Bangkok 6/8 FIN.

Last night we went to see a Thai boxing match which was ace. Some were about 12 years old! Crazy. In the daytime we went to Chinatown. Bad move, when we finally got there it was nothing. It shouldn't even be classed as a Chinatown, it sucked big time. Mike and I went for a Thai massage..it wasn't the most relaxing massage I've ever had. It was more of a pushing muscles, stretching type thing. I did feel..stretched after.
I fly home tomorrow. Dang. I don't want to go home. I want to see everyone again, but I guess after the initial excitement of that has passed, everything is just going to go back to how it was before I left the UK. Working, worrying, generally being in gloomy England and I'll want to escape again. I can't wait to make some music though.
Got last of shopping done tonight. My travelling is done. I don't want to go home, no, I REALLY don't want to go home. The whole idea makes me really nervous. I'm not sure why, but it freaks me out. I just feel so much more free when in a foreign country with no one that knows me. And now I have no money I'm just going to have to go back to work. Well, these past 3 months have been pretty amazing. Unforgettable experiences. And I hope I can return to Borneo sometime in the future. Amazing place. South East Asia in general is a pretty awesome place to be.

Bye bye Bangkok, Khao San Road, South East Asia.

Terima Kasih, Khob kun ka, Ar kun, Cam on, Khawp Jai!
...That was really lame wasn't it? I just wanted to show off that I know thank you in all languages of the countries I visited! ;P

Peace out xxx

Chiang Mai-Bangkok 5/8

Yesterday we went elephant riding. It was good. Apart from them obviously being chained up most of the time, that sucked. But they seemed to be treated pretty well. The thing that sucked though was that our driver on the way over had no idea where he was going so by the time we got there the show was nearly over. But we saw them doing the paintings, throwing darts at balloons, and giving one guy a thai massage!
We then had a meal in Chiang Mai then overnight train to Bangkok. Highlights were the man selling/singing orange juice. And Mike's FHM playing cards, the joker card is just brilliant. Bahahah. Hold up, is she wearing a BIN BAG?!

Chiang Khung 3/8

I survived the night! Now on another 9hr boat journey..wahey!
About 7hrs out of the 9 were taken up by endless games of shithead. Best way to pass the time.
Chiang Mai tomorrow..elephant riding..still not sure about it as you don't know how they're treated when not in front of tourists.

Pak Beng 2/8

Today was a 9hr boat journey up the river to the small town Pak Beng. Just now Marisa and I had a fit. I found a cockroach in my bag and it came out and scurried behind my bed. We can't find it. I'm paranoid as hell. All electricity goes off in 10 minutes. Cockroaches like the dark. It will come out. Its going to crawl all over me. AHHHHH. I just told my gecko friends out in the hall to eat the muthfucka if they see it. Hopefully I will survive the night.

Luang Prabang 31/7

This morning Marisa and I ended up chilling around town (Vang Vieng). I admit ashamedly, we watched friends. But you can't escape it..its shown at every restaurant! You walk past them all and all the westerners look like zombies, in a total trance at the screen. We are all clones.
6 Hr bus journey to Luang Prabang today. I got off the bus and my whole body is in pain. A delayed reaction from tubing I think..it hurts to move.. :(.

1/8
Today we went to a waterfall, was really cool, we climbed up to the top of it, I got leeched twice. God damn! I thought I had escaped those on leaving the jungle! We then went swimming in the waterfall water below which was soo refreshing. We also saw a bear rescue centre..amazing. The ones there were confiscated from poachers and from the animal trade. Walking back from dinner just now I saw this kid's dad pushing him down the road in a beer crate..one way to have fun!

Vang Vieng 30/7

Today was AWESOME. In the morning we went kayaking down the river and we stopped off at this cave. We had to swim into them, the water was cold. Once in the cave we got handed candles to guide our way through. It was really, really slippery in places. There was this bit where there was a slippery slope into the water. Best way to get down? Slide on your ass ;) Saw bats.
The way out was..a tiny gap, had to crawl headfirst through. Definitely not for claustrophobics!

Then in the afternoon..TUBING! So you get a tube..and you float down the river on it, stopping off at the bars alongside it. We stopped at nearly every one. Some had swings and stuff..so fun, and one had a huge slide. We got fueled up with beer, then buckets of whiskey, coke and red bull. Played some volleyball in the mud..one random dude dunked me in it claiming 'YOU'RE NOT MUDDY ENOUGH YET!!' In between serves I ran to the side, had a gulp of drink then ran back. Was fun! So tubing is awesome. Dangerous..but only if you're stupid enough to get utterly wasted.
At one of the bars we ended up playing a drinking game with a bunch of people which was fun until too many people came and it got confusing.

I didn't get any pictures from tubing as I would have surely broken my camera. However, this was the aftermath. Definitely NOT sober.

Vientienne 28/7

Left Lac Sao to go to Vientienne, the capital of Laos. Today we did a tuk-tuk tour to take us to the temples which was cool.
The next day Marisa and I tried to find the morning market, we walked a long way in the wrong direction because, well, its us. But once there it was pretty cool, people didn't hassle us! Not like Ho Chi Minh City where people actually grab your arm and you have to fight to get past.

Lac Sao 27/7

Hanoi wasn't great..we walked about for ages. Tried to get into the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum but ended up getting chased out by a guard for going the wrong way..he was fairly aggressive! Went to a ridiculously busy museum, it sucked. Just arrived at hotel in Laos. Journey to the border was long and windy.
Tonight we went for dinner at 'The Only Restaurant'. This town is like...one street!
Then one of the waiters said we could go to the school across the road to an English class. So we ended up in this classroom doing one to ones with 15-19 year olds! My kid was really cute and nervous, aw. They asked us to sing songs from our countries.. I helped Marissa out by busting out MJ's BEAT IT! Was great.

Also, we went to the tiny market. It smelt really bad. The worst part? The meat section, of course. Either side were people hacking away at bloody limbs on tables, flesh flying everywhere. There were dogs lurking about, catching a piece whenever it dropped to the ground. Whats worrying is that they eat dog here..what they're chopping could be dog. Wrong much? I felt like retching. But walking down the middle of this section seemed to be the only way out the other side of the market. Sila grabbed my hand and walked me through. Literally..blood was pouring off the tables. I thought I'd seen the last of this grossness. Until we spotted what Sila had earlier told us about..dead rat. Yup, these people also eat rat. It was just layed out, with a stick through it.
Now, I would like to meet the first person who thought, wow, this looks mighty tasty, shake him and say..'WHAT THE HELL, MAN?!'

---MOMENTS TO BE GLAD I DON'T EAT MEAT---

Hanoi 25/7

Yesterday we stayed in Halong Bay, we did a boat ride to an island where we saw caves which was pretty cool. Today we arrived back in Hanoi. Had a walk around, just came back from the water puppet theatre, it was awesome!! Tomorrow will explore more.

Hue 23/7

Arrived at Bamboo Hotel yesterday. I was pretty upset the hotel isn't made entirely of bamboo :(!
We went for lunch , during it chucked it down. So we had to walk back through totally flooded roads! Was pretty crazy, on hour later they were clear! WHERE DID IT ALL GO?!


We then did a motorbike tour through the countryside which was awesome.
It was Shaun's 20th. During dinner, this really drunk guy was hilarious. He walked in on one of the girls on the toilet, he did a double take, so opened the door twice. He then came up to her and was like 'I buy Margarita for you'. He then turned on the TV, volume was full blast but he kept switching through the channels. He then drew the back of Marie's head, it was a scribble, then attempted to play a guitar with 4 strings.
We then hit up a bar where we played drinking games, standard. ;) Everyone got drunk, including our tour guide Sila! and we ended up riding these bike type tuk tuks back to the hotel. I am glad we had a lie in today..about to board overnight train.

Hoi An 21/7

Today we rented motorbikes (mopeds, automatic) 100,000 Dong for the day. Thats about $5!. Went with Marissa, Adam and Karen. So we got 2 and shared. Marissa used to ride so she did it first. They started us out in the centre of town which was..wise. First road we almost crashed into a truck! Literally millimeters away from it, pretty scary/funny. We stopped at a gas station and I tried to get out but had to turn around, had no idea how to start it or anything, had Marissa on the back, I accelerated into an SUV. Fell off. Cut up my toe. SO, she drove from then on..I was too much of a hazard. We then drove and stopped off at a deserted beach..so lush. While they stayed there I went off on my own for a bit..driving down this open empty road at 90KPH, which felt sooo awesome!

We just had an awful dinner! The food took ages to come..I ordered a pizza, we were joking about it being the size of a Dominos personal pizza. We were wrong. It was SMALLER. Tasted like cardboard. All our food was pretty hilariously bad. But out time in Hoi An was a really pretty town, with so many tailor shops.

Ho Chi Minh City-Hoi An 17/7

This city is awesome. The number of motorbikes on the street is just insane. Its even more insane trying to CROSS the road. It becomes sort of an art form.


We went to the tunnels the Vietnamese soldiers used, they are tiny! One of the entrances was so small. Everyone tested it out. Marissa tried it and managed to get completely stuck trying to come out. Highlight. It was absolutely hilarious. Everyone was in fits of laughter, including her. And while none of the boys tried to help her out, it took 3 tiny Vietnamese men to haul her out, so funny.
I shot an M16..insanely loud! The headphones did nothing.

Got an overnight train to Nha Phang, which was pretty cool. We got off at 5am. Got to hotel. Just had a nap. Marissa is still sleeping. Will check out beach soon.

20/7
Yesterday we went on a boat trip. It was...interesting. The boat was full of people..tourists and locals. 4 people threw up on the journey. It stopped for us to snorkel. There were way too many people so the snorkeling officially sucked ASS. After that the crew provided 'entertainment'. This consisted of a band, terrible drums, out of tune guitar..singing songs from different countries! Was hilarious.
There was then a floating bar in the sea, they threw us rings and we swam over to the guy handing out cups of crappy wine. Was pretty funny.
We got an overnight train to Da Nhang then a bus to Hoi An, got to the hotel at 6am. Couldn't get rooms until 10. We went for breakfast and a walk then waited about until 10. Once in the rooms, we napped.

Cambodia-Vietnam

OK, so here's the deal..I've totally forgotten to write in the past few days due to being wrapped up in the hecticity (I don't care that word apparently doesn't exist as my computer tells me, its a cool word) of travelling about. On the 8th I met all the people in the group and we went out for dinner in Bangkok. Next day we got a bus to the Cambodian border. The minibus was awesome. It had colourful lights and flourescent 'PMS' haha. We arrived in Siem Reap. There we went to Angkor Wat..the massive buddhist temples, amazing.

We also went to the weird tree root temple..a scene in Tomb Raider was shot there.

We then went on a boat ride through the floating village which was cool. Kids would jump aboard the boat and try and sell us drinks and stuff. One kid was saying 'one banana one dollar' er..no way maayte!

In the evening we went to a bar called Angkor what? They had a special offer on..buy 2 pitchers/buckets..and get a free t-shirt. You can tell pretty much all of us got a t-shirt judging by the number of buckets..

We played ring of fire 2 and a half times. It was fun. The night ended up us dancing on the table/benches. The highlight of the night was Shaun trying to get up and do the same, but slipping on the stool and completely faceplanting the table, resulting in a couple of the half empty pitchers smashing all over the floor. The barmen came over and swept it up in minutes. Just like it was standard procedure every night. Haha. Good night.



The next day we had another long bus journey, to Phnom Penh. Here we went to the S.21 genocide prison where Pol Pot killed about a quarter of the population of Cambodia. Very evil man. We also went to the killing fields where the graves were where the bodies were found. Still today on the ground are bits of bones and clothes sticking out of the ground..so surreal..its horrible. They put all the skulls they found in one building..there were so many..people went in to pay respect.

From Phnom Penh we then went to Sihanoukville. On the way the road was totally flooded. So we had to get off the bus and wade through knee deep water on the road with all our bags! Once on the otherside we got a motorbike to another bus. I swear I nearly fell off the back, my bag was heavy and pulling me down!
Sihanokville was wet. Marissa and I explored the beach and went to a bar for a shake. These kids came up to us and made us bracelets..'for free', then asked us to buy some. They got real pissy when we said no. 'Thats unfair' 'You come here and be a tight ass' 'buy her food, she is starving' (this girl was clearly NOT starving, she actually looked a little on the chubby side) Jeez. Rude much? One great quote from them was 'open your heart, and open your wallet.'

That night was messy. We played copious drinking games..the beer was 50c per glass, draught. They then brought us out free shots. By this point you can probably guess we weren't exactly sober..once again, we ended up dancing on the BAR. But it was ok, the barmen were joining in. They then brought us free buckets. After them I was just, gone. They then sorted us out with a massive bucket! This made me overjoyed in my state, and I proceeded to start ladeling it out to strangers, while dancing. On rare occasions I would actually get the drink into the cup..
So I accidently went home with one of the barman's hat. I returned it the next morning as I felt bad, though I couldn't remember what he looked like so it was pretty awkward! Another highlight of the evening was Mike jumping into the sea drunk, brilliant.
That morning it rained more. So the day consisted pretty much of lazing about watching 'Star movies' I needed it. I didn't feel too great.
Right now we're in Chau Doc, Vietnam. Went on a boat ride then motorcycle ride up a mountain where we chilled in hammocks with beer (90c) My driver was nuts, he kept turning off at different places to the others!
We just ate street food. It wasn't great but the banana fritter I got off a street vendor was.