Andy King

So we finally left Hanoi and all borded our 3 day delayed, $78, 2 hour plane ride to HCMC/Saigon in further exploration to find new people to meet, more places to get drunk and different beer to taste. The 5 of us went with daves lovely travel guide book and chose a nice little hotel that was just outside the main center of HCMC. Big mistake. It just so happend that it was a building site next door and they forgot to say to us they start daily at 6am, hence cutting the power to the hotel which meant no fan/aircon and no TV. needless to say, we scampered the next morning and moved to possibly the best hotel we have stayed in. not because it was extra comfy or anything, the staff were extemely friendly ... read more

So after the death bus journey, riddled with dodgy locals smuggling goods over the border, monsoon rain and a nightmare border crossing from Laos, we finally get to Hanoi. Hanoi is Vietnams capitol and instantly reminds us of bangkok. cars are hard to come by here as 98% of the people us annoying little mopeds and constantly beep their horns as they fly across cross roads blind without even looking at on coming traffic. its mayhem. i thought Bangkok was bad but there are not traffic jams as such, just mopeds flying at all directions, dodging pedestrians and nearly smashing into one of the thousands of shops that sell toys aimed at 8 year olds. its a strange place. we only stuck around for the 2 days here as we booked up to go to Halong ... read more

So, after an 18 hour train from Bangkok that was supposed to take 12 hours, we arrive on the Sunday afternoon in Chaing Mai, knowing we are going on a 3 day jungle trek the next day.. First impressions are good. Much more laid back and chilled out that Bangkok could ever be, slightly cleaner and alot less hassle from the bloody tuk tuk drivers. We stayed at Top North Guest House, our home for the next 7 nights. Nice pool, big rooms and a bar so about all we could want. We came here knowing Kirsty was staying here for a while so i made the lads come with me to go meet her, Nicola and Sean, an American bloke they picked up in Hong Kong. But instead of simply saying come meet us in ... read more

So, uni over, millions of pounds in debt, i get myself into more debt to come to asia, a place far far away that is supposed to be very nice. Bangkok however, isnt. well, its different put it that way. Baptism of fire when i get off my 15 hour plane journey via the middle east, the heat is humid and quite uncomfortable, especially when im carting around a massive bag with no idea as to what to expect when i meet the boys. They got drunk in the hotel room the night before so when i got there, they wernt paticuarly enthusiastic about a day sight seeing in the most overly polluted, dirtiest, busiest and smoggiest city i have ever been to. After, gettig ripped of by a tuk-tuk man, we did a boat ride ... read more