concrete or tiles!!

In the evening we went for a wander down by the riverside. It felt strangly familiar - a cross between London and New York. There is even a big London Eye -style thing.

Anyway, tomorrow we head for Australia and the first part of our journey is over. We have enjoyed ourselves but are ready to go home. Keep your eyes peeled on the blog though as some photos have yet to be put up and there are some funny posts we have been meaning to put up and haven't had time. Bring on two days when we have the laptop back!!

Diary entry: 14/04/10

Happy Khmer New Year!

At exactly 7.26am today (don't ask us why at that time!) it became the Khmer New Year.

What better way to celebrate it than to go and have a party at an orphanage!!! We had wanted to spend a day at an orphanage since we met Kerry (an Aussie) in Shinnoukville who runs one out here. Sadly she was on holiday so we couldn't visit hers but we spent ages phoning, emailing and generally driving around looking for one that was open. We found one. The Cambodian Development Project was set up one year ago by Samnang Sean, a local in his early 30s. He has no government backing so is reliant on tourists finding him and giving donations. An older Australian guy had also found the place and paid for everyone to have a lavish meal today consisting of rice, chicken, sweet and sour sauce, cucumber and cans of pop. We bought sweets, books and a massive, laminanted atlas of the world.

The day was fantastic. There are 21 children there ranging from 2 years to 15 years. Not all are orphans. Many come from very poor families where their families have loads of kids and simply cannot afford to keep them.

The orphanage has a school in it where three times a week the kids learn English with an Englisah teacher. They also go to state school in the mornings. It has a large room which is a play room and has tables dragged into it at meal times for everyone to sit down. At the back there are teo large dorm rooms. One where the boys sleep and one for the girls. They are very basic and although have beds, they have very thin mats on top. Electricity is supplied by a generator and cooking done outside in a giant pot on a fire made from coals. There is one tap to use for food, washing and anything else.

We spent the day playing with the kids, hide and seek, connect 4, Tim read them the books we bought. Then music was played and we spent ages dancing!! It was fantastic but very tiring and we were sad but exhausted when it was time to come away.

Diary entry: 13/04/10

At 5.15am we were picked up. We wanted to see the sun rise over the tops of Angkor Wat. Sadly so did hundreds of other people so it was a race to find the best spot. After snapping some picks of the front, famous scene, we ditched the crowd and went trapsing around inside where it was pitch black and had bats flying around. We emerged on the east side and after watching teh sun peak over the hills we set about getting arty shots where the sun made the rock look golden. It was bareable heat for around 1hr and then back to dripping with sweat again.


We headed far out, away from the usual tourist trail to the ruins of Banteay Srei and Kbal Spean, some 49km away.

Banteay Srei looked like a miniature village with doorways too small even for Lisa to pass through. It had fantastic carvings alojng the rooftops and because it was low, we could really study them. This was where we met a little girl who was selling wicker braclets (well, actually there are hundreds of girls selling these) however, this little girl was so sweet. Instead of begging for cash she just rambled on about her life. She told us about her ducks and the eggs they lay (not as tasty as chicken eggs). She showed us her watch and said her dad had let her borrow it for the day. She talked about her schooling and in fact she talked about everything. She even gave me a braclet for free. We were amused by her ramblings so in the end we bought another braclet. She seemed very happy with us!

Kbal Spean was 1.5km up the side of a rocky and steep mountain. It was a tough climb. At the top there were amazing carvings of Hindu Gods and crocodiles into rock on the river bed. Sadly in the dry season there isn't much water so it was all a bit dusty. It was here we met an Aussie woman in her 50s whose sons had all moved to London. One of them was getting married so she was on her way to London and thought she'd stop off and explore. Sher was lovely and made our climb back down much more interesting with a new friend.

In the evening we went to a bar which has live crocodiles in it. Weird!! Then, even weirder, we went to a restaurant with crocodile, snake and ostrich on the menu. Tim chose crocodile and even had to cook it himself. He says it tastes like a cross between chicken and fish!!

Diary entry: 12/04/10

Our tuk tuk driver picked us up at 8am and we headed out to Angkor Wat, a series of anchient temples dating back to the 1000s. First stop was Angkor Wat itself. It was already boiling hot but it was so beautiful and enourmous we were full of energy to go and explore. After walking down a long pathway with two pools either side we reached the famous sight of three peaks towering over the top. They are modelled on the lotus flower which grows in the pools below. The place is like a maze with loads of corridors to explore, each with magnificent carvings on. Some were of heaven and hell. Heaven - where good Kymers (that's Cambodians to you and I) are carried on chariots on thier way. They are fat from all the food they've had and are really happy. Below is hell where emaciated people are bitten by dogs, dragged along on bits of string and thrown into a pit. It has beautiful detail, even if it is all a bit grim!!

The place was huge, much bigger than you can imagine and had loads of stairs to climb up and down. There are even plinths where elephants can walk up to for people to climb onto (this doesn't happen anymore you understand!!)

Next we went to Bayon, a few kms down the road. Here each tower has a face carved onto it. It's amazing to think how they did it, dragging huge bits of stone up and building it into a tower (there was no cement back then to fit it all together) then carving faces into it. At anyone time you could have 30 faces stairing down at you. It was brill.

Then we went to Ta Prohm which is a temple they decided to leave instead of restore. Because of this there are giant trees growing out of the stone work and it looks amazing. Their branches and roots sprawl out in snake like patterns. It was here the film Tomb Raider was filmed and we were told Angelina Jolie swam in one of the rivers there (we didn't fancy the murky water!!).

It was an exhausting day spending 8 hours out in the 38-40C heat but arrived back amazed by what we had seen!!

Count yourselves lucky though! We took over 300 photos today... so its only Tim's poor old family and friends that will have to put up with that exciting 4-5hr long slideshow!!!