In what seems like a former life, I can remember sitting at home and watching a TV programme that followed a woman's travels through Vietnam. And what a journey it was. She took trains to remote destinations, drank ant 'lemonade' with the locals, and downed a stiff drink that had a freshly removed and still beating cobra's heart floating in it, amongst other unique experiences. Our travels weren't quite so eye-opening, but I've tried the independent travelling thing and as adventurous as it may be for some, the reality of it just isn't for me. Plus we were pushed for time [View Full Entry]

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'Travelling Back in Time' is how Fern felt about our journey through Laos (rhymes with 'cow'). I shan't bore you with too much history (for a welcome change!), but Laos and Thailand are similar in some respects, although urban Thailand is much more modern, which I assume is due to a bountiful tourism industry. Having finished up in Northern Thailand, we crossed into Laos at the nearest border which took us into the town of Huay Xai, from where we would spend the next two weeks journeying south. Click here for a [View Full Entry]

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Bangkok was the next stop after my island-hopping and I wasn't too pleased to be back. The sun, sand and sea of my previous month was now replaced with noise, smog and rain. Already familiar with the city, I found a very basic room for about 2GBP a night. Central location, quiet, shared bathroom and nothing but a bed, small fan and four close walls. Perfect. It wasn't long before I'd spoken to Fern, the Thai girl that I had met a month previously. We'd stayed in touch while I was away from Bangkok and we agreed to meet up and [View Full Entry]

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Well, some of them anyway - there are so many! THE BLOGS ARE BACK, and now that I have some free time again you'll be able to get right back up to date. I can almost hear the screams of un-contained excitement and glee from here... An update on my current situation: I've still not left South-East Asia, due to meeting a young lady named Fern. Had I not changed my flight dates I would have been halfway down the East Coast of Australia, having spent a few weeks in India by now, but instead I'm back in Bangkok, where Fern [View Full Entry]

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Cambodia is a country with an interesting and diverse, if often disturbing, history: In 1975, the Communist 'Khmer Rouge' launched an offensive that eventually destroyed the Khmer Republic that had previously governed the country. The Khmer Rouge soon turned Cambodia into a land of horror. Immediately after its victory, the new regime ordered the evacuation of all cities and towns, sending the entire urban population out into the countryside to till the land. Thousands starved or died of disease during the evacuation. Many of those forced to evacuate the cities were resettled in new village [View Full Entry]

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Thailand: 'The Land of Smiles' - this is how I had heard the country referred to before I arrived. The mental images that I'd formed from this description were soon dispelled when we reached the border; it would appear that the scowling and abruptness of customs and immigration officials is a global occurrence! James and I had been a wee bit naughty as we'd crossed into a region of Thailand that the British Government are advising against 'all but essential travel' to. I've heard that the Thai Government have declared martial law there - but it's no Baghdad, you understand. We [View Full Entry]

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Once again I'm playing catch up with my travelblogs! James and I spent about six days on Perhentain Kecil Island, one of the two main Perhentian Islands. We arrived in early July and we would probably have spent longer there if we had not had to make our way up to Bangkok for mid-July. Nonetheless, six days was time enough to recharge from the exertions of mainland Malaysia and to generally just chill out on this small isolated beach. I doubt I'll ever find a beach and sea that I like more than this one. In the six or seven weeks [View Full Entry]

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It was a simple overland border crossing from Singapore to Malaysia. Still early, we decided not to hang around in the place that we arrived in, instead getting a coach north to the nearest major town on the tourits trail, Melaka. Our guide book gave Melaka a very favourable write up, and although the people were very friendly, I found it to be a fairly lifeless place. It was evening by the time we were ready to go out so we only vetured as far as the big shopping complex that was close to our room. After a bit of grub [View Full Entry]

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I was having trouble finding a word to describe Singapore until somebody told me that they found it to be 'sterile'. I like that word. Singapore is also described as a nanny state - it's illegal to chew gum and until recently it was also against the law to dance on tables in clubs (?!?). A plus point to this government hard line is that there is very little litter and the areas that we saw were very well kept. Although Singapore is very multicultural with friendly people, I felt that it lacked a real atmosphere, without being boring. If that [View Full Entry]

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Indonesia consists of approximately 17,000 islands. Indonesia Map We made it to eight, which isn't bad going. First stop was the island of Bali, probably the most touristy island of them all. We were craving some beach action after cloudy and humid Hong Kong, so we headed down to Kuta and found a nice place about two minutes walk from the beach. This was our first experience of low prices on our trip and boy was it good! I got a great air-conditioned double room (with TV) to myself for the equivalent of about 8GBP per night. The hote [View Full Entry]

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