14/09/06 Phnom Penh The Cambodian Genocide of the 70's was a harrowing time for the Cambodian people and no doubt any other sentient beings with any inkling as to what was happening within Cambodian borders. Tuol Sleng (http://www.tuolsleng.com/) codenamed S-21 was a school that Pol Pot turned into a prison. It now serves as a museum and is left very much how it was found with original cells left with beds, chains and objects of torture as the fleeing Khmer Rouge fled form the approaching Vietnamese army. Every one of the 17,000 people that passed through the prison had their photogr [View Full Entry]

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14/09/06 - 15/09/06 Phnom Penh, Camobdia Our 4 hour speedboat journey was punctuated by the border crossing, formalities of an exit stamp from Nam and obtaining a visa for Cambodia. Our 'guide/agent' on the boat took all our passports and proceeded to take obtain visas on our behalf. Interestingly the official visa cost as marked on the visa in my passport is $20 USD but blatantly cost us $22 each. Go figure. The 'guide' advised us that he wasn't on the make and that it was the border officials who “needed beer money”. Truth be told, they probably club together for [View Full Entry]

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11/09/06 - 12/09/06 The Mekong Delta After a ride in a Vietnamese ambulance to rush us to an eye doctor before he started a 9 hour surgery, and his go ahead that I could travel with my eye infection (cream and eye drops prescribed), we were on our way to the Mekong Delta. Our planned route was down to the Mekong Delta by car and then up the Mekong river to Phnom Penh and eventually Siem Reap. I wasn't feeling well enough for all the official tours en route, and so opted out of the trips to see how fish sauce [View Full Entry]

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07/09/06 - 10/09/06 Hanoi and Halong Bay We started our Hanoi tour with a visit to the outside of the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum where “'Uncle Ho' is respectfully preserved” and the House 54 and House on stilts where he lived. I put my rucksack on the ground and bent down to rummage in my bag to change my camera lens. I was immediately told to stand up straight by a guard of the mausoleum. It seems that my squatting position was too similar to the position in which Vietnamese people do their personal business and was very disrespectful in such [View Full Entry]

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05/09/06 - 06/09/06 Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) From the moment entering the Immigration Hall in Vietnam in seeing the huge red flag and gold star, I couldn't help feeling a strange feeling of uncomfortable nervousness. Just the thought that I was in a country that I really couldn't be sure about if something went wrong. Of course the Visa in my passport read 'Socialist Republic of Vietnam' and the red of the flag just keeps screaming to your brain - Communist country! Roads were chaos after a small stint back on European soil and motorbikes were seen laden with [View Full Entry]

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02/09/06 - 04/09/06 Dubai, UAE We arrived in Dubai aka Bling City aka City of White Range Rovers early morning and headed for our hotel - The Arabian Courtyard in the center of the Old Town. - Not a glass and Steel magnificent structure on it's own stretch of private beach but overlooking the old fort, Dubai museum and spitting distance from the river and Gold and Spice souks. We took a boat trip along the river and headed for the souks to nose around. The Gold Souk was 2 rows of jewelers and the spice souk small alleyways with sacks [View Full Entry]

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12/7/06 - 15/07/06 Nosing around in Lamphun we were surprised to see a stall with small cages of 2-3 or more birds and live fish and turtles in small plastic bags. I joked with the stall holder that they were for eating (I half thought that they might be) but he explained that you buy them to set them free, either in the temple grounds (birds) or nearby stream (the watery stuff - obviously). I think that in doing this, you gain some kind of religious merit for providing them with their freedom. I’m not sure how long they would be [View Full Entry]

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8/7/06 - 12/7/06 More amazing scenery and winding roads led us to the small town of Pai, nestled amongst rolling green forest covered hills. The journey had one notable event whereby the main road suddenly stopped in front of us. When I say main road, I mean a two lane stretch of road, very new and very straight. Obviously the 2 sides didn’t yet meet in the middle, as with a handful of sudden warning signs. It suddenly became a dead end. A small length of mud track of to the side then led round a mound of earth a few [View Full Entry]

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7/7/06 - Took the obligatory boat ride on the Mae Kong River that skirts 3 countries. If you reach your hand out and skim various reedy river banks, you could say you’ve been to Myanmar (Burma), Laos and Thailand in a single day - Actually all 3 in about 10 minutes. Don’t expect any passport stamps or uniformed officials; even the setting foot on official Laos soil comes with a mere 20 Baht landing tax and no passport request. The 30 minutes allowed by the boat company was plenty of time in the market seeing the same same merchandise of Northern [View Full Entry]

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Bought a detailed map of the area and headed for the hills. North up to Mae Chang and then hang a left on the 1089 and the road starts to climb into the land of the hill tribes. Found lots of tourist buses stopping at Lorcha Village (Ban Lorcha) so stopped to check it out. Paid 80 Bht for ticket each to walk up into the village. 4 villagers in traditional dress gave a small welcome dance to each approaching tourist group. The map at the village entrance gave locations for a Blacksmith, Rice Pounding Hut and other points of interest, [View Full Entry]

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