Skinner89

After a long spell of bad internet connections and a detox from alcohol and western food, flying from Myanmar to Bangkok was in many ways a relief. I have explored Bangkok a few times on previous trips and so i was keen to move on quickly and head to Cambodia. The bus picked me up early in the morning and immediately i met an English guy on the bus. We chatted and halfway through the journey we met some Irish girls. The trip wasnt particularly taxing, mostly due to the fact that everyone was in good spirits. Upon my arrival to Siem Reap we asked a tuc tuc driver to take us to a cheap dorm, we went to two places that were full before giving up and checking into a cheap double room. The next ... read more

The bus from Inle Lake to Bagan was yet another bus nightmare, an hour into the ride and the bus driver ran someone over. It sounds very selfish of me to moan about this but you weren’t there, I have never seen anyone make such a meal out of being hit by a bus in all my life. He was barely cut but he was wailing and screaming like a heavy metal band. Because of the idiocy of this man who couldn’t be bothered to look both ways on a street which averaged 1 car per minute we was doomed to an eight hour wait at a shop in the middle of nowhere. I theorised that this man was working for the shop in an effort to attract tourists; I wouldn’t be surprised to see him ... read more

My only preconception of Myanmar was a mural of mental images gathered from the stories of other travellers. I had been told that the country was riddled with poverty, and in my head I had created an image similar to that of New Delhi. However the expectation of poverty was largely exaggerated, upon my arrival in Yangon I was greeted with a brand spanking new airport, I filled out the necessary paperwork and got into a taxi to the city. Although the cars were old and like many other Asian countries there were lorries/vans etc filled to the brim with people, the roads were smooth and the city seemed to have some nice buildings, we passed a few impressive hotels and restaurants, almost immediately I knew that Yangon was not going to be as hectic as ... read more

After realising that I was within a two hour trip from the Perhentian islands, I felt geographically obliged to stop there. The bus from Kota Bharu cost only 6 ringgit and dropped me right outside the port; from there a return boat journey was just 60 ringgit, bringing the total cost to around 13 pounds return. I climbed into a speed boat with no more than 10 other tourists, I expected the usual calm ride…but did not get it! The driver hurtled into action and was bouncing off of waves with no regard for the condition of his boat, nor passengers. It was about 20 minutes of gripping the side of the boat and bouncing in the air, I looked across to see a Chinese tourist almost weeping. The boat acted as a taxi service and ... read more

Immediately after arriving at Sihanoukville, the bus i was travelling on was bombarded by the usual mix of taxi drivers and hotel touts. I took a motorbike taxi to the nearby monkey republic hostel, the cost was low and the distance matched the price. The hostel was packed with travellers from around the world, one thing that i immediately noticed in Sihanoukville, which was different from many other of the surrounding areas was that many tourists had taken jobs at hostels and bars. These positions were typically occupied by locals, but on a short walk to the beach you could see a variety of jobs advertised in restaurant windows, in addition many of the bars and restaurants were owned by Westerners. This in turn meant that the standard of food quality was equally high to any ... read more