okay so I'm starting the writing of this email in Bangkok but probably not posting it til I get to Victoria so I can add stuff I just wanted to kinda sum up my travels a bit, give my blog some closure, if you will These past 6 months have been amazing and I don't know if I can really say it's "changed" me in any noticeable way but it definitely has helped me see the world in a different light so I wanted to write out some of the things I have learned: -as much as you can be told [View Full Entry]

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nothing new to report made it to my beach destination and have since been doing nothing but read, sleep, sun myself (have a bit of a burn, nothng major tho) and swim yep, not much k, but here's the weird thing: I go home so soon and it feels like no time has passed, I look back at the past 6 months and it went way quickly, such a cliche but it's true well that's it for me, see ya'll in less than a week, for me it's 5 days away but due to time differences I'm not sure how long [View Full Entry]

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Pai is a hippie paradise, I'm very relaxed here yesterday Ilja (the Dutch girl I met) and I rented motos and raced around the area like fiends. I had trouble getting used to riding it but once I did I was unstoppable, which doesn't mean I didn't scare a few people into thinking I might hit them. hee hee hee whoops! The funny thing about spending time with other people when you travel is that you do things you didn't want to do, but sometimes you enjoy them and end up doing different stuff than you normally would. The motos was [View Full Entry]

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right now accross the street they're listening to Van Morrisson and it makes me happy... sigh okay, now for actual blogging the meditation was INTENSE, I'm too lazy to write about it completely right now but I almost didn't make it the 3 days and some people actually left early, it was nuts. I'm glad I made it but meditation is not for the willy nilly. yes, willy nilly. to see photos of me meditating go here and click Meditation 27 February - 1 March 2007 beware, it's kinda a where's waldo going on went to the night market in Chiang [View Full Entry]

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today I'm gonna start my blog off with a little message I got from another travelblogger (I know! people I've never met are reading me! I'm famous!) anyways, here's what they wrote, I hope they don't mind: ***** Alexis, You're blogs are all full of disasters, have you had a good day yet? I think you'll enjoy your travels more if you do a bit more research into how things should work and how much things should cost. People will lie with a straight face to get money out of you. Most people will try and rip you off in Asia [View Full Entry]

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previously in the Adventures of Alexis in Asia: I left Sapa, only to get tricked out of my first class train ticket and was really mad and upset about it I went and got a $3 refund from my travel agent, I felt petty but really I just wanted an apology and to kinda make sure that it won't happen to another trusting traveller I tried to meet up with Corrina only to meet the most useless hotel staff on the planet, they kept telling me that Coco and her mom were not there and finally I saw their name in [View Full Entry]

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happy new year everyone! it is now the year of the pig, hurrah! Sapa has been fantastic, I'm really really glad that I was here for Tet because it ended up being a really special experience. The night train was nothing like the one I took to Hanoi, it was LUXURY man and I slept like a wee babe pretty much the entire way and nobody touched my bum so it gets an extra star. The drive into the town was breathtaking, one of the first corners we turned I almost audibly gasped because the area is filled with hills and [View Full Entry]

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alright, so this time in Hanoi is not as bad as last time, it's growing on me. Perhaps it also has to do with the fact that I'm well rested and fed and nobody has been mean to me in the few hours I've been here this time. Halong Bay was really nice, I'm glad I did it right away. The weather wasn't great, it was cloudy and misty so all my photos are just shades of grey (and one sepia toned one when I found out that my camera could do that, isn't technology great?). anyways, it was a good [View Full Entry]

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so after the train ride from HELL I finally made it to Hanoi short re-cap I shared a sleeper cabin with more than 10 people, they made fun of me and laughed at me (also shared their food) and when I feel asleep one of them drummed on my bum and I was too tired to punch him in the face I had a horrible time finding a guest house, everyone was so mean and rude to me and one place made me cry so when I found the place I ended up staying the guy musta thought I was insane [View Full Entry]

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the trip to Hue was totally uneventful, unfortunately, but the city has been pretty nice. the first day I got here I decided to go to the beach, which is 15 km away, I managed to barter for a decent price and off we went. when we got there I found the beach deserted (yay!) but covered in garbage and it was basically a construction site for what looks to be beach accomodation (boo!). so I laid out and started reading/napping but then these little boys came over and started bugging me so I pretended that I only spoke French but [View Full Entry]

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