After my first full week in Spanish school in Quito and way too much information trying to make its way into my head, my housemate and I took a bus on Friday afternoon to the relaxing town in the valley about 3 hours away, Baños. It was good to get out of Quito after a hectic week there and I was looking forward to some hiking and a bit of R & R. Considering it is low season we had no problems finding somewhere to stay. The difficult part was only after one week of spanish lessons I had to put [View Full Entry]

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Leaving London on a cold, wet and wintry morning was probably fitting of what I was getting away from. Sitting on the tarmac in my extra wide seat catered for larger Americans I left all the stress of London life behind me (and maybe a few essentials as well) and looked forward to what is going to be an excting 6 months. Its one of the most exciting parts of the trip: having absolutely no idea what you are going to do for the next half a year. But first stop is Miami. To my surprise my hostel was smack bang [View Full Entry]

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Uzbekistan. We had been planning this trip for so long and finally the time had come around. My mate Leigh met me in Riga the day before we were due to fly into Tashkent. We started to get pumped up about the thought of seeing the Socceroos start there World Cup qualification campaign in a couple of days time so instead of wasting this new found energy we had a massive night in the Old Town of Riga. We spent most of the night in a Russian nightclub where most of the local women looked like FHM models....welcome to Latvia. A [View Full Entry]

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Friday night after work I met up with Vicki, her brother and his mate and we all jumped in a tiny corolla and headed for Northern Wales to do some hiking for the weekend. I had met Vicki in Pai, Northern Thailand and we did a 3 day trek and just chilled out for around a week doing nothing as is the normal in Pai. Her brother is a dead keen hiker and having graduated from boys scouts a long time ago he still loves to hike with his best mate Guy. If I had known they were kind of hard [View Full Entry]

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Crossing the Mekong River from Huay Xai into Chiang Khong was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It was not because I had to swim across the river or anything like that, just the fact that Laos was such a memorable experience and I didn’t want it to end so soon. The entire 2 minute journey across was spent looking back over my shoulder. Should I turn back? However the familiarity once I had stepped onto Thai soil soon made me feel at home again. I was really looking forward to spending a couple of weeks in the [View Full Entry]

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After 2 days on a slow boat from Luang Prabang I was definitely ready for some action. We spent the night in Huay Xai which is a pretty sleepy town on the Thai-Lao border on the mighty Mekong River. The lights were definitely brighter on the other side as we had a couple of beers with the crew who we had shared the last two sleepy days with. Beer Lao was again my trusty companion as soon as the sun went down (although I didn’t always adhere to this rule that’s for sure). In the morning we all met at the [View Full Entry]

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After the craziness of Vang Vieng it was quite a relief to be leaving for the peaceful surroundings of Luang Prabang. I had heard so many positive things about it that I couldn’t wait to explore the city on the Mekong. The night markets were fantastic; the best markets I have seen in South East Asia. The quality of the local handicrafts and the manner in which the shopkeepers went about there business made it a pleasure to walk around endlessly. It was a stark contrast from Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok where you were constantly hassled at every stall [View Full Entry]

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Our arrival in Vientiane could be described as very low key, as was our 3 nights there. We arrived with the mother of all hangovers as a result from an over-exuberant Australia Day celebration in Siam Reap. Most of the hostels were pretty full once we made it into the town around 6pm but we were lucky enough to find a spare room albeit the most uncomfortable beds we have ever encountered (wouldn't call them beds, I will say just a block of wood). It was a sleepy town and we needed a couple of days to relax before we moved [View Full Entry]

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4am. Don't even think about it....lucky I had 2 other people to drag my arse out of bed because I didn't feel like moving at all. In the dead of night we made our way out to Angkor Wat where we watched the sunrise. Unfortunately conditions were overcast which didn't add up to a spectactular sunrise however being inside the grounds with the temples under the moonlight was pretty special. Banteay Srei is often called "the jewel of Khmer art" and it was no surprise that we all fell in love with this small temple on the outskirts of Siam Reap. [View Full Entry]

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After all the cycling done on day 1 (and sore bums) we decided to grab a tuk tuk for our 2nd day in the temples. Due to a sudden downpour of rain we spent most of the morning in a French Cafe before venturing out to Phnom Bakheng for the start of our little loop that would cover a majority of the temples. We were the only people at this temple which is very popular for great sunset views over Angkor Wat. It was nice to have free reign of the temple between the three of us and we soaked up [View Full Entry]

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