After four fab days spent temple hopping around Siem Reap it was time to move on. Last time I was here we'd arrived by bus from Phnom Penh and left by plane to Laos.... this time I left by boat to Battambang. I'd booked my ticket through one of the travel agents in town but something about the whole booking process hadn't left me feeling too confident - fortunately the taxi truck arrived to pick me up, but it seemed I was one of the lucky ones!! As we stopped to do more pickups we almost left two people behind (much shouting and banging on the roof of the drivers cab to get him to stop!) and picked up several others who had tickets but weren't on the drivers list. By the time we reached the ... read more

I've been in Oz now for 4 months... and after a whirlwind first few months of party, beers and ermmmm, more party, I've finally 'settled down' in Sydney with a job and flat.... for now ;0) More on that later but in the mean time I thought it was about time I finished off the last few blogs from my Asia trip! As I fell off the bus at Kanchanaburi the usual range of taxi, sielor and trishaw drivers quickly descended, all wanting to take me to the best hotel that only they knew about la da la da la ... I told them where I wanted to go, which of course wasn't one of the hotels they suggested, and readied myself for the normal 'ahh it's closed', 'it's no good', 'I know better one' replies ... read more

Everyone I'd met who’d been to Yangon had been completely rained out - with the railway and roads under water one girl found the only she could leave was by plane! Noooo I thought, they’re exaggerating, it can't be that bad.... oh was I wrong! And yes, yes I know it was the rainy season but of the 3 days I had in Yangon it rained on every one - and it wasn’t the short sharp downpour followed by blue sky and sunshine variety either! Fortunately I got to miss out on the wading knee deep in water down the road experience that others had! The locals tried to explain that if it rained during the day it would be fine in the evening and if it was fine during the day then come late afternoon ... read more

Another day and another early start (the concept of sleeping in doesn't exist in this country!) saw us stumbling somewhat bleary eyed onto the 5am boat from Mandalay to Bagan. By the time the Ayeyarwady river reaches Mandalay it's huge and initially the scenery wasn't that impressive - the river was so wide and the cloud low that it was difficult to see anything along the flat river bank and surrounding plains. As the day progressed though and we moved closer to one bank or the other, we got many glimpses of river life..... water buffalo grazing as they rested, people washing themselves, their clothes, fishing for dinner, kids playing in the river and everyone just getting on with life. Almost everyone we saw stopped whatever they were doing to wave, smile or laugh and shout ... read more

I'd been pleased at how painless it was to get a China visa in Hong Kong - I sauntered into an agency one lunch time, handed over my passport and hey presto 4 hours later I was the proud owner of a 3 month visa. Leaving the country proved to be rather more challenging!!! I was in a town called Ruili in southwest China, from where I planned to cross into Burma. I'd arrived at the boarder crossing around 9am and duly joined a queue of about 15 people... some 20 mins later I was at the front and handing over my passport. My entry stamp from Shenzen, where I'd originally crossed the boarder from Hong Kong, hadn't printed properly and was only partially readable. This resulted in a few wee problems during my months in ... read more