http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Chris2000/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Chris2000 en-us Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:48:09 BST Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:48:09 BST 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 tshirts 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 http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Bali/blog-289931.html 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. http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/blog-283576.html 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 heatSome of t http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Cambodia/blog-281692.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-277151.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Vietnam/blog-276923.html 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 motor http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-270232.html Leaving the island lifestyle behind us we arrived back to the bustle of Kao San Road where we booked a tourtrek 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 http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Thailand/North/blog-269922.html 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 isla http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Thailand/South/blog-269915.html I arrived in Bangkok after a 20hr flight from LA where I met up with JeanClaude 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 han http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Thailand/North/Chiang-Mai/blog-265000.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/blog-262075.html Before heading off to the other side of the world I decided to visit some friends in the US. My first stop back in the first world was St. George Utah. St. George is a small town about 1.5hrs from Las Vegas and close to Zion National Park. Annalee an old friend from Vienna lives there so I spent a few days relaxing there catching up and enjoying the comforts of the developed world.Of cours http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/United-States/blog-261062.html After a late arrival in Playa del Carmen I was glad to book a tour to Chichen Itza the next day. Chichen Itza is the famous Mayan ruin city now one of the new 7 wonders of the world. Chichen Itza if famous for its big pyramids and for the Mayan calendar that was found there which ends on December 21st 2012. Some say this predicts the date of the end of the world I guess we will find out soon http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/Mexico/Yucat%E1n/Chich%E9n-Itz%E1/blog-261060.html After the volcanoes and ruins in Guatamala it was time to catch my breath and get in some beach time in Caye Caulker a laid back island about 1 hour by boat from Belize City.The first day I went on a snorkelling tour around the island and it really was the best snorkelling I have ever done. At the first site there were dozens of rays swimming around and and even touching us. Kept thinking of S http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Belize/Belize-Barrier-Reef/Caye-Caulker/blog-261057.html My first stop in Guatamala was Antigua a beautiful colonial town but my main reason for visiting was the close proximity to Volcan Pacaya one of the most active volcanoes in the world with a regular lava flow which you can get as close to as you want to if you can take the heat that is The volcano is about an hours drive away from Antigua and then it takes another 1.5hr hike to get to the a http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Guatemala/blog-255211.html After spending 6 months in South America I found myself with less than 3 weeks for Central Amrica before having to fly to the US to catch my flight to Bangkok. So I decided on a few highlights that I wanted to see.As I had arrived in Panama City from Colombia the Panama Canal was a must see beeing one of the impressive engineering feats of our time. And impressive it was. We spent some time wat http://www.travelblog.org//Central-America-Caribbean/Panama/blog-253773.html After spending my last weeks in Colombia partying in Santa Marta then relaxing and diving in Taganga I parted ways with Pascal Julien and returned to Cartagena with Andy and Emma a couple I had met about 3 weeks previously in Quito. They had the same plan to take a yacht from Cartagena to Panama so our itineraries fit perfectly..Back in Cartagena we headed straight for the marina to find ou http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/blog-251080.html Playa Blanca is a beautiful isolated beach on an island off Cartagena where we stayed for three nights sleeping in hammocks on the beach. No electrcity no running water.The days consited of waking up in the morning for a swim relaxing on the beach eating fresh fish relaxing more eating more fresh fish and a little more relaxing. You get the picture.Next stop was Cartagena a old colonial c http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Cartagena/blog-245215.html I met two swiss guys Pascal and Julien In the hostel in Medellin who were heading to Rio Claro so I made a last minute decision to join them and a good decision that wasRio Claro is a nature reserve about 3hrs from Medellin with the main feature being the pristine River Rio Claro. We hadn't booked any accomodation so when we walked past a campground we decided to give it a try. We manage http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/blog-245208.html Bogota was my first stop in Colombia and is a pretty interesting city. I did most of the major sighseeing on the first day starting in the historic center Plaza Bolivar. From there all the interesting buildings Cathedrals presidents residence older buildings are quickly covered. Entrance to museaums was also free so I visited the Gold museum as well as the Botero gallery which much to my http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Colombia/Bogota/blog-245198.html I arrived in Ecuador much to my suprise in Guayaquil. For some reason my plane had been diverted. Luckily with my brilliant spanish I found out they had organised a connecting flight so I would make it to Quito after all just 6 hours later than anticipated.I stayed at the Secret Garden Hostel where Christina whom I had met in Rio was volunteering for a month. She was planning to go to Cot http://www.travelblog.org//South-America/Ecuador/blog-238868.html