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Published: November 25th 2006
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First off, my apologie's to everyone for the lateness of this journal, it's been a busy month even though Im travelling!
Since my last blog I have travelled from Cambodia into Vietnam. I travelled from Ho Chi Minh city headed North to Hanoi and crossed into the most amazing country I've ever been in so far, Laos. I've seen and witnessed so many amazing thing's, I can only imagine what the rest of my journey around the world has in store for me. I have witnessed 4 motorbike accident's one of which was fatal. Meet thousand's of people from all over the globe, drank way too many beer's and still managed to loose 7 kg's. Endured a 27 hour bus ride which broke down twice from Hanoi in Vietnam to the capital of Laos, Vientine. Hired motorbike's in every country and rode out to local village's to meet and see how the local's actually live. Cycled close to 500km's around the citie's and out into local provience's. Pitched in to help build a mud hut in one local village in Laos over 3 day's, they ended up teaching me alot more than I thought they would. I ate dinner
with them and slept their one night so we could get an early start the following day, I loved every sweating minute of it. Read 2 book's totalling over 1000 page's. Begun using reflective post analysis on big wave surfing so I can mentally condition myself when I reach South America. Im doing this by writing essay's on everything to do with big wave surfing and how swell's form from their origin. Started smoking again as it is only 50 cent's a packet. I quit a week later as I realised how stupid it was and why I quit in the first place! Spent a night on a boat around Halong Bay in Northen Vietnam, just relaxing and diving off the top deck to the cheer's of the crew. Scaled up a cliff in Halong Bay to take some photo's and on my decent slipt and sliced open my left leg, rigft hand and left foot. Nothing a bit of antiseptic and a few beer's later couldn't fix. Meet a beautifull local Vietnamese girl in Hanoi, central Vietnam and broke her heart as I told her I couldn't move their as there are no solid swell's in S.E Asia. Encountered
my first run in with the local authortie's, a quick bribe and I was back on my way. In S.E Asia money talk's. That's just off the top of my head, so it has been a busy month but I've had a ball!
Vietnam is an amazing place full of beautifull people, incredible food, Jungle's you could get lost in and moutain's you could spend the rest of your life climbing. I stopped in Dalat up in the mountain's, Nah Trang on the coast, Hoi An where I meet Thuy ( pronounced Toy ), Hue the old capital of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh where there are a staggering 8 million people in the city and last of all the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi. I travelled Vietnam on a Gecko's tour. I was in a small group of 6 people all older than me by 9 year's or more so it wasn't really what I was expecting. I did enjoy it as the tour leader give's you a lot of free time to do whatever you please. I've realised I prefer to travel solo though as your more open to different expirence's and meeting people. Travelling around S.E. Asia is
pretty easy to do on your own so there's no real need to do a tour in any of these countrie's.
Cambodia. I enjoyed visiting the temple's of Ankgor Wat and the people are really friendly people outside of the citie's but other than that I didn't really like Cambodia. I saw first hand their horrifying history and how far they have come. Their where certain aspect's such as how tourist's are treated, just a $ sign that turned me away from their country. Each to their own!
Laos, in one word, WOW! Im in Luang Prabang at the mo and I would really like to spend a few month's here just cycling around the mountain's. I've travelled up from Vientine and into Van Vieng. Van Viang was a beautfiull town with tourist's everywhere all sitting there watching Friend's day and night. I thought that was pretty sad to come half way around the world and watch T.V. espically in that sort of environment. Other than that there was so much to see a mere 10km's out of the town. I meet up with a bloke from the U.K. and we spent 2 day's riding around the mountain's
exploring cave's and diving into the river from the highest point we could find. A few day's ago I caught a bus up into Luang Prabang and was blown away the second I arrived here. It's surrounded my mountain's, valley's and waterfall's. It's still pretty touristy but it's spread out enough to get away from all the tourist's. Im staying in the best guest house I've stayed in yet, I just love it and it will be hard to leave on Tuesday. I will be back!
I head off on a bus for a 24 hour trip to Bangkok on Tuesday morning so I can fly off to the U.K. on Thursday night. I dont know how I will adjust to the tempreature, the cost of living ( espically the cost of beer ) and to the tempreature of the U.K. after living here for nearly 2 month's and never paying more than 2 buck's for a beer, 4 buck's for a meal and 10 buck's for accomadtion. All good thing's must come to an end and Im that much closer to getting back into the ocean and being able to surf again. Beside's, how cold can it really
be!
All the best from S.E. Asia,
Timmy
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