The Missing Blog

The unthinkable has happened... My 5 months abroad has come to an end! This seemingly endless plethora of experiences has finished and now all that looms ahead of me is a life of corporate slavery. Oh well, as they say, 'Shit happens'.

I'm not writing the post trip analysis just yet; instead, I'll fill you in on the last 3 weeks.

My last blog focused on a two day meditation retreat and all the spiritual trials that went with this. I assure you that this blog will be of a very different ilk.

After the retreat, I did the inevitable, and went for a well deserved lager. Following on from this, I met up with Harshiv, and after much deliberation, we took the decision to make the short journey from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai (confusing, I know). The intention was that we were to do some unspoilt, natural treks in Chiang Rai. To our immense annoyance, we discovered that the treks in Chiang Rai were as equally touristy as the Chiang Mai treks, and that they were doubly as expensive. Never ones to let disappointment stand in our way, we created our own plans for the day, visiting the White Temple. This contingency plan surpassed all of our expectations, as we were treated to one of the quirkiest temples I'd ever seen - comic book supervillains on the walls, hands reaching up from hell at the entrance, and shimmering white architecture. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

From Chiang Rai, we took the extended 36 hour journey to South Thailand. By now, I'm quite used to the many delights of extended bus journeys, but this particular journey represents somewhat of a sore moment because we were cheated on no fewer than 3 separate occassions. Ignoring the fact that the total sum lost was only about 7 quid, its still frustrating to be subjected to the locals trying to take advantage of you.

We finally arrived by long tail boat to Railey Beach, Krabi. It was like something from a movie - emerald green waters and white sands enclosed by imposing rocks on all sides. Again, its something that words don't do justice to.

Having arrived in Krabi, we set to work on destroying every iota of spirituality that I'd attempted to attain on the meditation retreat. Beers beers beers were the order of the day. We met up with Bimal, and the days were spent on the beach, whilst the nights were spent drinking copious amounts of beer, listening to reggae music, and playing pool and assorted card games. Not a bad existence if I do say so myself. This cycle of laziness was broken only by the crazy decision to... wait for it... go rock climbing! Now most of you know me as more of a bookworm/ beer guzzler/ video games enthusiast than an outdoor sportsman, so God only knows what I was doing when I agreed to climb these rocks. I actually exceeded all expectation, and found that I had a certain talent for climbing - it seems that my skinny frame is actually useful for something. The climbing itself was a gruelling experience - there are stages when you feel like you can't go on, and everyone at the bottom is urging you to carry on climbing; then, when you do reach the top, you feel like you've really achieved something. Amazing.

This feeling of achievement was rewarded with... yes, you guessed it, some more beers. I'd had more of the infamous "Chang-overs" during these four days in Railey than I'd had during the whole of the preceding five weeks in Thailand!

Following on from Krabi, we spent a night on Koh Phi Phi. Phi Phi is a small island that was devastated by the 2004 tsunami - prior to that, it was being built up as one of Thailand's premier tourist locations. The island has since recovered, and home to some of the country's best beaches. Seeing as we only had a day there, we toured the main Phi Phi Don, as well as the smaller Phi Phi Lay, taking the time to do some snorkelling, visit various beaches and lagoons, including Au Maya - made famous by the film, The Beach. Beautiful doesn't even begin to describe these beaches. They literally leave you dumbstruck - amazing.

Next stop on our whirlwind tour through South Thailand - Koh Samui. This is probably the most famous of South Thailand's islands - it boasts an international airport and is home to dozens of top end hotels and restaurants. These high levels of tourism meant that the island had lost any charm it once possessed - an authentic Thai restaurant is non existent on Samui, and prices have been hiked up accordingly too. That's not to say we had a bad time there - Sunny and Hinesh arrived in Thailand, and we spent the days playing American football on the beach, and the evenings frequenting the local nightlife.

All of this drinking was building up to one big finale - Koh Pha Ngan AKA the venue for the world famous Full Moon Party. Now my clubbing days seem to be behind me - give me a nice pint in a small pub over a sweaty, noisy, pretentious club any day; however, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the Full Moon Party and all of the preceding nights were pretty amazing. Yet again, its difficult to provide an image using my writing, but try and imagine several thousand people dancing on the beach, covered in fluorescent paint, watching the sun rise - pretty cool, huh? Yet again, the days were spent recovering from hangovers, whilst the nights overlapped into the early hours of the following day. Quite a gruelling regime for my poor liver, but it was worth it!

After the climax of the Full Moon Party itself, a rest was greatly needed, so we made the short trip over to Koh Tao. A welcome respite from the madness of the previous few days, we spent the time chilling out, playing football and American football, and swimming. Our pledges to 'not drink for the rest of the trip' were duly broken, and we had some evening fun there too!

Last stop on my extended holiday was a brief couple of days in Bangkok. Ideally, this stop would have been avoided, but with work looming ahead, I had to go and get some suits made. There's something greatly satisfying about going to a tailor, picking out the exact fabrics and styles, getting measured up, and paying only a fraction of what you'd pay for an off-the-rack suit in the UK. I'm sure you'll see the results of my trip to the tailor when I start work.

Sorry about the mundanity of this entry. Listening to life on the islands clearly isn't even half as fun as being there, and you'll have noticed a certain pattern to my lifestyle there.

I'm now back in the UK. I lost my phone earlier in the trip, so I no longer have anyone's mobile number so I would be grateful if you could email/ text me your numbers. Mine is still the same.

Lots of love,

Nihal

Guys, sorry about the delay in posting. I'm on the islands; internet is extremely expensive, time is limited and activities are few, so expect a full post in a few days.

Nihal

Monk-eying Around

OK, so titles aren't my strong point. I never professed to be a creative individual - give me a topic and I can write factually about it, but ask me to come up with something by myself... that's a different story.

So you're all intrigued as to what this title means. I won't keep you in suspense for much longer.

South East Asia has a strong Buddhist culture - this is documented by the dozens and dozens of photos I've taken of the various temples. The monastic tradition is still very strong here - its an honour for families in Laos, Thailand and Cambodia to send their oldest child to be ordained as a Buddhist monk. Its a common sight to see lines of young monks queuing up to collect alms in the morning (see my Laos blog for pictures). I've always been fascinated by Buddhism, and I have a lot of respect for the religion (as I do for most of the other world religions). I studied Buddhism for GCSE religious studies, and even though I haven't extended this study recently, I always welcomed the opportunity to learn more about it.

Anyway, looking through the Lonely Planet, I happened to stumble across something called "Monk Chat". What this "Monk Chat" lacks in name, it makes up for in substance - it offered foreigners the experience of spending two days at a meditation retreat in Chiang Mai, being instructed by some of the Buddhist monks. This program ran once a week, and I wanted to indulge my fascination. Initially, I had attempted to visit this retreat two weeks ago, but I was thwarted by the small matter of a Buddhist festival. No problem - I just decided to visit the retreat on my return.

So what did it consist of? The program was labelled as an introduction to meditation so it was intended to provide us with the basics and give us a taste of what meditation involved. So I arrived at the temple on the afternoon of the first day - and the temple itself was stunning. We were provided with a two hour talk on Buddhism, what the main precepts were and how meditation fits in to Buddhism. Much of it was what I had learnt at GCSE, but bearing in mind that that was almost 7 years ago now (I feel old!), it was nice to gain a refresher.

From there, we were taken by minibus to the retreat. The journey was about half an hour in total. and the retreat was a stunning location in the Chiang Mai countryside. It was completely deserted, and us 20 participants were the only occupants. It was there that we were informed that we were expected to maintain complete silence for the duration of the retreat!! We were given a surprisingly tasty dinner but everyone was very disconcerted by their inability to talk to the person sitting opposite them.

From there, we were given our first class. Sitting meditation, of the concentration meditation variety. This lasted for an hour, and its surprising how difficult it was to concentrate on the stimulus offered to us (in this case, the noise provided by a ringing bowl). The monk said that initially our minds would be 'like a monkey', and that was a fitting description - the mind jumped from thought to thought to thought. This was proceeded by the slightly strange "walking meditation", and the sleep inducing "lying down meditation". After an extensive session, we were released at 9pm (still maintaining complete silence), and were in bed by 10pm.

The next morning, we had the pleasure of a 5am start. This was followed by some counting meditation and yoga at 5:30, and to be fair, this actually managed to wake us up.

After this, we were instructed to practise some more of our sitting down meditation. At 7:30 we did something quite different, and were given the task of offering alms to the monks. In the Buddhist monastic tradition, monks do not cook or provide food for themselves; instead, this is provided to the monks by the local lay community. This means that the monks have more time in which to practice meditation and chanting (not burdened by the need to prepare food). The way that one of the monks put it was that 'the lay community look after our bodies, and we look after their minds - providing advice and counsel when needed'. This was followed by a well deserved breakfast for ourselves.

At 9am, we were finally granted permission to speak again - during a very interesting Discussion Session with some of the monks. It was very informative, and they answered many questions that the participants had about meditation and Buddhism. From there, we had another couple of hours of meditation practice, before lunch, and then the bus back to the temple. A very intense and interesting 24 hours.


So what did I think of this?

If anything, it has heightened my respect for Buddhism and for the South East Asian way of life. I like the way that the monks and lay community work in harmony together.

My respect for Buddhism has also increased. It strikes me as a very pragmatic religion, labelling itself as "The Middle Path" between excess and ascetism. In contrast to many of the other world religions, it forgoes talk of creators, gods, and much of the ceremony associated with religion, and instead is focussed on improving oneself as a person. The five precepts of Buddhism are to refrain from taking life, from stealing, from commiting sexual misconduct, from lying, and from taking intoxicants. Elementary yet useful. In place of a god, they follow the teachings of the Buddha, but it is just that - the teachings - Buddha is not revered as a god, and in fact, his teachings are more important than he is. This means that the Buddhist religion is free from the stories, and colourful gods of Hinduism, or from the devotion to one god of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The monks are free to leave and join the order as they please (obviously not frivously) - as Buddhism feels that life is centered around impermanence.

There are elements of the religion that I disagree with too. My main uncertainty is the Buddhist attitude towards vegetarianism. The monks told me that ideally, they would eat vegetarian food, but that in reality, they will eat meat if it is given by those offering alms. The reason for this is that the monks do not wish to cause extra trouble for those preparing the food, and will just eat the same dishes that the family do. This is at odds with their principle of not killing, and I brought this argument up at length with the monk.

And the meditation? It was interesting. The concept behind it is to attain total focus on one thing, and it is infinitely harder than it looks. I feel that it would be very useful in day to day life - it would heighten one's skills of concentration. However, I was barely able to attain even a few seconds of total concentration - its something that requires years of training.

Before I end this blog, I don't want people to be afraid that I've suddenly gained religion or spirituality. I'm still a devout agnostic! It was an eye-opening experience though, and definitely an incredible opportunity.

By the way, this whole programme was run on donation - food, accomodation and all.

Hope everyone is well,

Nihal

On the last episode, our noble hero was trapped on a tropical island off the Thai coast... how would he escape from there?? Stay tuned in to find out...

So Koh Chang was great. We had fantastic food, the beach was beautiful, deserted and not full of people peddling unwanted goods, and the beach parties were also awesome. This was somewhat ruined by the rain that started on Day 3, and refused to leave us for the rest of the stay. When it rains on a beach paradise there's really not all that much to do, except to hole yourself up in your room and curl up with a good book. Unfortunately, my book wasn't good, so by the third day of torrential downpours, we decided to leave the island.

Back to Bangkok it was then. We decided this because we felt that rain in Bangkok would be less of a barrier to activities than rain in Koh Chang. Fair assessment I think.

Anyway, during the course of our previous stay in Bangkok, I had visited about a dozen temples, frequented a similar amount of markets, eaten tens of Pad Thais, and been accosted by uncountable numbers of tuk tuk drivers. That's Bangkok done then, right?

Pretty much. Going back to Bangkok was like that scene in The Beach where Leo (no, I haven't read the book) revisits Koh Pha Ngan after spending a significant amount of time in paradise. He was disgusted by his fellow American tourists, thought of the place as overly loud, couldn't stand the sight of drunken louts crowding the streets etc etc. Travelling makes you a bitter individual, and personally, I'm sick of the sight of bald-headed British lager louts in their football shirts staggering down Khao San Road (ironically, this same description could have been used for me about a year ago!). Equally disgusting, yet somewhat tragically amusing, are the hundreds of old, ugly, overweight European men who have somehow managed to land themselves a young, beautiful Thai girl. You feel sorry for both the girl and the man in this situation - the girl because of the ordeal she's faced with, and the man, because you know that the girl is only after him for his money. As I said before, tragically amusing.

So having done most of the cultural stuff, we elected to have a different stay in Bangkok. We spent several hours in guesthouse lobbies, watching recent movies on their big screens. We even decided to treat ourselves to a day at the local theme park - Siam Park City. Now this was all of my childhood dreams come true - a theme park that was almost completely deserted. And this meant... wait for it... no queues for rides whatsoever! Admittedly, some of the rides were slightly dated, e.g. "African Adventure" - complete with stereotypical plastic African savage figurines burning white people at the stake, but it had some good roller coasters, and also housed a small water park. I'm sorry to destroy anyone's fantasy, but having your own theme park does mean that you ultimately get bored of the rides - by the second ride of each roller coaster, I'd already memorised each peak, fall and loop-the-loop. Can't complain though.

So Khilna went home yesterday, leaving me with a tough decision - more hell in Bangkok - waiting for friends to arrive, solitude on the islands, or back north to Chiang Mai which I knew and loved. I went with the last of the three options, and am presently staying at the guesthouse that's become known as my second home (this is my third separate stay!).

Expect more escapades and mischief soon.

I found the second volume of A Suitable Boy in a bookshop in Bangkok. My (almost unread) copy of Dostoevsky's The Idiot had to be sacrificed, but that's no great loss. I'm admitting defeat! I'm still a happy man though!

The substitute blog

I had a blog ready and waiting for you, but my brother went and got in there before me. Have a read - its much better than the one I would have written - http://www.mihirsadventures.blogspot.com/. He's got some interesting descriptions of me on there too, so that should be reason enough to read it! So rather than bore you with the same thing all over again, I've decided to give you some reflections on my trip so far.

I recently read a trashy travel novel (actually, Khilna was reading it - I'd already read it a couple of years ago, and was hijacking the book when possible), about a guy going to India on his gap year. The book contained the standard parts about drink, drugs, sex, and diarrhoea, but in it, there was an extended tirade by a Westerner towards the book's subject (a 19 year old gap year kid). Anyway, the brunt of the rant was about the fact that this flock of kids come over to a developing country, stay in traveller resorts, never interact with the locals, congratulate themselves on how "brave" and "adventurous" they've been, and leave with something to write down on their CVs - Third World experience - check. (The book was called Are You Experienced by William Sutcliffe for anyone interested). So before I start rambling and lose my point, this led me to question the whole "Gap Year" experience. Was it just another box to tick off on the list? Has it "changed me as a person"? And have I had a lot of interaction with foreign culture, learning more about the countries in question? Well, I'm sorry to say that I don't know the answer to these questions.

So what is travelling? Well its waking up every day in a foreign country, being at total liberty for what to do. I've never experienced this much freedom. You can stay in bed all day, go to a pub at 12 in the afternoon, sit and read all day - anything that takes your fancy on that particular day. When you're at home, there's always an errand to run, or someone to phone, or something on TV - here, there's nothing. Its a disconcerting but beautiful feeling. As I've said, some abuse this freedom, and spend every day in a drunken stupor, but that's not a valuable usage of their precious time. During this trip, I've had the opportunity to go tubing (twice), to go white water rafting, to bathe with the elephants, to feed elephants (on numerous occassions), to visit numerous waterfalls, to do both a Thai and Vietnamese cooking course, to see the temples at Angkor Wat - and these are just the things that I can remember. A lifetime's worth of experiences in three months.

So how much have I experienced the local culture? Not very much I'd say. Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are rites of passage for most middle-class kids these days, and the result is that you're provided with an experience that is watered down, and not "authentic". After you've got over the disappointment of not being able to stay in village huts with no electricity and running water, you realise that this isn't a bad thing, and that the local areas are just a stone's throw away from the backpacker districts - if you can just be bothered to put down the Lonely Planet and actually look for them! The fact that the route is so touristy means that things like elephant riding and the like are actually quite accessible and inexpensive - something to be grateful for.

So how have I changed as a person? The first thing to change was my attire.. Out went the Ralph Lauren Polos and True Religion jeans, and in came the linen trousers, and locally sourced T-shirts. Over here, nobody cares whether you've got the Abercrombie stag on your shirt, or the Nike tick on your shoes, instead its about comfort, and the hippy vibe! Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix t-shirts are everwhere, as are funky cotton trousers and shorts. Its a great feeling.

Losing my trainers was a blessing in disguise. As much as I loved the Adidas 3-stripe shell toes, I'm enjoying the liberating feeling of not having worn proper shoes and socks for 3 months. I'm currently on my third pair of flip flops, and as people will tell you, every pair of flip flops tells a story! My current flip flops were purchased when my beloved bamboo flip flops broke in Vietnam, just before a long bus journey. These flip flops were bought as a stop gap solution 7 weeks ago, and are still serving me faithfully to this day. They're the very same pair that accompanied me on that trek, when I had to go barefoot. Everyone knows that I've always been a strong advocate of the trainer, but I'm currently loving the feeling that a good flip flop brings!

As for other changes, travelling lets you spend a lot of time thinking about things - a luxury not afforded in the hectic London lifestyle. I've come to some important decisions about my life, and I'll let you know about these later on. I don't feel like I've become a more spiritual person, but I do feel like I have a lot more to talk about (as is evident from these overly lengthy blogs).

I've always been a fan of a good book, and being abroad has allowed me to indulge this passion. Initially, I attempted to read two stupidly complicated books (keeping the mind engaged and all) - A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, and the encyclopaedia-esque An Outline of History by HG Wells. Both attracted strange looks from fellow travellers, and both were abandoned - at 200 pages and at 500 pages respectively. I've reverted to my true passion - fiction. I hope this doesn't come across as pretentious, unneccessary or stupid, but I'll list my holiday reading, accompanied by a brief review:

The Damned United - a fantastic page turner. This book resulted in a couple of sleepness nights in China, in a desperate attempt to finish the book. A great insight into Brian Clough.

The Grapes of Wrath - possibly one of the best books I've ever read. I've always been snobby about American culture (I don't know why - just a British stigma), but this was a beautiful account of problems affecting those farmers in the Deep South in the early 1900s. I enjoyed the way that it was written by both the farmers and the big businessmen. I can't recommend it strongly enough.

First They Killed my Father - A first person account of a young girl's experience during the Cambodian genocide. A truly harrowing and upsetting book, but a great read for anyone wishing to learn more about Cambodia.

White Teeth - a book that I initially enjoyed a great deal, but that I felt became more and more laboured as it went on. Very creative, and perhaps overly so - Zadie Smith seemed to get more and more lost in her own plot.

A Suitable Boy (volume one) - I'd intended to read this book for a while, especially after having seen Vikram Seth at the Jaipur Literature Festival. It was a wonderfully convaluted account of the attempt to find a husband for one Lata Mehra. I loved it. I was lucky enough to find this book in my guesthouse, and unfortunately for me, all of the local bookshops only seemed to stock Volumes One and Three - the result being that I wasn't able to continue with A Suitable Boy. I briefly toyed with the idea of carrying the 3kg, 3000 page unabridged version, but practicality put a stop to this silly idea.

Right now, I'm reading Dostoevsky's The Idiot (cue the silly jokes) in an effort to be all intellectual, and its proving to be a slog. I did think about giving up on the book, but am now starting to enjoy it. My pride wouldn't let me give up on a third book anyway!

Anyway, enough of this fragmented, nonsensical blog. Next time, order as usual will be resumed. I'm currently on the beautiful Koh Chang, with my beautiful girlfriend. On the beach by day, at beach parties drinking tropical cocktails by night - life doesn't get much better!

Hope everyone is well,

Love to all,

Nihal

PS, after Mihir left Chiang Mai, we spent another two days there. Visited a temple, went to Chiang Mai zoo, and met up with Sagar, Ashni, Amar and their two friends. Good fun.

So, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos down, and now to the big one - that traveller's paradise, the Mecca of temples, coconut curries and hedonism that is Thailand..

I got off the 12 hour bus from Vientiene to Bangkok, and was dropped off in the infamous Khao San road - made famous by the film "The Beach", and countless travellers' tales. Task number one was to find a hotel - I was shown several extortionately priced, cockroach infested hellholes, but in the end (bearing in mind that Khilna was arriving was the following day) I settled on a Thai chain-hotel, that was both moderately priced and clean-ish. My task for the day was complete, and I consulted my new guide book (the Time Out guide to Bangkok to see what to do). Walking around, guidebook in hand, I couldn't help but notice that at 8am in the morning, people were still crowded around glasses of Thai whisky and soda - presumably carrying on from the previous night. And no Mum, I didn't join in and have a drink at that hour of the morning!

My week in Bangkok was spent sightseeing and shopping. In my 6 day visit, I must have seen about 12 golden Buddhas, and an equal number of shopping malls! That's not to say that some of those temples weren't magnificent - I saw the very impressive Grand Palace, the solid gold Buddha in Chinatown, and the enormous reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. All were interesting in very different ways, but, as a book I recently read stated, if the Buddha was to come to modern day Thailand, and see the temples adorned with gold, idols, and imagery, he'd be shocked by what had become of the religion. But this is a travel blog, not a spiritual commentary, so I'll stick to the topic at hand.

(the Buddha at Wat Pho - enlarge image to see the full scale)

The real story of Bangkok is probably my hair! After receiving months of comments saying that I looked like everything from Shaggy from Scooby Doo, to Frodo Baggins, to a 1970s Bollywood star(!), I took the unprecedented step of getting my hair dreadlocked!! The whole process took about 2 hours, and initially left my hair looking like Coolio (tight and sticking out at random angles), but after a few days, the dreads started to form. Unfortunately, I chose not to look after the dreads properly, and they hadn't formed correctly, so I had to go and get them redone the other day. I start an office job at a prestigious American firm in a number of weeks, and this is perhaps the last time in my life to do something crazy with my hair. I'll let you guys judge the results for yourselves!

We took a break from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok to visit nearby Kanchanaburi - most famous for its role in 'Bridge over the River Kwai'. I'll be the first to admit that I hadn't heard about the River Kwai, the River Kwai Bridge, or any of its history, but some fellow travellers had recommended Kanchanaburi so we duly followed their advice.

Kanchanaburi itself was another smallish town, which could be traversed in under an hour. Originally intending to spend a couple of days there, we swiftly revised our itinerary to spend only a night there. The day in Kanchanaburi was interesting - we visited a waterfall, and some hot springs, and spent some time at the Hellfire Path and the Death Railway. The latter two monuments with the ominous sounding names, were leftovers from the Japanese occupation of Thailand in World War II. I'll be quite honest when I say that the World Wars are two areas of history in which I am seriously deficient, and it was eye-opening to learn about the attrocities commited by the Japanese against the Allied Prisoners of War whilst they built this railway. I recommend a visit if you're in the area.

Back in Bangkok with a couple of days to spare, we chose to take a tour to the Floating Market. I had previously visited a floating market in Vietnam, and I expected this to be along similar lines - early morning traders selling exotic fruit and fish from boat to boat. This wasn't to be the case, and the floating market turned out to be a complete tourist trap, complete with people hawking the standard tourist rubbish, and the Alton Towers-style candid photo shown to you at the end. I can't stress this enough - don't go there, no matter how good the image of it is in your head.

Ayutthaya was another one of our one day excursions. Named after Ayodhaya in the Ramayana, this was yet another set of ancient temple complexes and ruins. However, having visited Myson in Vietnam, and Angkor Wat in Cambodia, this seemed much less impressive - aside from the Buddha carved into the tree. The highlight of our day was seeing the "elephant panda" (an elephant painted in panda colours) - yet another indication of the lengths that Asians will go to in order to please the tourists!

During the course of all of this business, we were offered the opportunity to feed the elephants - which was quite a cool experience.

I'll be back in Bangkok in a few weeks time, but for now, I had had a great time, although I was ready to escape to the cooler climates of Chiang Mai.


Love to all,

Nihal

Laos

I love Laos. For those of you that can't be bothered to read the blog, that's it summarised in three words!

Beautiful scenery, friendly people, and awesome local beer - what more could you want?

We crossed in from Cambodia at a place called Si Phan Don. Si Phan Don is home to a place called The Four Thousand Islands, and, as the name suggests, the place was pretty special. We were staying on a small island called Don Khon, and the word "basic" doesn't even begin to describe it! We stayed in small bungalows on the Mekong river, complete with a cold water shower, and a toilet with a scoop flush. Electricity consisted of one small light bulb and a table fan, so going to the toilet at night was an exercise in seeing in the dark! To put it simply, if anyone wants to get away from civilisation for a few days - Don Khon is the place to do it.

I can see those thoughts whizzing around in your heads already - what did you do for two days, how did you cope without city comforts, etc, etc. This was actually a refreshing change from the big cities of Cambodia and Vietnam. We spent a morning cycling the 7km circumference of the island, in the blazing heat, and in the afternoon, we agreed to go out to see some waterfalls with the proprietor of our guesthouse - a man known only as "Papa". Now this was where the fun started!

Papa is a small man of indeterminable age, who speaks little/no English. He took us out on his boat, clutching only a small bag for his fish, and a small bottle of water. Only, it turned out that what we thought was water was actually homebrewed whisky, and during the course of our excursion, he must have consumed about half a litre of the stuff. Anyway, the heavens opened for our little trip, and we were confined to a random shack in the middle of some rice fields on an unnamed island. The rain finally abated after about an hour and we were soaked through! I think that this was the first time I had felt cold in about a month! In the meantime, the level of Papa's bottle of Lao Lao (homebrewed whisky - aka paintstripper) continued to fall, and when he finally did take us to the waterfall, he was pretty intoxicated. We crossed over some precarious looking bridges and structures, and to our surprise, Papa skipped over them with ease! We clearly underestimated the old man! We arrived back in one piece (just), but this wasn't our last encounter with Lao Lao...

From Si Phan Don, our next stop was in Vang Viene. Now everyone I had spoken to so far had spent time in Vang Viene, and I was getting a marmite vibe about the place - you either love or hate it. The reason for this is that Vang Viene is a beautiful place with fantastic scenery, however, the town itself has developed into somewhat of a hedonist's paradise. Many years ago, someone must have had the idea of riding down the local river on large rubber tubes; this developed into a backpacker's rite of passage, and hey-presto, your very own tourist trap is born. Unfortunately (depending on which way you look at it), this brought with it the accompanying drink, drugs, rowdy tourists, and noisy clubs and bars.

During our two days in Vang Viene, we experienced both sides of the town, and I have to say we enjoyed it a lot. On the first day, we took a trip to the surrounding caves. Its a strange feeling to experience total darkness and quiet, but in these caves, we were able to do so. This trip was rounded off with a visit to the water caves, whereby we rode on a tube into the caves, armed only with a head torch to guide us away from the low ceilings. It was pretty amazing.

The following day, we went tubing on the Nam Tho river. As I mentioned previously, the concept of tubing is floating down the river on the rubber tube, observing the beautiful scenery and soaking up some sun. The reality is very different with 6/7 different bars along the way, blasting loud music, and offering rope swings, mud pools, zip wires, and cheap buckets of alcohol. Despite the Magaluf-like feel of the activity, it was pretty fun!

From here, we went to Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang was fantastic, but before all this, I have to describe Lao Lao experience number 2. We hired a minibus from Vang Viene to Luang Prabang, and to our surprise, we got the same bus and driver that we got from Vientiene to Vang Viene. Anyway, we were driving along, having a few drinks (we had picked up some cocktail buckets for the road), and somewhat strangely, the driver stopped about 5 or 6 times in the space of a couple of hours, in order to take a leak. We thought nothing of it, and carried on driving. Anyway, about an hour later, the driver stopped the car, and decided to sleep for 20 minutes; seeing as it was a night time drive, we thought this acceptable, albeit strange, so just ignored it. Finally, about an hour later, the driver got out of the car and started to throw up!! We were all worried that he was really ill, until he got back into the car, and said "Lao Lao Lao Lao Lao". It was only after this that we noticed how erratically he was driving! What made it even worse was that we had been driving over windy mountain roads. We made it there in one piece in the end, but the lax Laos attitude was very worrying; it also made me think that Laos men were all degenerate alcoholics!

So Luang Prabang... Three words (or possibly two) - "Bo Pa Nyang". This phrase means "no problem" in English and is a favourite phrase of the Laos people (and consequently a favourite phrase of myself and Apu). Luang Prabang was a beautiful town, surrounded by especially stunning scenery. Particularly impressive was the Kuang Si waterfall, in which we were allowed swim, and which I felt was the best sight that I had seen on my trip so far. We liked this waterfall so much that we went back a second time, hiring a motorbike to get there.

Another day, we took a four hour trek in the searing heat, followed by two hours kayaking in torrential rainstorms - typical of the tropical weather in Luang Prabang. Another highlight of our time here was swimming with the elephants - this is a once in a lifetime experience, and we were able to ride the elephants into the water, and to hold on for dear life as these elephants misbehaved; definitely one not to be missed!

Luang Prabang should also be noted for its market, which is the favourite market that I've visited in Asia. Instead of the local tourist crap (fake Polo shirts, Armani Jeans and Mont Blanc pens), it was refreshing to see local handicrafts, art work, lanterns and the like. Needless to say, I spent a fair bit of money, and made my bag about 2 kilos heavier!

We also found a chess set in our guesthouse, and myself and Apu spent several hours by the river, pitting our minds against each other in games of chess. I'm sorry to say that I will never be the next chess grandmaster, and I'm currently on a large losing streak. I bought a chess set though, and aim to overturn my deficit against Apu when I return to the UK.

We got a little too caught up in the "Bo Pa Nyang" spirit, forgetting what the date was, and Apu could have missed his return flight to the UK. Luckily, I checked my watch the day before he was supposed to fly, and we managed to book the bus to Vientiene, and he got home alright in the end. The "no problem" spirit is very contagious!

I'm currently in the Thai metropolis of Bangkok - will post more about this later.


I'm aware that this blog is very disjointed, and not up to the quality of my earlier blogs, and this is because its been written in about four different sessions. So I apologise in advance (actually it isn't in advance, seeing as you'll have already read this blog).

A whirlwind tour of Cambodia

My stay in Cambodia commenced with a hangover – courtesy of a final “quiet drink” in Saigon which inevitably degenerated into mayhem. We crossed from Saigon into Phnom Penh by bus, and yet again, I was graced by the presence of a local bus driver sitting next to me. This time however, I maintained my cool (largely due to lack of energy), and the journey went through without any hitches.

We arrived in Phnom Penh itself in the early afternoon, and the temperature there was stiflingly hot. We spent the afternoon walking around the city, and eventually went into the National Museum of Cambodia. Here, we saw lots of ancient Hindu and Buddhist artifacts from in and around Angkor Wat – unfortunately, having had minimal sleep the previous night, and still recovering from a hangover, I wasn’t in the best position to absorb all that the museum had to offer.

The next day was yet another early start, as we paid a visit to S-21 (otherwise known as the concentration camp of the Cambodian war), and the Killing Fields. For those unfamiliar with Cambodian history, about 30 years ago, a communist regime seized control in Cambodia. This regime, led by a man named Pol Pot, aimed to institute a pure form of communism through destruction of the educated classes and empowerment of the peasant population. The result of this was the deaths of over 2 million Cambodians through both genocide [of educated persons] and famine. During this four year period, almost a third of the Cambodian population died.

So S-21 was a former school turned prison, where thousands of Cambodian prisoners were housed. Only seven of those prisoners survived. Particularly poignant were the thousands of pictures of all the prisoners that had ever stayed there – each prisoner was photographed at the start of their internment; some of these people were just children when they were imprisoned. In addition, we were supplied with information about the different torture methods used in this prison, and were shown a moving film about a Cambodian couple interned in the prison at the same time.

Understandably, everyone was quite upset and depressed after visiting this prison, and we made the short journey to the Killing Fields. As the name suggests, this was the place where thousands of people were slaughtered in the name of the Khmer Rouge (Cambodian Communist Party). The methods of killing were particularly cruel - bullets were deemed too expensive, so people would be killed with machetes, axes, and other farming implements. Following on from this, their bodies would be cast into the pits dug as mass graves. Thirty years on, the Killing Fields consists of a beautiful, serene grassy area surrounding a small lake. However, a closer look allows visitors to see fragments of bone in the ground, and lowered land where the graves had been dug. At the end of the visit, we were greeted by the horrifying sight of a tower of hundreds and hundreds of skulls that had been excavated from the site. It makes one think about the cruelty of humanity.

From the capital, we got a minibus to Siem Reap - famous for the Angkor Wat temples. I can't find any superlatives that begin to describe the magnitude and beauty of the Angkor Wat temples. The temples we visited were all huge, and there are literally hundreds of them! We started by visiting the main temple at sunrise - this was a sight in itself - the huge temple was reflected in the small lake at its forefront, and the sun was rising in the background. To be honest, I can't really do the complex justice in words, and if anyone's thinking about paying a visit to Angkor Wat - do it! We also saw one of the temples where the Tomb Raider film was filmed (I couldn't remember it - probably too busy watching Lara Croft!), and it was surreal - there were trees that had grown over parts of the temple, crushing parts of it - it was what I imagined ancient ruins to be like. In all, we spent 2 days at Angkor Wat, and due to the stifling heat, it felt like enough. We barely scratched the surface though, and some people can spend weeks exploring the lesser known temples.

In Siem Reap, I also had my finest meal in South East Asia. It was a traditional Cambodian curry called an "Amok". The food tasted like a cross between Thai, Malaysian and Indian, and it was a coconutty, creamy curry served in a banana leaf, accompanied by wild rice. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! On the whole, my culinary experience has been disappointing: after the highs of China, I have been resorting to eating "fried rice with vegetables", "fried noodles with vegetables", and if I'm lucky "noodle soup with vegetables". Despite the Buddhist traditions in these countries, the vegetarian fayre isn't very extensive which means that I have had to resort to rice and noodles in the extortionate travellers restaurants. Vietnam was slightly better as they did have a few pure vegetarian restaurants - no such luck in Laos and Cambodia. Its a shame, because I'm always one for trying the local cuisine, but I haven't been able to do so here.

I digress. From here, we got another minibus to Stum Treng (the town next to the Laos border) - arriving at 3am and leaving at 10am the following morning in order to get to Laos. From what I saw of the town, there wasn't much going on, so the 7 hours there was more than sufficient!

So I experienced the heady heights of Angkor Wat and the devastating lows of S-21 and the Killing Fields. It is strange to imagine that only 30 years ago, a genocide took place in that country, and yet the people were still so upbeat, and ready for a joke and laugh with you. Having said that though, the scale of the poverty there is clearly visible and very disturbing. We were also cheated a couple of times by minibus companies and enterprising tuk tuk drivers. Despite having spent less than five days there, I got a real feel for the country and its somewhere I'd like to revisit in the future.

I'm currently one country behind on my blogs (I'm in Laos), so I will update soon!

Its been a long time since I blessed you with two blogs about Nha Trang and Dalat, receiving only three replies in return (one of which was self-penned), but I continue to soldier on! I am now in Siem Reap, Cambodia - the home to Angkor Wat, but before that, I have to tell you about Vietnamese war monuments, Mekong cruises and border crossings.

From Dalat, I went to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh - I will call it Saigon for simplicity's sake. Saigon is Vietnam's largest city, its financial hub, and houses Vietnam's largest expatriate population. I got there from the sleeper bus, had a wander around, settled on a hotel and planned my next few days.

The first day, we visited the War Remnants Museum - a museum housing various relics and photography from the Vietnamese-American war, and displaying an incredibly huge bias towards the Vietnamese (understandably of course). Some of the images were truly shocking, demonstrating the massacres at My Lai and other places, as well as the long term effects of American use of Agent Orange and Dioxin. Overall, the museum was very interesting, and at times shocking, to someone who had previously been ignorant about the causes and effects of the Vietnam war. There were also some poignant statements from leading American commentators at the time, talking about the injustices of this war, and they seemed equally applicable to the Iraq War. Thought provoking stuff!

In Saigon, I also visited the Cu Chi tunnels. These are a network of tunnels an hour from Saigon, that were home to a group of Vietnamese guerillas who succeeded in greatly disrupting the war effort. We were shown some of the booby traps used by the guerilla forces - the designs were extremely clever and effective. We were also offered the opportunity to fire genuine AK47s and M-16s - a chance graciously turned down by myself. Finally, we were given a 15 minute tour through the tunnel network. The tunnels were less that a metre high, less than half a metre wide, poorly lit, and very claustrophobic - at times, it was quite scary, and I was amazed at how the guerillas would spend hours down there at a time!

During the rest of the stay in Saigon, I visited several other monuments including the Reunification Palace, the state Post Office, the Notre Dame cathedral and a couple of temples. Some impressive architecture etc.

Saigon has earnt itself the status of Vietnam's city of vice. A common sight was seeing old, fat European/American men with young, attractive Vietnamese girls. A sad situation but something that shows the power of money in the Eastern world.

My personal highlight from Saigon was this small street bar that we found in the heart of backpacker district. This little bar is called a "Bia Hoi"(literally "draught beer") and they do a litre of beer for 11,000 dong (about 44 pence). Now this beer is unlabelled, comes out of a questionable looking tank, and tastes watered down, but for this price, who complains?! Anyway, this bar would attract Vietnamese locals, expats, and backpackers, and it provided a perfect vantage point to see one of the main streets in Saigon. During a 15 minute stretch at the bar, you'd see people trying to sell dried squid, quail eggs, peanuts, cigarettes, CDs, and even people offering massages on the street! The low price of the beer meant that we frequented this place a number of times, and on more than one occassion, a quiet drink led to us ordering "one more jug", followed by another "one more jug", and so on... This happened on my last night in Saigon, when, despite having to catch a bus to Phnom Penh at 7am the following morning, I was convinced to drink beer and whisky until 4am - not a wise idea but fun all the same!

In between all of this, I took 3 days out to do a cruise on the Mekong delta. This wasn't so much a cruise, as a series of small boat trips punctuated by visits to local islands to view local produce. The scenery was fantastic, the weather was good, and we were provided with plenty of fresh fruit. We also had a chance to visit a floating market and floating village - both of which provided me with ample snapshots! There's not really much more to say - other than that the mosquitoes had a field day with this tourist meat, and by the time I left, I felt like a pin cushion (very old fashioned simile there!). I'll let the pictures do the talking.

I'm in Cambodia at the moment, and will try and blog about Cambodia at another opportune moment, but for now, I'm having an amazing time here. I've been joined from some friends from back home (Apu, Rakhee, and Rakhee's sister and friend) - and its been nice and different travelling with some familiar faces!

The Idiots Guide to Hiking

Dalat - the honeymoon capital of Vietnam, according to the Lonely Planet. Well the city had a lake, and some random restaurants, but not a great deal else, and not somewhere I'd recommend for anyone to spend their honeymoon (in case you were thinking of it).

It seems that the rain followed us from Nha Trang, as we were immediately forced to seek shelter in the sanctity of our hotel for a couple of hours. My flip flop had decided to break en route (my second pair), and it was so wet that I was unable to go and buy a pair, which left me hobbling around the hotel.

When the rain eventually stopped, we took a trip to the "Crazy House". The Crazy House, contrary to expectations, wasn't a mental asylum, but instead was a Gaudi meets Disneyworld style hotel. The architecture was a poor imitation of Gaudi, complete with melting wax style buildings, but the rooms were also equipped with plastic animals, making the place feel quite tacky. Personally, I wouldn't really want to stay in a room that hundreds of people had traipsed through earlier in the day.

Later that day, I had a walk through the town, trying to see what it had to offer. There was a lake, a food market, and couple of bars but not a great deal else.

The next day, I chose to do a 6km trek in the nearby mountains. This trek would take us 2160m high, and would take us through both pine forest and jungle.

Now the first rule of hiking is to wear appropriate shoes. Accordingly, I asked the woman at the hotel whether my flip flops would be OK. I pointed at my flip flops, asked in slow, loud English "OK?", and received an approving "yes". I felt that using the method, nothing would be lost in translation, but I couldn't have been further from the truth!

I lost my beloved Adidas silver shell toe trainers in Halong Bay, which meant that since then, I've constantly been wearing flip flops. Its been a liberating experience, but my favourite bamboo flip flops broke en route to Dalat (as previously mentioned), and I was wearing an unfamiliar plasticky pair.

I digress. I arrived at the hike, and walked for about 200m in these flip flops before getting them wet, discovering that they became slippery when wet, and preferring to complete the subsequent 6km barefoot rather than risk breaking my neck!

To cut a long story short, the ground got more and more slippery, I walked barefoot through substances unknown to man, and I fell over innumerable times. My travel companion took great amusement in telling me that I looked like Gandhi with my hiked up trousers, bare feet and large bamboo walking stick! A trek that was supposed to take 4 hours ended up taking about 6, and I returned to the bottom thanking my lucky stars that I hadn't broken any limbs, and cursing the hotel receptionist for her misinformation!

I had a great scare when someone further along the trek shouted out "Snake". I then refused to move until the snake had been cleared from my path!

Overally, it was a good experience, and as someone else pointed out, the mud (when it eventually washed off!!) must have exfoliated my feet more than any massage could have!

That evening, we had a couple of well deserved beers, a nice vegetarian meal, and an early night - what more could a man ask for?!

From Dalat, we took the 6 hour bus to Ho Chih Minh City, otherwise known as Saigon - Vietnam's largest city, and home to many war monuments.

Check back in a few days,

Nihal

A Vietnamese Guide to Animal Cruelty

Last time you left me, I was about to board a sleeper bus to Nha Trang. You may remember that I wasn't particularly enthused by the prospect, but the journey itself actually wasn't too bad. I took an anti-histamine prior to settling down (not recommended by medics!), and I pretty much knocked out for the duration of the journey. The most amusing moment of the journey was when one of the Vietnamese drivers grabbed the bed next to mine, and the whole journey we were silently fighting over him trying to cross the dividing line between the two beds. He would place a foot over the border, and I would immediately kick him back. Eventually, this culminated in me turning on the overhead lights at 3am and pretending to read, but just doing so in order to increase his annoyance. I think the man took particular pleasure in shaking me awake the following morning.

Nha Trang is a beach town with a largeish expat population, numerous Italian restaurants and Western bars, and not a lot else. As a result, I spent two full days lying on the beach, eating fresh bananas, taking the occassional swim, and trying to make headway through my thousand page 1920s history of the world.

The beach itself was decent, not quite as nice as the one at Hoi An, but somewhat ruined by the beach peddlars trying to flog me sunglasses, paintings, lobsters, beer, massages, books, and a number of other useless items. This would have been bearable had it not been happening every other minute. In addition, whilst the weather was beautiful for the majority of the day, from 4pm onwards, the heavens opened, and the rain didn't abate til the next morning. Kind of annoying on a beach paradise.

By the third day, we were crying out for something cultural, or even slightly different, and for this reason, we booked ourselves on an island tour. The tour promised an opportunity to feed local ostrich and deer, to see an "elephant and bear show", to visit Monkey Island, and to see a "dog, goat and monkey show".

We boarded the boat at the ungodly hour of 9am, to be greeted by about 40 Vietnamese faces, complete with screaming kids. Our first stop was to feed the ostriches and the deer, and I can honestly say that this felt like a primary school trip to the farm. We were provided with animal feed, given some rules and regulations, and had 45 minutes to feed the animals - riveting!

We got back on the boat and headed to the next island for the animal show. When they say that Asian countries treat animals badly, its a bit of an understatement! We were subjected to displays of bears juggling footballs, riding bicycles, riding a moped, and all the while wearing dresses. How the hell do you get a bear to ride a motorbike?! Not in a nice way, I assure you! All the while, the Vietnamese people were loving it, as the three of us looked on in horror. The elephant was made to play football, jump over some people lying on the floor and some other un-elephant like tasks.

The rest of the day continued like this. We saw monkeys in wedding dresses, being led on a carriage by two dogs. We saw goats(!!) doing tricks, and other stupidities! It was a day that the RSPCA wouldn't have been amused with!!

Following on from this experience, and the incessant afternoon rain, we decided that it was time to move on from Nha Trang into the next city, Dalat.

Sun, sea, sand and... tailors!

These past few days, I've been soaking up the sun, getting suits made and not a great deal more. I didn't intend it to be this way: Hoi An was supposed to be a small stop en route to Saigon, but I've been infected by the holiday spirit and have spent the past 4 days here.




Before all this, I had to endure the hells of a 14 hour sleeper bus from Hanoi to Hue. The man at the travel agency sold it to me saying that I was in the first class seats, and that it would be the same sort of comfort level as the sleeper train - this wasn't to be the case however. I can't sleep on planes as it is, and on the sleeper bus, I was confined to a cramped, weirdly shaped seat, with the air conditioning permanently blasting on my feet. The even better news is that I have to do it again today.




Hue was a small stop en route to Hoi An. Here, I had a much needed shower, and took a motorbike taxi round some of Hue's sights. As Vietnam's historical capital, Hue houses the citadel and a number of pagodas. The day was beautiful so it was good to visit these.




Following on from this, I had a great vegetarian lunch and a beer, all for the princely sum of 20,000 dong (80p) and got back on the bus for the 3 hour journey to Hoi An.




Hoi An is a quiet seaside town, turned tourist trap, that is home to various tailors, shoe shops, restaurants, art galleries and not a lot else. Despite this, it has a charm that I hadn't yet seen in Vietnam. The people are friendly, the streets are clean, and not all of the stuff they sell is cheap rubbish. As befits a place like this, I haven't done a great deal: I've been spending my days lazily wandering the streets, and my evenings sitting by a pool chilling out.




The highlight of my time in Hoi An was undoubtedly my half day cooking class. I found a restaurant offering one on one lessons, got them to adapt the menu to my vegetarian needs, negotiated a decent price, and I was good to go. The food I made was very simple, yet tasty and healthy.




I was taken on a tour of the local market to buy our produce. Amazing to see how fresh everything was.







For starters, I made a banana flower salad, garnished with fresh Vietnamese mint, basil and coriander, and flavoured with a lime juice based dressing. Simple but effective.





Then I was taught to make Hoi An style spring rolls, using sweet potato, chinese mushrooms, carrots and a vegetable called yellow spring. Beautiful!




For my vegetable dish, I stirfried some morning glory (green, beany looking vegetable) with some garlic and chilli. And to finish off, I made a pineapple fried rice.




Pretty much stuff that most people could make with their eyes closed, but it was interesting to learn about the different flavours and to be taught how to present the food well.



Being in Hoi An, it seemed obligatory to get some clothes made. What started off as a pair of trousers quickly developed into 2 pairs of trousers, a pair of shorts, 2 suits and a shirt. The quality was far superior to what I'd previously had done in China, and you can see the results in three months time!




What would one of my blogs be without mentioning some alcoholic beverage? Strangely enough, I met a friend from primary school, staying in the same hotel as me (I hadn't seen the guy for 10 years!), and together with a few friends, we went to a pretty riotous beach party not far from the town centre. To cut a long story short, almost everyone was swimming at like 2 in the morning.





I also visited the temples at Myson, which were some 1800 year-old Hindu influenced temples 45km from Hoi An. Many of these structures had been destroyed by the Americans during the Vietnam war, but what remained was pretty impressive. Even though the area of the complex is significantly smaller than Cambodia's Angkor Wat, this set of temples is actually older, and it was interesting to see some Hindu imagery in South East Asia.

I made a trip to China Beach (in Hoi An, not in China!!) and it was one of the best beaches I've visited for a while. Miles of white sands next to crystalline blue water were helped by the fact that the sun was blazing down, and the water was the perfect temperature. The minute we left, however, we were subjected to a tropical rainstorm!

So now, I have a two hour wait til my 14 hour sleeper bus. My ipod headphones are broken, and my current book is arduous and boring (HG Wells' An Outline of History - it reads like an encyclopedia) so I have no clue how I'm going to cope.



Wish me luck though!



Next stop Nha Trang.

Its currently 9am and I've accomplished all of my tasks for the day. Its a great feeling... I bought the adapter plug that I needed to buy, and I booked my bus tickets to Hue. I've explored much of what Hanoi's old quarter has to offer, and was relatively unimpressed, so now I'm sitting here writing this blog.

The reason I'm up and have done everything so early is because I returned from Sapa at 5am this morning.

Sapa is a hill station in North Vietnam, surrounded by several small villages housing the Black Hmong Tribe.

I took the night train up there on Tuesday, arriving at the ungodly hour of 5:30am on Wednesday morning. My train journey was ok - I was sleeping in a four person sleeper compartment with 3 Vietnamese people, but I got a good night's sleep so I couldn't complain.

Upon arriving at Lao Cai station, we made the one hour journey to Sapa - I hadn't fully woken up at this time, so this journey remains a hazy memory, between small naps. The hotel itself was fantastic - it was full board, situated on the top of one of Sapa's hills, and I was allocated a room in the "VIP section" - what a privilege!

This first morning, we trekked down to Cat Cat village, a small village inhabited by members of the black Hmong tribe. The walk was beautiful, but I noticed that, like everything else in Vietnam, the area had become incredibly touristy. Local tribal people were rendered pedlars of touristy gifts, and in the town centre, every so often, one would see an Indian or Italian restaurant - hardly indigenous tribal food!!

There's not much more to say about this trek. The weather was fantastic, and I guess I'll let the pictures do the talking.

On the second day, the heavens opened on us, so I had to wear a huge plastic cape, some wellington boots, and carry a staff. The result was that I looked like one of the hobbits from Lord of the Rings! We visited another village, and some more waterfalls, and there was a strange mist around Sapa, meaning that we could only see a couple of metres in front of us. The whole effect rendered the scenery both mysterious and beautiful. Aside from tourism, the local's people's other industry is farming, and we passed several paddy fields and other crops en route.

This evening, we were to stay in a village home, and it was a unique experience to say the least. Amenities included a squat toilet, a barrel of cold water and a jug for the shower, and the resident dogs, chickens and the occassional buffalo wandering onto our land. All the food was cooked on a small fire, and surprisingly, it was all delicious. During dinner, our tour guide and host family introduced us to "happy water" otherwise known as rice liquor - and after 7-8 shots of this, the evening was always likely to be raucous. After dinner, we were treated to the sight of our drunken tour guide dancing to both Boney M and some Euro Dance music - it was a sight to behold.

Eventually, we retired to bed - I say bed, but the bed consisted of a thin mattress on the floor, covered with an even thinner sheet. I didn't sleep a wink, largely due to the incessant sounds of crickets croaking, and when the roosters crowed at 5:30am, I got out of bed, and read a book for the whole morning.

This final day was more of the same - it continued to rain, we trekked through some more of the hillside, and returned to the hotel in the afternoon, ready to have dinner and get back on the train.

The three days in Sapa was a big change from the noise and big lights of Hanoi, and was also very different to the night at sea in Halong Bay. The night in a village home was a once in a lifetime experience, and the place itself was beautiful.