Here in Hanoi, one of the western-style cafes (named the Kangaroo Cafe, and of course there are about 3 other rip-off "Kangaroo Cafes" around town!) sells T-shirts which proclaim, in Vietnamese, "No! I do not want... motorbike, cyclo, postcards, cigarettes, t-shirts, etc.. now go away!". I think it sells well. If the locals here actually learned the word "no" in their standard issue Vienglish textbooks, they're not letting on. In this city, with its amazing old quarter complete with a maze of narrow streets (named after the products sold on the street - I'm staying on Thuoc Bac Street, whi [View Full Entry]

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Drinking games aren't very complicated here in Vietnam. Everytime you want a drink, just hold up your glass and make everyone say Mot, Hai, Ba... Yoooo! (1, 2, 3... GO!!), but with the right crowd, you still get the desired result. An added benefit is you learn to count. I proudly announce that I can count to 3 in vietnamese! I've continued travelling with the Police group from Sydney, firstly to the central coast town of Tuy Hoa, famous for being the home town of my good friend and tour guide Luc Nguyen. Luc left Tuy Hoa as a boat person [View Full Entry]

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No, I haven't made a pilgrimage around the Indochinese sub-continent, getting to know the poor, swimming across the Mekong to a leper colony, and learning the ways of communism in my pre-revolutionary youth... yet... I'm in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City since its 'liberation' in 1975), city of Motorbikes. There are 6 million people in this city and an estimated 5 million registered motorbikes or scooters. At all hours, the streets are like rivers of bikes riding 4 or 5 abreast in each direction, with a few crazy taxis, buses and private cars floating along. To cross the road here, you [View Full Entry]

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My travels in South East Asia have finally commenced. After touching down in Bangkok on Sunday night, and a couple of days on Khao San Road, I've spent the last few days in Kanchanaburi, a small, busy town spanning 5km along the northern bank of the River Kwai, about 150km west of Bangkok. The town is famous as the site of the base camp for Allied POW's in WWII working on the "Death Railway" linking Thailand to Burma, the main attraction being the bridge on the river Kwai, 5km north of town. The town is now a major tourist centre, gateway [View Full Entry]

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