Well, I'm in a communist country, so you get a communist blog title. (suitably changed to fez style.) Anyway, i managed to leave vang vieng after a week of being holed up there, heading north to the world heritage site of Luang Prabang. this has been described as Laos' finest city and a gem of a place. that morning i clambered into a tuk tuk which managed to fling my rucksack onto the road as we bundled down to the bus. a good start as ever. thankfully the bus ride was pretty damn good and only about 7 hours. once again, [View Full Entry]

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After a stopover in Pakse (southern Laos) my Lao aviation flight to Vientiane continued without problems and i made it to the capital in time for lunch. visa was without a problem and i managed to get a full 30 days despite being informed previously it would only be a 14 day visa. (lonely planet sometimes is the biggest piece of trash) i shared a taxi with an old american lady and we quickly found out that the rooms in the capital were neither cheap or empty. this was unfortunate for me as the only room i could find at less [View Full Entry]

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There are some things in life that are worth a sacrifice, angkor is one of them. after arranging a tuk-tuk to angkor for the sunrise, i crawled, i mean that literally, out of bed at the ungodly time of 4am and met Rowan and Jude for our fun in the sun. the lovely lady at the guesthouse (more on her later, fucking witch) informed me that the sun comes up pretty quickly and that we'd need to head off no later than 4.30 to catch the sunrise. she lied. instead we left at 04.50 with Baloo (driver) to humanity's greatest religious [View Full Entry]

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after hitting the viet/khmer border we proceded up the mekong river, destination phnom penh. me rowan and judith stuck together and decided to stay as a wee posse. probably influenced by the fact that the poor gits couldnt get rid of me. we headed for the okay guesthouse on the other side of town and were promptly dissapointed agter assurances from our tuk tuk driver that it had rooms available. i managed to speak to the manager after a while standing around and we got 3 beds. mine however was in a dorm. i hadnt hit a dorm yet in asia, [View Full Entry]

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i rolled into saigon with peter, my easy rider, around midday and he managed to get me a room with a bath for a nice discount. after saying our goodbyes, he headed off to the outskirts for a kip before heading back up to Dalat. my initial impression of Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City was not a good one. after spending the past 3 days tear-arsing it around the central highlands without any western influences readibly noticeable, it was quite the shock to once again be confronted with so many motos and the dense smog hanging in the air. some little prick [View Full Entry]

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so i got into dalat at 2pm. 2.05pm i decided to leave. during this brief interim, i jumped into a taxi, met an easy rider and agreed for him to drive me 700 km round vietnam til we got to saigon. i checked into the peace hotel, same people as in hoi an, and as with all vietnam, it was same-same. i wandered down stairs after not being scammed by anyone within 2 mins of stepping of a bus, and met peter, (vietnamese) who told me all about the easy riders and what they do. uh, that would be riding easy. [View Full Entry]

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When Dylan Thomas said 'the graveyard of all ambition' about Swansea, he could easily have been talking about Nha Trang. I finally got off my wee skinny arse and left Hoi An, heading south for Nha Trang upon another 12 hour journey. fortunately this wasn't quite as bad as the Hanoi - Hue overnighter, but still ranks on the scale of shitty journeys. after trying to locate myself next to the funnest looking people on the bus, i was penned into a corner with some girls next to me that were so antisocial i dont even know where the hell they [View Full Entry]

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left hue one early morning and just after midday, i arrived here in Hoi An and began a love affair that has lasted nearly a week. this is despite me not doing anything particuarly exciting over this time. i arrived and quickly found a recommended hotel, the 'peace hotel'. it has been rather nice, especially as they keep stocking up my fridge with beer and cookies, and i have a dvd player to rent. sadly i went out and bought an entire series of scrubs and another 6 films, (imcluding the latest bond. awesome stuff) and sit there every night watching [View Full Entry]

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Firstly, happy birthday to tucker. i hope you feel old, sorry i couldnt be there, but i'm kinda busy here. well busy may not be the right word, in both Hue and Hoi An, i've done close to nothing except wander round charming little streets, watch DVDs and eat tasty food. when i left hanoi, i had the displeasure of taking the 12 hour bus journey down to Hue. i knew i should've coughed up $40 dollars for the comfort of a bed on a train, but being a peasant got the better of me and i purchased a multi-stop ticket [View Full Entry]

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so i managed to get out of my league of gentlemen hotel in hanoi and managed to avoid paying my minibar fees (the guy was asleep at the front desk). after making my way down to the old quarter of hanoi, i was lumped on a bus at 7.30 am (painfull for me) and we went tootling around to find my new friends for the next 3 days. today was halong bay day and it was an awesome day. in total there were 10 of us. me, five germans, one english, one swede and two canadians. after about 3 hours we [View Full Entry]

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