Living Cafe - Maidstone..

Having a break from boring people with my travel pics :)


So - I am always looking for new and lovely places to display my work...My wall hangings are now well and truly settled in at 'The Living Cafe' in Maidstone. http://www.livingcafe.co.uk/ . Why not pop by and have a lookie next time you're passing? It's a lovely little cafe right opposite the entrance to the Hazlitt Theatre. 

The rest of Nam........chicken minority villages and pretty men in the Mekong Delta...

Dalat - up in the Highlands of Vietnam is Dalat. A random little place advertised as the 'Paris of Vietnam'. Whoever made this up clearly lied. The market was a highlight with live chickens, eels, snakes and lots of any freshly removed intestines in bowls. Not the place to go if you don't have a strong stomach.

We hired ourselves a couple of 'Easy Riders'(http://www.easy-riders.net/) for the day and set out on the back of motorbikes up into the mountains. My dude was called Dragon. So I can honestly say I have flown around Vietnam on the back of a Dragon. 

 We were told we were going to a 'Chicken Minority Village' - we had high hopes of it being a village of chickens that had been outcasts in their society. Alas there were no punk chickens - but a lovely little community... Oh and a 20ft statue of a chicken. The women sat and weaved beautiful scarves and sheets - I still wish I'd bought more as they were stunning. 

  To the top is the villages petrol station. Below are some kids that were loving being photographed (as long as they got see see every picture afterwards on the camera screen!)

Who could resist this pouty little face?! He was the cutest little boy - he knew how to say 'hello!' and 'I love you'! in English so kept running past while we were eating. So cute. This picture was taken just after he'd been told off by his Mum for running around.

Saigon/HCMC 

 Top picture: Typical junction in Ho Chi Minh City. Crazy busy with bikes, people, cars and more bikes with stupendous amounts of things piled up on them.


Middle picture: Street shopkeeper having a little doze in the intense heat.


Left: A doggie that lived at an internet Cafe. I fell in love with her. Check out those little eyes and the pearl necklace!!


Next stop: A trip across the Mekong Delta to Cambodia... 






Mekong Delta

Oh yes. We traveled in style. Garden chairs on the back of a van. It was a lot of fun - if a little uncomfortable! Even out here, in the middle of not-a-lot, there were random little mobile phone shops (well, sheds) on the side of the road. Amazing.

The man in front of me here was perhaps one of the most beautiful men I had ever seen. Gorgeous, french, funny, intelligent and........saved me falling into this river in a very undignified manner. Sigh.

Randomly on the river boat trip, they took us to a brick making factory. Luckily I like random. It may sound dull but it was pretty cool - and sweltering hot. Fortunately for me, the sun was so intense that it looked amazing as it came through the holes in the roof, it made it look like there were stars on the floor.

Hoi An

Hoi An was my favorite place in Vietnam - long alleys filled with crazy cyclists, a toothless lady on the beach trying to sell me bananas and new beautiful handmade clothes are my fondest memories. Neon lights are banned here so you get amazing evening strolls through the town lit up with lanterns. It's very romantic...It was one of the few times I was sad to be travelling alone!

For those of you that watched the Top Gear Vietnam Special - yup - Hoi An is where the men got their beautiful suits made and the amazing boat gift that they made the lovely Mr Hammond carry/destroy. Hoi An is known for it's tailoring - there are tailoring shops EVERYWHERE where you can view walls of gorgeous fabrics, look through catalogues (they had the latest UK Next Catalogue - was impressed!), they measure you and you decide a price and then come back the next day and have a fitting for your new clothes. I got lots of dresses made - and think I want to go back for lots more!

Hanoi...

So my first port of call was Hanoi...up north in Vietnam. First impression: Unbearable heat and humidity and my taxi driver was about 13 years old and I'm pretty sure he had no license! The first of many scary journeys in Asia!! I had swollen elephant feet because of the heat for about the first six weeks..

Hanoi is a very loud and busy place. It was here I realized that there are no 'rules to the road' in Vietnam! It's a free for all! There's no use of indicators.. basically if you are going to overtake you beep your horn. The only way to cross the road is to just walk across slowly and hope you don't get hit. After a few days you do get very fearless and just step out in front of all sorts. Watch the video below and note the lack of paveme

nts, the use of horns and see if you can spot any kids on the bikes!

At first it's a real shock seeing all the kids on scooters...but after a few weeks you're used to seeing 6 kids and babies all piled on with no safety equipment.. eek.

Hanoi was a great introduction to Asian life - I spent many hours walking around the back streets people watching. The lake at night is beautiful, loads of pretty lights all around the side and the bridge is lit up bright red. Gorgeous.

My travels..

So. I’ve been crap at keeping this blog up to date. I thought it was about time to start adding my ‘brain farts’ back down in words and pictures. It’s as much for me as it for anyone else that ends up reading this.

So what better way to kick off than showing some lovely piccies from my travels this summer. I spent 10 weeks travelling solo around Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and then Thailand. I didn't go for any particular reason – I always had it in my head I’d like to go to Thailand, just from hearing other people talk about it…so at the beginning on 2010 I went and had my jabs and started the plan…

It started off as 2 months in Thailand, but then all the trouble kicked off in Bangkok. Eek. Someone suggested Vietnam..so I looked it up. The trip ended up being a long 10 week wiggly round trip around S.E. Asia.

Anyways – I was just looking at all my photos, reminiscing and thought – hmmm I shall share them with the world (lucky world!) – maybe there are some other arty folk who will enjoy them and it can give you some ideas of what to see/expect if you’re heading to Asia. I LOVED that artists are so respected and embraced over there. Handicrafts are everywhere and I was so inspired by all the colours and vibrancy.

Happy New Year

Happy new year everybody!


Some good news to start the year off :


"Recently Arts Development were contacted by Katie, the manager of The Living Café, a café which has recently opened in Earl Street Maidstone. She was asking for our help in finding an artist to display their work on the walls of her café. After seeing the place, the Arts Development Team immediately knew who would fit in perfectly- Laura Murphy, who was exhibiting in their Christmas exhibition! They have now met up and a brilliant connection has been made and soon Laura’s work will be sparkling on the walls. If you have not been in yet, why not go along for lunch and see the artwork on display. Katie is also hoping to open in the evening sometime in 2010, so watch that space!"
http://www.livingcafe.co.uk/
I will let you know when my work is up!

Bid for freedom - large circular canvas with butterfly garland

Here's a couple of new pics of one of my new pieces of work. it is called 'Bid for freedom'

- and is 60cm x 60cm x 1.5cm. You can see more (and buy!!) at: www.etsy.com/shop/likeamagpie