The End of a Journey

Location: Bangkok
Country: Thailland

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This will be my last update in the blog, as tomorrow my trip in Asia comes to an end.
Though I am very eager to get home, I have decided that before returning, I will pay a visit to my family in London for a couple of weeks.

I spent about a week on Haadrin beach (Kho Phangan). Unfortunately the weather was not very good and the beach there has been ruined, it's all clubs along the front and the beach is very littered.
I spent most of my time there watching films.
To be honest, I don't think I could have enjoyed anything too much at that point, my heart just wasn't there already, I just wanted to be in London and then home.

From Kho Phangan returned to Bangkok, my last long bus trip!! It took about 20 hours door to door. So glad those trips are behind me.
Though my trip to London will actually be a rather long one too. In order to save about 200 USD, I am flying via Sri-Lanka, and will have the great pleasure of spending 10 hours at Colombo airport. I think it will take me about 30 hours in all, but at least it's not a bus trip, a plane will be luxury in comparison.

Spent almost a week in Bangkok, I always enjoy my time here.
It was extremely hot and humid, and I don’t think that there has been a point in the last few days when I have not been sweating.
Spent most of my time shopping, one of my least favorite activities, but it had to be done. I’m sure I bought much less than most people do here; I don’t know how they get all their packages on the plane.
I am finally done with the shopping and am looking forward to being on my way tomorrow.

I am proud to tell you that the zip I reported I had sewn on my bag a few updates ago, is still there, my own abilities surprise me.
Maybe that should be the direction my career could take upon my return – I could go work in a sweat-shop sewing zips on bags and earn less than minimum wage.
I've been waiting my entire trip for some inspiration about what I will do when I get back, and it has finally come to me.

I want to retract something that I said in one of my updates – I said that Ben Elton was my new favorite author. Well, I have read 5 more books of his since, and my opinion of him has altered slightly. The books were good, but none of them as enjoyable as the first one I read ("Inconceivable"). The only one that was almost as good was "Dead Famous", which was rather funny.
So, though I think he is quite a good author, definitely not my favorite. I feel he tries too hard in his books to criticize society.

Apart from all the obvious, there are a few things that I am really looking forward to about going at home:
* Not needing to wear a money belt.
* Being able to sit on the toilet seat.
* Showering bare foot, not having to wear flip-flops.
* Not having to brush my teeth with mineral water.
* Not carrying all my worldly possessions on my back.
* Sleeping in my own bed.
* Having home-cooked meals.
* Not having cold showers.
* Not having to spend more than 5 consecutive hours in a vehicle.

So, this is it, we have come to the end. I want to thank all my readers who have stuck by me over the last six months; I hope you enjoyed reading the blog as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
Special thanks to Mum who never missed a comment.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my journey, some parts were better than others, but I wouldn't change any of it.
I have met some great people along the way, and I hope that I will keep contact with at least a few of them.
Paula – Having you join me for that time in India was brilliant, and I was sorry that you couldn’t stay longer.

I didn't need to travel for six months in order to discover that "there is no place like home", I knew that from the start and I am so happy to be going back.
No matter how much I will complain once I'm home (finding a job, finding a house, leading a regular life again), I know now, more than ever, that there is no where else I would rather be.

The Islands

Location: Kho Phangan (Haadrin beach)
Country: Thailand

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My apologies for not updating the blog last week, the Internet in the islands is really expensive, and seeing as I have been concentrating my energies on doing nothing, there really isn’t much to tell.
I spent a few pleasant days in Bangkok, even venturing around the city a bit, the shopping malls there are just unbelievable. I don’t know about Thailand being a 3rd world country, they look Israel look like one.
The shopping malls are huge and so modern looking, and there are just so many of them around. I went to one that had 7 floors of electric appliances; I was dizzy when I came out of there.
In Bangkok I met quite a few people that I had met during my trip, was very nice to see some of them, seems like everyone ends up in Thailand eventually.

From Bangkok I headed down to the Islands, decided to go to Kho Phangan.
When I was in Thailand last time, I came to this Island and stayed on Haadrin beach, which is the party beach where the fullmoon party takes place. I heard that it had changed a lot and become like a small town. I also did not fancy going there as it was a week before the fullmoon and I knew that it would be packed with people.
I wasn’t really sure which beach I was heading for.
On the ferry on the way to the Island I met this nice English guy – Sadler, and was chatting to him, he said that he was going to Thong Nai Pan Yai beach, it sounded good, so I let him know that I would be following him.
In all, the trip to the beach from the island ended up taking about 20 hours, was quite exhausting.
The beach was really nice, huts all along the front with nice restaurants around and a bit of a night life (though not much).

The weather has not been perfect, as it should be this time of year, have had some cloudy and rainy days, but seems to be getting better all the time and last few days have been lovely and sunny.
I stayed at Thong Nai Pan Yai beach for about a week and a half, ended up spending most of my time with Sadler (nothing romantic, too big an age gap). We got on really well, he’s a great guy.

My days were spent on the beach, reading, chatting, eating and playing cards. Can’t complain.

After Sadler left and a noisy construction site suddenly appeared outside my room, I decided that it was time to move on.
Even though I knew that Haadrin beach would be nothing like I remember and rather developed, I wanted to see it.
I arrived today and was quite shocked by what I found; there is not one thing that I recognized. There actually is one club that I remember from last time, but the only thing that is the same is the name (The Cactus), it is completely different.
I have about a week left in the islands, and I think I’ll spend it here. Even though it is very developed, it seems quite pleasant, and I can hang out watching films in the restaurants when I’m not at the beach, catch up on current movies a bit.

The Lao boat experience

Location: Bangkok
Country: Thailand

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Spent a couple of days in Luang Prabang. It is a very pleasant town with not too much to see. Saw some temples, though I pretty much feel that I have seen enough of those to last me a life time.
Every night the main tourist street closes to traffic and they have a night market which is really nice.

From Luang Prabang I decided to head to Thailand. There was some more things to see in Laos, but to be honest I have grown a little tired of travelling and just wanted to get to the islands in Thailand. Before heading for the islands I wanted to stop in Chang Mai in the north of Thailand to do an elephant trek.
To get to Chang Mai from Luang Prabang I had five options to chose from, none of which were extremely appealing :
Option A: Get a one hour flight. The main fault with this option is that only Lao Airlines fly on this route, and flying with them is pretty much equivalent to committing suicide. They are one of the worst airlines, they have very old plains and refuse to publish their crash statistics. So I decided to give this option a miss.
Option B: Get a bus that takes about three days on dreadful roads. No need to explain why I didn’t chose this option.
Option C: Get a night bus to Vientiane, from there a night train to Bangkok and from there a night bus to Chang Mai. Quite the long way round, and I knew that if I arrived in Bangkok, I would probably be too lazy to head to Chang Mai and will just go to the islands.
Option D: Get a six hour fast boat to the Thai border and from there a six hour bus to Chang Mai. Would have been the best option, only that according to the “Lonely Planet”, there is at least one fatality a week on the fast boat, and you should avoid going on them at all costs.
Option E: Get a two day slow boat to the Thai border, stopping at some town on the way for the night, and from there a six hour bus to Chang Mai.
This seemed to be the safest option, so I chose it.

The chairs on the boat were the most uncomfortable wooden benches you could imagine (suddenly the local bus in India seemed comfortable). The first day was supposed to take nine hours.
About two and a half hours after leaving Luang Prabang the boat engine suddenly died. Though the engine did make quite an awful noise, the last thing you wanted is to stop hearing it.
They managed to steer us to the river bank despite the really strong current. The Lao people started getting off the boat, when suddenly they began running of in a panic. At this point it was rather scary, didn’t know if we were drowning or if the whole thing was about to blow up or what. All the foreigners were just standing on the boat trying to figure out what was going on and what we should do.
The biggest question – do we get off and abandon our backpacks to an unknown fate?
We all got off (I would say that there were about 25 of us), and the locals were struggling to hold the boat with this rope, whilst the river was making it’s best effort to fight them. The chances of the boat not drifting away were not looking good.

I was not about to lose my backpack. I organized the foreigners to get all our backpacks of the boat, and felt calmer when my bag was on dry land.
So there we are, sitting on the sand by the river, the sun blazing, no shade in site, no food and hardly any water left, and absolutely no idea how long we were going to be spending there.
We were quite surprised by the Lao efficiency, when 2 hours later our salvation boat appeared.
This boat had no seats at all, which was much better, as the floor was more comfortable than the wooden benches and it also gave a good atmosphere all sitting together.

The boat sailed off to the sound of our cheers.
We cheered too soon. Five minutes after leaving we had to stop because the propeller, or something of that sort, broke hitting the rocks. Luckily they did have a spare one and we were only delayed for half an hour.
By now we had a little group of forgings that were getting friendly and I was sitting with two really sweet Israeli guys playing cards.
All seemed to be going well.
The catch was that we couldn’t make it to the town where we were supposed to sleep before dark, and the boat can not sail in the dark. We stopped at this tiny village and were told that we have to sleep on the boat. It gets pretty cold and night, and I remind you that we had no food and drink either. Not a great situation.
Then this guy came along and said that there was a guesthouse and we should come with him. I got my two Israeli guys to come quickly, as it was obvious that there would not be enough room for everyone.
So we go off marching in the dark, about 25 of us, with our backpacks, through these sand dunes. Must have been quite a site.
We arrive at this shed which is the house of a family in the village, there was the room were the family slept and one room where they could accommodate us. They could only fit 15 people in, so it was lucky that we were ahead in the line. The rest of the people had to go back to sleep on the boat.
We got sticky rice and plain noodles to eat. But after hardly eating all day, it was delicious.

We asked for water and were told that there is only beer. After buying over priced beer that we didn’t really want, some of the guys found the shop in the village and found that there was water. They just wanted to make more of a profit on us, so they didn’t tell us. Lovely Lao people. But at least we got water in the end.
By this time there was a real bond forming in the group and the atmosphere was really cool.
After supper they laid out mattresses on the floor in the whole room, was rather a tight fit.

The chances of me being able to sleep in such conditions were extremely low, until one of my new friends produced a Valium pill, I slept like a baby.
The next day we headed off at dawn to the town where we were supposed to sleep originally, with hope that we would make the next boat heading to the border.
Thankfully, we made it.
There were benches on this one, but our little group chose to sit on the floor at the back as it was more comfortable.
We passed the time with about eight of us playing cards (Apparently Taki is not an Israeli game and is known abroad as Uno).
We had a great time on the way, as by this point we were best mates, having been through so much together.
We reached the border town too late to cross to Thailand, and spent the night in Laos.

The next day I headed off with the two Israeli guys and two Aussies to Thailand. After crossing the border we had a 7 hours bus to Chang Mai.
On the way we got friendly with another girl and we all found a guesthouse together, which wasn’t an easy task, as the city seemed to be packed.

My reason for arriving in Chang Mai was that I wanted to ride an elephant.
So yesterday I went on a day tour. They didn’t have a tour with only elephant riding, so I also had to walk for an hour (!!!) to see some water fall and there was water rafting. The rafting I did not do, I have had enough of rivers.
The elephant ride was really cool though and I’m glad I did it.


Last night I got a 12 hour bus from Chang Mai to Bangkok. I was going to stay and explore the north of Thailand a bit, but all I feel like doing right now is heading for the islands and chilling out.
I will probably spent a couple of nights in Bangkok and head south.

Vang Vieng - The pleasure of nothing

Location: Luang Prabang
Country: Laos

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From Hanoi got a one-hour flight to Vientiane, which is the capital of Laos.
Hanoi and Vientiane could not have been more different. Hanoi is a crazy city with motorbikes everywhere and loads of people and you cann’t even walk on the pavement without fear of being ran over, everything was so manic.
Vientiane on the other hand looks like some small town stuck somewhere in the 50’s, it is really quiet with hardly any vehicles around. When you see that this is the capital of Laos, you understand what sort of country you have come to – very backwards, very laid back, very calm.
I did one day of touring round Vientiane with a tuk-tuk. It consisted mainly of seeing temples, but it was nice.


The next day I got a three-hour bus from Vientiane to Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is a backpacker’s paradise. It has everything a backpacker could want or need: Cheap rooms, great scenery, good food, chill out places by the river, films and shows on the restaurant TVs all day. Also active things for those who want (not me), such as trekking, bikes, kayaking etc.


My first day there, I actually was talked in to an active day by this really nice American couple that I met, what a mistake.
It started off with me having to go on an inner-tube (haven’t done that since junior school) in freezing cold water in to some cave and having to crawl round inside there.

This for me was a bad start; little did I know that it would be considered the best part of the day by the time I was done.
The next part was kayaking. I was fully aware in advance that this really was not for me, but I thought it would be a short thing and will be over with quick enough, but no. I think we were rowing for like 2 hours.
Well, the first part of the trip it could be said that I wasn’t exactly rowing. Very skillfully, I managed to arrange that I be on the same kayak as the guide, which meant that 1) I let him do all the work and 2) We didn’t tip over in to the water. I think he was getting quite annoyed with me for not helping, but I guess I kinda ignored him. I did try to row a bit at the beginning, but it’s really hard.
For some reason, after the break he did not want to be on the boat with me anymore, most offending.
He put me with one of the other tourists and then I was forced to at least pretend to row, my arms were killing me by the end of it. Never ever kayaking again.

Though the activities of the day were far from my liking, the day was pleasant enough, as we had a nice little group.

I made a decision that the rest of my time in Vang Vieng, I will be doing absolutely nothing, and I sure did stick to that decision.
I spent more than a week there, and when I paid for my room in the end, I was quite shocked by the amount of nights; I have no idea where the time went.
My day went something like this: Get up at about 12:00, go to one of the restaurants where they screen “Friends” 24X7, spend 3-4 over breakfast there, spend some time reading and get organized for the evening activities – finding the restaurant showing the best film to have supper in and after that, just hanging out.
It was brilliant. I had the best time.

About the restaurants, there were three next to each other that all screened “Friends” 24X7, I am not exaggerating, they showed nothing else. It was really funny standing between them and hearing 3 different episodes going on at once.
If I never see another re-run of that show again, it will be fine with me. When I hear the title song, I now get the same reaction as the guy in “A Clockwork Orange” when he hears Beethoven’s 9th.

After more than a week of mind numbing activity in Vang Vieng, I decided that I had better move on, or it may never happen.
Got a 6-hour bus today from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang, it was a beautifully scenic ride.

The Lao people are the least annoying Asian people I have encountered so far. They don’t harass you, it’s so nice, you walk along the streets without getting some remarks every 2 minutes. There are also no beggars around (I think Laos is quite a poor country, so I do wonder were all the poor and the beggars are, maybe the government takes “care” of them….). It is such a pleasure.
Saying that I like them would be pushing it a bit, but they seem to be the best of a bad bunch.

Sapa

Location: Hanoi
Country: Vietnam

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I used my free day around Hanoi to do some sight seeing.
I went to the Ethnology museum, which was extremely impressive; I was kind of expecting something on the level of museums I had been accustomed to in India, but this was one proper museum.
It had displays about all the different minorities in Vietnam (apparently there are many), and they managed to keep me interested enough to walk round for about an hour (I have a very low tolerance for museums, so that is quite impressive, if I stayed for an hour it means that other people would be there for about 3).

I then visited the Ho Chi Min Museum, which again was very impressive; it was designed in a modern art fashion that was very interesting. Unfortunately, that was the only thing that was interesting about it, as they only bothered to put information and explanations up in Vietnamese, which I am not quite fluent in yet. So I spent a whole of about 7 minutes there.
Near the museum is the Ho Chi Min Mausoleum, and I could have got to see the man himself if only I had woken up early enough, it’s open only till like 10:00 in the morning, so I decided I don’t want to see him that badly.
After Ho Chi Min, I felt I had the energy in me for one more museum, so I went to the Hoa Lo Prison museum (AKA Hanoi Hilton).
The prison was first used by the French during colonial times to hold Vietnamese political prisoners, and later used by the Vietnamese to hold American prisoners of war.
It was quite interesting.
The really amusing part is that throughout the museum you are told about the terrible atrocities committed against the Vietnamese by the evil French colonialist who held them in the prison, and then when you come to the section about the American prisoners of war, you are told how well they were treated by the Vietnamese and are shown pictures of healthy and happy looking Americans. I think not…

That night I had a night train going to Sapa, was heading there for a 3-day trip.
Sapa is in the northwest of Vietnam near the Chinese border. It is a beautiful area with the most amazing scenery. Loads of green hills with rice terraces everywhere, valleys and streams and mist coming and going.
Most people go up there to do trekking, which needled to say I did not do. I chose the guide with a motorbike option.
(Note: The idea of auto rickshaws / tuk-tuks does not exist in Vietnam, so I have had to do many of my trips on the back of motorbikes, not really to my liking, but no choice in the matter. Mum – I am telling you this after the fact, so there is no point in worrying now).
We drove round a couple of days, mostly visiting minority villages. But the best part for me was just riding around looking at the amazing view.


As I mentioned, the weather was supposed to be freezing, but I was really lucky and it wasn’t that cold. There was still a need to have all my winter cloths on, but with them on it was warm enough, even had some sunshine.
I am glad to report that Sapa was well worth a visit.

Arrived back in Hanoi at 05:00 am this morning, and decided to update the blog whilst sitting around waiting for a room.
I have one day to spend here, which I will dedicate to sorting out some bits and pieces, and tomorrow I am off to Laos.
Thought the trip to Laos can be done by bus, I have decided to take a flight. The bus ride can take anywhere up to 30 hours and is said to be a total nightmare.

Some point to sum up my short visit in Vietnam.
* Vietnam is a very pleasant country to visit, very easy to travel in, locals quite nice, level of guesthouses is very good, but not many point of interest.
* The place I found most interesting were the Mekong Delta, the Cu Chi tunnels in Saigon, Halong Bay and Sapa. Basically all the middle of the county is not really worth seeing.
* If someone were to ask me whether to visit Vietnam as a primary destination, I would have to say no, but as a short visit on along trip it is OK, though not a must.
* I am glad that I came here as I have mentioned I have always wanted to see Vietnam, but I’m glad I did not dedicate too much time to it.
* The travelers here are very nice, met some interesting people along the way. The country seems to be swarmed with Ausis, must be a popular destination for them.
* The Frogs seem to have done a much better job here than the Brits did in India, their influence is still very much felt, the towns are filled with beautiful buildings and a nice atmosphere.
* I have been extremely lucky with the weather. Vietnam is notorious for it’s bad weather, and it is not uncommon to have days and days of rain. I basically have not suffered from the rain at all, and have not had it affect my plans in any way.
* Of course, the coolest part about my visit here is that I will now be able to start a sentence with “Back in Nam….”

Halong Bay

Location: Hanoi
Country: Vietnam

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From Nha Trang I got an 11 hour night bus to Hoi An.
On the bus met a nice German guy, originally from Korea, he actually wasn’t gay for a change, but the Korean look doesn’t exactly do it for me.
We shared a room in Hoi An and hung out together there.
Hoi An is a lovely little town, with a beautifully preserved old town that is a world heritage site.

Spent the day we arrived just wondering round the town, enjoying the atmosphere and the beautiful buildings.
The next day we went to Marble Mountain, which is, well, a mountain made out of marble, and there are these small caves around. It was ok.

Hoi An is known for it’s many cloth and tailor shops, so I did some shopping for warm things that would be needed in the north of Vietnam.
I also couldn’t resist buying this really nice coat for home, as it was so nice and cheap, but I think I may regret it at some point, it is a rather heavy addition to my already heavy bag.

From Hoi An, I had the pleasure of spending 19 hours on a bus to Hanoi, I think I now have a fair idea of what hell will be like when I arrive there, it was a pretty rough trip. They don’t even have sleeper buses here, which made it all the more fun.
It sure was lucky though that I bought some warm stuff in Hoi An, otherwise I may just have frozen to death.

I arrived in Hanoi pretty shattered, managed to find a really nice guesthouse, and just hung round there that day. But from what I managed to see, Hanoi is a pretty crazy, hectic city.

The next day I took a 2-day trip to Halong Bay – Finally a place in Vietnam really worth seeing!!
It is something like 3000 small green islands in the sea. It is also a world heritage site.

There were 11 of us on the trip, and I got friendly with a group of four 20-year-old Australians (again I was the old woman) who were really sweet, and we sat playing card when we weren’t being disturbed to go see sights.
We visited this amazing stalactite cave called Surprise Cave. As explained by our guide, it is called this because the people were so surprised by it’s beauty when they discovered it (he loved this explanation so much that we got to hear it about 10 times).

We slept on the boat, and had a really nice time.

I am now back in Hanoi, will tour round the city tomorrow a bit and in the evening I am going on a 4 day trip to Sapa, which is also supposed to be very good, but freezing.
Though Hanoi and Halong Bay were also rumored to be very cold, and so far I have been lucky.

I was made to sew for the first time in my life the other day and I think that if any one had been watching me, they would have been highly amused.
The zip in my small bag was coming apart and I didn’t have time to take it to someone to get it fixed, so I decide to attempt to sew it myself.
Thanks to Dad, I have a small sewing kit with me.
Having never done this before, I had no clue how to go about it, but eventually, after several failed attempts, I think that I kind of succeeded.
I am now interested to see how long it will last, so far it has been 2 days, so I think that is already an impressive achievement.

Vietnam - Nice but not fascinating

Location: Nha Trang
Country: Vietnam

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Just by chance I happened to be in Saigon for New Year's Eve, and I'm very glad it worked out that way.
In Saigon there is the main street where all the backpackers stay (the equivalent of the Kaosan), that street was closed to traffic and there were different shows going on, and loads of stands selling food and silly souvenirs (felt like Yom-Ha'atsmaut in Netanya).
They had acrobatic shows, dances with dragon costumes and singing (looked just like something taken out of the 80's). It was really fun to sit and watch.

As I was sitting there drinking my beer, I was joined by this really sweet English guy and we ended up spending the whole evening together (and having a token kiss at midnight), he was really funny and we had a great time (don't get your hopes up Mum, he was gay). Ended the night rather tipsy and very cheerful.


The next day I had to drag myself out of bed at 06:00 (I have no idea how I managed it), as I had a bus to Mui Ne.
The bus took about 6 hours, as I got off and was trying to figure out which guesthouse to head to, I was spotted by 2 Israeli guys (you don't meet many Israeli people in Vietnam).
We went searching for a guesthouse and on the way met 2 more Israeli guys that they knew.
Prices were quite high there, so I shared a room with 2 of the guys.
They were all just after their army service and I felt like an old woman, but they were really sweet.
Mui Ne is a beach town, but no self respecting Israeli would spend time on that beach, it was pathetic.
The next day we all hired a jeep together and went to see the "sites" around Mui Ne.
Turns out there is nothing much to see there, saw a bad excuse for a waterfall, some sand dunes and a couple of other uninteresting places. But it was quite a nice day, as they were an amusing group.

The next day we all got the bus to Dalat.
It was supposed to be a 7 hour journey, but the driver took some shortcut through the mountains and we got there in 3.5 hours. Nothing more fun than thinking that you still have hours to go to get to your destination, and suddenly finding out that you have arrived.
Dalat is a really pretty town, it was built by the french when they had the colony here, and there are beautiful, colourful buildings all around.

I went with 2 of the guys on a day trip there that was really fun.
Some of the interesting things we saw :
* Crazy House - This is a guesthouse that looks like it has been taken out of a Disney film, it is really cool. Each room has some sort of children theme, and the actual building is amazing, hard to describe, you can see in the picture.

* Silk making factory - We saw how they keep the silk worms to create the silk and then how they actually turn it in to silk products, it was really interesting.
* Truc Lam Zen monastery - Even though I have had more than my fill of seeing temples and the like, I have to admit that this monastery was quite impressive.
* Elephant waterfall - As opposed to so called waterfalls we saw in Mui Ne, this waterfall was really impressive.

There were a bunch of school kids there who seemed fascinated by us and were dying to communicate, but all they could do was to keep repeating the one question they knew in English - "What your name?".

* Cable car - Always fun, great view from it.
In all, it was a really nice day spent in good company.

The next day I got a 6 hour bus to Nha Trang. Separated from the guys, as they were heading south and I am heading north.
Nha Trang is a pretty beach town, there is a really nice beach, though the weather isn't quite warm enough for it in my standards.
I took a boat trip to the 4 Islands around Nha Trang : Mun, Mot, Tam and Mieu.
It has to be the lamest thing I have done lately, I felt like such a pathetic tourist.
They had a guy in charge of entertaining the dumb tourists, he was telling jokes and we had a singing session. It was so bad.
On top of that, the weather was quite cloudy, so there was no way I was joining in all the water activity, which was most of the day.

Today I took a day tour around Nha Trang, not that much to see around here, but it was a pleasant day as the guide was really nice.
Saw a couple of pagodas and a really nice waterfall.


I wouldn't have minded spending a couple of days by the beach here, but unfortunately the weather is against that idea.
I am now waiting for a night bus to go to my next destination - Hoi An.

I have to say that travelling round Vietnam has a much nicer feeling to it than travelling round India, the towns are much more pleasant and clean. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be that much to do in each place. I haven't spent more than 2 nights in one place since arriving in Vietnam, and that isn't because I am rushing it, there just isn't that much to do.

The Internet here is a pleasure, they have ADSL (fast Internet) everywhere and it is really cheap. The Vietnamese seemed to be quite obsessed with the Internet, you see them sitting in Internet Cafes all the time playing online games (you would fit in well here Shahar).

Gooooood morning Vietnam

Location: Saigon (HCMC)
Country: Vietnam

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For many years it has been a dream of mine to come to Vietnam, I am finally here, and I have to say that so far it has been great.
But let me back up a bit first to my last couple of days in Cambodia.
From Siem Reap, we got a five-hour boat to Phnom Penh (Cambodia’s capital). It was a very nice trip.




In Phnom Penh visited the war museum and the killing fields.

Both were highly disappointing, they can learn a thing or two from the Jews about how to commemorate their dead.

From Phnom Penh took an organized four day tour of the Mekong Delta, ending in Saigon.
The route we took was Phnom Penh - Chau Doc - Can Tho - My Tho - Saigon.
There were some amazing boat rides during the trip. I especially liked the boat rides in the small canals on low boats with greenery all around. It was exactly what I pictured Vietnam would be like, I felt like I was in a film.

We were also taken to see some of the local industries along the way:
* Fish farm houses – These are floating houses on the river that people live in, around the underneath of the house they have a net that reaches the bottom of the river, in the net they grow about 60,000 fish.

* Floating markets – This is quite a sight. In a section of the river there were loads of little boats floating around, each selling their wares. Each boat has a pole on which they hang a sample of whatever fruit / vegetables they are selling, so that the buyers can know easily.

* Towel weaving workshop.
* Incense stick workshop.
* Rice paper factory.
* Coconut candy mill – It turns out that coconut candy is really tasty.
* Bee hives.
Mostly it felt that they were taking us to these places so that we would buy things, but it was interesting to see.

Arrived in Saigon yesterday. It is not too bad here in comparison with other Asian Cities.
About 80% of the traffic in the city is motorbikes, quite weird to see.

Today I took a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels, it was brilliant. For those of you who are not familiar with it – During the wars with France and the US, the Vietcong built a maze of underground tunnels, which were 250 km long, they dug it all manually.
It was a great trip and we had a really interesting guide who explained all about the Vietcong fighting and living during the wars.
The tunnels were really narrow and could just about fit the tiny Vietnamese.

They expanded some of the tunnels now, so that the fat western travelers can go through them, we went down one, and I have to say, it felt very claustrophobic.
After that I visited the war museum, which was quite interesting, though there were many gruesome pictures around.

Tomorrow I am heading to Mui Ne.

Traveling in Vietnam is really easy, maybe too easy, it is extremely touristy. Basically, you buy an open bus ticket between Saigon and Hanoi and you stop at about 5 towns on the way. At each place you can also get organized tours to see the sites. All seems very simple. All the tourists here go along the exact same route. It’s good and bad I guess, but it suits me right now, a bit of easy life is fine.

The start of my visit here has been very good and I hope it continues so. My only complaint is the food, it is just so bad, they are not good cooks. I think I am putting on weight, as I have to eat rubbish all the time, otherwise I will go round hungry.

I have dumped my traveling partner. It was either that or killing her, and I guessed that that would have been frowned upon.
I know that I am not the most cheerful, constantly happy person there is, but she was just depressing. She was never happy or satisfied with anything; she had this constant tortured soul thing going. She was bringing me down.
Some of you will understand how bad it was, when I tell you that she reminded me somewhat of Maya Israel.
I felt a bit bad about it, ‘cause I knew that she wouldn’t continue the trip alone, but I will not let anyone ruin my trip.

I have found my new favorite author – Ben Elton (Duv – Do we have his books in the private library?). I’ve actually only read one of his books so far – “Inconceivable”, but it was just brilliant, his writing is so good.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE.

The Angkor Temples

Location: Siem Reap
Country: Cambodia

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Bangkok was great. I ended up spending a week there and I have no idea where the time went.
The guesthouse I stayed in (Green House) was brilliant; it had such a good atmosphere.
I met loads of really nice travelers, very different, and from my point of view, much nicer than the type of people I met in India.
I did no tourist things at all, apart from a boat ride on the river, which I basically did just to get away a bit from the noise (didn't work), Bangkok seems to be forever noisy, no matter what time of day or night.
The only other time I left the Khaosan was to go to a film – King Kong, I enjoyed it, thought it was good entertainment.
Most of the time I just hung round the guesthouse, chatting with people, watching films, enjoying the good food and drinking some of the infamous Thai whiskey.
It was just what I needed after India.

I was really unsure about where I would be going next. In theory I wanted to go to Cambodia-Vietnam-Laos, but I wasn’t getting too far with finding someone to go with, and I did not fancy embarking upon Cambodia alone.
I changed my plans about every 10 minutes and just could not make my mind up.
Then I came across this Israeli girl – Yafit, who had come for just over a month and wanted to go to Cambodia and Vietnam.
I have to admit that it wasn't her striking personality that made me want to go with her (she is quite a strange one), but she was just so organized. She had gathered all the necessary information, knowing exactly where to go and what to do.
Seeing that I had no information what so ever, the only things I knew about these countries is that I wanted to visit them, it was very appealing to hook up with her.

On Wednesday we got a bus from the Khaosan to the Cambodian border. The road from the border to our first stop – Siem Reap is known to be really bad. Apparently some airline is bribing the government not to pave a new road there, so that their business won't be hurt. It is supposed to be a 3 hour drive, and some people have reported it taking as long as 10 hours on the bus and arriving with terrible back pains.
Hence, we decided to get a cab with another couple, it didn't even work out much more expensive.
I don't know if they have done up the roads lately or if I am just immune from my time in India, but I didn't think the ride was bad at all.



The reason for coming to Siem Reap, or actually the reason for coming to Cambodia is vising the temples of Angkor.
I will use the words of the Lonely Planet here:
"Prepare for divine inspiration! The temples of Angkor, capital of Cambodia's ancient Khmer empire, are the perfect fusion of creative ambition and spiritual devotion. The Cambodian god-kings of old each strove to better their ancestors in size, scale and symmetry, culminating in the world's largest religious building – Angkor Wat, and one of the world's weirdest – the Bayon. The hundreds of temples surviving today are but a sacred skeleton of the vast political, religious and social centre of an empire that stretched from Burma to Vietnam, a city that, at its zenith, boasted a population of one million when London was a scrawny town of 50,000."

We have spent 3 days going round looking all the different temples of Angkor, and it has been quite amazing. I feel the pictures I took don't do it justice, but they can say more than my words.












Today I also went on a hot-air balloon to see the view from above, which was spectacular. Though any excuse to go up in the balloon would have been good for me.



Everyone warns you that Cambodia is hard to travel in and that the people are very annoying and harass you all the time. I guess I have my time in India to thank, as I find it quite easy to get along here and haven't found the people to bothersome at all.
So far, I feel quite comfortable here, I felt a bit nervous before coming, but I see now that it is fine.
It is advised not to walk around at night; the people here are so poor that there is some crime, so I do listen to that advice. It is fine really, 'cause after walking round temples all day, I haven't the energy to walk round at night in any case.

The currency here is Real, but they seems to charge you in US dollars everywhere, I guess 'cause their local currency is so bad.

You do see quite a few amputees, victims of landmines around. It is suggested that you do not veer from the known path here, as there are still millions of landmines around. That advice I also make sure to follow.

In all, I would say that Cambodia feels as touristic as the next place and so far I have encountered no special difficulty traveling here.

Tomorrow I am off by boat to the capitol – Phnom Penh.

Civilization

Location: Bangkok
Country: Thailand

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Last few days in Mahabalipuram were not great, it was raining constantly and there is absolutely nothing to do there in bad weather.
It was lucky at least that Eric and I were together as we were able to entertain each other a bit (he is no master at cards, but was doing ok by the time I finished with him), but eventually we were climbing up the walls with boredom.
Also, after managing to get through 3 months in India with basically no stomach problems, it hit me in my last few days. I guess the gods of India just couldn't let me leave without that fine experiance.
It could be because of all the bad karma I had accumulated during my stay in India, all the many times I ignored beggars abruptly and the many times I expressed my utter hatred of the Indian people.
At least on our last day in Mahabalipuram it was nice and sunny and we could sit happily by the pool.
Side note - One of the days whilst sitting by the pool, one of the Indians decided that he wanted a coconut and climbed up a tree near us to get it, it was amazing to watch how he climbed up the tree so easily.


Eric left for England the night before me for a visit, hopefully he will be returning to the Far East and we may meet again.

Originally I was planning to get a train from Chennai to Bombay and get my flight from there to Bangkok. The train would have taken 27 hours, then I would have had to wait round Bombay for like 10 hours and then catch the night flight to Bangkok.
It didn't take me too long to decide that was way too much and I really did not fancy doing it. The big advantage of doing this trip at my age and not after the army, is that you can decide to spoil yourself from time to time.
So I booked a flight from Chennai to Bombay which took less than 2 hours, quite the difference.
I was informed the night before that my domestic flight was postponed by 2 hours, which had me stressing a little, as it only gave me about half an hour spare to catch my flight in Bombay, and I could be screwed if there were any delays.
In the end, there was a delay of another half an hour, and I arrived at the international airport in Bombay exactly 2.5 hours before my flight time.
Cutting it way too fine for my liking. Thought I guess it did work out for the best, as I did not have to hang round the airport for long.
On the 3.5 hour flight to Bangkok I had 3 seats to myself, which was lovely, I even managed to get some sleep.

I can't begin to describe the difference between landing in Delhi and landing in Bangkok.
Delhi airport looked like something built in the 50's that has never been renovated in any way, it was old, coming apart and utter chaos. As you walked out of the airport to find a cab (a totally disorganized procedure), you were welcomed by the site of hundreds of beggarss sleeping on the pavement.
Bangkok had a modern, clean and organized airport. Simple procedure for getting a cab and not a beggar to be seen.

At the airport I hooked up with an Israeli couple that were on my flight and got a cab with them to Khaosan road (the area where all the backpackers stay in Bangkok).

It was a bit of a hassle finding a guesthouse, everything was packed, I guess due to Christmas and New-Years that are coming up.
Eventually found myself staying in the main Israeli guesthouse. It is a little noisy, but a nice enough atmosphere.

I feel like a hillbilly who arrived in the big city, everything is so different to India. It's all so modern and expensive, and there are loads of tourist a night life.
They have all the big shops (they have a "Boots"!!) and restaurants (McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks etc.).
When you walk along at night, it all lit up with Vagas lights.

I was here about 7 years ago, I think it has changed quite a bit since then.
I'm walking around with a bit of dazed look on my face.
But I find travelers here are really nice, I've been spending my time playing card games and shesh-besh.
They also have TVs in all the restraunts showing films, so I am also catching up on some much needed TV time.
I still have not decide what I am doing next, I will give myself some time to adjust to the fact that I am now in Thailand and no longer India and then decide which way I am heading.