Vang Vieng is a strange little town. I was planning on avoiding it entirely, but a stopover here breaks up the Vientiane- Luang Prabang bus ride (9 hours of whipping around hairpin turns through the mountains of north Laos) quite nicely. I knew I would hate Vang Vieng before I got here. Its one of those places, you either love it or hate it. I tried to keep an open mind- why did I have to act like an old man all the time? I could have fun with my peers. My dreadlocked, unshowered, Che Guevara shirt wearing, pseudo-intellectual hippie peers... [View Full Entry]

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"If you're heading to Thailand, don't take a bus. Just don't do it. Really. No. Don't." Thus went an article in a Siem Reap city guide I picked up about 5 hours after I had just invested $12 in a bus ticket from Siem Reap to Bangkok. I thought that was rather melodramatic. The road from Siem Reap to the Thai border is notorious but the alternative the guide offered was hiring a taxi and driving on the exact same road for $40. Our bus looking nothing like the pictures we were shown when we bought our tickets. It must have [View Full Entry]

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I opted for the day pass to Angkor Wat, which Lonely Planet calls "a crime", but Lonely Planet's way too dramatic. Angkor Wat is Disneyworld for fat, middle aged package tourists. They're dreadful! All day long they stepped on my fingers and pushed me around and did not apologize. So Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world (or so I've heard), and THE tourist destination of south east Asia, and part of Tomb Raider was filmed here. It's dozens of enormous gorgeous ruins in the middle of the jungle and its absolutely swarming with tourists. And rich ones, [View Full Entry]

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Cambodia can be hard to love. After getting off the boat from Chau Doc, Vietnam I had my first taste of those legendary Cambodian roads when we were herded onto a bus. 90 minutes later with my teeth nearly shaken out of my skull we rolled into Phnom Penh an hour later than expected. A murmur broke out amongst the tourists on the bus- Star Mart? Shell Stations? In Cambodia? I had been dreaming of 24 hour convenience stores, I had not seen one in Vietnam and I wasn't expecting to see them in Cambodia or anywhere else besides Bangkok, but [View Full Entry]

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As you can tell from my previous entry, Easy Riding is the perfect way to get off the Sinh Cafe minibus beaten path. You'll still be on the Easy Rider beaten path, as Duc regularly does this tour and he's been doing it for 11 years, but it is a much better beaten path and you will see The Real Vietnam, as they say. I recommend them wholeheartedly. The only bad part is you will be kicking yourself for all those days you wasted doing the silly touristy things. My advice for Easy Riding: - There are now about 70 legit [View Full Entry]

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It was one hell of a week. There's nothing quite like speeding around on the back of an old Honda Federal through the Vietnamese countryside. I should have been killed a thousand times over, or at least been hideously maimed, but I survived the week relatively unscathed except for a stomach bug that all 3 of us Westerners got. I saw so many things that I'm getting quite overwhelmed trying to figure out how to describe them in a couple of crummy blog entries. As I am not feeling inclined to spend the remaining 4 months of my time in Asia [View Full Entry]

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Today I was hanging out with Duc, Easy Rider #12. I met him in the lobby of my $4 hotel. The Easy Riders are a bunch of freelance motorbike guides offering their services to take you off the Sinh Cafe minibus track. Yes please. I met a girl at my Halong Bay tour who had spent 8 days with her guy and said it was the best thing, ever. So I was very excited to meet an Easy Rider, it was like meeting Angelina Jolie. Duc's awesome. He told me his life story and he said he was sent to re-education [View Full Entry]

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I stumbled off the Hell Train into the rain. I stupidly did not accept the cyclo drivers offers and started walking with all of my (very heavy) crap until I was soaked and angry. I hated Hue. Luckily that didn't last too long. I found a cyclo driver and he carted big old me and all my stuff to the backpacker's alley. I gave him a big tip because I feel pretty bad when someone half the size of me pedals me around in a cyclo. Hue is deserted compared to Hanoi. I'm convinced I was one of two people staying [View Full Entry]

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Chúc mừng năm mới- Happy New Year! Tuyen Quang. REAL Vietnam. This ain't your Lonely Planet sugarcoated version with matresses and sit down toilets and french fries. No tourists and no tourist market. I'm talking about little kids who are terrified of you because they have never seen a white person before. We are pretty freaky looking, if you think about it. Blue eyes and light skin are like the worst evolutionary move ever. The older kids yell HELLO or "ba tay" (Mrs. Westener) to try to provoke a reaction and everybody else looks at you like you're an alien. Th [View Full Entry]

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The last couple of days have been hard, physically and mentally, but they have blown my mind. Picking up where I left off, I was walking back from the internet cafe when I passed by another bia hoi stand. They said "bia, bia" and motioned me over so I joined them. They spoke pretty good English, probably better than the other bia hoi place I frequent. The were vets and we talked about the war. They said that the Americans and the Vietnamese are very good friends. I asked them if they liked tourists and they said they did. I know [View Full Entry]

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