4.43am the night bus from the islands pulls into downtown Kuala Lumpur and bleary eyed we get off to assess the situation. The conclusion: too early to do jacksh*t! So with a Swiss couple we wander around looking for anything that resembles life and find the only thing open is McD's (hey, it was a McEmergency). After Mccoffees and an above average Mcbackpacker conversation (where have you been, where are you going, why do KL hostels lie about being open 24 hours etc), we split and made our way over to the Golden Triangle to suss a place to crash. Had [View Full Entry]

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Thailand had given us a lot of things, but it hadn't given us the crystal clear water, fine white sand and kick arse marine life that's needed after three months of living out of a backpack. For that, we headed south of the border to Malaysia's beautiful Perhentian Islands. It's hard to believe that two such stunning, relatively undeveloped islands can lie only 30 minutes boat ride from the Malaysian mainland and not halfway between Tahiti and Tonga, but thankfully it's true. And even though I had been here five years earlier, it was nice to see the amazing water clarity [View Full Entry]

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Everyone knows you can't do SE Asia without getting your arse down to Ko Pha Ngan and rocking out on the beach till the sun comes up, so after Myanmar it was back to Bangok and straight down to the islands via bus, ferry and tuk tuk. It's pretty obvious there's a big party in the hood when people are already cracking their first beer at the ferry terminal at 6.45 in the morning... Arrived on the island midday and went straight to the resort (Lai Som) that we'd been talked into staying at. The tout on the mainland had shown [View Full Entry]

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From the cool hills we dropped back down into the heat and boarded a government run night train bound for the temples of Bagan. And night train is just what we got, with the only light coming from a crazy lightning storm outside and our trusty 30c plastic torch inside. Met a couple of Aussies in our 'first class' cabin and had one of those sit-and-chat-in-darkness-on-arse-breaking-wooden-seats kind of conversations, cos sleep was outta the question. One derailment and 10 sleepless hours we rolled (literally) into Bagan station. Even though we were tired, we were also pretty damn excited t [View Full Entry]

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A 45 minute minute plane ride was all in took to transport us from one of SE Asia's most modern cities, Bangkok, to one stuck firmly in 1965. Yangon, the capital of Myanmar, was straight out fascinating the moment we landed! Maybe it was the face painted customs ladies, maybe it was the drive to town in a 40 year old rusty Mazda taxi, or maybe it was the bald female monks walking unassumingly along the pot-holed streets. Whatever it was, we knew right from Myanmar was gonna be a trip... We started off by blowing our budget on a 3 [View Full Entry]

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In keeping with the cheap theme we booked the 20 hour over night bus 'ride' from Hanoi to Vientiane, Laos, and a ride is just what we got. The fun started at about 3am in the morning when our bus broke down (brakes were screwed) in the middle of the single lane national highway. We were then hearded like animals onto another bus which was literally a human zoo. Every single square inch of the bus was in use, including guys sleeping in hammocks attached to the roof, babies laying in the aisle, Kako wedged between the gear stick and [View Full Entry]

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We hadn't seen the ocean in weeks, and combined with the full on city experience Hanoi had given us it was time to get on a boat, grab some beers and hit up Halong Bay. Ha Long means 'where the dragon descends into the sea' (and yes that is taken straight out of my L.P. guide book p.851) and is made up of over 3000 limestone islands which are supposed to represent what's left of the dragons tail. We had signed on for a $43 three day two nite tour 'promising' kayaking, food, accommodation, trekking, and English speaking guides. Sound too [View Full Entry]

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Sapa was an excellent relaxed start to Vietnam but it was time to see where people made and spent their dong in the north - Hanoi. The 10 hour train ride down was interesting for 2 reasons. One was to see the mountains give way to bright green flat rice fields and increasingly large Vietnamese towns and cities (they gotta put the 80 million conical hat wearing population somewhere), the other was the dude sitting opposite us on the train. Chris was a 56 year old American who had been traveling continously for the last 6 years throughout India and SE [View Full Entry]

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Why u no buy from me? U no my friend! This is what happens when negotiations with the local black Hmong villagers on the price of bracelets hit a wall! We had already bought from one 12 year old villager on our first day in Sapa (she did the whole sales pitch in Japanese which got Kako's attention) and this had set off a frenzy of other kids and teenagers with their 'backpack' babies trying to sell us a 100 different versions of essentially the same thing - locally made bracelets and blankets. That's not to say the goods were [View Full Entry]

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After beautiful Baishuitai, we continued by bus climbing along windy mountain roads towards our next destination and the start of the Tibetan world, Zhongdian. Zhongdian (aka Shangri La, or Gyeltang in Tibetan) sits at 3300m above sea level, and while not technically 'Tibet' (as we were still in Yunnan province), still felt a hell of a lot like it. Think scorcing hot days, cold clear nites, monks, monasteries, snowcapped peaks and yak meat on every menu, and you get the idea. The town itself was good to explore for a couple of days, especially at night. Every night at around 7pm [View Full Entry]

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