After a reatively comfortable and relaxing week in Melaka it was onwards it was to Singpore aka "The Fine City", more not so because it is a nice city but because you can get fined for, well, pretty much everything (its a stupid joke I know but hey, I never came up with it). If you so much as spit, walk, eat, drink, breathe, litter, move, smoke, cross the road or chew chewing gum (which is actually illegal here) in any area which hasn't been designated for that task and provided you get cought then your budget will be in deep [View Full Entry]

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Hey peeps, last time I left off in Kuala Lumpur after so many days of doing, well...not much. So it was time to head a little further south to a place recommended by a fellow backpacker called Melaka that was supposed to be a lot more peaceful and with some allegedly pretty awesome history & culture. The city itself has a history of selling itself, having been ruled by the Portuguese, Dutch and Brits since it was a popular port in a good defensive location. The result is that there are colonial buildings everywhere which now serve as museums (I know [View Full Entry]

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I left you all recovering from the second full moon party of the tour, the final goodbye to Thailand (well I have been here 3 times in 6 months) so it was finally time to split as Australia approaches. With two weeks to waste, it was time to move on to Malaysia, coming here for no real reason apart from not having to spend all this time in Singapore. So back to Hat Yai (the place bombed as late as last year *5 times* by separatists) so that I could cross the border and split the 15 hour trip to Kuala [View Full Entry]

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Last time I left you guys just back from burma, exhausted and in need of some partying. Don't get me wrong the place touched me (in some places you don't wanna know) but one month of such little nightlife can easily get to you after a while. So it was back to Bangkok, and buckets were flowing on the old Koah San road in company of Pini (the legend himself from back in Yangon, also in serious need to party after 3 MONTHS of the same old thing in Burma) and any girls he managed to molest (which is a lot, [View Full Entry]

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Yay finally the last one for Burma! Although I'm not sure whether I'm happy or sad... Last time I left you guys kicking off to a lazy get of a trishaw driver. It was time to calm down, chill out, get away from all this touristy bollocks and just reeeelaaax. Don't get me wrong I had an awesome time up here. But with all the sight seeing in Bagan and Mandalay it was definitely time to head to a beach and crash. You seen the photo's, Burma has some of the worlds most amazing beaches, with kilometers after kilometers of white [View Full Entry]

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Whoop Whoop, next stop...Mandalay, Myanmar's second city. After almost a week all alone I was looking forward to finding some westerners to socialize with. There are really so few backpackers here in Myanmar! So you step off the bus to be swamped by leech-like touts clambering over each other to get some of your business. At this point you know there is no way to get out of the "new-guy-in-town" fees...I chose self humiliation and went with the good old trishaw (a bicycle with sidecar...i.e. sooooo slow) since it was the cheapest option. I have to say though the driver earned [View Full Entry]

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A 5am start from Inle in the back of a taxi with a boring couple (of which one looked gay and the other had really, really saggy breasts) marked the 5 month mark & nobody decent to celebrate it with. Burma needs independent travelers during low season! My Faithful Irish companion escaped to Yangon to meditate so I was on my own from now on. With the government outlawing Beer Stations in Bagan (something about it being an Archaeological Site) meant it was unlikely I was gonna be talking to anyone but myself (violins please). It was the longest period of [View Full Entry]

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Hey people, one more location on the map from me. This time, from the wonderful world of Inle. Possibly one of the few areas in Myanmar with an actual backpacker-like-type-vibe, a place where you may actually run into and socialize some other backpackers! Hurray! Just to get here from the Golden Rock was an experience within itself, an experience which makes my bones ache to this day even now I'm back in Bangkok. Consisting of 2 pick-ups totaling 5 hours, one overnight bus, another pick-up (we missed our damn stop!), a mini-bus and a taxi in the space of 24 hours! [View Full Entry]

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First I'll mention there is nothing here in Kinpun worth doing apart from visiting a really big boulder (and it is a nice boulder) perched atop a mountain in a gravity defying sort of way, allegedly held in place by one of the Buddha's hairs making it one of the Wonders of the World. Obviously since I was in this part of the world and with some good company, namely Yoris and Fergal from Yangon, we thought it was probably a sight worth seeing. So you arrive in Kinpun sitting on the roof of a pick-up (try explaining that on an [View Full Entry]

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Found only 4 hours from Yangon, Bago was our first stop in Myanmar. As you step off the bus you're immediately ambushed by touts offering you accommodation in their hotels. It doesn't take long for it to sink in that we are the ONLY foreigners in the whole city. The Lonely Planet is right, the touts from the Emperor Hotel are VERY aggressive...he just makes you wanna scream! It probably wouldn't phase him though, he'd probably just keep asking you to check out his stinking rooms. "check room please, compare, look, please check room, my family, 3 people, 9 dolla, please [View Full Entry]

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