http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Thomas-H/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Thomas H en-us Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:52:25 +0000 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:52:25 +0000 Well I passed the massage course. Turns out that despite the insane amounts of memorization necessary to do the massage properly they're pretty forgiving on the exam. I'm proud to say I only made one mistake on the exam A minor one I lifted the wrong knee or something fairly inconsequential. I think my massage skills have improved too my hands are stronger more precise and now I get told o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-308490.html An email to my parents with further reflections on massage school. I decided just to copy onto here to save time and energyYeah the school was definately the right choice. I don't have plans between the fourth and the fifth no. A bit of frantic sightseeing maybe one last crack at the shopping I dunno. Oh the morning of the fourth I'm going to a thai yoga session at the monastery a little http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-307457.html So I'm enrolled in massage school. It's a thirty hour program over 5 days. It costed a bit more than I wanted to pay but it's ok it's Thailand's premier massage school.It's actually quite surreal. There are only four Falang foreigners in my class an old sometimes grumpy man named Robert a hip young Japanese guy named Mitsuhiro and a Japanese girl Rumiko with no English but a background http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-306663.html A charming sleepy little riverside town. Very old and run down looking. We spent a couple days going around wandering by the restaurants at the riverside eating tons of ice cream Anais is an ice cream fiend.Our best day was definately when we rented to motorbikes. This was my second time on a bike but with an additional challenge the town had no automatics only manuals. I figured it out http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/South/Tha-Khaek/blog-305218.html Vientiane pronounced Vian Chan is the capital city of Laos. It's basically a ghost town. It's hard to fall in love with the place unless you're an ageing man chasing young prostitutes. Nothing really seems to be going on everything is expensive budget accomodation is appalling... Not the kind of place you'd want to spend too much time in. I want to say some good things it's not like I was a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vientiane/blog-305212.html So we did arrive eventually. Whenever you encounter another traveler who's just come from Laos they always go on at length about Vang Vieng. The legacy of Vang Vieng chased me everywhere even when I was in Australia And yet somehow I couldn't figure out what was so great about it. By all accounts it was a place to get drunk high and watch Friends or Family Guy. In the daytime you went down http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vang-Vieng/blog-303563.html So here's the story of how a twenty hour bus journey turned into something much more.We set off on our twenty hour bus journey and despite our bags being moved from the compartment to the roof the unexplained hourlong stops and consistent breakdowns it was a very successful bus ride. We left Hanoi and 630 pm and arrived twelve hours later at the border of Laos.Getting the Visa on arrival ende http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Vang-Vieng/blog-303443.html So it was with great sadness that I left Hoi An what a great place. My favorite city in Vietnam.For time budgeting purposes we ended up flying into Hanoi. We'd decided that instead of doing Laos we wanted to travel into the Yunnan province of China. It was supposed to be full of natural wonders including one of the worlds deepest gorges and rice paddies built way up in the mountains that end http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-301296.html From Dalat we took a bus up to Nha Trang which was supposed to have a fantastic beach. It didn't the beach was overcrowded and covered in garbage. You had to pay to use to beach chairs and the sand was stony. So I didn't want to stay but Kieran signed up to do a scuba diving course. I had meant to do that when I got to South East Asia but money is getting a bit thin at this point and I could http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/Hoi-An/blog-298670.html So we left Saigon for Dalat in the Central Highlands. Dalat was usually a pleasant 20 degrees celcius significantly cooler than the rest of Vietnam because it is in the mountains. Despite it's central location Dalat was uncontested during the war and was completely unaffected. That may have contributed to the lighter mood.Dalat was a great time but we definately slacked off. The final Euro ga http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Central-Highlands/Da-Lat/blog-296347.html Ok if I can remember Ho Chi Min at all..The girls Kieran and I made it a habit to get expensive dinners because Ho Chi Min is the food capital of Vietnam. We enjoyed taking the girls out for their first ever japanese meal sushi shashimi sake.. the works. It was good fun. Kieran and I got up at the crack of noon and searched long and hard for a restaurant that didn't exist. After that we vis http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-296048.html So we got a hold of some Vietnamese Visas and decided it was high time to leave Phnom Penh. We searched through our guide for the best route. We could've gone with a slightly cheaperfaster option and just taken the bus into Ho Chi Min city Saigon but the guide said that the most scenic route was a boat trip down the Mekong Delta through Chau Doc. It was only six dollars more so we opted for http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Mekong-River-Delta/Vinh-Long/blog-292459.html Boy I've got a lot of catching up to do. I'm writing this from Ho Chi Min city Vietnam but I should quickly summarize Phnom Penh first.The city was quite brutal getting in but after a couple of days you become quite used to it. Actually by the third day I hardly got hassled at all I think I walked the city with a bit more confidence and the drivers and dealers could see that.Having said http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-292334.html We got back from the temples went to a bar played a bunch of fooseball which replaces billiards in Cambodia. Went to bed woke up at 8 got on a bus. This time we were headed SouthEast towards the city of Phnom Penh. Phnomh Penh is the capital of Cambodia by far the largest city and the best place to apply for a Vietnamese visa. So Phnom Penh it isWe crammed ourselves into our tiny seats http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-288815.html Kieran and I said our goodbyes to Adam had a greasy hug he was covered in tanning lotion and set off on a thirty six hour bus journey to make our way into Cambodia. It was pretty awful. We left at 11 am arrived in Bangkok's Ko Sahm Road at five in the morning and began looking for the travel company we were supposed to meet. Several bad directions later we still hadn't found the place that http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-288806.html Ko Pha Ngan was just a beach where young people got drunk. It is mostly at the south of Thailand making it a long 24 hour journey from Chiang Mai.Positive things Our room costing three dollars a night looked over an astounding baybeach and was right in the heart of the action. It was my last few moments with Adam so a laidback party atmosphere was what was needed.Negatives We were righ http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Pha-Ngan/blog-288798.html I forgot to add we went to see some Muay Thai For those of you who don't know what it is go and rent Ong Bak. Muay Thai is Thailand's national sport. It's their take on boxing but it focuses more on kicks knees and elbows then on straightforward punching. It was a wild night. The first two fighters were just little boys can't have been older then 8 or 9.. But they really went at it It w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-287184.html Chiang Mai is Thailand's second largest city and is located close to the northern border. It's a great place. It serves as an excellent contrast to Bangkok as the atmosphere is much more relaxed you rarely have TukTuk drivers shouting at you the markets are more craftbased as opposed to ripoff designer clothes and all through the city center are these great big still bodies of water whic http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-286373.html Yeah Buriram was a funny time. It was great riding around everywhere on the back of a pickup getting stares from all sides Buriram is not exactly a major tourist destination maybe getting a giggle from a gaggle of schoolgirls... it's almost like you have celebrity status Some of the older men eye you distrustfully while the older women will unashamedly call after you Farang Farang whi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Eastern-Thailand/Buriram/blog-285246.html So Adam's friend Alima comes from a Thai family and we were able to get in touch with her family. We're now living in the suburb of a small town known as Buriram. We're surrounded by rice fields tiny temples and altars stray dogs humpbacked floppyeared cows and a whole lot of a language we can make heads or tails of. Noi the mother speaks a bit of English and her husband Gis makes hims http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-283552.html