Bali is Indonesia's most popular tourist destination, famed for it's beatiful beaches, great surf and nightlife. Throw in a few hawkers selling cheap t-shirts, fake watches and DVDs for flavour. The beaches really where nice, and once again I tried my hand at surfing. Not all that hard, with the waves at Kuta beeing perfect for beginners. Bali is not only a beach holiday destination, with plenty of other activities on offer inland. I did the white water rafting, which was a good fun for an afternoon. The rapid's weren't the biggest, but constant, with stunning scenery along the way. I [View Full Entry]

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I spent a quick one and a half days in Malaysia, as a stopover on the way to Bali. KL really was a nice city. Friendly people, good public transport. 1st world, which was a big change coming from Cambodia. I spent the day wandering city, of course visiting the landmark Petronas Twin towers, until recently the tallest buildings in the world. [View Full Entry]

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My first stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap, to visit the ruins of Angkor, the most famous of them beeing Angkor Wat. The are hundreds of other temples scattered around, many of them distinctive in their own way, so visiting many temples doesn't get too boring. I hired a guy on a moto to take me around the temples for a day, as doing it all on foot would be impossible, especially in the heat! Some of the temples are pretty well preserved, while others are nearly completly destroyed, with many in between. One of my favourites was Ta Prohm, the [View Full Entry]

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My first stop in Laos was the small town of Luang Prabang. The first thing that struck me about Laos was that it is so much more relaxed than Vietnam, no aggressive street vendors, and hardly any traffic. What a difference from the bustle of Hanoi. Luang Prabang is famous for it's colonial architecture, as well as the many buddhist temples. As I'm fairly templed out by now, I didn't bother visiting any of the temples, I did get up at 5.30am one morning though, to watch the daily procession of hundreds of monks, as they go through the streets accepting [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Hoi An early in the morning, after taking a nightbus from Na Trang. Hoi An turned out to be my favourite place in Vietnam. It's a smallish town with great character. Close to the beach, riverside cafe's, and generally had a nice feel about it. Hoi An is also famous for it's tailors, cheap cheap. I'd heard from several other travellers that they had suits and clothing tailor made, and they do it within 24 hours. Since some day I will also have to return to the real world and find a job, I had a suit & [View Full Entry]

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Vietnam opened it's door to toursim in 1995, and they have done a good job of embracing it. Despite still being a communist country, they have seem to have embraced capitalism: you can't walk 2 meters down the street without someone offering you a motorcycle rides, fake books, sunglasses, lighters, drugs, etc.. Arriving in Ho Chi Minh City, previously Saigon, the first thing you notice is the motorbikes. The city has a population of 8 million, and there are approx. 5 million bikes in the city, swarming through the streets in ordered chaos. There aren't many traffic lights, so crossing the [View Full Entry]

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Leaving the island lifestyle behind us, we arrived back to the bustle of Kao San Road, where we booked a tour/trek to Kanchanaburi for the next day. Kanchanaburi is famous for the Bridge over the River Kwai, a bridge built by Allied prisoners of war in WW2 and made famous by the movie. In the area we did some trekking through the Hellfire pass (named after all the torches lit up at night, allowing the p.o.w.'s to work up to 18hrs a day), up some hills and to a cave system which is now a Buddhist temple. After lunch, we got [View Full Entry]

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Southern Thailand, with limestone cliffs (think James Bond), beautiful islands and hundreds of beaches beckoned after enduring the chaos and bustle of Bangkok. An overnight bus took us (JC, Marlene and Mike) to Krabi, on the west coast, where we stayed in Ao Nang for two nights. There we relaxed on the beach, where monkeys come down to play, and did a day tour which takes you to various small islands with snorkelling opportunities. White beaches, jungle and karst cliffs. What more can you ask for? In Ao Nang we also witnessed Songkrat, the Thai New Year celebrations. Orinially Songkrat was [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Bangkok after a 20hr flight from LA, where I met up with Jean-Claude and Mike (who will be in Thailand for 3 weeks). We kicked off our Thailand adventure on Khao San Road, the famous backpackers mecca in Bangkok.We did some catching up over some buckets (literally small buckets filled with rum, red bull and topped up with coke), snacked on some grasshoppers (the rum may have had a hand in this), and enjoyed a relaxing foot massage, cheap cheap. Bangkok is a interesting city, but as a tourist you are constantly harrased by tuk-tuk dirvers, tailors and [View Full Entry]

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Before heading to Thailand, I spent a few days relaxing in LA. As luck would have it, another old friend from Vienna, Heather, now lives in LA. So once again I had a place to stay and a friend to show me around. Heather lives in Hermosa, about a mile from the beach, in a house she shares with 5 friends. We spent the days visiting beaches around the area (Hermosa, Santa Monica & Laguna), as well as having a braai, visiting an improv comedy show in Hollywood (one of her friends was in the show), and eating good 'ol american [View Full Entry]

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