Eye of the storm

So Phuket was spain with ladyboys we missed Koh Pi Pi and headed to Koh Lanta where the pace came down to a snails pace, expensive hotels were replaced by bamboo huts with the owners usually stoned by midday this was a much better island where everynight there was a party but you needed to be in the know...........of course I was. This is my favourite place in Thai it was cheap(er) to stay and drink there the hut owners let me plug my ipod to the sound system and there were lots of hammocks to laze around in. We met quite a good crowd including 2 english girls one from Bromley who's accent made me feel slightly home sick. I planned to do my advance diving course here but as I have learnt nothing ever goes to plan. We went to some great parties here and slept a good portion of the day.

We all booked our flights out of Thailand so it was time to go to Pi Pi which has been ruined by tourists the only good thing is the island is not motorised. We headed to the look out point to get pictures of both the bays, I have to admit this is a gorgeous place but has been ruined with all the tourists and the thai's looking for the $. We only had one night here and that was spent partying on the beach and I have learnt that partying with Jay and Ed every night is full of laughs and stories. It amazes me that with a bit of booze and a flamming skiping rope people want to try it, still it amused me. The next morning after the night before was horrid even though they had put a curfue on the island due to someone being shot at xmas I had a major hangover but without this I would never have learnt the best cure.......Soda Water this has now become my drink of choice to battle the hangover! Thanks to the jumping girls from England we found a way to see Maya Bay without the multitudes of tourist boats that pollute that area....we decided to sleep on the beach!! Maya Bay is the same place Leo Dicaprio found in the film 'The Beach' so once this hit the screens in 2000 everyone wanted to see paradise! Unfortunatly our group of 25 was polluted with the type of people other travellers from Europe mistake me for, they were there to drink themselves silly starting with the boat out to Maya they polished off a 1.5 ltr of smirnoff and it didnt make a dent. They continued to drink through the night, these were the type of people why I wanted to leave England, the same happened in Lanta where someone said they were from Bexleyheath I just didnt want to speak to them. Eddy Jay and I stayed away from them had our food a few beers and headed with our sleeping bags to grab the best spot on the beach, it was quite an experience sleeping under the stars like that and I saw 3 shooting stars but this has now become common place when I look up at the sky like seeing blues and twos in Newcross. The sleeping trip was expensive but worth it to get the photos of the beach deserted (the english cu*ts didnt even take pictures) and the beach was truely beautiful it was pure white sands none of that claiming they are white these were white with crystal clear water teaming with life. There were some rats on the island and some guy had left some food in his bag and the rat decided to knaw through it and take the chipsticks other than that only crabs disturbed us on the beach. I woke us up at 0600 to see the sunrise over the island but this was not that great so we headed back and after everyone was up we headed on the boat back to Pi Pi, the English were hungover and it was quite satisfying to see them at the harbour all throwing up : ) This is where we said goodbye to Eddy he was off to Hong Kong while me and Jay boarded the plane to Malaysia.

This was my second visit to Malaysia and I done pretty much the same thing, petronus, kl tower and reg bar. I also bought a notebook here which I wish I had done on the first visit, needless to say my bag is busting at the seams like an American trying to fit in her prom dress 20 years and 4 kids down the line.

Time for another plan change was going to go to singapore but they are not so poor and it costs a lot to stay eat and drink there so we got a flight from KL to Bali in Indonisia. Instantly this place annoyed me as the street is only wide enough for max 2.5 people to walk down but you have scooters shooting down there at breakneck speed then you have all the people trying to sell you Bintang tops, skirts, bottle holders, stubby holders bingtang everything! Bali (Kuta) is spain for Australians and they are the same as the English who flood spain but the term in Oz is Bogan. Every 4 feet you get "Traaaaansport", "Massssage", "Hey mate" (in an awful Eastenders way), "Brother", "Friend". The beach here is awful the sea is cloudy and the beach full of sand flies and rubbish the only good things here are the waves but seeing as I dont surf we headed out after a few nights of partying.

We had a choice of a slow boat which is 11 hours but costs nothing or the fast boat at 2 hours costing too much, seeing as time is now becomming my most valuable item due to Melbourne on 3rd Feb I opted for the go-fast-boat and headed towards the Gilli Islands. This was like Lanta but with white sands and crystal clear waters where you can see turtles and mantas snorkling, this place also had a hint of Jamacia about it too. One thing I under estimated was the strengh of the sun here we are only a few miles south of the equator and the sun was a bastard, one guy I met had a 2nd degree burn on his shoulder, the humidity was also at breaking point too I have never sweat so much ever and considering we didnt have aircon I think we done rather well although the sheets went yellow and the room stank of musty men and booze. There is not really much to do here we cycled around the island and hit a few of the beaches where we snorkled and lazed around which is where we coined the word lazepackers doing nothing but being a beach bum. There are no police on the Gilli Islands so they are flooded with Shrooms and partys going on till sunrise. The food on these islands are not so good some of the dishes were straight out of Gordan Ramseys Nightmares!

So it was time to say farewell to Jay who I had spent 3 weeks with travelling and only the second group of people where I would travel to another country to meet.....The first was in Palolem that doesnt mean that other people I had met and travelled with were not my friends but there are the odd few who you feel like you had made a great friend it was good timing as well as the day before 500mm of rain fell in just over an hour. I got the fast boat back to Bali to pick up my flight to KL the boat ride was a fitting end to the Asia trip, taking my 'seat' on the sun deck above we hit a storm and that was the best ride of my life ipod in listening to some music hitting massive waves in a go-fast and litterally flying through the air with every 5 mins one of the 3 crew asking if I was ok up there I felt like Lieutenant Dan (Forrest Gump) on the Bubba Gump Shrimp boat with rain pellting me like sheets of water with the ship trying its best to speed over the waves!!!!!. Storms in Asia are not like that in England you have so many and they can rip the sky apart, we were hitting 6ft waves and getting some serious air but the best part was seeing in the distance the eye of the storm it was about 1 mile sq and it was a pool of calm water with the water around it crashing and breaking into it, when we sailed through this patch it was one of the most memorable moments of my journey it looked like the sea was from a cgi movie, the water was rolling but the rolls had no texture it was like we were sailing on mercury when we got through the eye the waves on the edge are indescribable like nothing I have ever seen before.........................no I didnt have my camera!

So back in Malaysia for a 3rd time now and every journey has a beginning a middle and an end and this is the end of my beginning I have had such a great time in Asia and everyone you meet always asks the same Q. Where is your best country you have been to. A. Sometimes the people you meet spoil things and sometimes the people you are with make a shit place truely memorable but for me to put a answer on this I would have to say Laos it was such a relaxed place and the locals dont bother you for anything they have only had their doors open 15 years so have not got into the tourist scene so to those of you who have not been there go before they get $ signs in their eyes.

India - Malaysia - Vietnam - Laos - Cambodia - Thailand - Malaysia - Indonesia

Goodbye Asia

Hello Oz

Costa del Phuket

Xmas was a wash out due to some mystery illness and was close to going to the hospital due to breathing problems but after a few minutes of sitting down I was ok and was fresh as a daisy the next day where as my friends were not so...........

Next plan was New years eve so we me, hally + Nea who I met in India and their friends Tony and Jess who are now my friends from Melbourne headed to Kampot which is a quite seaside resort in Cambodia to do some trekking and see the caves. The journey was around 4 hours on a coach and when we got there we had the usual 'tuk tuk, taxi, hotel' being shouted at us so we followed this guy who could get us a room for 1$ a night......well it was 1$ for a reason, the walls were honestly made out of cornflakes boxes and they didnt even go all the way up, the bed looked like it was from a prison and 2 rooms had to share a light ha ha this choice was a no brainer we headed to another hotel and paid 4$ a night. In Kampot we did the Bokor trek through the jungle to see the ghostly ruined palace and church. The trek took 6 hours in total and I done this in new shoes with a 2mm sole, my feet were in bits and I felt every rock, tree root and bump add this to my fitness level of a coma victim and you guessed it I hated it. Tony and Jess had proper shoes and loved it and some people had flip flops on but I held up the British tradition and moaned the most!!! We visited some caves and went to the fishing village of Kep and had crab there which was nice. In the caves were bats but I could only hear them but not see them which was annoying.

2 hour journey on a bus to shianoukville which cost more than it would have cost from the capital 6 hours away to celebrate NYE. We got there a few days before as we feared not being able to get anywhere or have to pay big bucks but it was good and we all found places quickly. The beach was lovely and the bars were cool, it was not as mad as the famous full moon party in Ko Pan Nagn but our place went off big time, I described it as the Gaza strip as everyone had hand held rockets and was letting them off which made it look like the Isreales and palastines were fighting each other. NYD (Happy birthday dad ooops I forgot) was one of the worst hangovers ever!

Me Nea and Hally then headed to Siem Reap where we made friends with some guys living in Papa New Guinee and hung out with them in the bars. We also went to see the incredible Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples which was tiring as we had to get up at 0400 to see the sun rise. The best was the one which was in Tomb raider where the trees are growing over it.

I then headed to Thailand (Bangkok) and spent one night there as it was just a shit dirty city where package tourist twats drink and buy clothes thinking its cheap.........well its not its bloody expensive compared to the rest of asia (bar mayla and singapoor) also no one wants to talk to you or be friendly as they are with their groups of people so this has been the worst place I have visited. I did see Avatar in the cinema which has been the first time since I saw cloverfield that I have paid to see a movie. Sorry no ping pong shows for me mr tuk tuk driver I left my pad at home ha ha ha.

From Bangkok I travelled to the little island of Koh Tao which took 16 hours including 4hours 0300-0700 waiting for the ferry trying to sleep on the floor like some homeless guy. My reason for Koh Tao was diving, it is the cheapest place in the world to learn to become padi trained and yes its PADI not PADDY this cost 170 pounds with free accomodation, it took 4 days and 5 dives and was completly worth it. I dived Chumpon Pinnacle where I saw a 3 meter Bull shark which is in the top 4 deadliest sharks and I dived twins and white rock where the coral was amazing. The worst part of the course was taking the mask off underwater and putting it back on. I would of stayed there to do my advanced course enabling me to go down to 30 meters instead of 18 but I didnt want to be diving on my birthday hindsight says I should of stayed as it is double expensive everywhere else also Koh Tao is another place where people dont want to say hello.

I got the refuegee boat to mainland and then a bus to Phuket (19 hours) where I celebrated my birthday with a sweedish guy and a german both whom I am now travelling to Koh L;anta. Phuket is basically spain but with ladyboys, its expensive and touristy but people think its cheap I can assure you you are not missing anything here.

Pictures from cambodia not thailand.

Actually no pictures as I cant be arsed and I have the shits.........laters

Best Laid Plans

Not sure how long this entry will be as I am tired from an 8 hour trek and also the keyboard is stiffer than a body at the morgue.

After leaving Vang Vien I went down to the capital of Laos Vientianne which was quite boring but they had the 25th Asian games (Sea games) taking place so it was a little more lively, everything there can be seen in a day so I hired a tuk tuk driver and went to Buddah park and went to the main Wat (temple) which looked exactly like every other Wat or Pagoda I have seen in Asia. I also obtained my Cambodian visa here. From here I got a sleeper bus down to 4000 islands, the sleeper bus was double beds and you had to sleep next to strangers, I was at the back with 4 other strangers on the one big bed, lucky for me 2 people decided they could not do that so left leaving 3 people to 5 beds, I thought this would have been ok but the person next to me had to sleep like a star and take up all room and he even tried spralling over onto my part until I pretended to stir and áccidently' elbow him. I could also tell the people who had never been on sleeping buses as they were eating and drinking lots, school boy error as they were complaining that they could not go toilet.

I went to Don Khong the main island and I cylced round it on one of those push bikes with no gears, I should have taken the oppertunity to get a semi auto bike and learned to ride that as the roads were empty. There was nothing to do here so I left the next morning on a boat and headed to Don Det where there were more backpackers, I done a kayaking trip to see the dozen Irrawaddy dolphins left in the river, it took 4 hours and we stopped off in Cambodia (Illegal) for lunch. Lucky for us we saw the dolphins as I would not been pleased to have kayaked that far (20km) for nothing. After making some more friends (have litteraly met hundreds of people) we got the bus to Pnom Penh in Cambodia, the first stop however was a rest station where kids had bags of tarrantuals where they would put them on you if you wanted or didnt want them, heart attack does not even come close.

Pnom Penh or Sean Penn as we called it due to convincing some girls because he was concieved there thats how its pronnounced was a bustling dirty city that remdinded me in parts of Bagdad, this was the only place in Asia where I have felt weary. I visited the killing fields where you get to see where the khamer rouge killed over 8000 people in the mass graves, bones and clothing still sticking out the floor where the mass graves havent been dug up. Themagic tree where they beat cambodians heads against to save the bullets. There is a monument there of skulls which goes sky high. I also visited S21 detention centre where a former school was turned into a torture centre where cambodians were tortured and killed so this was not a cheery day. I did plan to shoot an AK-47 but due to illness this didnt happen.

The plans I made have not gone to plan I never intended to go to Laos or Cambodia but here I am, now im thinking about on the way home, I am thinking South Americas would be good before England but who knows, all I know is that I will never have a normal beach holiday again as travelling is so addictive. Russia, China, Mongolia who knows where.

Everyone have a great New Years

Apocalypse now and then

Headed on a excursion to Halong Bay which included a nights stay on a boat and a night in a hotel on Cat ba island. Well tourist is not the word, the whole place was swammped with boats and tourists doing the same thing however I had a plan as I knew that they would charge top dollar for alcohol so we nipped to the shop and bought some vodka and decantered them into water bottles. I was right! They had the cheek to charge over $2 for a small 300mm can of Tiger beer comapre this to the 40cents in certain places and you can see why we were all becoming smugglers! Well that night inclueded many a rendition on karaoke even thought the machine was 'retarted' as one peson described it and we also had to get the deck hand to choose the song even though we gave him this anallergy - Give a man a fish and he can eat for a day, give a man the means to catch his fish and he can feed his family for a life time. Give us the means to choose our song and we can sing for a lifetime! Needless to say the next day we had to be up at 0730 to go for a trek and I had 8 loo visits before 0900 so the trek was a make 0r break for my hangover!!! The trek took 2 hours and was well worth it. We went to some caves on one of the 1600 islands in Halong bay and walked around the caves to which we learnt that Halong bay means decending dragon and our guide also pointed out some features of the caves that looked like buddahs or lions, none of them looked like what he said apart from one that was lit up red and orange that could of been E.T's finger or male genitalia. I found the caves boring as it was too easy to walk around and there was not much adventure. We also had some time to kayak which we kayaked to a floating village, this was the same place that Top Gear went on that classic episode, it was amazing to see the people living on this island, they make there money by loading up their boats with all manner of things that the tourist would want, like Oreo cookies, booze and more booze, they row up to the larger boats on the sneak and sell tourists contraband. Halong bay was nice but it was far to touristy for my liking as we had to be regimented with our movements e.g. get up 0730, breakfast 0800 and so on....with this in mind we ditched the trip to monkey island (monkeys after India have lost there effect on me) and opted to explore Cat Ba Island where we ended up on the beach. We headed back to Hanoi to where we lost Peter who went into Laos but after being over priced on the Halong bay deal we decided to get to Sa Pa by ourselfs. We got the overnight train to Lai Cai which is about 1mile from China and got a transfer up the mountain to Sa Pa, immediatly it was bloody cold and wet and visability was about 12ft so we could not see the beauty of the place. We hired a kid to take us on a trek to her village, this trek was 25k in total and took the best part of 4 hours and cost me my trainers. We could not see much and I would have been really annoyed if we spent the $140 that most places were charging for the trips lucky our whole trip cost about $50.

From there we had to get a bus to Dien Bien Phu which is a boarder town and is really rubbish, we were there for only one night so we could get the bus into Laos (0500). One thing with these local buses is you cant prepare for the stuff that happens. I had one woman dry humping my leg for most of the journey and my friend had someone leaning over them to be sick out the window. Come to mention it I think that Asians must suffer really badly from motion sickness as thats all they seemed to do on buses. Some buses we had tourists wearing crash helmets as the boxes from above were falling on them frequently ha ha ha ha.

Now im glad that I have left Vietnam as I have picked up more viruses than an African hooker, it has now come to light the 1200 pictures I have I can not upload or download as the memory card is corrupted and picked up a virus. I can view them on the camera so I am hoping that all is not lost and I can some how restore the photos using some software. To say im livid is an understatement.

So the trip into Laos was a usual local bus trip, uncomfy, noisy and smelly but it is well worth it as we got off at a small village we were approched by 2 Australians and a French guy who had been there a few days waiting for some tourists who wanted to charter a boat down the river instead of getting a bus....this was music to our ears and we agreed so we chartered the sea vessel down to a sleepy picturesq village of Nong Khiaw which I could of stayed at for a week if only for the fact there is no bank or ATM there so I ran out of money very quickly. We stayed in bamboo huts overlooking the river surrounded by palm trees and friendly locals. Oh the worst thing about Nong Khiaw was getting a haircut and shave there, normally a wet shave with a cutthroat is a nice relaxing and generally quick affair, not in Laos where it was done with a single blade razor which went blunt after halfway and a drizzling of cold soapy water. Needless to say it was painful and even after saying dont be shy with that water she opted to shave some parts dry. I did have an audience as many of the locals came to see this wonderous performance. Next was the haircut and I knew something was up when she put lots of clips in my hair as this has never been done before.....how silly of me to think she would use scissors to cut my hair, it was a razor that looked more like an inmate at Belmarsh had constructed using a toothbrush and a blunt razor, again this hurt as the razor got blunter and blunter. Never before would I have had to think to ask a barbers if they have scissors but now in Asia that is my first question.

With money running out we got the bus to Luang Prabang and immediatly drew some kip out and headed to the night market. I felt like I was in some sort of twilight zone walking through the market no one hasseled us to buy at very cheap price or man handle us into their store the Laos people are the most laid back people in Asia which after India and Vietnam is very refreshing although trying to exchange something for a larger size was just pointless as she wanted 30,000 kip to exchange it I tried to tell her that was 10,000 more than I originally paid and she was reluctant to give me my original too small tee back so I snatched it off her and she said too small why want.....I replied so I could bin it just so you cant re-sell it. Just booked our bus to Vang Vien to take part in the legendary tubing! I have my beerlao vest although to wear it anywhere in SE Asia would be uncool like wearing a band tshirt to a gig but when I get to Australia (3rd Feb) in Melbourne it will be super cool!!! That is right I have booked my flight to Oz and I cant wait for sun sea and surf or is that spiders sharks and snakes either way im looking forward to it but I have a feeling that I will have to rush certain countries as I have only got Cambodia and Thailand left in Asia. I still dont know where I will be for Xmas and New Years so may not be contactable if I am in South Laos.

*ALL PHOTOS ARE NOT MINE DUE TO AFORE MENTIONED PROBLEM BUT ARE FROM FRIENDS ON SAME TRIP* Same memories seen through different eyes!

The pictures are from Hoi An, Halong bay, Sapa, and Hanoi, hopfully now I have new memory card it will not get a virus or corrupted but I dont hold my breath!

Dog fritters

So where did I leave you? Last you heard I was in Dalat which was a swiss looking resort, well I headed North again to Na Trang on a sleeper bus. Na Trang was meant to be a happening town full of bars beach and sand, well im sure it would be in the correct season but as the country is so large the seasons differ from north to south. In Na Trang there were also no Vietnamease places to eat so had to eat western food. Didnt really do much in Na Trang, I did have a foot and leg massage which I thought I would be safe from having my head or face touched how silly of me not to realise they would cover my face and head in cucumber slithers. Onward then to Mui Ne


The sleeper bus has beds in and I was unlucky to have the back seats, these are not for the cool people, 5 people share one big bed at the back and the sleeper buses are made for Asians who are generally vertically challenged so it was one of the most awful places to sleep, to top that off it was meant to be a 12 hour trip to Mui Ne but there was a landslide on one of the mountain road so we were stuck for 12 hours in the same position. Left at 21:00 the night before and was due to get there at 0600 the next day, didnt get there untill 21:00 the next night, this has to be one of the worst journeys I have ever had. Mui Ne was worth the bother as it is a very pretty place with different coloured latterns linning the river and all the shops. Most of the shops here are tailors where you can get anything made with any fabric (this is where Top Gear went on their trip), unfortunatly due to the time I am travelling and the weight gain/loss it was not practical for me to get one made. Last time I was travelling with a broke ass Canadian but due to her wanting to go treking I left with out her to Mui Ne but things happen for a reason and I have met another nice girl who is British and I have also been sharing with Peter who is the funniest person I have met. In Mui Ne I stayed in my first dorm which is where I met the afore mentioned people, the dorm is ok but I find it hard to relax when having a massive shit as the noises are embarressing but hey I dont care now. We had a very big night in Mui Ne where we started drinking at 1300 and didnt get in till very early in the morning. Peter and Anna didnt reallyu want to get the bus with me as I seemed to be bad luck they said but we got the 4 hour bus to Hue which is not as nice really nothing much there except a city and bars etc etc so we only stayed one night and got the 14 hour bus to Ha Noi which does not have the same charm as Saigon or the same night life but along the way we heard of a great hostel called the Drift which is where the nightlife is. In Ha Noi I have actually seen a dog on the grill, it was cut in 4 and you could see that it was a dog, I tried to get a picture but the market lady screamed at me so I didnt bother. The Vietmanease are quite strange, they cant speak English and they laugh a lot when you try and speak to them which is very annoying, they also are relentlesss in trying to get you on Motorbikes and just shout YOU or grab your shoulder and when you say know they follow you down the street. This has been testing my patience to the extreme so now I might just tell them I cant speak English not a word which is funny or tell them to leave me the fuck alone.

The food as we got North has become much more varied and harder to find, I just ate Bru cha or something which cost 50p and was some meat and veg. These street sellers only sell one type of food so when I ask for a menu they laugh but I have figured that out now so I should be good for the rest of my trip. Beer in some of the places we have been has been as low as 15p per pint or as high as 1 pound. In Mui Ne they actually gave us free drinks which were bloody horrible but still they were free.

The roads in Ha Noi are manic and crossing them is an art that I am getting really good at, you just walk and they go round you but it does make your ass quiver when they are all coming towards you.

There probably is a lot more stuff I could say but I generally forget it and I cant put pictures on as most of the comps here have viruses and I lost my Goa pictures from this so dont want to take the chance until I get out of Vietnam.

I am heading Monday for Ha Lon Bay which is where the Top Gear Guys went to and from there Sa Pa which I think will be freezing.

The scenerey in vietnam has been breathtaking and I would reccomend to anyone this country.
A good thing about Asia is that there is nothing to do with Xmas here, no decorations, no cards, no shit music, no paxo adverts no Bernard Mathews which is refreshing however I am stressing where to stay for Xmas as I should have booked months ago but I refuse to do this as I dont know where I will be so I may have to sleep on a beach or park ha ha ha

From flashpacker to backpacker

Flashpacker = older traveller with money who does not eat at the cheapest places or stays at the cheapest shit holes.

First stop in Vietnam is Ho Chi Minh city as it is now known but to all the people who live there it is still Saigon. Arrivign at the airport and gettting a cab to District 1 was my first taste of the locals as a viet girl asked to share a cab and trying to save money and be more like a backpacker I said yes however it was a very weird ride as I was convienced that she was going to steal my wallet as I couldnt remember her on the flight and she got extremley close and touchy in the cab. At this point im already thinking Bourne style how im going to react but alass I was wrong all the vietmanease women are like this over good looking westerners. Saigon was a great place, there was not too much to do but the night life there was amazing, I had some major hangovers there for the 3 nights I stayed there. The one thing I did do there was visit the war museum and it was quite disturbing, they had pictures of people who had been burned with napalm and people who had been infected with agent orange. I went to a vietnamease massage parlour and the girl was only 5ft but she was strong as an ox, some points I thought she was going to break my back but overall it was a lot nicer than the Indian massage where he massaged my naked ass. The only thing that ruined the massage was the guy next to me kept farting but not like naturally letting them come out but pushing them out with great power.

Another tough thing in Saigon that goes against all your natural insticnt is crossing the road, there are so many motorbikes it is fucking insane! The trick is to walk out slowly and dont stop, they will move around you but this leap of faith is so hard to master.

After India I decided I didnt want to stay in one place too long so I grabbed the bus to Mui Ne which is like a beach place which is big with wind surfers and kite surfers, this is where I met Georgia who is the Canadian from Qubec that I am currently travelling with and she is a pure backpacker trying to get everything dirt dirt cheap. Whilst in Mui Ne I also travelled with a new yorker Matt who was cool and we decided to hire some scooters and travel to the sand dunes. The red sand dunes were immense and we hired sheets of plastic so we could slide/surf down there. The roads in Mui ne were a lot better and very easy to drive but we did see one accident where 3 scooters had collided and people did look really hurt. Another place I drove us to was the ferry stream which is a pretty stream about 500 meters long you walk down to find a waterfall at the end. We stayed in Mui Ne for 2 nights before we headed off to Da Lat which is inland and 1500-2000 meters above sea level so you can imagine the shock I got when it was bloody cold, I didnt really like Da lat it reminds me of a swiss ski resort with only a few things to do, we hired some guys 'Easy Rider' company but were more 'Sleazy rider' to take us to all the sights, we saw silk factory and saw how they take the silk worm and get the silk, largest waterfall in Vietnam and all the jaw dropping scenery along the way. Only 2 nights spent here and we have a bus booked for Na Trang which is party place again. Forgot to tell you about the bus we got from Mui Ne to Dal Lat, this bus is meant to take 4 hours but ended up taking 7, this was because we had 3 flat tires and they broke the wrench on the last one so we had to wait and find someone with a spare ha ha ha, this was the worse bus ride and we commented that its not MPG for the trip but wheels per mile. The road was bumpy and I was sitting at the back where they squeezed an extra person in and it was the most uncomfortable I have ever been. I beliveve that travelling is best in retrospect, when I was on the bus I was cursing but when I get home I will wish I was on that nightmare bus ride. Im heading to Ha long bay which some of you might remember from Top Gear where they sailed to the floating Bar, this or Sa Pa will be my final place in Vietnam.

The good thing about sharing a hostel with a fellow traveller is the cost, you half it and it saves a lot of cash but the bad thing is you cant be yourself, I keep having to remember to stiffle wind and not let it come out in all its glory.

The food here in Vietnam has been the best that I have ever tasted, no dog or cat yet (I think) but I have eaten hot pot where you put your raw meat into oil and cook it with veg, noodle soup (Pha) is the national dish and it is the tastest food ever!

Please bare in mind I only throw random pictures on the blog, I actually have taken over 1000 pictures in 3 countries and am needing to get a new memory card!

Will update you at the end of my vietnam trip before I cross the border into Laos.