Blogs from Asia - page 13072

Viang Thong - Xam Nua proved to be the most gruelling songthaew journey yet, requiring nearly 7.5 hours to cover 150km. Yes, that's an average of 20 km/h. This was partly due to the nature of the terrain, being all hills and escarpments, and partly due to a problem with the songthaew (or the driver) that required all downhill sections to be conducted in 1st gear. From a time efficiency point of view, the night bus would have been a better bet. At least we had our friends from the LoEME to keep us company. Almost making up for this tortoise-like pace were the contents of the songthaew. Mention of rice sacks is almost unnecessary as they are a standard feature on these vehicles. Of more interest were several buckets of frogs, covered with mesh to ... read more

Ach wie schön kann es doch sein ein bisschen durch Südostasien zu jetten um mal eben schnell am Wochenende einen weiteren Kurzurlaub einzulegen. Diesmal war allerdings alles ein wenig anders: keine Besichtigung einer Großstadt, kein Turnier und eine nette Begleitung in Form von Mitbewohnerin Jenny. Aber es gab auch wieder gewisse Konstanten, wie bei jeder Reise bisher: fast keinerlei Planung im Vorhinein, jede Menge Sonne und kleinere und größere Abenteuer. Es hat uns also nach Phuket verschlagen, die Ferieninsel Thailands schlechthin. Es ging uns also vor allem darum Sonne zu tanken und (zumindest für meinen Teil) ein wenig mehr Körperbräune zu sammeln. Denn meine Unterarme und Waden haben in den letzten Wochen schon einige Sonnenstrahlen abbekommen, was auf den Rest des Körpers leider noch nicht im selben Maße zutreffend war. Am Freitagabend haben Jenny und ich ... read more

It's the end of Chinese New Year, and after 15 days of dragons, fireworks, chinese opera, and paper towers on fire, Suz and I are faced with a decision. What to eat? The choices here in the city of Malacca are endless. It's like having half the hemisphere's cultures available to you in one buffet. What will it be today? Let's look at some options.... For breakfast: Breakfast is kind of a rough choice as there doesn't seem to be any definitive breakfasty type foods here. The Chinese have rice soup, you can always get some Indian Roti stuffed with egg, or just go with the usual western style runny omelet. The Malays however have Nasi Lemak, which we have been enjoying the last few days. It is essentialy a pile of coconut rice, surrounded by ... read more

Ko samui. Had a mammoth journey from Bangkok to samui. Left the guest house at 4pm and arrived at samui at 12pm the next day. Although it was a hell of a long time the journey was surprisingly comfortable, the seats on the bus were really good as you could recline them right back and we watched Miami vice. The boat was really. Air conditioned and I actually managed to watch saw. (I don’t do horror films; they give me nightmares, yes seriously) When we arrived we had absolutely no plans as to what and where we were going once we got there. Always the best way to travel. The owner of a beach hut resort approached us and offered us a beach hut on lami beach for 350 baht. So split between the 3 of ... read more

The first day of hospital began with a 0630 wake up, and a visit to the gym with Balaji. Gyms in India are no different to gyms in the UK. There are the same stereotypical muscle flexor performers who constantly idolise about themselves in the mirrors. There are also the usual cardio freaks (i'm moderate), who run for an eternal something. I remained on my usual treadmill regime which is, just run reasonably quickly for a long time. Simple. There was also a trainer following me around trying to teach me the basics of stretching and fitness etc... I didn't understand his real goal, but at least he tried, unlike gym instructors in the UK!... read more