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.

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.