Appropriately, our farewell journey in Vietnam was a 23-hour bus trip from Hanoi to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. We crossed the border and shouted with glee as we walked into a new, supposedly much friendlier country, fingers crossed. I never knew before that Laos actually sustained far more bombing than Vietnam during the Vietnam war, and around 25 per cent of all bombs dropped on the country did not explode, still lying around the country. The change from Vietnam was instant. The people had softer, gentler faces and nobody was trying to rip us off. We entered through green, [View Full Entry]

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Decided to start a new entry to show more photos, as it takes too long to put them all up on one entry. Enjoy! [View Full Entry]

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31 July - 19 August: Ahh Vietnam. The endless months of dreaming of edible food, gorgeous landscapes and pretending I'm not really American (we opted for Swiss German... what, it's funny!)... I have to say, we were not prepared for the tourism circus that is Vietnam. And the food is really not what I expected... everything is deep fried! Huh? As we overheard a Canadian traveller succinctly say "Vietnamese food... better in your home country!" In a nutshell (and I don't want to overly kvetch, but it must be said) Vietnam is a holiday DISASTER. Fellow travellers (especially those on s [View Full Entry]

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24-29 July Headed out from Phnom Penh by bus to Kampot, in SE Cambodia, to see the Elephant Mountains and experience a much slower pace of Cambodian life in the sleepy riverside town. There's not too much going on in Kampot, but we headed out to "town" nonetheless to see for ourselves. After a couple futile attempts to find much of anything happening, we ended up reading up on further travel options and organised an early morning start to Bokor National Park and an abandoned French hill station atop the mountain. While the drive up the mountain was a windy 30 [View Full Entry]

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17-24 July After a chaotic, early morning exit from Siem Reap, Kris, Carrie and I found ourselves aboard the boat for a leisurely 8 hour journey to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. We began in the Tonle Sap lake, the largest in Cambodia, which later narrowed to the Tonle Sap River and to our destination. We were coming from a place that evidenced the beauty and wonder of the ancient Khmers in Angkor to the capital city, which still reeled from the recent atrocities of the genocide of the Khmer Rouge. Phnom Penh was set up as the country's [View Full Entry]

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Following our long trip through the Cambodian border on dusty, bumpy roads, we arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia around 8pm on Friday night. The bus that picked us up at the border conveniently ran a guesthouse that they took us all to, and I headed straight to bed, anxious at the chance to stretch out horizontally after a long, cramped journey. We met a super-cool British girl, Carrie, on the bus and together the three of us set out to buy our three-day pass for the temples and start exploring the ancient Khmer temples scattered around over 3,000 KM of [View Full Entry]

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Now, speaking of TERRIFYING ferry boats, our 3 hour boat trip from Koh Tao to Chumpon, on the Thai mainland, firmly placed my heart in my throat and I think I have some new grey hair. When the huge boat pulled up at the ferry, with calm waters and sunny skies, Kris and I thought, now WHY are all of the windows sealed and why is the boat sopping wet all over? Was it raining somewhere? No, it's just that the boat flies across the open sea at something like 500 million knots per hour, against the current. The result [View Full Entry]

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20 June - 8 July We set out at 5AM to catch our ferry to the Perhentian Islands, for more scuba and beachy lazy afternoons. Our guesthouse friends Tom from the UK and Peter from Germany split a cab with us and we soon found ourselves aboard the "fast ferry" to the islands. Now I had heard a few horror stories about the fast ferries, but figured, hey, at least we'll get there quickly. However, time slows down considerably when you're terrified, so I'm not sure in the end that this was the best bet. The "captain" was an 18-ish yr [View Full Entry]

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13-19 June -- After our eventful jungle trek, we decided on Sipadan island, one of the world's most renowned spots for scuba diving due to its crystal clear waters, volcanic archipellago and abundant aqualife. We arrived early afternoon into Semporna to find a cheap room, do some email and rest up for some serious scuba. We checked into a cheap-o place built on stilts that sat literally on the ocean called the Dragon Inn. We found out later the locals call it the Drag 'em in, since it pulls in and spits out the backpackers, but 15 ringget is good [View Full Entry]

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9 - 12 June -- The island of Borneo comprises Eastern Malaysia, Brunei and a large part of Indonesia. We arrived early afternoon on an Air Asia flight to Kota Kinabalu, on the northern coast of Sabah, Eastern Malaysia. The town was a pleasant costal small city, but a far cry from the paradise of Tioman or the sophisticated chic of KL. Nonetheless, we headed down to the market to take in the sights and sounds and plan our stay in Borneo. Made the mistake of checking out a local nightclub (hey, it was Ladies' Night). We were told it [View Full Entry]

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