As i crossed the boarder into cambodia it becomes obvious from the landscape and the peole outside their dwellings that the poverty in cambodia is greater then the other countries in south east asia, on the boat crossing the Mekong there were gangs of limbless child beggars, out of principle i never give beggars money but is was heart breaking. Much of the poverty is due to the catastrophic rule of the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970's when an estimated 2,000,000 people died. the cambodians also look different to their neighbors in thialand, loas and Vietnam, they are much darker [View Full Entry]

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flew into Ho Chi Minh City which is still Saigon to everyone who lives there, the city is in constant fast forward and the traffic was as busy as Hanoi, except the roads were bigger, crossing the road either takes a long time or a lot of guts, you have to accept that you are part of the traffic and the swarm of bikes rushing towards you at different speeds on on various sides of the road will just treat you anothe4r obstacle and move around you. the traffic interchanges like a flock of starlings with a red sunset behind them, [View Full Entry]

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before i talk about nha trang, one last story from hoi an, when ever you walk around south east asia, or see pictures on the television you always see the women wearing masks that cover their mouths and faces to protect from pollution. while i was on the beach talking to the teenagers who wanted to learn english one of the girls was wearing such a mask, i said 'surly you dont need this here?', she looked at me strangely, 'no pollution', the other girls rolled around laughing, 'this is not to protect from pollution, this is to avoid sun, so [View Full Entry]

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hoi an was an international trading port as far back as the 17th century and influences from chinese, japanese and european cultures are well preserved in the architecture. it is a charming old town which still maintains a rustic feel, mixed with the glow of busy restaurants and cafes at night. we travelled their by sleeper bus although the journey was only 5 hours or so, arriving early afternoon. before i designated drop off point the bus stopped in hoi an at a hotel about 5 minute walk from the center, it was four star with a pool and only 6-7 [View Full Entry]

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hue is an ex capial, situated on the central east coast and is the forth largest city in Vietnam. we set out to explore the town on foot and bumped into a guy called archie who helen had met on one of the day tours she had gone on while i mooched around hanoi on foot. we walked over the Song Huong River and through the walls of the old town. as we entered there was the usual mob of tuk tuk offering us a tour of the old town, we declined and asked which way to the citadel, they said [View Full Entry]

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we booked a 2 night three day boat trip from halong bay around the 3000 islands that rise from the emerald waters of the gulf of Tonkin. the islands are jagged mountains of rock that are covered in vegetation generally short in length towering upwards towards the heavens. there were 11 people on the boat 3 french, two canadian girls, a canadian couple, a dutch couple and an estonain girl we ate a beautiful lunch on the boat on our way to our first port of call a cave that has been etched by nature into the side of one of [View Full Entry]

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headed south from Vang Vien to Viente to catch a plane to Hanoi. spent the next two days in my hotel room with a dodgy stomach. Did make it out for an afternoon and took a leisurely stroll through the manic streets of Hanoi to the Temple of literature. although this is an impressive 11th century structure i was expecting something more to do with literature. perhaps it was a little unfair of me to expect the re incarnation of the library at Alexander, but their we no books at all except for the obligitory Hanoi guide books. The journey they [View Full Entry]

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Van vien has a beautiful setting on the nam song river, the Town itself has something of a frontier feel about it. its introduction to tourism appears to be relatively recent, and although there are a plethora western comforts from video bars (which predominantly show friends) restaurants and hotels, you can see that this had been developed from peoples homes where they have simply opened up part of there house for business purposes and the whole thing is quite ramshackle. Although Laluang prabang was lovely the hotel we had stayed in for a flee pit so we arrived in vang vien [View Full Entry]

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We had two options to get to our next destination, luang prabang, a slow boat, which takes two days with an over night stop over, or a quick boat which takes 6 hours, no brainer we thought and bought two tickets fort he next day. some fellow travelers warned us that they had heard some horror stories and we were the only people we met that we taking the fast boat. we consulted my lonely planet south east asia, which said 'this is dangerous'.... 'take at your own risk'.......'are you in that much of a hurry'. hmmm. so we consulted lonely [View Full Entry]

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we left thailand by crossing the Mekong by boat, although he trip only takes 5 minutes i was filled with a sense that only now was the adventure starting, Thailand had been great, but its a well travelled route and very popular with tourists, i was expecting much more from loas. the main reason for coming to Huay Xai was for the gibbon experience which is a is an innovative conservation project in Bokeo Nature Reserve were we were doing the doing the tree day 'waterfall trek'. where we would zip line though he jungle and stay in tree houses. we [View Full Entry]

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