ninam

Well this is the end. I'm heading home in the morning. These last few weeks in Thailand have been incredible and I wish I had more time to spend here. Since my last entry I started and completed my rescue diver course, spent a night in Ko Samui, a few days diving in Ko Tao, and finally headed back to Bangkok. My rescue diver course was a lot of fun but my instructor was a bit scattered. The worst part of it was that there were TONS of jellyfish everywhere near Railay. I finished the course with probably around 15+ stings!!! (although not all super bad). I did get one really bad sting while walking out for a dive from the beach. Never even saw the thing but felt its tentacles wrap around my ankle and ... read more

As usual I feel like in the few days that have passed since my last entry, so much has happened. Friday I spent in Siem Reap with Kia and Toke just relaxing, shopping and eating more amazing ice cream sundaes. Great day! In the morning we left Siem Reap and flew to Kuala Lampur where I stayed for a short stop over on my way to Thailand again (finally). Kuala Lumpur is a very interesting city. On one hand it is so multicultural and all the cultureal and religious clothing you see in the street as well as regular western clothes and some very stylish people too give it an interesting flare (saris, burkas, full skirt and blouse with headscarfs, designer clothes, buddhist monks, etc). But the city feels alot more like a european city with ... read more

I am now in Cambodia, having left Vietnam Monday morning. I spent my last day in Saigon wandering around aimlessly and taking in a few sights. Unfortunately I haven't been feeling all that good so I didn't head out for a huge day. In the morning we left for Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We arrived around 2 in the afternoon and walked around the city for a while. After a late lunch we were exhausted and decided to relax in our room for a bit but after we all fell asleep, we decided to stay in for the rest of th enight and try to catch up on some of the sleep we've been missing on all those night buses. The next day Toke and I went to see the killing fields and Tuol Sleng (S21) prison. ... read more

I'm in Hoi An right now and am loving all the tailors here for custom clothing. I am not exaggerating when I say there are hundreds of tailors EVERYWHERE!!! I've heard that there is estimated to be between 350-500 of them in Hoi An alone. So needless to say, the big thing here is to get some custom made clothing. I'm getting a pair of dress pants, a beautiful silk dress, a long wool winter jacket, a short lighter winter jacket and a skirt for $113!!!! Love it. Hue wasn't terribly exciting but that might have been because its been insanely hot for the last few days (and I'm guessing it will only get worse as I continue to move south). In Hue it was too hot to do much and although I tried to see ... read more

Well, I arrived in Hanoi today after flying with the infamous Laos Airlines (refuses to release their safety records and notorious for bad safety history) and within less than two hours of arriving in the country I had already been ripped off. I was dropped off at a hostel with a sign that said "backpackers hostels" and when I asked if it was the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel they said yes (liars!). They also told me there was dormrooms for $6 when I was still in the car then when I got in the place they only had double rooms (more lies). The room was VERY nice and a reasonable price (bit more than i'd usually pay) but there was no one else staying there from what I could see and the place I had been expecting ... read more