Merry Christmas!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, despite my absence.

I met up with Crish and Dean, and Micheal (a new friend of mine), and we went tubing down the river to celebrate. Lots of fun, lots of free drinks, a shitty turkey dinner at some bar, a good time was had by all.

Did I mention that Laos is incredible? Well, it is. Its basically got all the cool, awesome stuff that you have in Vietnam, but everyones really chilled, no ones trying to constantly sell you stuff, and no one honks their horn ALL THE TIME. Basically, a great country, the highlight of my trip so far.

Take care all and enjoy the holidays!

The Big Picture

Alright, for the curious and illiterate, here are some follow-up photos.

My last day in Hue, I saw some cool Kong Fu,



and some impressive tombs of old kings.



Hanoi failed to impress,



so I grabbed the first boat trip I found to Halong Bay.



What an incredible place!



Then I grabbed a night train north and wound up in small, isolated Bac Ha.



had lunch at the small farm on the left,



and caught the first bus the next morning to beautiful Sapa.



Did a day trek (15km walk) down the mountain and through some Tribal Villages, and (thankfully!) took an old army jeep back up to the city.



Today I walked down to another village, got lost in from the Tourist Trail for a while (always fun), and got back in time to narrowly escape being rained on.



I've been hanging out in cafes all afternoon. Not terribly exciting, but still, a shitty day in Sapa beats a nice day in Hanoi. Tonight I catch the night train to Hanoi followed by an early morning flight to Vientianne in Laos, where, I'm told, the weather is much nicer.

Mountain Bound

So after a day in Hanoi, I was sick and tired of all the people and cars and honking horns. So I was happy to get on a bus heading out to the incomparable Halong Bay.

This place is incredible! Even though I was on a package tour (something I normally despise), I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. The bay itself is spectacular, you're surrounded by these massive limestone outcroppings that soar high above and around you and the whole place feels surreal. We did a too-brief (45 min) sea kayak and visited some small lagoons within the islands, as well as a cool cave (a place that you step into and think: "Oh great, another tourist trap," then you round a corner and are blown away by the massive opening that stands before you, complete with candle-wax pillars and tiny underground lakes).

It helped that our whole group got on great, we all jumped off the roof of the boat for a swim in the surprisingly warm water (like 20 degrees) after sunset, then settled in for a night of cards and beers. All the other dozens of tourist boats are anchored around you, which isn't as lame as you might think, since they're attractive vessels and are all lit up at night. Lots of fun, great food, shitty bus trips, but well worth the $40 (although most people paid $30-35, I was lazy and booked through my hotel, never a good idea if you want to save money). In future, I think it might be worth looking into a charter trip (assuming I had other people with me) to go and visit some of the less touristy parts of the bay, but however you visit it, Halong Bay is well worth your time.

Afterward, I grabbed the night train to the Chinese border and wound up in the small town of Bac Ha. This place is really off the map, tourists show up on Sunday mornings for the over-rated market, then head back to their resorts in Sapa. One thing I will say about the markets, when you get away from the kitsch sellers, it is kinda cool, I've never seen people selling live pigs in a sack before, or puppies trussed up like chickens (dinner, anyone?) But the true joy of Bac Ha was walking out to the tribal villages and up to a mountain pass for some spectacular views. While up there, I met a farmer who was leading his donkey back from the markets. Without any English, he invited me to his farm for lunch. Not an amazing meal (just rice and cabbage with chili sauce), but the fact that this total stranger who must be amongst the poorest people in the world invited me back to his small, isolated farm for lunch was simply an incredible experience. I gave him a few dong, and gave his kids some candy (which they devoured immediately!) before walking the long trek back into town. On the way, I passed some tourist buses parked at the bottom of the hill and couldn't help but think that these people were missing out on the true experience that their tour could only approximate.

But yeah, Bac Ha is kind of a boring town (there are like 3 restaurants and no other travelers to hang out with), so today I caught a bus to Sapa. Beautiful city. Sure it's touristy and busier, but perched on the side of a mountain, with incredible views at every turn, it is an awesome place. I spent today just wandering the town, booked a trekking tour for tomorrow, plus my train and plane tickets to Hanoi and onward to Laos (I'm meeting up with Dean and Crish there for Christmas). I've been pretty lucky with the weather: although chilly at night and in the early morning (though not as cold as Hanoi, surprisingly), when the sun comes out and burns away the haze, it actually becomes T-shirt warm outside. I really like it here, and I'm glad I skipped the beaches down south to visit some places that are truly out of this world.

Long post and no pictures to break up the monotony, but if you've made it this far, well, thanks for reading and if I don't get another post up in time, have a Merry Christmas!

Going North

Alright, since last time, I wandered around Saigon, visited their zoo (they had a film fest going on there showing the best advertisements this year, plus a cool short film by Spike Jones called "I'm Here"). They had tons of exotic animals too, like giraffes, elephants, lions and the eerily sentient gorillas.



A nearby museum housed tone of random stuff, such as Ho Chi Minh's cane and some ancient Vietnamese deer that you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley.



I left the big city on a night train and wound up in beautiful Hoi An.



Not a very happening place, but they had some really good restaurants and the nearby My Son ruins were worth a visit. The ruins aren't near as cool as Angkor, but our guide was hilarious.



Best quote: "Shiva is male and female. Female and male. What does that make Shiva? The first Ladyboy!"

My next stop was Hue, a really cool city (my favourite so far). Inside the city is an ancient Citadel: this was the Imperial Palace back before the French took over, and is also (I'm told) where the big firefight featured in Full Metal Jacket took place.



The Citadel's in pretty rough shape, but they're fixing it up and it's fun to explore the area.



Speaking of rough shape, I took a DMZ tour which took us to a bunch of famous American military bases (like Khe Sanh) around Hue.



Not much left to see, but the country side is gorgeous and it really helps put the Vietnam war in perspective - looking at the terrain, I'm amazed the Americans did as well as they did. (There used to be an army base on the top of this mountain, it could only be supplied by helicopter).



The nearby Vinh Moc tunnels (an entire underground city, with 41km of tunnels, up to 24m deep) were also really cool.



Did a boat trip to some ancient tombs, and then grabbed another night train to Hanoi. Got in this morning and realized that I'm sick and tired of the big city, so I'm heading out to Halong Bay tomorrow, and then north to the mountains around Sapa, near the Chinese border.

It's a little chilly up here (I actually had to put on pants!), but not so bad that I'd complain about it, it's actually a nice break from sweating all the time :) But that's all for now, take care and make sure you visit Vietnam, it's a fantastic country.

The Pictures Have Arrived!

As promised, here are some pictures of my recent journeys:

In summary, I took the Slow Boat to Battambang,



caught a ride on the Bamboo Express with Dean and Crish,



took the bus to Phnom Penh,



shot an AK-47,



visited some holocaust memorials,



had my first ever massage (but not by this guy!),



grabbed a boat to Vietnam,



visited the Mekong Delta,



caught a bus into crazy Saigon (I cannot believe this place is supposed to be communist, it feels incredibly Western),



visited their War Museum,



and the old government Palace,



and finally took a bit of a break to get this up.

Been really busy, but I'm having a fantastic time! I have one more day in Saigon, then I'll catch the night train to Danang and further adventures. So long for now!

The Mighty Mekong

So after a few days in Phnom Penh (checked out the genocide memorial, shot an AK-47, among other things), I took a van / boat down to Chau Doc in Vietnam. Spent today doing a riverboat tour around the Mekong Delta. It's an incredible place: hundreds if not thousands ramshackle little huts built on stilts right on the water, it puts Venice to shame! The river really is everything around there, you have river markets in the morning (pretty chaotic!) and more boat traffic than I've ever seen.

Speaking of traffic, I just got into Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City, as it's now called) and taking a bus through town at 5:00 is absolutely insane! It's kind of a blessing that no one here can afford a car, the traffic would not flow. As is, the hundreds of scooters buzzing around is ridiculous, but traffic here has a kind of organic flow that seems to keep everything moving. Though I'm amazed there aren't more accidents.

Anyway, that's all she wrote for now. Still alive and doing great, I'll see if I can't put up some pictures tomorrow.

Slow Boat to Battambang

After Siem Reap, I took a boat across the Tonle Sap (a massive lake here in Cambodia) to Battambang. I joined up with a couple of Brits, Dean and Crish, really great people. We checked the Bamboo Train in Battambang, which was awesome! You basically have this small bamboo frame sitting on top of two sets of rail car wheels, and then you go zipping along this shitty old railway line. When you meet a train coming in the other direction, they literally take one train apart and pull it off the tracks to let the other pass. Like a lot of things in Cambodia, it's a very ingenious system, with people making full use of what little they have.

Yesterday, we took a bus the Phnom Penh. Long trip, but at $3.50, I really can't complain. Phnom Penh is an awesome city, very relaxed actually. They've still gots lots of cool markets and stuff, but it's not nearly as crazy as other asian cities. Streets are clearly marked and it's incredibly easy to get around. Today we're going to tour around the city a bit, check out some of the sites.

Pictures to follow, when I find a faster internet connection.

Angkor WHAT!?!

(Hold for laughs)

South Korea was a whirlwind: I saw some temples and ruins Gyeongju, then went into Seoul with Stephen and Jon-Min (Stephen's the one on the left)

where we saw people and high rises and more people.

We spent the night at a Jong-de-Ju (or something like that), basically a huge sauna / hot tub spa thing (you get used to walking around completely naked after about a minute), saw a cultural dance / drum performance, guest starring the famous Stephen Stone himself! (he's the one on the left),

and went to the War museum, which was very interesting and well done (we even had a free English guide).

Night flight to Kuala Lumpur (a surprisingly green and clean city with high rises galore), you should see their weird hydrants!

Also this (as featured in the film Entrapment, don't see it).

Then onwards to Siem Reap, Cambodia, where I've spent the last couple days exploring Angkor Wat and area on a bike.

Cambodia is really cool, definitely worth a visit. In fact, I am now declaring it mandatory for all of you to visit Cambodia. Great eats, nice people, cool temples everywhere, it's really something else. Though I wouldn't come in the summer, it's sweltering here right now. And bring plenty of small Americna bills (few people can break a 10, my 50s are next to useless) which are accepted literally everywhere. Also, they don't have the much-feared "Reckless Elephant".