Arriving in Tokyo, after months in south east Asia, was a real contrast. Armed with detailed directions to meet my sister (who moved out with family in September) I casually stepped off the plane in my t-shirt and flip flops then being hit unprepared by the cold. I say unprepared but I was warned about it before hand, doesn’t detract from how cold it was though. The next thing that hit me, and this was to stay consistent throughout my stay, was service. As I've mentioned in previous entries, the locals of any of the places I'd encountered so far have [View Full Entry]

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Hanoi is a great place, a bustling city with good nightlife and good food, even if the servings are a touch on the small side. You have to order 2 or 3 portions for a proper meal but I suppose that’s fits in with their preference for meal sharing, and maybe why the locals are all quite small. Its pretty similar to Bangkok if a little rougher round the edges. There are motorbikes everywhere, in my first 3 days here I witnessed 4 motorbike collisions, one narrowly missing me by a foot (not mine). Nothing serious, and even if it was [View Full Entry]

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After our escapades in the forest we were taken back to the sleepy town of Huay Xai, where the base was. Christmas had been something different and now I had to think of something to do for the impending New Year. We all had to head back to the larger town of Luang Praban anyway but instead of catching the next day's slowboat with the rest of the group; I figured I'd delay my journey by a day so I could catch the speedboat back. There was an ulterior motive to this, it also meant that I'd be able to hang [View Full Entry]

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One of the things I love about backpacking is the absence of planning, you can pretty much decide whatever you want to by each day and can happily rely on recommendations by all the fellow travellers you meet. One recommendation that was constantly recurring with gusto was this thing called 'The Gibbon Experience' in northern Laos. This is the brainchild of a european who set up the projest as a way to protect the rainforest from poaching and logging which was very prevalent here. The idea is that you go and live in treehouses 'flying' through and above the forest on [View Full Entry]

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I recently somehow managed to delete over 100 photo's so there wont be any on here of Laos, Vietnam, or Japan. Gutted is not the word, and the worst thing is that it was totally my fault. Bugger! However I managed to salvage a few videos which you'll see on the next entry and added one to the 'Tribe Called Palong' post which shows the elephants playing football. Update - Found the pictures! Turns out that I'm actually an idiot. I decided to head up to Laos because many travellers had tipped it as a nice place to visit but also [View Full Entry]

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This isnt so much a travel blog as a series of bad decisions and bad luck. I travelled up from Krabi in anticipation of the monthly full moon party, hearing lots in particular about the december one. In this journey I fell victim to the old 'advertised travel times dont really mean anything' chestnut thats pretty typical in this neck of the woods. I was due to be in Koh Pha Ngan at 18:30 but was still waiting for the ferry at 22:00 as a result of the coach driver stopping off 3 times for hour long breaks cashing in on [View Full Entry]

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I got another night bus down to Phucket, a popular stopping point before heading across to some of the islands. Phucket town is pretty quiet as most people head to Patong but it does have a few good bars. We left an impression of drunk westerners in one after the accepting the bar musician's invitation for anyone to get up and join him in a jam for as long as you want. This offer was then detracted after 2 performances of guitar and drums abuse by my friend and I as the less than impressed musician told us "we could sit [View Full Entry]

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A standard tourist visa issued apon arrival in Thailand is only for 30 days and there are 2 ways of extending this; either apply for an extention in Bangkok that could take several days (or so I'm told), or leave the country and come back again to get a renewed 30 day visa. The second option is a very popular choice and is the option I chose. I still had plenty of time before my visa expired but I was heading down south anyway and I wouldnt get the opportunity to leave at a border for a while, so I bought [View Full Entry]

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When we woke up the next day all of the local women had set up a market to sell all of their crafts. I didnt really fancy buying any of it to be honest but made lots of guilt edged purchases of all kinds of stuff. Many can now expect disappointing presents for when I get back, unless you really love pencil cases in which case you'll be delighted. A elephant ride back out of the village was scheduled for today and we waited in anticipation, espcially since we were told that we could have a go of 'driving' the elephant [View Full Entry]

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Today we are to make our trek to a hill tribe village in, well, the middle of nowhere. As a warm up, we are taken to an elephant show. It really is incredible what they can train elephants to do, although in the back of the mind you do gulitily wonder how happy the elephants are about it, its impressive none the less. After painting some pretty intimidating portraits holding a brush with their trunk (one drew the outline of an elephant, others drew vases of flowers), a giant football is brought out for a penalty shootout. One of them was [View Full Entry]

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