Blogs from Asia - page 13027

I remember a “Far Side” Cartoon, from some years ago, depicting a Neanderthal man holding an enormous club the size of a Douglas Fir log and saying to his friend, “Let’s hope we never have to use it.” The same concept applies to first aid, but Lao-puo and I had to use ours the other day. A fellow spilled off his motorbike near our digs, seconds before we arrived at the accident scene. His young son on the back was unhurt, but you didn’t have to be a sawbones or a paramedic to tell at a glance that the dad had broken his leg. Being somewhat analytical in a crisis, I remembered a martial arts friend of mine telling me some years ago that it only takes 7 psi to break a human bone. Or was ... read more

Rather than a straight run through to Pakxe, I fancied breaking up the journey with a couple of days in Thakhek to see some karst scenery nearby. My attempts to obtain info about suitable buses to Thakhek proved highly frustrating, with different sources stating the "only" daily bus was at, variously, 6:30AM, 7:30AM, 11AM, and 8:30PM. I chose to turn up at the bus station at 6:15AM and take it from there. 7:15AM was the correct answer, but even then the ticket seller said it would take 4 hours to reach Thakhek - which would have required an average speed exceeding 90 km/h, which I doubt even Laos Airlines could achieve. The first thing I noticed was that Thakhek was extremely hot. The north of Laos had been getting close to my temperature threshold, but Thakhek ... read more

A series of very memorable bus rides got us to Yogyakarta, Java very late 2 nights before my Indonesian visa expired. So, rather than seeing the sites, I spent my 2nd last day in Indo booking flights and sorting out some money issues. My friend and I flew out of Yogya at 6:30 on the 7th of March, approximately 30 minutes before a plane crash landed at the Yogya airport. Talk about timing! After a series of flights, we landed in Bangkok. Wow! Traffic! Lights! Advertising! Tourists! Thailand was the land of abundance after the small Indonesian towns we had been staying in. Internet, ATMs, guesthouses, menus in English--it was all very overwhelming and quite welcome for a change. The tourist quarter of Bangkok, Banglamphu, is an interesting place. Chock full of every variety of traveller, ... read more

On Saturday we spent the entire day on a bus, which had the worst air conditioning you could imagine. We arrived in Taman Negara about 6.30pm feeling hot and tired. We had a bit of trouble finding somewhere to stay as it is the school holidays here and everywhere was fully booked. Eventually we found a room for two people but the owner put a mattress on the floor for Rich. We met Gorlo and Ingrid from Germany on the bus and happened to be eating at the same place as them in the evening. We arranged to hire a boat the following day to visit a cave with them. Erica, Rich and I then walked to the Woodland resort where they sold expensive beer and had a really bad Internet connection. Rich left before us ... read more

I thought seen as i'd done this for India i might as well do it for every destination! 7/eleven The English quivalent of Spar - this is a upermarket chain with at least 2 appearing on every street. The weird thing is that its open 24 hours - bearing no resemblance to the name whatsoever!! Toilet etiquette Due to the sewege system not being that great, you can't flush anything down the toilet - it all has to go into the bucket situated next to the toilet - nice!! Dining out If the bugs didn't tickle your fancy, perhaps some of these beauties we came across might! * Deep fried chicken nobbly knees * Minced crap balls * Deep fried chickens foot * Deep fried chickens elbow No wonder we spent alot of time in subway!! ... read more