I only stayed in KL for three days, I should have planned to stay longer. It's a lot like Hong Kong, only much friendlier. It's mainly Muslim, yet cosmopolitan, it has a bustling city centre, but also a great Chinatown and Little India - plus almost everyone speaks English! I visited the KL Tower for great views of the city, and take the Sky-bridge tour at the twin Petronas Towers - the latter looks incredible lit up after dusk. I was in KL during Ramadan and found it strangely amusing watching the locals break their fast in McDonalds... [View Full Entry]

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I take the overnight train to Nanjing, but still have no joy renewing my VISA, so book a flight to Hong Kong for the following day - my first flight of the trip! What can I say about Hong Kong? It's kind of 'New York meets Beijing'. All the affluence of a large Western city, with all the hubbub, street vendors and fake rolexes of East Asia. I liked it. The onyl problem was that, unless you're making or spending loads of money, there's not loads to do. I explored Nathan Road in all its neon splendour and took the Star [View Full Entry]

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I took to Thailand almost as soon as I entered Bangkok. They call it 'The Land of Smiles', and for good reason. After the relative unfriendliness of the Chinese, the Thai people's attitude came as a breath of fresh air. The fact that most people spoke at least a little English and Thailand had some kind of tourist infrastructure also helped! I spent 6 days in Bangkok, looking around the Wats (temples) - including the very impressive 45m long reclining Buddha at Wat Pho - taking longtail boat tours of the khlongs (canal streets) and buying 'funny' t-shirts and getting drunk [View Full Entry]

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I took a public bus to Kanchanaburi, site of the infamous and tragic 'Bridge over the River Kwae', walking across the bridge at sunset. It was frighteningly picturesque! The next day I went to Erawan National Park, and hiked up the seven tiered waterfalls, swimming in some of the pools, climbing on the rocks under the falls themselves, and getting nibbled at by fish. In the afternoon I take a kayak trip six or seven kilometres down the river, passing locals fishing and washing in the sewage-filled water. As I paddle under the bridge, a train crosses it, heading for the [View Full Entry]

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I love Chiang Mai. It's the old capital of Northern Thailand, but it's got much more of a small city feel to it than sprawling Bangkok. On my first day there I take an elephant trek through part of the jungle, and get to sit on the elephant's head, feeding it bananas. In the afternoon I pole a bamboo raft (literally 10 bamboo poles lashed together) down a river and over rapids. Everyone gets completely soaked, and the ride culminates with most of us rafters throwing ourselves of a 10m high rock inot the river. In the evening, I eat out [View Full Entry]

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I have my Birthday celebrations back in Bangkok and get riotously drunk on Chang Beer - you're only 34 once you know... I travel South and spend two glorious days on a raft-house in Khao Sok NP - just chilling out, sun-bathing and swimming in the reservoir. The place was so beautiful I forgot to take any photographs! From Khao Sok I go to Ko Pha-Ngan, just North of Ko Samui. We stay in beach huts on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. On the first night I go to the Half-Moon party, in a jungle clearing [View Full Entry]

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I travel North again from Bangkok, and headto Chiang Kong, take a long-tail boat boat across the Mekong and I'm in Laos! I spend one night on Houay Sai, a sleepy little village on the banks of the Mekong, and sample my first Beer Lao. It's not bad. It's noticably more humid in Laos than Thailand. I board a riverboat for a two day cruise down the Mekong, the scenery is tropical jungle and the river is muddy - just as you'd imagine it to be. We stop at Pac Beng the first night - another sleepy fishing village - before [View Full Entry]

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I cross the Vietnam-Cambodia border by bus and head straight for the Capital, Phnom Penh. I only knew a little of Cambodian history - of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge and the Killing Fields. I was in for a shock. We visited S-21. It used to be a school. In 1975 Pol Pot's army 'liberated' Phnom Penh, the people cheered and waved. Within hours the entire population were ordered to leave the city, being told it was only for three days. Over the following four years, an estimated 3 million, yes, you heard me, three million Cambodians were tortured and murdered [View Full Entry]

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I flew from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap on a twin-propellered plane. It was a turblulent flight. I'd been really looking forward to this part of the trip, as I'd so many pictures of Angkor Wat and loved the Khmer architecture. I wasn't disappointed. I watched the sun rise over the huge temple and strolled around the complex. The next day I visited a lot more temples in the area, including the one used in 'Tomb Raider', with tree-roots intermingling with carved brickwork - the place had a real ethereal quality to it! I headed back to Thailand and Bangkok, on [View Full Entry]

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I arrive in Chendge late in the evening and the town has been quite badly flooded. Fortunately, most of the water has subsided by morning and the weather brightened a little, but the streets are still covered in mud. I visit the Imperial Palace and Summer Villa, and stroll around the very beautiful park and grounds. They have deer running wild that bite if you get too close (take my word for it...), ponds FULL of goldfish and some amazing pagodas, with many tiled rooves. In the afternoon I got to the Puning Si, a Tibetan style temple containing a 22m [View Full Entry]

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