laurentbon

L writes: We arrive at Tokyo Narita airport after an easy flight. It is 9pm and Ben has kindly instructed us to find the "Friendly limousine bus" to Minato-ku - good job as there are many buses waiting! Ensues our first experience of Japan: a member of platform staff looking with attention to his watch and exactly on time (to the second), and after a series of bows exchanged with the bus driver through the open door, we are on our way through the skyscrapers and into Tokyo. Ben warmly welcomes us to Japan and we go together to a local bar to drink a few sake based cocktails - lovely while Ben chats away happily to everyone in Japanese. Another beer at another place and I get chatting at the bar with a guy, apparently ... read more

We arrive in Borneo at 8pm - very exciting! and hook up with oddbod Jerry - a fruit obsessed American from deepest bible-belt land, to share a cab into the centre of Kuching. Takes a while to find a cheapish place here, and we settle for hip and friendly Singasana Lodge, before heading out for our first Nasi Lamak, fried banana and sweet potato fritters at one of the waterfront stalls (we return to this place, run by a woman and her 2 teenage sons, time and time again and chat a lot with them!). We see some giant wildlife straight away - snails and moths! L fools M into thinking one of the many kitch cat statues is The Cat of Kuching (Kuching = Cat City) to avoid traipsing around all evening (!) and we ... read more

Thailand 7/5/09-20/5/09 M writes: Apprehensively we board the Lao Airlines propeller plane to Chiang Mai (every traveller knows about the safety record of LA...and I am still a nervous flyer), excited about seeing more of the huge amount there is to see in Thailand and regretful leaving Laos, where we were happy. An empty, friendly bus takes us into town and after an hour of L searching for something decent we settle on a basic hostel run by annoying American guy who repeatedly winks and calls his Thai clerk "Manuel" (thereby negating coolness of being an American who knows Fawlty Towers by being offensive). Town is very quiet tonight: where are the tourists? Curry up here is spicey! Wash it down with beer in a jazz bar: good little nightspots, all dead. Day 1 is another ... read more

M writes: After introducing Gem to our favourite street caf in HCMC we stroll around Dong Khoi/Nguyen Hue area: posh shops, some French architecture, and opera house. Next morning, thanks to Gem we are able to make some strong coffee in our room before venturing out (ta big sis for the cups as well as all manner of other caring thoughts - vitamins etc, which were a good idea). We've arranged a 1/2 day tour to the Cuchi tunnels - built by the Vietcong as a defensive and protective underground complex: strategically positioned between the Communist North and occupied South. Us 2 found the video and information blinkered - our glorious fight kind of propaganda with little information about the complex context, and horror of the war. Although partially reconstructed (too narrow to safely visit otherwise!), ... read more

L writes: We leave Bangkok behind and enjoy duty free browsing at the airport before boarding a rather turbulent but short Air Asia flight to Phnom Penh. The drive in the taxi from the airport to the town center is totally chaotic. It appears that there is no traffic law in Cambodia. Trillions of motorbikes, scooters and tuk-tuks simply drive everywhere. Both sides of the road are fair play even on one-way streets, and it seems that junctions are negotiated with no formal priority aside for "priority to the largest" where clearly large trucks win and get to go first. We straight away notice that Cambodians use their motorbikes as we would use our cars. 3 people is by far the norm on a motorbikes and in the course of our journey in Cambodia, we notice ... read more