For various reasons, I am now in Bangkok. I was forced to raise the white flag at the Buddhist retreat after only a couple of days. The experience was an interesting one though, and not one I will soon forget. I spent the entire time in silence and slept on a concrete slab with a wooden pillow. The area is surrounded by jungle and various streams so the mosquito's were large and numerous - they ate me alive! It would have been okay if the monks had not insisted that I refrain from killing anything whilst on the monastery grounds... but they did, so I was entirely defenseless. I understand that it's better not to go around killing things for the fun of it, but come on! At one point I looked on my arm and ... read more

Hi, From Mui Ne we travelled by coach to Nah Trang, a slightly larger town situated further up the coastline. We weren't suprised to find a beautiful beach there and the place had a similar kind of vibe to it. Couple of hippies/surfer types and other beach-goers of a similar vein. We were pretty stressed out from the crazy amount of hours we had built up in coaches, taxi's, moto's and bicycles - so we took the rational option and decided to go for a mud bath. When in Rome. We were asked to take a shower before entering the baths and we stood beneath a massive power-shower blasting water from numerous downward facing hoses. I got a pretty nice shower of it, but both me and Rich were fairly certain that his would eventually sever ... read more

Ho Chi Minh City is pretty incredible. We've been here a couple of days now and have had the chance to visit the National War Museum and today we saw the Chu Chi Tunnels, which is a couple of hours outside the city. The food here is quite different from Cambodia, and I might be tempted to say I preferred it... but I haven't yet been physically able to sample some of the spicy food. About 5 days ago I awoke in the middle of the night with indigestion like no man has previously endured. My body felt as though all the worlds gasses had chosen to seek shelter within my digestive system in a vain attempt to avoid death through carbon emissions. I was sharing a room with my two travel companions and I quickly ... read more

Hello, The night dogs nearly had our bones last night... I believe they've been following us in an increasing pack since the early days of Siem Reap. I believe their number stands at around 400. This figure is based upon the inevitable snowball effect of a moving, pack multiplied by the number of provinces we've gradually passed through. We have moments of relief where there appears to be complete silence... then we hear it. The erratic and bone-chilling howls of deranged and demented street animals. We share a glance and then with eyes wide open...pupils shrinking we declare in sunken voices: "They've found us..." We then remember that the pack barking is usually brought about by the discovery of the rotting carcass of a hideous frog... or the half digested remains of a rival dog's fecal ... read more

Hello, We've finally left Siem Reap and have safely made the trip to Phnom Penh. Me and Rich only just made the coach as we were naturally slightly late and also a car crashed into our Tuk-Tuk in some of the worst reverse driving I've ever seen. There were literally four people banging on the back windscreen of the car but it just kept on going until we heard a hideous crunch around the front wheel. I genuinely thought that was us for the day... but I forgot you don't bother about trading car insurance details in Cambodia. In fact, the two drivers never said a word to each other - there was no road rage, swearing, shouting or cursing of any sort. I might have sworn in disbelief, but other than that there was absolutely ... read more