Severe sunburn (the result of snorkeling, I blame the fish - they are too pretty, you spend all that time looking down and then the sun gets mad and takes it out on your back) caused me to retreat, like generations of colonial Englishmen before me to the cool, refreshing climate of Malaysia's hill stations. To the Cameron Highlands in the central north peninsular, 2,000 ft up and you're almost 9,000 miles to the west and back in Surrey. Here is where Tea lives, oh that was a pleasure let me tell you, almost a pilgrimage as I had yet to [View Full Entry]

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Ahhh, Malaysia, like an old friend, one that smells a little but you like too much to really care. Slipping back into the country the way I came out back in 2004, via Kota Baru, I was confident, I was on familiar ground, I chatted to locals as a lone westerner on the awesome sleeper train, drank coffee in the dining cart like it was the 1920's, watched the jungle creep up as we neared the border. At the start of my solo journey (Nilam had also gone to Malaysia, but wanted to see different parts of it, parts I'd already [View Full Entry]

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An Internet cafe chewed up and spat out my photo CD containing pictures of our amazing South Laos adventure from Vientiane to Kong Lor cave and Ban Natan village in central Laos. Which is a shame, because the place was amazing. We went through Green Discovery which gives proceeds back to the communities who take part and aim to use as many different local organisations as possible to spread the wealth. It was just Nilam and I and our guide, the equipment (kayaks, mountain bikes) was loaded onto a jeep and we were driven to the local bus station. We then [View Full Entry]

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Luang Prebang -> Phonsavan -> Vang Vien -> Ventiane Okay, so Laos, well the first thing that hits you, as you stumble off the 29 hour, hot, DVT inducing bus ride, which you will spend with feet wrapped cosily in bundles of wire (until you are all herded off the bus for two hours whilst the wire is offloaded in some random middle-of-nowhere factory) is the colour. It's almost obscene. The Blue Sky, The Green Hills, The White Clouds, it's like Laos has stolen the colour from it's Asian neighbours - fought Bangkok for the golds and blues, China for the [View Full Entry]

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Okay, another (slightly shorter) one country entry again until I catch up with myself (constantly getting viruses on my memory card from sloppy Internet cafes does not help) HoChiMinh City (Saigon) --> Hoi An --> Hanoi -->Halong Bay --> Hanoi --> Sapa So, roughly one week after our Vietnamese visas officially started we rolled dazed and dusty into Saigon. Rather unsure of what I was expecting, and having watched 'Good Morning Vietnam' only a few days earlier, what I found was different to everything. Let's start with the Scooters/Motos, firstly, there [View Full Entry]

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The World's bumpiest bus journey is undertaken from Bangkok to Siam Reap, so bad that I am surprised the buses survive the journey at all. We saw one car on this five hour bone rattling test of endurance that had slid into a river off the muddy, slippery roads. Re-assuring. We stopped to ask if they needed help, but a truck and some rope were on the way. So we left on our arse numbing way and arrived in Siam Reap late at night, thankfully to available rooms at the lovely Rosy's guesthouse on the river. The road in to Siam [View Full Entry]

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This will be brief and cover the whole of our Thai trip as I've lost patience with re-uploading photos etc when Travelblog went down. Bangkok, a little disappointing after the glory of Hong Kong, but thankfully cheaper. It has it's own charms though, where else can you be served a bucket of elephant strength Red Bull and Whiskey by a chavtastic lady boy in a converted Shell petrol station? We ended up at a political Rally in protest of marshal law, handed fliers we couldn't read until a lovely old man translated. Spent the afternoon listening to protest songs and asking [View Full Entry]

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Macau was slightly uninspiring, interesting but the heat melted any enthusiasm I had about exploring the city. Met some Philippino bead traders. Oh yes. Bead Traders. They bought us lunch and showed us some of the city, they were very nice and not at all going to kidnap us, but we'd left our bags in the care of a restaurant and were rather anxious to get back to them, so we said our goodbyes and decided to head straight to the Hong Kong Ferry terminal. Macau's streets were small and winding, at least for the most part, just the way I [View Full Entry]

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So, patchy sleep, a few extra hours over the estimated arrival time as the driver stops to argue over the price of bananas and we are in Guilin, a quick shower and we are back on a bus to see some rice paddies. Two hours outside Guilin are the fields belonging to the 'Long hair tribe' where the women grow their hair until they get married and only wash it in the water from the paddies. The village is beautiful, highly ornate wooden houses perched over the rice fields all the way up the terraces. It's ridiculously touristed, but that [View Full Entry]

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We speed through Xaimen is favour of Gulangyu Island, which is well worth a nights stay, free ferry on the way over, 8RMB on the way back. It's just like the set from that old 60's tv show 'The Prisoner' where a spy wants to quit spying and he gets kidnapped and placed in a carefully designed 'village' for ex spies who know too much to live out the rest of their days. The lawns (LAWNS!) are immaculate, the only motorised transport allowed is the golf cart, there is even classical music piped in from hidden speakers from 6am till 10pm [View Full Entry]

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