Loose footed

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 and rustic jungle feel (nothing over two storeys high, generators everywhere) still very apparent. All Kako had to say was sugoi, sugoi, sugoi! (Japanese for this rocks, this is dope, this is damn sweet!) Being ... read more

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 to be here. Its not everyday you get to check out 2000 temples built by a succession of slightly deranged Buddhist-luvin Kings some 800 years ago! A short 6 hour nap later (the daytime heat was insane), we ... read more

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 radio, and me hanging out the front door with two other Vietnamese dudes who were laughing like it was just another day. This lasted until the border, and even though we were careening around mountain ... read more

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 Asia and had the thickest stamp-filled passport we had ever seen. A true ramblin' man! Over the course of the train trip he told me the entire history of the world in the 20th century ... read more

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 the locals (and the odd tourist) would gather in the town square to dance to canned Naxi music blaring from the surrounding speakers. They really got into their dancing too, and it was pretty cool ... read more