Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia......South east Asia done!! The last month, and the last bit of the Asia leg has been incredible, although a mix of fantastic sites and some fantastically horrible. After the ATM cash card catastrophe and the worlds local bank (hah!!) cost me a week and a half of a one month visa for Vietnam i had to move quickly. Thankfully the bus system in Nam is well organised and well cheap - about twenty quid got me from the rural areas in the north all the way to the southern Ho Chi Min city. They have sleepers too [View Full Entry]

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At the end of the road in Thailand last month was the beginning of one hell of a boat trip. After crossing the Laos border at about 6am and the usual corrupt exchange of US dollars I jumped on the slow boat and a two day journey down the muddy brown Mekong river to northern Laos. Sounds romantic huh! Nope!! It’s the closest thing to being a sardine, packed with what seems like thousands of others into a wooden can that’s searing in temperatures over forty degrees and moving at a speed slower than you could paddle. The only stop is [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday was day 225 of the trip and what a day! Besides the fact that i spent most of it head to toe in elephant poo, i'll never forget the experience i had volunteering at a reserve an hour north of Chang Mai in Thailand. The reserve was founded by Sangduen Chailert (Lek for short) a lady whose campaigning has made her one of Asia's most famous people and has saved the Thai elephant from incredible mistreatment in the logging industry and ultimately extinction. I spent some time with her at the reserve and was really inspired. The fifty elephants she [View Full Entry]

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Just a quick one guys to say thanks for all the birthday messages and remind all of you that forgot that there is still time to make amends by sending me a big present! No seriously, just couldnt believe all the messages that came through and it was awesome - thanks so much!! I headed for Bali at the beggining of the week and met up with an ozzy surfer mate Chris, a bloke with the same tiny mind as me. We surfed on Kuta beach for four days and then headed to the Gili islands for a one night stay [View Full Entry]

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Im currently in the internet 'lounge' of the Gaya hotel (no! not like that!!) in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. My last day after doing a circular tour of North Malaysia Island. I reckon Kota Kinabalu roughly translates into 'dump!' as its without doubt, the smelliest, ugliest town you could ever hope to see. In fact, its testimony to what a mess humans make when they populate an area - a mess of concrete, car parts, rubbish and more rubbish where a perfectly beatiful rainforest once stood. Thankfully, there is still some of the rainforest left (although you can still witness it being [View Full Entry]

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I am in Singapore. I am an ant. There are squillions of other ants here too - 4.6 million apparently and every race, colour and religion you can think of. All squeezed into an incredibly small city. Its quite daunting at first arrival, especially in little India where i've been staying. A tiny hostel in a little back street which is surrounded by endless other little back streets, most all of them crowded in stalls selling either food (it smells great!) or the entire contents of India's dodgy exports. I arrived at about 8pm and set out for a stroll. I [View Full Entry]

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I just dont think I have the words to describe this last week! Thank god we had a camera this time! Have a look at the pics at: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=621456&l=a413380019&id=1018040559 and beery ones at: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=621550&l=79cdcee347&id=1018040559 Just want to say thanks to Alex (buddy!), Dawn, Scotty, Rach and Kat - some great new friends that shared a few of the best days ive ever had! We smashed it guys!! [View Full Entry]

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Sometimes its difficult to decide which comes first with this experience; the people you meet or the incredible things that you see, and this month its been harder than ever to choose.The east coast of Oz is one of the most worn out traveller routes in the world and theres a really good reason for that - its bloody paradise!! Apart from the fact that the place has no ozone layer and I get flame grilled and toasted as soon as I step off the bus, its beach after beach after beach with a few surprisingly good cities and awesome people [View Full Entry]

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Getting up at four o'clock in the morning is never a good idea and even worse when you are in a hostel room full of twelve people - you get moaned at for the three days following because you woke everyone up in the middle of the night!! But this was going to be worth it!! I'm in Noosa on the east coast of Oz and i had traveled on the bus for about two days solid to get here. Noosa is like the riveria of Oz - german cars, beatiful houses and even more beautiful people everywhere. This is where [View Full Entry]

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Imagine if you had all the cities of the world over for a big dinner party. You know, Paris would be overdressed and snooty, NY would be brash, loud and eat all the food and London would just be too posh to speak anyone! Well, Sydney would be the laid back, cheery guy that you would warm to straight away and probably spend the rest of the night with laughing at everyone else. I didnt really know what to expect of OZ and truth is, probably didnt have great expectations, but its really blown me away! I turned up in Sydney [View Full Entry]

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