Blogs from Asia - page 14322

Bangkok! We were sad to leave Cambodia because we felt we had done Vietnam justice, but had only done two , and the most obvious two, locations in Cambodia. We also said goodbye to Jean and John who headed back into Vietnam (via a few more airports than they had planned on..) after a lovely (and well fed) week of luxury - back to budget street for us. Anyway, Thailand! a new adventure! After arrival and slightly dissapointed with our grubby hotel we set out to explore the city. Immediately we were set upon by a very friendly chap who, with our guard down, led us to a Tuk Tuk and we headed off to a TAT tourist office to book a trip to Chiang Mai in the north. As I am writing this from ... read more

We took a 4 hour plane ride to Bangkok and arrived at 810PM on August 13th. We tried to make the overnite train to Chiangmai by literally running to the train station (close to the airport) but could not secure tickets. We then elected to take the plane-a 55 minute ride that left at 1030PM and arrived at Chiangmai..where it was raining cats and dogs. We took at cab to the River View Lodge a very nice small lodge by the River Ping. The rain stopped the following morning although it was still overcast. We rented a scooter at the hotel we stayed at and left after a delicious breakfast at our hotel for the Wat Doi Suthep . Wats are thai Buddhist temples. The Wat Doi Suthep is perhaps the most famous Chiangmai Wat and ... read more

Sunday August 13th My last night in Chengdu was pretty hard. At around 2AM I woke up in sweat. Electricity was out on the whole floor and I found out that sleeping in Chengdu without a fan is pretty damn hard as the heat is so oppressing. I also realized that my stomach pain had developped in a full-fledge diarhea, but thank god they had a generator going so at least they had lights in the bathroom else I'm not sure how I would've survived. I managed to find some sleep after about an hour and woke up in time to catch the public buses I needed to take to get to the bus. It was obvious I wouldn't last a day in the bus without some helped so I popped an Immodium hoping it would ... read more

Jaisalmer is wonderful - a hot, dusty, desert town, 60kms from Pakistan's border, with a 12th century fort on top of a hill. I can't work out if it's falling down or being built up - there are small building sites everywhere. But the direct Delhi trainline has only recently sprung into action, so I imagine that within a decade, this sleepy little place will look like downtown Mumbai...I totally fell in love with the beautiful havelis and incricate, carved stonework on people's homes inside the fort. We s Stayed at the Shahi Palace just outside the fort, with the brothers - and they are building one hotel each, so there'll be other great places to stay within a year or so. The Shahi has fabulous red sandstone rooms and a rooftop restaurant overlooked by the ... read more

Took a boat from Siem Reap to Battambang, the second largest city in Cambodia. The 7 hours boat ride took us passed many interesting floating villages, picking and alighting passengers at the villages on the way. With many photo opportunities along the scenic ride, 7 hours on the boat was still bearable. Upon arrival, met with many touts to solicit for customers to stay in the hotel they work for, with stiffest competition from Chaya and Royal Hotel. We chose Chaya Hotel and was led by the tout to board the mini-van to bring us to the hotel. Guess many others chose Chaya too, cos the van was pretty packed. When we were about to get up, we were stopped by 2 French ladies, yakking that the van is full, full and their big-size hubbies, who ... read more