Here, there and everywhere!

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It's been a long time coming, but finally, it is here!

Since my last blog I have been through Vietnam, into Cambodia, back in Thailand, a short trip to Burma, spent time in Malaysia and am now sat in Indonesia.

After North Vietnam, I travelled south to a town called Da Nang. It was Chinese New Year at th time and everywhere was closed, all the Vietnamese were with their families eating and drinking. It was good to walk around and see how they celebrated New Year. I found a small festival to spend the evening and was the only westerner around which was interesting, plenty of funny looks from everyone and many 'hello mister, where you from?!' The next day, the man at reception of the guesthouse called me to ask a favour, he had a student studying English and asked me to spend some time with him speaking English to assist in his studies. I duly obliged and was more than happy to help, especially when he kept bringing me beers free throughout the day! Da Nang was a slow time and, as it was the New Year, many plces were closed. I left the next day, again heading South for a beach town called Nha Trang where a few friends I had met were staying. I stopped at Hoi An on the way which is a beautiful little town by the river. Lots of small stores run by families and stunning scenery by the river.

I arrived in Nha Trang after th night bus and checked in to a guesthouse. Nha Trang was full at the time because of New Year, lots of Vietnamese people on holiday and lots of travellers. I met my friends and spent the days walking around and spending time in the bars. Nha Trang had a good drinking scene at night which was fun, unfortunately, on the walk home on the last night, a girl I was with had her bag snatched from her hand on a guy on a motorbike. I attempted to run after him but I am far from being Usain Bolt and had no chance of catching him. The locals were not very helpful either and they say it happens quite often, there was very little we could do.

The next morning we left for Dalat, hungover and a bit pissed off. Dalat is a town on a hill. From Dalat we planned to do an Easy Rider Tour to Mui Ne. This was a tour riding with local guys on the back of their motorbikes. They were big bikes and the guys were friendly and showed us around Vietnam, taking us up the hill roads and showing us amazing scenery and ending up with the white sand dunes and sunset at the red dunes of mu nei. The next day we rented motorbikes, 2 people on both to see around mu nei. Nicole, one of the girls with us wanted to try riding as she never had done before. She started off well, but infortunately, when it came to pulling over, she did not know how and came off. I was just in front of her and heard the horrinble sound of the bike crashing, I turned around to see her on her front face down, naturally, I thought the worst. I spun around to see what damage had done, luckily it was a few cuts on the knee and her foot, but I did see her bone in her foot which was not a good sight. Luckily a taxi was nearby and I got her into the taxi and went to the hospital which was not far away. 1 girl got in the taxi with Nicole and I got the other girl and went to the hospital. Nicole took it all very well, I was very impressed. We had to pay for damages to the bike which we all split, but Nicole could not do much as she couldn't walk well so we took it easy for a day before heading to Ho CHi Minh City.

We went to the Cu Chi tunnels in Ho Chi Minh. these were the tunnels built byViet Cong during the Vietnam War with America. Thy were tiny tunnels, around 1m tall and half a metre wide. These were even smaller at the time as they have been increased for tourists. We were shown the traps that were used by the Viet Cong, holes with various bamboo spikes sticking up which looked particularly nasty and then went to the tunnels. There were exits after 20m, 30m and all the way for 100m. It was quite daunting going in as there was a queue of people ahead and behind. Regina who was in front of me panicked a little at the start, but there was no way back! Once in there it was fine though. We went to the end of the 100m which was good fun but very sweaty!! We stopped at the War Museum afterwards which again was very interesting.

It was off to Cambodia next, heading for Phnom Penh the Capital City. This was the setting of the infamous Khmer Rouge Killing Fields and Prison in the late 70's. Over 1m Cambodians were tortured and killed here, including children and babies. Lets say walking around the fields and the prison (a converted high school) was a very grim and eery experience. A beer was well needed after this.

I had a manly day the next day rding bikes and going to the Army base where I was able to shoot machime guns and AK47's. I was offered a chicken to shoot but declined the offer and chose the targets instead. I then went with a worker at the guesthouse to see his friend and drink more beer. Cambodians are apparantly known for their laziness and I think I was an excuse to spend the afternoon with his froneds and drink as it was seen as customer service, but I was happy to oblige as the beer and food was good and cheap!

After Phnom Penh i headed to the beach of Sihanoukville where it was lazing on the beach, a ride on a jet ski and more drinking and partying. Then it was off to Siem Reap. This is where Angkor Wat is situated, a huge and very impressive temple built for the King in the 12th Century. It is surrounded by lots of other smaller templs and ancient buildings but nothing was more impressive than Angkor Wat. Although pspedning the whole day walking around was one of the hottest I have ever been, but I didn't even get burnt which was a major surprise for me, I must be getting used to this hot weather!

There were plenty of bars in Siem Reap and I bumped into 4 girls I had met previously in Thailand and Laos and so spent the night and days with them, drinking cheap cocktails and buckets, very messy nights!

After Siem Reap it was back across the border into Thailand, but I think I have waffled on for long enough now so I will continue with the rest later on. I have uploaded most my pictures onto my facebook profile so if you want to see pictures feel free to look, they are open to everyone for see. I will try and get them onto here at some point so I will do my best.

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