Travel Update for Asia

Dear all, its getting very hard to update my journals on-line in Asia. Connections are slow, they keep crashing and its taking me longer to update my blog due to the immense waste of time as these crashes occur. So here is an update or synopsis of what has happened since China.

I travelled from South to North of Vietnam in just under a month through February. I was on the move after every 2 days and it took on average 24 hours on various modes of public transport to get to my next destination. Overall, I found Vietnam to be a very tourist orientated country and as such everyone is after your dollar, they have little interest in you other than that dollar. This makes the people at times very rude, in fact Vietnamese in the South were much more tolerable than those in the North who were without a doubt the rudest. It is a country that I found very dirty in places and it is hard to get off the beaten track as every major sight of interest is done as a tour package. Therefore you find yourself on buses with other westerners and herded around like sheep, especially Halong Bay, which is a beautiful spot, however the amount of boats that leave the for the bay each day is reminiscent of the evacuation of Dunkirk. The boat takes you to the famous caves of Halong Bay and then you line up to enter a cavern system that is lit at best like Santa's Grotto at John Lewis every Christmas. Sadly for me I also had my nice camera stolen whilst I slept on the overnight sleeper train from Sapa, whilst it right next to me overnight. They broke the pad lock and took my camera without my knowing, trains here are very noisy and so I didn't hear them whilst I slept. I lost all my Vietnam pictures but luckily Chris a nice bloke from England I had met earlier gave me a copy of his. Thanks Chris I owe you one for that kind gesture. So having bought a new camera I have arrived in Laos, which I have to say is spectacular, I have only been here 5 days but already it feels marvelous. The people are very friendly, there is culture, temples and monks, hot and sunny weather and above all the beer is cheap. What more can I say if you planning to travel Asia and have to choose between countries forget Vietnam and you cant go wrong with Laos and Cambodia.

I'm now heading down to South Laos and will eventually cross the border into Cambodia by mid March. So everyone I'm okay I had some setbacks recently but I'm back in business and on the road to everywhere and will write next blog when I can. Hope you are all well, keep in touch and hopefully will write you another Blog on Vietnam when I can.

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