look at my photo’s from asia, I’ve put some up, ahhh yeahhh!!
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So, I’ve started teaching, and I like it. And life is kinda crazy. I hope to get internet soon, and thne I’ll be able to update this thing regularly. but until then, maybe more later

Well, now I am really and truly going to be brief. Europe started with Kiev, appropriately enough. I sated her for three days on my way to Prague. It was really good to see George and Tyson again, finally good friends, and fast and short friends of the past nine months (and the year before.) There’s something really nice about seeing people that you have known for years. I met a lot of really cool people in my travels, and a lot that I will stay in touch with for as long as I can. But it still doesn’t replace seeing good friends again. So Kiev was nice, a little crazy, and I found the city intriguing, but I was off to Prague. And Prague is a beautiful city. I love Prague, and it was nice to be back, it had been two and a half years, but I still remembered it, and that felt good, and it was the west again, a very strange sensation. And then I met up with Sean, and I had my travel buddy. I hadn’t had someone to travel and do things with for a very long time, at least in a consistent way, so that was good, and I had known him forever. And then there was the course. Four weeks of stress filled, long and short, going slightly crazy. It was a good experience, and I do feel as though when finishing it I would have a beginning to start at. And then there was what to do about a job. Where to go? Ty and George had said that we should come to Kiev, and they could get us jobs, and it would be fun. Well, why not. I had really wanted to live in Prague, but to have the chance for all four of us to live in the same city, that would be nice, plus Kiev was the next frontier. But there wouldn’t be job till the end of the summer, the same story everywhere. So se go ourselves jobs at summer camp. That was going to be mid July, our course finished at the end of June, we had a little time, where to go except for Kiev. Sean hadn’t seen it yet, and I had only been there a short time. I was a good week, and made us both want to come back. We also interviewed for jobs, and it looked good. SO we came back to Czech, and did the summer camp thing. Very fun, great kids, and some good people. Glad I went. When we came back through a friend of a friend, we got invited on a four-day canoeing trip in the south of Czech, and so we went. Cool, another great trip. So then we hung back in Prague for a few days with our friend Olga, then off to Berlin to see Andrew. A few days there, wondering around, catching up, and then back to Kiev. When we returned, it was straight into finding a flat. George wanted to live on his own, so we would be looking for a three room. Four days of searching, and we found it. IT was on the upper end of our price range, but it was everything we wanted. Three bedrooms, and a huge entryway / living room. Great location, what more could we want. So we moved in. The next week Sean started work, and then I started observing, though I don’t start to work for another week plus. So after this week of going into the school everyday, almost work, I was going to have a little free time before I started, which I really wanted to go explore Kiev. But then I guess it was not meant to be. Right before my first truly free day, and managed to seriously injure my heel, and the mobility hasn’t been what it should be. But at least I’ve couple up about myself.

So I make it back to Thailand. And except for the long wait on the Thai side of the border, a fairly smooth trip. What I really notice coming into Bangkok, it that it could be any western city in the world. From the freeway, you can’t tell it’s Thailand, and it being night you just see the lit up stuff. Well, I think this was the biggest culture shock I had ever received. I think it was just because I wasn’t expecting to see such a modern city, even though I had been here before, it was kind of a shock, I wasn’t expecting to have that. Well, anyway, after a long day of traveling, it’s a early quite night. The next day I do the one tourist thing I want to do in Bangkok, I go see the royal palace, and emerald Buda. It’s quite a spectacular place, especially the weapons room, with hundreds of years of weapons. Too bad you can’t see very much of the palace, at it is still a palace. Then just some wondering, where I get myself quite lost, wow I didn’t think I could get that lost in an area I was slightly familiar with. That night me and a South African friend head to the night market. One of my favorite crazy places in Bangkok. Mostly just the same things you find everywhere in the city, but with a better selection, though not the best place to bargain, at least on some things. But the best part is the food court. I mile of food on one side, and a mile of beer on the other, with a stage at one end with free entertainment, and both times I had been there, there was a Thai cover band, doing top 40 with amateur choreographed dancers, absolutely hilarious. I do like Bangkok. But next on the list was Kanchanaburi, a town on the western part of Thailand, close the Burma. I really didn’t know what to expect here, but what I found was a lovely town, one of my favorite in Thailand. I had a good group of people here, and there were some cool things to do as well. The first thing I did was go to the Tiger Monastery. A place where the monks take in injured and misplaced tigers. It was really neat as we could actually go sit by the tigers, and touch them. That was cool. So then I signed up for a day tour the next day, to see a 7 tiered waterfall, and death railway museum, and ride the train. The waterfall was amazing, and we only made it to the fifth tier, as we ran out of time, and the path got a kinda bad. Next was the museum at hells pass. Now for anybody who doesn’t know what the death railway was it was a project by the Japanese during WWII, to create a link between Burma and Bangkok. And it was made with indigenous slave labor and WWII POW’s. And Hells Pass was the hardest part, where the most people died. And this new museum was very nice. Then we went a little further on, and rode part of the railway that was still in use, there was a nice part at the beginning that was along a cliff, but most of the ride was boring, and kids used the railway to go to school, so It was filled with then coming home. Then at the very end, we stopped at the bridge; the most famous landmark of Kanchanaburi, the Bridge over the River Kwai. For such a famous bridge it was kinda boring. I had a couple nice nights in the town, one night we got invited to go to a birthday party on a barge, with dance music, and BYOB. Also spent a night on the town, the little of it there was, and had a blast. That was the last night in K’buri, and the start of long stretch of my not sleeping. As that was Friday night, most of us were meeting back up in Bangkok on Saturday night, and though a lot of us where going to have quite one, we ended up being out until 4am, and I had stuff to do the next day. Then it was Sunday, I left Tues. morn (or mon. night depending on how you looked at it.) So Sunday was shopping day. And I went to the Weekend market. WOW. This is the largest open-air market in the World, and it’s a little boggling at the size of it. So I found most of what I wanted, except for some shirts, which I found early in the day, but when I tried to find them again, no idea where it was, very frustrating. So I left the shirts till the next day, as I could get them close to where I was staying, and called it a day. Didn’t see my friends that evening, and was going to call it a early night, till I stopped by for a beer on the way home, and then ended up talking to some random guy for hours, and had to move to the illegal bars in the streets. Well shit, I wanted to get some sleep, and I just wasn’t happening, and this was my last night in Bangkok with a room, as I was just going to go to the airport at midnight, since I had to check in at 2am anyway. My last day I didn’t do too much, just bought the last of my shirts, sent some stuff home, and got ready to leave Asia. Crazy, I couldn’t believe that all that time had passed, and I was going to be leaving the continent. It seemed like I had been there forever, but also that I had got there yesterday. Well I guess that’s the sign of a good place. I said goodbye to my friends, as we were all leaving about the same time, within a day of each other, and then I left Asia. Till next time, I’ll miss you.

So the boarder is not in any town, and I have to get a moto to next one. I was supposed to catch a minibus to Phnom Phen, and I was there at just the time to get the last one. When I got to the town, they said they had all left, and the only way for me to get there was to take a taxi. I didn’t really believe them, but I didn’t really have anyway of finding out. They wanted to charge me $50 but lucky for me all he money I had was $20. So they guy agreed and I got my own taxi all the way, about hour and a half or so. The thing I noticed when I crossed over from Vietnam was the lack of infrastructure. Bad roads, towns in shambles, this really was the third world. Loa had this as well, but then had it in a more romantic since, it just seemed to fit. Here it was more run down, dilapidated, and sadder. So I arrived in PP, and I know there were two major areas with cheap guest houses, some but the river, in what could be called down town, and a newer dirtier area by the lake, which is where I wanted to go. I pulled in and was going to go to one a friend had said was ok, but as soon as I got out of my taxi, someone rushed me into the nearest guest house. So I looked at it. It was very simple, and didn’t have a bathroom in the room, but it was $3, and that was my price range. The place itself was alright, and had a tv lounge, pool table, guitar, and nice deck overlooking the lake. Acceptable. So I wondered around and tried to find an ATM. As I had $2 to my name, it was important to get some finding. So I walked. I got to see a lot of the town, and made my was to the riverside. I then found a ATM, I was saved, and my card worked. I wondered my way back, and thought about my lagistic plan, and to have an early night, as I had gotten up at 6. I wasthinking I would stay one more night in PP, then head up to Seim Reap, and Angkor Wat. I would spend a couple of days there, one full day at the temples. Then I would go over to Batombong, for a day or two, and then back to Phnom Phen. I would then spend a few days there, going to the places I didn’t see while I was there this time. Then go down to kompot, along the way to Sinoukville, and a good long time on the beach. Then head along the bottom of Cambodia to Thailand, and some islands. Good, that seemed like a good plan, and it should allow me plenty of time on the beach at the end of Asia, for I knew I would need the relaxation before going to Europe and school. So the next day, I got paul, the friendly local guy who hung around my guest house to take me to the killing fields and S21 torture museum. WOW. Powerful stuff, especially S21, and I can’t really describe it you kind of have to be there. I thought that that was enough for the day, so I headed back to the guest house, had some lunch, and watched some tv. The next morning I was off to Seim Reap, nice and early. It was an uneventful trip, and I had booked from my guest house a partner guest house, so I had someone to pick me up from the bus. And that was chaos. I had had these experiences already, but not in Cambodia. As soon as you get off the bus, they swarm you, the touts, and if your not prepared, it can be overwhelming. So I arrive, and immediately I’m asked about my driver for Angkor. I say I’m not sure when yet, but I’ll talk to them. I then go wonder the town a little, my god, there are so many moto’s, tuktuk’s, and taxi’s in this town it’s insane. During the day they almost need that many, but at night, it’s just nuts. The town isn’t very big, and you can walk fro one side to the other in 30 mins, and explore every street in a couple of hours, so there’s really no need to get a moto at all, yet there are hundreds everywhere, constantly asking you. I decide that I’m not going to go to Angkor the next day, and take it easy, sleep in, and read a little. That night I have Amok for the first time. This is really the only purely Cambodian food that I encounter. Everything else is kind of Thai, or Vietnamese. It’s a coconut fish curry, and I end up having it as often as I can, but this first one was still the best, it was serves inside a coconut, and was amazingly delicious. So I take it easy the following day, and get my self a mote driver to do Angkor the next day, as well as that evening. You can visit Angkor at sunset, for free the night before you go in, so It helps with time. And how magnificent. After you go through the gate, you meander along a nice wooded path, and then when it’s coming to an end, boom, there’s Angkor wat, magnificent before you. It was great. I can’t really describe it; it was just an amazing place. One of only two places I’ve ever been that have truly captured my awe (the other being the Alhambra in Spain.) But looking at temples all day is tiring, and when you start at sunrise, but the end of the day, you are pooped. I then had to decide where to go next. I was loosing enthusiasm for Batombong, and kind of just wanted to get dwon to the beaches, so I went back to PP. When I got back, I was going to change guest houses, as I had gone to look at all the other guest houses by the lake, and had found a nice one that I wanted to go to. But when I returned, there were guys from my guest house there, and they convenced me to come back, and I got a room with bath, for $3, and that was OK. But it wasn’t, first the bed sucked, and then the next morning there was construction outside my window at six. So I moved, and that was the best thing I could do. The new guest house was great, better room, and cool people. I did go hang out at my old one a bit, cause I like the guys who worked there, and had gotten to know them a little. So this time in PP, I rented a bicycle and rode around town, going to markets, and seeing PP. This is a great town to ride in, as there are no hills, you just have to get used to the traffic, which is kinda crazy. Also when I moved to the new place, I met a cool Australian girl. She had been living what I imagined to be my life for the past seven years. She left Oz at 27, and then traveled and worked, and traveled and worked, just kind of what I was planning, or doing. So hearing her stories were great, and we became good friends. SO I hung out with here in PP, for the next couple of days, and then we both went down to sinoukville. Neither of us knew much about it, just that it was a beach place, and there were different beaches, but we didn’t know where to stay. We ended up going to weather station hill, the oldest established beach area. Once we arrived, we ended up staying at the bar till late that night, saving exploring till the following day. So I explore the area, Really not a big area, one main street, and two little side streets. I then go to the beach, and enter from the far end and walk down. It’s kind of a small beach, and not that meny people on it, which is ok. A couple of beach shacks, not much. another mellow night, just hanging out at our guesthouse bar, talking to the eccentric bar man. At this point I start thinking about going off to Kompot, a town two hours away, that is supposed to have a nice national park in the hills, and old French hill station. I want to rent a moto, and drive there, and then I can explore the park on my own, but after talking to my guest house people, who rent the bikes, I’m told that the roads aren’t very good, and I really should take a taxi. I put off leaving for a day, and the next day we decide to explore the town by moto, and check out the other beach. The town is a little odd. It has lots of little areas that are not really connected. It’s like a bunch of small villages calling themselves a town. Downtown is really nothing, a main couple of streets, the bus station, some hotels, but I couldn’t see why anyone would stay there, as it’s a little while from the beach. But then we make it down to serendipity beach. Now this is a much nicer beach. We go up the beach in the direction of the guest houses, and start looking at rooms, to see what it would be like to move down here. We find couple of nice places, and think that this would be a good place to move. As where walking along the beach we run into a friends of my aussie friend. And this guy has now moved here, and is working at a bar at the other end of the beach, a ways down. Then he tells us a very important piece of information, that there are a lot of small restaurants down the beach that have few rooms out back, and if you eat a meal a day there, you can stay for free. WOW. What the hell is that. So we wonder down. The first place we look at is a shit hole, and they want $2 a night, up in the crawl space. Then we start to find some better places. We end up finding one that usually charges for the rooms, but because it is so slow at the moment, they will do the room for free. And these have a bathroom inside. We look at a couple more, none of them care as nice as that one, another in a crawl space, and one with a precarious little girl, who says we must stay there. Well we now have all sorts of info, and make it down to our friends bar, have an afternoon drink. And learn about the free BBQ tonight, at this bar. A good time to come back, and see what the place is like a night, and we have the moto still, so why not. So after watching an amazing sunset at our beach, we come down for the BBQ, and party. We find out that they do this every Tue. Thr. And Sat. and then people show up, something we haven’t seen in the town yet, so we know that coming down here will be a good idea. But first I go to Kampot. I leave the next morning, and take a share taxi there, which is an interesting experience, as they fit as many people into a Toyota as possible, in my case there were seven, nice and cozy. So kampot was nice enough, a very quite town. I got a place the water, as there were only two cheap guest houses in town, and the other I didn’t really like. I wondered the town, but really very little here. I spent two night here, as I had to because the tour to the park came back to late to return to Sinoukville the same day. But it was nice and calm. So the reason I came was the hill station, and national park. I really wanted to do it by moto, but I was told the road was too bad to do, only if I got a proper big bike, which was expensive. I was kind of skeptical, as that’s what I was told about the road there, and I could have easily done that, but I decided to error on caution, as I would be doing it alone. And a good thing too. This was the worst road I have ever seen. I mean bad, put holes you could loose small villages in. It looked like it had been through a war (which it had), and it’s amazing that out vehicle made it. It was a nice day, cool up in the hills, nice old colonial buildings, but the hike was a little short. It was nice though, even if we saw no wildlife. Worth the trip, I think. So I returned to the beach. When I came back I went down to where the free accommodation was, and trying to find the one with a bathroom, where my friend was going to be staying, the precarious girl saw my, and made me stay there, and as it was a fine room for free, I said ok. I found my friend shortly after, and then kind of set my routine. I would spend the day sitting around my restaurant, laying in hammocks, on beach chairs, and swimming in the ocean. All the while doing my pre course task, for my upcoming TEFL course. Then around 6, I would meet up with the small group of people who I knew there, and we would drink at the 25c sunset happy hour, before finding dinner, and doing not much for the rest of the night. I did almost this same routine for about a week. It was nice to do nothing at the beach, plus I was starting to think about money a little, and this was a really cheap place to be, as I was spending about $5-7 a day. But I finished my work, and was getting a little restless. I was looking into going back to Thailand, but the direct route, which would then take me to Koh Chang, was kind of ridiculously expensive. So I decided that I could go back through PP, then stop in Batombong, before returning to Bangkok. Set. ON returning to PP, I did almost nothing, and I only stayed two days because I wanted to get my clothes washed. I did manage to play in a trivia contest, and win, and make Drink Club intercontinental trivia champions, and win $10 for myself, nice. So off to Batombong, the second biggest town in Cambodia. Hard to believe, as there really wasn’t much to it. The main thing to do here was to tour around to a couple of hill monasteries, see some war atrocities, and see (and ride if you want) the bamboo railway. So I booked my moto driver, and set out to wonder the town. Really, not much here. This was the area the KR had their biggest presence, and they still did, especially west of town to the border. Along the highway there were a few big hotels, mostly as a halfway between Thailand and PP. And almost everything in the town, especially anything new or profitable, was owned by the Chinese. They were coming in and buying everything, the town was a strange place. Anyway the tour was ok. The most interesting part was some of the lesser known KR killing places, like a large cave, where they would through live bodies off, and let them get mangled and die. It was pretty intense, and there were bones and skulls all over the place. Also there was the bamboo railway, which was nothing like I pictured. It was just a set wheels on the tracks, with a little cart put on top, and a small outboard motor. And it was used almost exclusively to run illegal timber around, which I saw a shit load of. There were just cutting everything they could, and soon, this will be one of the most decimated places in the world. Kind of depressing. So that’s was it for Cambodia, Time to get back to Thailand.

Vietnam, where to begin? How about at the beginning, my trip into the country. So I leave Lao at 7pm, on a bus that is supposed to take 20 hours to get to Hanoi. There are about 15 westerners on this bus, and we all congregate towards the back. About half of us are going to Hanoi, the rest getting off somewhere along the way. We are all a little apprehensive about this journey, as there are many, many stories about the Vietnam-Laos busses, most of which are not very good (but just about all of them are going the other way.) so we get seated and ready to leave, there’s enough room for everyone who is traveling by themselves to have there own seat, and I settle myself into a nice sleeping position, and nod off (I hadn’t had much sleep the night before.) Then at the last moment, one last guy gets on, the only seats left are with us westerners, and what does he do, he comes all the way to the very back (I’m in the last seat) and sits next to the only person sleeping on the bus, making me get up. What a start to the journey. So I manage to sleep a little over the next few hours, we have a couple of rest stops, and I get to know a few of the other passengers. Then at around 2am, we arrive at the boarder, the drivers and conductor promptly get some things, and a sleeping bag, leave the bus, and go into a building. We’re here till the boarder opens at 6am. We manage to get a little sleep, the guy next to me moves to lie on top of the luggage. Then at six or so, they kind of let us know that it’s time to cross the boarder. And what a crossing. The building doesn’t have any electricity, at least this day, so they are checking our passports by candle light, and they the people here have no since of lines, it’s just shove forward and try and put your passport through the window, chaos. It takes a little while, but eventually we make it though, and then off the Vietnam side, and this is all about bureaucracy. I have to go to at least four different lines, giving small amounts of money to different people, ordered chaos. So we make it though, we are now in Vietnam, it’s now only six and a half hours after we arrived at the boarder. The rest of the trip was fine, though amazingly slow, and we arrive into Hanoi at about 7pm, 24 hours after leaving Vientiane, now what a way to spend a day.
So Hanoi, what a lovely city. Once we arrive I get a room with a Swiss guy I met on the bus, then we head out into the city to find ourselves some food. Now, as we walk into the city for the first time, we get to experience the amazing experience of crossing a street in Vietnam. It’s quite amazing, and you have to experience it to really understand it. But traffic never stops, and you just have to bravely walk out into the street, keep your pace constant, and walk across, the traffic moves around you. It feels like magic. It’s kind of scary, but also addictively thrilling. So anyway, were walking down the street to get some food, when I run into the guy I shared a room with in Luang Prabang, almost a month before. It turns out were staying at the same hotel, so we make plans to go out late, and now we find some food. So the food was good, we meet my friend and go out, have a few beers, catch up, etc. funny part is that when we head home, about 12:30, the streets are completely empty, it’s like a ghost town, I’ve never seen a big city like this, where just a couple of hours earlier the streets where packed. Now, the first order of business was logistics. There are two major excursions from Hanoi, before you head south, and I wanted to do both, and was trying to figure out the order. I had been told both were amazing. I also had to figure in when things were going to be open in Hanoi, like the body of Ho Chi Mihn. So I decided on going the trip to Ha Long Bay first, it’s a three day, two night trip, so I would be able to Ho when I got back. Ha long bay is an amazing place, with limestone caves, and hundreds of islands. It’s also cool up in this part of Vietnam, so it was cloudy and visibility wasn’t very good, I can’t imagine how this place would look when it was clear and sunny. So we went to a huge cave, and climbed a large look out our first day, before anchoring in a bay for the night. The food was very good onboard, all part of the package, sitting out on a boat, in a bay looking at the night, with a couple of beers was very nice. It was good to be by the ocean again, even if it was cold. The rest of the trip we went to Cat Ba Island, where we had a hotel, and went hiking around it. Then we went out for a kayak, in some amazing places. It was a nice trip, and we managed to get back around 4ish into Hanoi, on the third day. Then it was back to logistics for me. Vietnam is a very big country, with a lot to see and do, and I had to prioritize. I was with a heavey heart that I chose to skip going north to Sa Pa. I made this decision because I had spent a while in the north of Thailand, and though I knew it was different, there were other things that I wanted to spend more time doing while I was in the country, mostly the Delta. I made the decision to stay two more nights in Hanoi, and then head south. During this time I visited Ho’s body, went to the “Hanoi Hilton” prison, and just wondered the town. The sights were great but I think to two best parts about being there were 1. the street food, wow, and discovering Bia Hoi. Now for those of you who don’t know, Bia Hoi, means fresh beer, and is served a little sidewalk bars throughout the country. There is a wonderful corner in Hanoi, where there are at lease five Bia Hoi stands, and it you can find a seat, leads of fun. In Hanoi (it was different in Saigon,) it is served by the glass, for 2000 dong each. What that means is you can sit for two or three hours, drink eight glasses, and pay 1 USD. It’s also low alcohol content, so you don’t get very drunk, just presently intoxicated. I left Hanoi on a night bus (I hate night buses.) I was headed for Hue. Hue is the old imperial capital, and has some amazing tombs and a citadel. But the best part of Hue, was that the same day I arrived, my friend Claire, who was traveling up Vietnam, arrived that day as well. It was so good to see her, and we managed to hang out for two days. We saw the sights, rented moto’s and explored some tombs in the outlying area, and found a nice café and bar. We were all ready to leave after two days, as once you’ve done the few things there are to do, the rest of the city isn’t anything you want to stick around for, nothing like the next town Hoi An. Now this was an amazing place, and once you got over evenyone tring to sell you clothes, just a fun place to wonder around, and do nothing. This is the city of tailors, as there are thousands of them, and the place to buy tailed clothes, if you can find a good one, which is hard to know. I got two suites and four shirts made (so far they seem to be pretty good.) I met of with this guy Cameron, who I had met in Si Phon Don, Loas, and yet another Swiss guy, and we spent our evenings hanging out, playing a lot of pool. Now because the entire city of Hoi An is a UNESCO world heritage site, all the bars have to close by 11. And it’s enforced. But because of this, there are a few bars, about 4k outside of town, that stay open till 3, with free transportation to them, you just half to pay to get back. A couple of fun night out here. Spent one day renting moto’s and going to explore some old Cham ruins. I ended up staying here for five days, and had my first day of being sick, at lease it was when I had a room with sat TV. Next up was Nha Trang, and as it turned out, all my people from Hoi An were on my same but, and so we got a nice triple room, very cheap, nice. Nha Trang wasn’t that great a place, a nice enough beach, but the town itself was not a place you really wanted to hag out in. Spent on day renting moto’s and going out to monkey island, an island covered in monkey’s. We did find a good bar, it had a pool table and we befriended to owner/bartender. Spent the nights here before she closed up, and one night she joined us out, and taught us some Vietnamese card games. I spent only two nights here, though it seems longer, and I would have stayed longer, as there was cheap diving, but I had just got a email from my friend Justin, and he was going to be heading to Mui Ne, shortly, and I thought I would meet him. I got there in the afternoon, and he arrived late that night. It was good so see him again. He had met a couple of English girls on the bus so we had our social group. That next day we all rented motorbikes, and went into town. We explored the little of it there was, and then had lunch with an Israeli couple we had met. We hung out with then for a while, did a little hike. The next day we went to the dunes. This is the reason we had the bikes anyway (except that they are fun.) The dunes were amazing, a few miles inland from the ocean, there were the massive sand tunes, my a moderately sized lake. The thing to do was rent a piece fiberglass mat, and with it came a small child, and go to the dunes, then slide down the steep hill. It was great fun, and we spent hours here sliding and swimming. Then had a big night back at the hotel. Good fun, lovely place, good people, but we all had to get moving, and my next destination was Saigon.
I had a great time in Saigon. I love this town. It’s hard to say which place I liked better here or Hanoi, they were very different towns, and had different things going for them, but I maganged to stay longer here, for no real reason. My first day there I didn’t really do anything, just wondered around the town, did a couple errands, nothing special. But then that night I ran into a couple of guys I had met in Hoi An and Nha Trang. I had planed on doing the chu chi tunnels the next day, but when I ran into them, they had had this idea to go to a water park, and that sounded great, so the plan was set. This night, along with every subsequent night in Saigon was at the Bia Hoi stalls, and in Saigon, they sell it by he liter, very nice and cheap. So the following day, we met up, and headed off for a water park (Saigon has four.) This was a nice little adventure, as we went to the main bus mall, and tried to find our bus, we had many people tell us that the bus that went out there didn’t run anymore, but we found it, and then got to see a lot of Saigon not normally seen. The park was fun, though a little small. We did spend five hours here, and the last two hours, the park was nearly empty, so we got to just go and go, no lines, nice. That night, again at the bia hoi, we ended up hangin out with some local guys, and they showed us card games, and bought us peanuts. Lovely time. So the next day I went out the Chu Chi tunnels. I chose the tour that stopped at the ______ church, and got to see their mass. The church was really something, kind of a crazy fantasyland thing, much too bright. This religion combines Christian, Daoism, and ?. The mass was kind of boring, but the music was cool. Anyway, to the tunnels. They were cool. I know that these were the ones, re-dug for tourists, but still a cool thing to do, and I was the only person in my group to get in and go through all the tunnels, that was fun. Then back to Saigon, a nice day out. Now for the life of me, I don’t know how I spent the next few days, but I stayed in Saigon for another two days, and just kind of bummed around, and looked at the city. But I had to leave. And I had spent too much time here. My big plan was to have four or more days on my own in the delta, and now I only had two more nights before my visa expired. I had such ideas, and I really didn’t want to do the normal big tourist tour. I ended up finding an alternative tour, where you get to stay with a family for a night, and see there farm, before going to the big town, and floating markets etc. It was a little more, but I thought it would be nice, and it was a max of five people, so it wouldn’t be so intrusive. The only thing is that it left at 5:30 in the morning, god that sucked. Especially since I ended up staying out later then I had previously done in Saigon. But when I turned up, I found out that I was the only one on the tour, so I had my own private tour and guide, excellent, now the price was worth it. It was nice, and the family we stayed with was nice. I got to go into their orange orchard, which I’ve never seen one like this before, and then I got to try net fishing. And throwing those nets is hard then it looks. I also got to bike around the small village, and islands, and got the local market. It was nice. Then off to Can Tho. I had the evening free to wonder around. The next morning we did a tour of the floating market, and then cruised the canals in a small long-tail boat for a little while, stopping off to see a rice paper factory. Then I was rushed off to bus, and almost missed it, that was going to get me to the boarder town. As it turned out, then boats that went to Cambodia only left in the morning, and as I was arriving around 12:30, there were no more that day. But my visa expeired that day, so I had to leave. Luckily a guy in Can Tho had told me of another crossing, about 20-30 min from the town, that wasn’t in any guide book, so I hopped a moto, and went there. I was the only westerner there, and I was afraid that they were going to turn me back, but they let me though, and I made it to Cambodia.

I entered Laos down the Mekong River. I took a slow boat, which is a long boat stuffed with people and goods, that takes two days to get to Luang Prabang. During the night, we stop in a small village, where I had probably the worst bed I’ve ever slept in. LP was a nice town. It’s the second city in Laos, thought not much more then a village. I met a bunch of Canadians on the boat, and found some rooms with them. On my first night I ran into Vicky and Claire, who I had traveled with all through Malaysia and Thailand. They where were going to be there for the next couple of days, and were going on a tour the next day, but it was going to start too early, so I didn’t go. The Canadians and I instead hired our own transport, and went out the waterfall, which was amazing. Many pools, good swimming, lots of bars, some bears and tigers (?) and a very good day. As we came back we spotted a little fun fair, and stopped by for a while. They had a bouncy castle, and some strange local gambling game, it was interesting. Then for a somewhat long night at some bars, and such. Then next day was kind of a wash, just wondering about the town. All he Canadians ended up leaving this day, and I booked my bus for the following day. I did run into Claire and Vicky again, and hung with them for the evening, it was good to see them again. Next I was off to Phonsovan. The main attraction here was the plain of jars. An ancient area, where giant stone jars are in fields, presumably used as burial urns. This was also one of the most heavily bombed area’s of the Vietnam war. There are bombe craters all over the place, and paths that have to stay inside of, because outside these path, the mines have not bee cleared. It was a fascinating place, though the tour guide we had was just ok. Anyway, next I was off to Vang Viang. It was these two places that had made me want to come to Lao in the first place, the jars had always seemed like a crazy amazing place, and in Vang Viang, there was tubing down a river. And Vang Vieng was great. The day after I arrived I went tubing. And it was fun. First you take a tuk-tuk to the entry point in the river, with your tube. Then you float. At this time of year, it was slow. And there are this bamboo bars all along the side, some with rope swings, some with zip lines, all with Beer Lao. Good fun, I had a blast, the only thing is that because the river is so slow, at the end of the day, I had to paddle and walk my tube along the river a ways, to get back to town while the rental place was still open. The next day, I just decided to do absolutely nothing. I sat in a bar/restaurant, and watched movies all day. Funny thing is that for one of the movies Justin came in a watched it, though I didn’t know him yet. So, that was that day. The next day I wasn’t sure what to do. I had been running into people I knew, though not for long as they were all just leaving when I ran into them. But as I was waking out to get some breakfast, I ran into Eric and Jon, some guys I had met in Singapore, and kept running into all through Malaysia and Thailand. They hadn’t been down the river yet, so I said, lets go do it. And It was even more fun the second time, and I knew how our pacing should be and we were able to get back to town with out too much work. Good night, and hung out with them that night as well. The next day I went to Vientiane, with Eric, though he was taking a train back to Bangkok that evening. Vientiane was ok, and I just kind of wondered it. Spent a lot of time trying to find English books stores as I was nearly out of stuff to read. Had a very lovely evening and sat along to Mekong, watching the Sun set with a nice cold Beer Lao. The next day, I just kind of wondered more, as I was waiting for a night bus to take me down to Pakse. Now here’s where stuff gets interesting. I returned to my guesthouse, and waited to get picked up for the bus station. It came and on the transport, I met Justin and Chris. They had just met as well, and were talking about doing a bike trip around the Bolivan plateau. I had really wanted to go to this area, and this sounded like the best possible way to do, so I said I would come along. Anyway, so we got into Pakse, finally found somewhere to say (it was kind of an ordeal), and then went to find out where to rend the bikes from. We ended up going to the guesthouse that we wanted to stay at, though they were full, as they had competitive rates, better looking bikes, and the owner gave us amazing advice. The next morning we showed up and got our bikes, stored out big bags, and took off for our adventure. It was so nice. I had ridden motorbikes before, but not for any extended period of time, and it felt great to do so. Our first stop was a water fall, and when we were getting to the point we went to far, had to turn back, and then found one (we found out later that this was not the waterfall we were given directions to go see, but in this area of Lao, there are so many waterfalls, you can always find anther one.) We just had a glass of juice here, as there wasn’t good swimming, and we wanted to push on. So in the afternoon, we arrived at Tad Lo, kind of the main area in the Bolovan Plateua. It’s just a nice waterfall, but it the one place that there have been some guesthouse built up (about 5.) that was our first day of riding, it was only about 2, so had some lunch and then went swimming in the waterfall for a while. We had an enjoyable evening, met some interesting people, and then got ourselves invited to got to this local festival where they were supposed to be sacrificing a water buffalo. So we got up there, and found out the sacrifice wasn’t till the next morning, but it was interesting to see there little ceremonies. They had a special house where there were people canting, and sometimes they would come out, and with percussive instruments, walk around the house. The best part was interacting with the little kids, and there were there girls who just loved getting there picture take. So we stayed there for about an hour, and then returned, and went to bed. The following day, we road out, and was our first taste of riding on an unpaved road for a distance (today about 25k) this was also the end of seeing westerners for the rest of our tip, and almost no English either. We had lunch in the last decently large town (it had paved roads and an intersection) and just as were going to leave, Justin’s bike broke. Well, it was just his acceleration cable, but that’s enough. Luckily, we were in a town, and in this part of the world, there are a million bike repair shops. We pushed him bike to one, and got it repaired, quite fast and easy for no common language, and cheap too. So then we got on, and we were now an hour or so later then we wanted to be. So stopped by a waterfall that was on our itinerary, not especially interesting, considering all the other waterfalls that we had seen. We didn’t stay very long and pushed on. When we got the where a new guest house should have been, and where we through the waterfall was, we had no idea where to go. Here was no sign of it, other anyway, but barren fields. We finally asked someone we saw the name, and he told us to go down this road that looked like it went nowhere. But we followed, and lo and behold, we came to it. There only two rooms, and just enough space for us, but it was nice, and a great waterfall. Something really cool about was that they had rigged their own turbines in the waterfall, and that was how they got their power, amazing. So we went swimming, and eventually came in for dinner. Hung out and had a very pleasant night. In the morning we swam the waterfall again as it was very nice. But we decided to head out, as this was going to be our longest day. Shortly after starting out, we came to out turn off, where we were going to have to drive a longish way (80k) on dirt and bad roads. It was fun, but slow and harder. We stopped a little along the way and almost villages, and the locals all came out to look at us. Eventually, we made it though the road, and came to a town, where we had a lunch, good food. Then off to the first waterfall of the day. This one was very nice, with a large pool at the bottom of a 30-something meter fall. We hung out here for quite a while, and then as were going to leave, a bunch of locals our age invited us over to have been and jerky with them. Very nice, and I do love the people of this country so much. we stayed with them for a while until we had to leave, and then started to head back to pakse. We had one more stop and the large waterfall, about 90 meters, but something only to look at, as there was no way down. It was getting late, so we decided to get going at none of liked driving in the dark. We made it back to town, and wow, traffic, people, it had been a few days since we had seen these things. So we got back had dinner, and called it a fairly early night. So the next stop was si phon don, of four thousand islands. This is a place in the Mekong where the river gets very wide, and there are lots and lots of islands there, a few have been inhabited and lots of little guesthouses have come up. It really is one of the most relaxing place ever. There is no power to the island, and they use generators, so by 11, it’s very dark. I spent a week here, and didn’t do very much. Justin was there for the first four days, and chris the whole time, so I had a little company. I spent a lot of time in my hammock that overlooked the river, reading my book, and resting. I went out a little ad did a bike ride around, and one day did a tour to a big waterfall. Also one day rented a tube, and hung out loafing down the river. But it was just super relaxing, and I would have stayed longer, but my Vietnam visa was about to be come valid, and I kind of needed to move. I spent almost every sunset at my guesthouse bar, as they had wonderful mojito’s made with the local moonshine, lao-lao, for 50 cents! so I had another two nights before I left Lao, and it was mostly in transit, I got back to Pakse, had 4 hours till the overnight to Vientiane, then decided to spend one night, before the overnight to Hanoi. Kind of tiring, but met a few locals along to way, had some beers, and no left Lao living it, I need to go back, ahhhh.