http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/stickyrice/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from stickyrice en-us Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:27:07 +0000 Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:27:07 +0000 The motorbike wobbled protestingly as we involuntarily headed for the nearest tree. Go faster said the exuberant bundle of ballast perched precariously behind me. At 82 my uncle was the oldest surviving member of my family and seemed keen to end his innings right there and then. Not on my watch uncle I yelled back wondering how I would explain this to my parents.Travelling through Laos http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/blog-20352.html Like so many times before this war was waged in the most beautiful of places on the most peaceful of peoples. This otherwise idyllic place is Muang Ngoi Neua a small onestreet village nestled amongst spectacular karst mountains where one can hear no cars. No motorbikes no telephones. The serene Nam Ou river isolates this peninsula from the rest of northern Laos and most everyone likes it t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Muang-Ngoi-Neua/blog-18899.html It all began very much like a Bruce Lee film should. A late afternoon sun was emerging doing its best to protest the wet season. On a rustic wooden ferry I stood silently at the bow watching the turbid waters of the Mekong River race the storm clouds that were fleeing in a southerly direction above. Between the river and the sky the banks of Laos held defiantly still as our vessel struggled http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-18182.html One can achieve a lot. Everything took that long at least in my personal experience. The bus ride to Mandalay. The bus ride to Bagan. The bus ride to Inle Lake. The passage of a lessthanperfectlyfresh lassi through my digestive tract.I'm now in Chiang Mai catching up with a good friend over equally good food. For the first time in nearly three decades I'm going to visit my country of o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Burma/blog-17950.html Our eyes met and the clouds parted. Like a choreographed dance she moved towards me and I took a step back our bodies in perfect unison. She reached for my breast but I turned away not tonight. This one wasn't going to have me easily this night.A cry from the crowd and my gaze was averted. She stepped in and pinned the paper butterfly to my shirt for good luck.I give you present now you http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Burma/blog-17419.html I enthusiastically patted the seat next to me grunted reassuringly and nodded as eagerly as I could hoping desperately that this act alone would put off anyone thinking about sitting next to such an unsavoury character...Now I wouldn't normally be this ungracious but I was still recovering from the previous bus ride where my coseatee had intermittently leant over me spitting half of his betel http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Burma/blog-17314.html 1. Enter on a schmicklooking Bangkok Airways flight carrying only 16 people. Look miffed given that one only has six rows to oneself.2. Make disapproving tutt tutt noises at fellow travellers having visa issues and holding up the queue of two.3. When accosted by touts and money changers confound them by acting as an ambassador of goodwill smiling and replying yes thank you I've packed my wh http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Burma/Yangon/blog-16858.html Yay I'm back in Bangers. Sorry mum I meant Krung Thep the city of angels. Only I must have been doing something wrong like staying near Khao San Road again because almost everyone I've met so far has been dodgy as hell if somewhat entertaining. In the last 24 hours I have been mistaken as a Japanese tourist by an Isaan taxi driver sampled every permutation of fruit shake possible with a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-16601.html