Of my four border crossings of the trip, this was by far the easiest. After one of those absurd journeys into Vientiane (sp) where the driver takes me to some random guest house, where I ask the owner "why am I here?" and he responds in fits of laughter "I don't know!", I chose the old guest house, Youth Inn I, for the driver to take me and then pick up for the bus later. I chose this because I wanted to scab a shower from them and I knew where it was on the second (English first) floor - so I strolled in, bold as brass, said sa-bai-dee, plopped down my big bag and went for a shower. Coming down stairs I saw some people I knew I recognised from the bus from Luang Prabang. ... read more

Many traveler types I met warned against Vientiane - "rubbish", they say, but I beg to differ. Maybe it's because it's too small to be a capital city, but too large to be a town, maybe it's that the tallest building is about knee-high to Ronnie Corbet. But I quite liked at and, as ever, bike was the way to go - I enjoyed a good day riding around, seeing the various bits and bobs around and just exploring. The heat was colossal, so my famous back sweat was winning awards and curing world drought (aren't you glad I mentioned that?), and some of the sights were hilarious - I cycled 3km to see the "three elephants statue" which turned out to be a tiny little thing in the middle of a triangle bit of grass ... read more

I use the pun in the title not to describe this nation, but the journey it took to get here! on 22nd I got a bus from Hoi An to Savannakhet, with an arrival and duration time of 24 hours, starting 7.30am By 7.30am I'd not even left Vietnam, a distance of about 80miles. Tops. I arrived here in Savannakhet some 35 hours later. Here's the long and short of it (i.e. the long - sorry!) I left Hoi An with an angry man on the bus jabbing his finger at a bunk (t'was a sleeping bus) and saying "YOU - THERE!" Fortunately a local over his shoulder saw my plight and shook his head at me, indicating I can take any bunk I like. So I did. With this man, he gave me bread so ... read more

So the international community are attacking Gadaffi. From my short time in Vietnam and Cambodia I've learned how wars which start with the (sort of) best of intentions always result in the people suffering the most. Disturbing innuendo such as "collateral damage" leave a bitter taste in the mouth, as the innocent civilians of Vietnam and Cambodia know well. From Iraq, we know that modern, sophisticated weapons are no guarantee of a bloodless campaign... I hope that this one is not another western fuck-up.... ************************************** Hoi An - an absolutely beautiful town and, despite the number of tourists, it doesn't seem to be too ruined! I recommend coming here if you're ever in Vietnam, particularly prevalent are tailor shops, where you can buy delicious tailored suits for as little as 50 english squids! I went with ... read more

The dilemma has been solved. Unfortunately it means skipping Hanoi and Halong bay from my trip. But I either lose that or the whole of Laos, so I think it better to keep the other country than the region of the one I'm already in. You may have noticed very frequent blogs. This one comes because I am confined to indoors and no activity in todays blistering heat. First, an update from yesterday. I went to the beach in the morning and sat there for about an hour - the cloudy day and strong wind negating any need for suncream. After this, I decided I wanted to go to one of the islands, not on a tour, not on an all inclusive package, but as a normal human being, on a typical passenger ferry which my ... read more