Not another travel Blog

Road Trip Video part I

2010-05-01T16:02:00.007+01:00

Since getting back i've had the opportunity to do something with the footage Will filmed while we where in the states.The text below is just taken from the video info on vimeo. Hope you like...

"It was February/March when we took to the road for a month to travel from New york to San Francisco. We filmed bits here and there and this is really just a bunch of that stuff stuck together in what is hopefully a watchable little video. The music is Cage the elephant's - 'Aint No Rest For The Wicked', the Jam's - 'I Can't Explain' the Red Hot Chili Peppers - 'Hump de Bump', Jimi Hendrix's - 'All along the watchtower' and Bruce Springsteen's classic - 'Born to Run' Also there's a tiny bit of Frank Sinatra's Theme from New York, New york and Elvis's - 'Viva Las Vegas' and i think something of 'Emmy the great' is playing in the background of the New york hostel room. Cheers"

In the Blue Corner

2010-04-30T10:24:00.003+01:00

From one natural wonder to another. The Grand Canyon is a place i'd always wanted to visit. I mean it's just that place everyone thinks of when you mention the US's national wonders, and as you pull up to the parks entrance you can tell that this place gets the majority of traffic over it's neighboring parks. Here there's multiple information centers, tarmac roads, viewing stations...hell there's even a post office to send off your freshly bought postcards.

I quite liked the whole "go off and explore" nature of Monument valley but there you go.

Not like this distracted from what is unquestionably an amazing natural place and what are some amazing views. What did take away from it though was the gradual decline in weather, and the introduction of snow in the desert.

It all started fine but as we pulled into the last viewing stations the clouds had begun to descend and by the very last post the visibility had dropped to a matter of feet. If i hadn't of gotten a clear view in the morning i'd of been royally pissed. But as we had there was something highly entertaining about having one of the worlds greatest sites completely hidden in cloud :)

We didn't stick around long after the view had practically disappeared and anyway we'd booked a hostel for the night in Vegas and wanted to get there in decent time.

On the way we came up to the hoover dam, now I didn't even know we where going to be crossing it until Will mentioned it about a mile away, so it was quite a nice surprise. It's also a shock to how big the thing is. I wasn't expecting it to be as impressive as it was at all! We'd got there pretty quick as well, so we took the time to chill out a bit and stretch our legs, take some photo's and just enjoy the view.

*It's not long till we reach the dazzle of Vegas now, time to go make my millions...

Straight on to Monument Valley.......Literally

2010-04-29T13:47:00.009+01:00

Wow these roads are straight. There also undeniably beautiful. The landscape has turned so epic over the last few states. After Texas's barren, flat roads we've come into 'New Mexico' and instantly hit these views of huge mountain ranges with massive ups and downs which lead off into the horizon. It really is a stunning country...

We're on our way to Monument valley at the moment, it's safe to say it's a pretty long way so we'll be sleeping somewhere at some point. But there's plenty of cool stuff to do along the way, so it should be fine.

First up is Roswell (told you it was 'cool' stuff), this town is way to hung up on the supposed crash landing. Aliens adorn every lamppost, there drawn on every billboard and open space. Even the local attorneys advertisement was some pun on abduction with an accompanying illustration.

It's awesome in a tacky way, i mean i just wanted a photo with some absurdly cheesy alien model or something equally so.

We pulled into the visitors center to see if anything was there, and i found my little alien friend to pose with. But then "excuse me, hello, how can i help you". Aww crap the help lady had her claws in us now, i only wanted a quick photo and now here we where getting a run down of the local galleries and sightseeing possibilities!

She did give us a more interesting route to take to monument valley though, but i do use the word 'interesting' loosely. Also as we where leaving she did say "do you want your picture taking with the alien?" "Hell yeah i do!"

The interesting road led us to Capitan. The land where Billy the Kid was born, or where he shot alot of people, we don't actually know as the museum was $5 admission and we're too cheap for that. We did check out the grave yard of "Smokey the bear" national treasure, fire fighting extraordinaire. He was (actually he still is) the mascot for forest-fire prevention in the US, and was buried here in his own park.

But the real star (as the crazy woman said herself) was the scenery itself, it just got more impressive and more vast the further we seemed to go.

We crashed out at some motel for the night. I think it was Fort Stockton but i'm sure Will will comment and correct me on that. It was a complete dive if i remember right. The sort of place people get shot, like no country for old men. But it was only for a quick sleep then the following day we headed off again with hopes of getting as close to Monument valley as possible, somewhere in Colorado seemed logical enough as we wanted to come through '4 corners' (the only place in the America where 4 states join at one point) before still arriving early enough to explore monument valley for the day.

We ended up in Durangoo, a skiing resort in Colorado. It really was amazing to look out the window knowing your going to be spending the day in the desert, while outside all you look at is this landscape of snow. Sure enough though the 30 minute drive to Utah/Arizona and it disappears entirely leaving you with nothing but red rock and a whole lot of nothingness.

4 corners was actually shut when we got there (not sure how that's actually manageable, but hey it was) so we went straight on to Monument valley.

Will and me actually met while working on a game based in monument valley called MotorStorm. So the place, despite neither of us actually visiting it, felt relatively familiar. I'd been put in charge of the drive, which to be honest i would of fought to the death to of done anyway. It's not often you get the chance to rag a rental car around off-road in that sort of scenery....

It became a massive highlight for me almost instantly, i'd happily go back and do it all again tomorrow. The sunset was gorgeous and the place just seems to get more amazing around each corner. Will videotaped almost the entire loop while we messed around taking wrong routes and getting attacked (kind of) by overly friendly dogs. I'll try and do something and stick it on Vimeo with the footage when i get back, but for now just check out the pictures and imagine it a thousand times bigger and better than it could ever look on paper.

Everything's bigger in Texas

2010-04-28T11:57:00.009+01:00

New Orleans to Austin, as it happens is a bit further than we anticipated. We did have a run of unfortunate events as well though. The car needed an oil change so we had to wait around before we could take it away then back at the hostel our German passenger had wandered off to get himself a burger king meal just as we'd pulled up eager to leave (if not for Wills moral high ground i would of left him for sure).

This all meant we didn't arrive in Austin till sometime close to 11. It also meant that the hostel was then full and we ended up having to book a 3 bed motel with our new 'silent psycho German' friend

The day after and life had returned to normal, the sun was shining, we'd checked ourselves in a hostel, we'd finally got rid of the 'dead weight' and we where out exploring. We also treated ourselves to a nice big steak, Texas style i.e big. It's worth a mention purely as it was the first meal without processed meat, fries, bacon and cheese (I'm actually back to eating a burger while writing this, that's just how impossible it is to eat healthy in this country).

We then went for a walk about town, down the main bar street on 4th and all the way up to the university campus and football stadium. We also passed by and went in the capital building which was pretty epic, they even had a high school debate thing going on in the main chamber... either that or Texas' representatives are getting incredibly young.

Back at the hostel we got served food, drink and desert by the local girl scouts (i still have no idea why) But after the meal we played what's basically an electronic charades game, and for the first time in 8 or so months my competitive side came out in full force. I'm almost embarrassed thinking back, i didn't give them an inch, pulling them up on every rule broke, i can't believe i actually did that "sorry girl scouts", at least i got into it. If we could of turned it into a drinking game i would of left going out and stayed there. But we didn't, so we went!

On a side note, Austin has by far and wide the most attractive population known to man, it's like walking around in an American sitcom.... there's nothing else i can expand on this it's just a fact that needed to be said.

We went to a good bunch of bars, had a fair few beers and saw a whole load of bands. The first guitarist in the opening bar being so good it kind of made it hard for anyone else to then compete.

After an epic walk home with a slice of pizza and a taco or two to break up it up along the way, and that was our night done.

Travel Buddy

2010-04-27T13:16:00.005+01:00

Only a quick post this one. I'm back home for the time being trying to save some money before going out again... the America blog will carry on retrospectively as i've still got plenty to write up from the book.

This is just a little video of the book which i think i've mentioned a fair bit of in the blog, i thought i might as well show it. Can't wait to carry on in it in the future.

Anyway, back to America!

Who dat

2010-04-25T12:52:00.004+01:00

Now we're talking! We may of arrived a day later than initially planned, but as it turns out New Orleans doesn't really stop for anything. They finish Mardi Gras and then start a 364 day long pre-party for the next one.

We had to drop the enterprise off at Hertz in the morning (we dubbed it that for some reason i now can't remember) then we went off exploring the french quarter. It's a beautiful region of the city, nice bars and cool indie shops, you still get the overwhelming amount of touristy shops but even these seemed a little less vulgar as other towns. Bourbon street may horde the majority of the tourists but the rest of the area is by far nicer.

Back at the hostel we'd got a pretty good crowd together to go drinking with. A bunch of English and Canadians, a few Americans, and we were all just sat around drinking and chatting until someone deemed it was about the right time to go out.

I'd got chatting to an Irish girl called Fay who we'd convinced to come out despite having a flight to New york at 3.00 in the morning :)

The first bar we'd been recommended to go to was actually shut when we got there as they were filming. At first this was very annoying, until then someone mentioned it was the guy who did the 'wire' and they were filming the new Treme series. So sorry Mr Simon you can do what u like.

We settled for a bar across the road, as long as it had live music i was happy.

Me and fay decided to take the drinking up a wee bit and started on some of New Orleans special cocktails. I think i had a hurricane, definitely had a hand grenade (that was pretty much lethal) and i may of had a few more.... i'm not entirely sure.

I do remember getting drunk under the table as when we got back to the hostel, Fay quite easily chucked her rucksack on her back, woke up her friends and then holla'd a taxi to take them to the airport. Consider me impressed as i was more than ready for bed.

The morning after unfortunately we had to move on again, i think both me and Will had both grown a soft spot for the place, the people and hostel made it all the more gutting to be going but we where on a time constraint so that's life. Add to this the fact we'd agreed to take two hitchers to Austin with us (don't ask it was just one of those things that just happens) and it was shaping up to be a very strange day. I'd gone from having a laugh with a cute Irish girl to now sitting in a car with a homeless, unicycle riding, chainsaw juggling, street performer and a psycho looking German guy. He looked like the bad guy in raiders of the lost ark, same round glasses just much fatter.

"Hurry up Will, put your foot down mate"

"Beads..... I need beads!!"

2010-04-16T15:02:00.005+01:00

You should of seen Will go for them. He was like a kid who'd eaten a bag of blue smarties... i'd never seen him like so happy.

We arrived to Mobile in good time (1 - 0 to speeding), dumped the bags and pretty much went straight out into the thick of it. It was truly insane the way the town had converted to basically an enormous street party, every balcony had people throwing beads down to the bead loving crowds (Will included), while every bar was packed to bursting point with people so far past the point of drunk i have no words to describe them.

I went to grab us a few beers as a means to try and catch up with the locals, only to come back and see Will looking something like a very camp Mr T. We had those, had a few more, and then a few more again... then the world became somewhat blurrier, i think i got chatting with a bunch of people in one bar. We definetly went to the night parade as i have pictures to prove it but the rest is undocumented and i awoke in the motel with both my camera and wallet, so all in all. Result.

[100% going doing the Mardi Gras properly in the coming years]

Whoop, Whoop, it's the sound of the Police

2010-04-15T11:24:00.002+01:00

"Will.... i think the police man wants me to pull over!" "Why whattya do" "well i think i was speeding a little bit" "by how much?" "i don't know, like 90...." "what's the limit!" "70" "f*$k"

Somehow we managed to wrangle our way out of the situation, but there was definitely a moment in there where i thought...Prison....crap. Everyone had joked how it'd happen to me at some point and now here i was, nearly there.

The reason for all this though (there was a reason) was as follows; We where heading south for the Mardi gras, it was something we'd planned on doing since the initial concept for the trip was talked about, but at the same time neither of us had the sense to book anywhere to stay. This meant trying to book something literally days before arriving... yeah...err.. that wasn't going to happen. Hostels, hotels, campsites! even every couchsurfing person wasn't able to put up anyone. It was a bit gutting and after ringing and emailing everyone the second time we came to the conclusion that we'd just have to admit defeat and accept we weren't going to be going.

We also didn't want to stay in Memphis either, and in our booking attempts for new Orleans we came across the close by town of 'Mobile', who had actually celebrated Mardi gras longer than New Orleans itself (don't worry i'm not trying to convince anyone that it would be in any way as good, but it was available). But it also meant a 6 o'clock start and an 8 hour drive to get there in time for the parades.......hence the speeding.

Down with the blues!

2010-04-06T16:36:00.008+01:00

Will was the designated driver for the stint from Nashville to Memphis, i was a little worse for wear so thought probably best for me to not take control of the car for a while.

We decided as a minor detour to stop off at the jack Daniel distillery (perfect hangover cure i know) and take the tour.

One things for sure and that's the tour is the most professionally and awesomely run museum/attraction i've been to. You get your very own tour guide and then a good hour being taken around having everything explained. Our guide, a guy called Billy, who was clearly mental and continuously went off in all kinds of tangents was as cool as anyone i'd met. He clearly had stories to tell from a very eventful life, and it was nice to let him go on and tell them.

We left there high from the fumes i think, that and the fact we'd had our hands sprayed with undistilled whiskey, this obviously meant that for the next day or so, everytime i scratched my chin or rubbed my eyes it was like pouring pure alcohol on them.

You're not actually allowed to drink any of the Whiskey as [interesting fact time] in Lynchburgh, it's still a dry state therefore no-one can actually drink the whiskey that's brewed there [interesting fact end]

Onwards to Memphis!

If Nashville is the sugar coated, everyone happy, cheque wearing, cowboy boot wearing, music town of choice. Then Memphis is its bitter neighbour, and the music reflects it. This place is just blues through and through. The music here is all about being down and out, struggle and loss. Truthfully it's far more my taste if i had the choice of the two.

In B.B Kings, our hiding place for when the snow started, a guy came on stage , sat behind this old beaten up piano and started to play the most beautiful heartfelt rendition of Ray Charles "Georgia".

The problem with Memphis is as soon as you leave the music and walk even just a street away you see the town for real and understand where the music comes from. I've never been asked for money as much in my life, it's just a derelict homes, rough looking housing estates and empty parking lots, a shell of a town. We did make the walk over to the hotel that Martin Luther king had been shot, which by the way has now been converted into the civil rights museum. It was all done very tastefully and with the up most of respect, 'which for America was something of a surprise'.

Very glad i went anyway..

Country Living

2010-04-01T15:49:00.002+01:00

This is a pretty epic journey really. We set off from D.C in the morning with our goal set at Nashville 700 miles away. It's not a huge distance but the state of the roads in Washington made getting out a real effort.

The scenery as well wasn't all to amazing, mainly consisting of whiteness..... so apart from a stop at Woodstock (different one) for burger king it really was just a case of getting as many miles under the hood as possible.

We'd arrived relatively late to Nashville so didn't really get the chance to get anything done till the following morning. The Hostel; Music city was really cute, it had a nice owner, cheap rooms and free food, they also told us that it was the last day the musicians hall of fame would be open so it was free entry.

The next hour or so was spent, for the most part with me and Will looking at artists and band memorabilia from bands who i hadn't a clue of who they are. They did have a guitar by Hendrix and a whole bunch of stuff from George Harrison but that really was about it. Still very enjoyable in a so bad it was good type way.

It's not until you get to the main strip that you actually feel like you're in Nashville; crude neon lights, tacky touristy souvenir shops... but also, along with this, an unparalleled number of music bars, each one with music just blaring out. Each and everyone; country music.

We stumbled around trying to pick out a bar to settle down in and have a few beers before settling on "the stage". I honestly had a really good time, the music isn't me in anyway, i'd never been intrigued by or enjoyed country, but in this environment with so many people all as happy as can be just singing about trucks and their guitars. It's impossible to resist.

The night continued in a similar vain, a lad name Stephen somethingorother, who had come to Nashville to try and make it, showed us around the town. He took us to where all the writers hang out and perform and then later back onto the strip. It was a quality night and the following mornings hangover was well worth it.

On The Road

2010-03-31T10:22:00.001+01:00

That's it, we've officially started the road trip. Will's scaring the crap out of me by insisting on driving in a made up lane somewhere between the slow lane and the hard shoulder, but at least we're moving. We've left Manhattan and New Jersey and going through Baltimore, hopefully with us ending at D.C with enough time to go and explore!

We'd heard of reports of vast amounts of snow in Washington and the road conditions were supposedly difficult, but it was only to be a quick visit and to just drive onwards and miss it out would of been a shame.

...The cold though...we arrived as it was getting dark, and i've never been that cold in my life. I'm a complete sucker for site seeing but this was unbearable. We did manage to see the majority of the mall. We got to the capital building, Washington monument, Lincoln's memorial (which is much cooler than i anticipated, although we weren't allow upstairs due to ice), we also did the white house and well that's about it. Even with the newly acquired hat, gloves and scarf i had to bail and get back to warmth.....and bed.

Introducing................Will Maiden everyone!

2010-03-30T13:08:00.008+01:00

There i was sat in New york airport (again) waiting for my friend Will to arrive from the UK. We met when we used to work together back at Sony and it was after a drive to Glastonbury that we thought it'd be a good idea to maybe try road tripping something bigger. Something like America say, 'coast to coast'.

The idea simmered away as i went about organizing my little travel not really knowing whether this thing would definitely go ahead and to be honest it wasn't a certainty for me until i got the mail saying "ok, i've booked my ticket i'll be there on the 7th". I in-turn booked my flight for the day before he arrived and thought nothing more of it until a week or so ago, and now i'm actually here....

First city New York.

New york is one of those places you feel you've been to without ever actually stepping a foot there. Annie hall, Taxi driver, American gangster, die hard with a vengeance, just about every romantic comedy... just last night i went and watched 'Kick ass' and the first shot is a big pan of this city.

Everyone knows the statue of liberty, times square, madison square garden. It is without question the most iconic of all cities.

The day we arrived was also the coldest day of my existence. I had to go buy a scarf, a pair of gloves, a hat. we checked Will into the hostel and sat in a heated room attempting to restore feeling to our fingers. Will had brought me warm clothes from back home but in typical Will fashion something went wrong and the airline lost his baggage and wouldn't be with him till the following day.

So there we where in New york absolutely freezing and an entire city to explore. The plan was to go to times square and see it in it's lit up glory and then when we get too cold; find a bar to watch the rangers game in.

The next day, having rested up and ready to tackle the outside cold, we set off to do the usual touristy thing; Brooklyn Bridge, Wall St, Staten island, Greenwich village, world trade center site, times square...a big day of site seeing whatever way you look at it and it ended with us back at the hostel in time for the Superbowl party.

We arrived just before the anthem's, so we grabbed a seat and talked about maybe watching the 1st quarter then moving onto a sports bar for the rest.

"you want a free beer?" "What! Free?" "yeah sure, the rest of the crates on the table! help yourself"

Seems the hostel was providing free beer! Ok maybe we stay till half time, drink all the beer then go to the bar. "FREE CHICKEN WINGS" this was getting better!! plus the beer stock just kept getting replenished. Once i'd drank my room price in beer and my fair share of chicken winged goodness the game had ended, not only only had i drank my self to a state of happiness (for absolutely nothing) but the Patriots had won as well... doubly happy, and then very sleepy.

Next day brought a visit to the top of the Empire State building and Grand central and also a good look around the remaining boroughs. We did try to get tickets for the Jon Stewart daily show but nothing but failure with that one. We did get a nice look at the building it's filmed in though.

For Tuesday night i'd bought myself a Knicks ticket to watch them play the Sacramento Kings, and sorry if this goes off into a rant but the Knicks over the past few years epically suck. They went up as much as 20 points at one time and still ended up losing in 1st overtime. So many classic players through the years before this slump. The main reason for going though was to see madison square garden itself, i had so many amazing memories of watching games taking place here (usually involving the Knicks getting beat) but things like Jordan's facial over Ewing or Kobe's 61 points are ingrained into my head with association to this place.

Just looking up and seeing those names Like Ewing, Like Frazier on the retired Jerseys and it's just goose bump worthy. I also had a $10 beer which had a similar effect, just far less enjoyably so.

A really good night, even with the loss.

Snow. Lots and lots of snow... that's what greeted us the following morning in Central park. We hunted down the action and watched as everyone was sledding and snow ball fighting. It was pretty beautiful to see it in such weather conditions but i couldn't handle the cold for all the long and when i couldn't feel my feet anymore i had to retreat to warmer grounds. At night Will went off to watch the Rangers game while i hung around with a bunch of people in the hostel playing table tennis and having a few beers... My body doesn't cope well in the cold it was much better off in there.

I absolutely loved New york, so much so i stuck a request on Facebook for an American sham marriage, just for the opportunity to move and work there :) i really do hope i get the chance to live here at some point in my life...... even with the cold the energy is undeniably addictive.

New York, New York

2010-03-29T16:28:00.008+01:00

"i hope when i inevitably get stuck at an airport it's as clean and nice as here" That's what i wrote over 6 months ago on the plane leaving Beijing going to Japan.

It's funny how karma seems to have a way of coming full circle seeing as i've just spent 12 hours sleeping in Beijing airport waiting for my connecting flight to New york.

The start of the journey from Bangkok was spent still fairly ill on a mini bus to the airport. Traveling unwell is far from the best feeling in the world but i made sure i arrived with plenty of time, i didn't want another hong kong moment when in this state. I got to the check in desk and everything was fine until they asked me for the visa waiver form. Now i had actually filled this in and had the confirmation email on my ipod with reference number and everything .. "no we need it printed" "awwwwww crap!" He told me there was an internet cafe just over there so to come back when i get it printed, ok i thought that's not to bad.

200 baht for half an hour 10 baht for each print out. [check wallet....10 baht] Now i was getting pissed off again, atm's charge 3 pound to withdraw money and i'd be doing it for just a couple of pounds. So annoyed. Then, like some sort of Internet angel, a girl said she had 3 minutes left if i wanted them. Sweet! I jumped on, logged into gmail (sure this thing was on dial up) clicked on the email, click print.....*error* "WOMAN IT SAYS ERROR WHEN I PRESS PRINT, WHY DOES SAY ERROR????" (i didn't actually refer to her as 'woman', but she was being an arse) "you have to email it to the email address on the wall" I had less than a minite.....gmail...new mail..click,click,click, 23 seconds left. Done. Then very smugly paid my 10 baht for the print out and went and got on the flight.

The next 12 hours as i said where spent in the airport with me trying to get whatever sleep i could. I was in shorts and flip flops by the way, which everybody found mightily amusing seeing as it was -4 outside. I literally had my legs in my small rucksack which i'd then chained to the seat and was using it as the worlds smallest sleeping bag. As you can imagine i didn't exactly sleep great and i was up, ready and waiting for the next flight when it opened.

The flight to New york was fine, as expected i still couldn't sleep. If there's one thing i've learnt about myself since setting off is i sleep better in my brothers Clio than i do on any bus, train, plane or even bed in all honesty.

After arriving 12 hours after departure my initial thoughts on NY were, "i'm cold, i need a shower, and i need food". So a deli meal later, a power shower in the hostel (first hot shower in months), and i was tucked up in bed before the sun decided to set.

Highlight Reel

2010-03-23T15:18:00.006Z

I know it's probably the question i'll get asked more than anything when i get back, "What was the best place" as people ask it to others all the time, god i think i've probably asked it to a fair few knowing that it's the most impossible of questions to answer.

Everyplace has memorable things and events and even countries though that might not of been the most entertaining overall can hold a stronger single moment than a country i enjoyed from start to finish.

Seeing as i'm on the plane and bored of watching the film 'Proposal' which is been ran on repeat at the moment on the single screen at the front, i thought i'd just have a go at listing a few of the Highlights instead.... in no particular order:

1. Tokyo

I'll be arriving into JFK in a few hours and into what i imagine to be the only city that could possibly rival Tokyo. Everything about the place had me grinning from ear to ear, the skyline from the government building, the absurdness of Tokyo Bay, the life size gundam, the efficient transport system, Shibuya at night....it'd be impossible to pick one highlight from this city so it'd have to go in as a whole.

2. Hue to Hoi'an

Definitely one of the best days of the trip so far. Biking was a new thing for me full stop and with the beauty of the scenery and unspoiled perfection of the roads it just made this the most rememberable of days. Going over the Hai Van pass and seeing the view from where we'd set off from, or going down the coast as the sun was setting or even the finale at the white cliffs and looking over Hoi'an in its entirety. Just special from start to finish this one.

The next few are a bit obvious but hey there well known for a reason i guess.

3. The Great Wall of China

This thing is gigantic, when your on it it just seems unfathomable how this was built, it's not just the construction but the distance up from ground level it is.

We got to experience it without the biggest of crowds over a fairly long distance and i think that that helped massively to the grandness of it all.

4. Angkor Wat

I know, i know, my list isn't exactly original at the moment but whatever, these ruins are just awe-inspiring.. i almost feel sorry for any ruins i see in the future if this is their benchmark.

5. Diving License

The only tangible thing i've actually achieved since being away and it's a nice feeling. Underwater life is something that now intrigues me more than it ever has and can't wait for the next opportunity to go back under.

6. Tubing

God this place gives me the chills when i think back. By far the most insane thing ever... never have i acted so stupid while so drunk and with so many others doing the exact same thing. 24 hr drinking for 5 days.

Will barely came out alive and he's a borderline alcoholic!

7. Full moon party

I can't think of a better way to bring in the new year. It was epic and so much fun. The fact i got to meet up with a whole bunch of people who we'd met and left along the way and it being the start of a new decade and the first time it had fallen on a new years made it just even more monumentally big.

8. Getting Stuck in Beijing for National Day

"Can i book a train to Xi'an?" "no" "ermmm Datong?" "no" "anywhere...." "oh well can i book into here for the next 2 weeks?"

Getting stuck in Beijing turned out to be brilliant. I got to know everyone coming through, i started doing the hostels barbecues and getting to know the owner Joe really well.

Just being there for the National day itself was cool enough and not as restrictive as first thought. If not for getting stuck there i may not of met the people i did and the whole traveling experience would of changed.

It really is impossible to do even this list, i mean i haven't mentioned the Yangshou bike ride, Osaka Aquarium, Sunset at Miyajima, Will, Emma and Lauren, the Terracotta army, Pandas in Chengdu, the skyline in Hong kong or Star ferry... it goes on and on.

Asia has been amazing, the places, the people... shit i haven't even gone on about the food yet. Even the stupidly long 28 hour train journeys in China have special memories attached to them which I wouldn't swap for anything.

Ready, Steady, Cook

2010-03-03T18:45:00.010Z

I would of loved to of been able to see myself as i arrived in Chinag Mai, i've probably mentioned it elsewhere but i have no luck in sleeping on the buses, so i'd basically been awake since leaving Phi Phi with only a few hours clocked up at best.

I was meant to be meeting up with Toby and Sam from the rock and when i arrived at their hostel was met with somewhat of a sympathetic laugh and then told we where off to the tiger park, and that i was going with.

So here i was looking in the face of a tiger with no cage, no wires, just a guy with a little straw whip. My body was still in Bangkok watching Avatar and my brain somewhere in Phi Phi, so to be here doing this was really a strange moment of surrealness.

That night i slept for close to 16 hours and just wrote the day off as a whole, i did give me the chance to catch up on emails and facebook i guess, plus we'd all signed up to do a cooking course the day after and my cooking skills are questionable at the best of times so i really didn't trust myself doing it half asleep.

Ok where next? Pai!

Pai's a crusty little hippy sort of place. I was sporting a rather fetching hobo-esq beard and still felt far over dressed for this crowd, 1 in 2 had dreads and the other half just looked like they'd never seen soap in their life. I don't mean that as an insult or anything as these where just the coolest of people in a very relaxed, laid back town. It also so happened to be slightly busier than usual due to the annual reggae festival. It had people camping, fire shows, a load of food stalls....a proper festival for 2 whole days, and i was simply in my element.

The day after that we had to take the bus back to Chiang Mai and then that following night a bus to Bangkok.

The last few days here in Bangkok have been spent ill in bed, i actually thought i'd go the entire time in Asia without being ill once........ dammit, but I'm off to the states shortly and feeling loads better.

[EDIT] I was probably a bit quick going through Chiang Mai on re-read, i mean have a look at the pictures and stuff because it's a stunning little place. Don Thiep is beautiful, the hostel (spicyThai) which i was staying at is easily one of the best and on top of that i got to spend my time with some of the nicest people i'd met so far.

Sorry Chiang Mai :(

Avatar

2010-02-28T18:00:00.009Z

I woke the following day, back to the usual 'rock hang-over' after going out for farewell drinks. I had a boat to catch at 2 so sat around drinking water. I'd decided i was going all the way to Chiang Mai as i think i'd done the Island scene by now and still wanted to experience a little more cultural side of Thailand.

The problem with this is it's quite a way and meant a two hour boat to Krabi (again), a couple of hours there waiting for the night bus to Bangkok (that's a good 10 hours) then a case of hanging around there for a day before taking another night bus to Chiang Mai (another 14 hours)

phew...

the highlight of this most horrible of journeys came in the form of an imax screen, a pair of 3-D glasses and James Camerons 'Avatar' which i had the brilliant idea to go and see on my stopover. This was my first time in a cinema since leaving and i don't care how culturally relevant it was but i enjoyed it a whole lot. Even the standing for the national anthem before the film started brought a smile to my face. The film was exactly what i needed to stay awake, it looked stunning, was as loud as hell and zipped along at some crazy speed. Not sure that all the oscar talk is justified though. It's still basically 'Tarzan' in reverse when all said and done just with mechs and guns.

But anyway i'll shut up now.

Going deeper underground

2010-02-23T15:50:00.009Z

Day 1: Started with me waking from my first decent night sleep at the rock, and on arrival to the diving shop i was introduced to my instructor 'Angus'... i also found out that for next 3 days our group would solely consist of just me, so that was pretty cool to be having one on one tuition.

Next up were the videos, these things weren't as bad as everyone implied and by the time you know it we where off getting kited up.

The actual assembly of the kit and gadgety things had the little geek inside me pretty excited. I liked learning something new and it was a relief to find out i hadn't killed everyone of the brain cells.

With the theory done and the kit sorted we went down to the enclosed shallow water and started with all the basic skills. Respirator recovery, having your air shut off, emergency ascents and weight belt release. Everything was easy and no problem until we started with the mask removal and clearing. This went opposite to perfect, this went horrible. The second the water went up my nose i suddenly lost all train of thought and starting flapping like a dog. Seems the fear of drowning suddenly moved to the top of my list of "least pleasant ways to die"

So yeah, not the best way of ending the day, after a few go's i was bored of swallowing water and feeling like i was going to drown so we called it a day and went back to the shop. Angus was cool with it, he just said we'd go through it the next day until i was completely comfortable with it.

Cheers, can't wait :(

Day 2: I was pretty apprehensive about the start of the second day, the mask removal thing had freaked me out a bit and i wasn't exactly thrilled to be getting back in.

After checking through all the kit again and jumping on the boat. We arrived at the first dive spot 'Bina Nok'.

It wasn't until you properly go under water and see what there is to see that the awesomeness of diving becomes totally apparent... i know it's an obvious statement to make but the previous day had almost made me forget why i wanted to do it in the first place. The second a bunch of fish swim past you is utterly unforgettable, every time i saw a clown fish or pipefish, a grubber or crab came in eyesight i'd just forget i was meant to be following Angus and i'd become fixated on them before having to quickly catch up.

We came across 2 leopard sharks (who are usually quite sleepy, or so i'm told) and they swam directly round us, so close it'd sound like i'm lying.... it might of just been the magnified lenses but it was stunning all the same.

After my swimming test around the boat 6 times, which gotta say was harder than it looked having not swam for quite a while, we jumped back on the boat and headed to the second spot 'Pilaya' and got back in the water.

This time apart from seeing another big leopard shark having a snooze, we also came across a family of turtles, 6 of them chilling out together. Again we where able to get so close and again just stunning.

Every second underwater was just amazing, i absolutely fell in love.

Day 3: Was very similar to the second day, we did another 2 dives to take me to the 4 required to pass the open water license and again got to see more turtles more sharks, we also got to see a little sea horse which was quite special and had an amazing day feeling really comfortable under the water by this point.

After the multiple choice question test and the signing off on my license i said my thanks and left... absolutely gutted about not going diving the following day.

E.R

2010-02-13T19:15:00.004Z

This was the plan as it was meant to be. I'd arrive in Phi Phi, I'd spend a couple of days on the beach and then go to Koh Lanta to do some diving...!

A nice relax before doing something more serious. Simple.

Now this was the plan as it was:

The boat over was the usual affair, Corrs concert being shown on the TV, Air con on to high inside the boat, the sun so hot that you can't sit out.

I'd heard of only one dorm hostel in Phi Phi called the rock, and this place is just legendary, literally. It's a hut at the center of the island, it holds close to 20 people and is the cheapest way of spending a night on the island. The problem is it's also one of the dirtiest places you'll ever visit in you life, honestly it's a new high on my list of grimy hostels :) and after one night my ever unreliable body foot got an infection and had swelled to double its usual size.

The pharmacy gave me tablets which didn't work, although i did continue to drink while on them so that might of had something to do with it. But the next day when it had increased in size again i had to take myself to the hospital (something i'd somehow avoided in doing to this point). Holly came with me as she found it incredibly funny as i walked around with my inflated foot and then grimaced as she watched the nurse take 3 attempts to place a drip for my antibiotics. I was also informed i'd have to return the following 2 days to finish off the treatment.... the short relaxing stay was obviously going to get extended.

I started to think maybe i'd just do my diving here and then go straight up north to Chiang mai rather than messing around looping all over the show, especially now as i had to sit around and wait for the foot to sort itself out.

I signed up with a place and got back to doing what is done best at the rock, and that's drinking. The days after this where just hilarious, i'm not proud of the amount we drank but the people who stay at the rock are just some of the nicest, funniest people i'd ever met and we just got to drinking as a group on a nightly basis. Every day at a certain hour we'd all meet up, buy a family bucket (basically and industrial sized dustbin), fill it with everything from vodka to samson and then add coke and finished it off with a varying amount of red bull bottles and a heap of straws to share from. Only after one or two of these would we then go and hit the rest of the island.

It was only till the foot had healed 5 days later that i actually had a night where I could use the excuse of having diving in the morning and get to sleep before sunrise.

Can you smell what the rock is cooking

2010-02-01T08:22:00.004Z

Phuket for me is the sort of place you come to for your 2 week break from work. The beaches are nice, but are littered with sun loungers and umbrellas. The food and drink are cheap, relative to home anyway, and it has a decent enough night life.

The thing is it`s just not the place you really go to backpack through. It lacked character i guess is what i`m trying to say. It was like going to Kavos or Zante. When you go travelling you want to feel like your actually experiencing the country and not just being given an experience that is catered towards what the general Westerner holiday maker thinks you want.

On the other hand though the hostel i was staying at in phuket was pretty awesome! For the first time in months i could sit on a couch watching films till the early hours of the morning, and there was a food market to grab take aways from just 2 mins around the corner. So seeing as the beaches were`nt doing it for me i indulged in this life style instead. If anything it was like staying at a mates place for a few days, a good chance to catch up on sleep and get my washing done before getting a boat over to Phi Phi.

I did`nt know it at the time but those were much needed days of rest before my stint at "The Rock Hostel"

Climbers Paradise

2010-01-10T14:28:00.008Z

Happy new year again! I`m still here, sat on a beach in Thailand! Sorry for the long delay since the last post.

The January detox is going alright, that is if we exclude the night before last when i might of had a few excusable beers. You see i`m back travelling on my own again now. Not since meeting Will in Hanoi had i been free of a travelling companion, so after 4 countries and god knows how may cities later we had a few/many farewell drinks in krabi and said our goodbyes with the hope to maybe meet up again in new Zealand.

We left Koh phangan on a night boat heading to Suratthani, i had`nt done one of these till this point, and unlike most of the people on this rickety old boat i slept like a absolute baby for the entire duration. After getting off that and onto the bus to krabi i again fell asleep, only to be this time awoken at the destination.......... a quick trip to the toilet and back and i returned to find that we`d booked a hostel and that a taxi was here to take us! It`s easy this travelling malarkey.

Krabi was nice, it was good to have the Internet again (sad i know) and electricity 24/7, but it was really just somewhere to store our bags while we went over to railay bay for a few days.

Railays known mainly for it`s rock climbing and on arrival you understand why. The cliffs are spectacular and apart from `Railay east` the place has some of my favourite beaches within asia that i`ve seen so far. It`s really small and felt secluded from most people (kind of like the beach from `the beach`, (which i`ll actually be going to the day after tomorrow)). The best thing about railay though are the climbers themselves. Because the majority of people are here for that reason alone there seems to be far less sun worshipping going on than anywhere else (or at least that`s how it felt to me on the beach we settled on) and on top of this you can`t help but have a good time in the company of climbers. There a strange lot for sure, like a cult really. This one guy had been here for 4 months. That`s 4 months, every day just climbing and just so happy to be doing so. They all love what it is that their doing and have this big kid attitude of just climbing stuff for a laugh.

I really did enjoy it here, i think i just like it when people are doing stuff with themselves rather than sunbathing. I`ve come to realize i`m not the greatest of sunbathers, (although that is exactly what i`m doing now) but that`s also probably something to do with this special "easy burn" body i was blessed with.

oh i was also messing about with a 360 panoramic so check that out here. A little gimmicky buy hey i was bored.

Our last night back in Krabi and we went to the local festival, i had the funniest of nights with Will.

We cheered on bands as people watched in silence and had a good few drinks while chatting about the months that had passed. I`ve had a quality time travelling together but am really looking forward to meeting up with more people over the next few weeks.

In less than a month now i`ll be moving on from Asia which has been home for the last 6 months and onto a new continent to explore.

...and a Happy New Year

2010-01-07T04:37:00.005Z

"Happy new year" I`ll come back to everything else but this was the reason for getting to Thailand at the time i did, the reason for leaving Laos fairly quickly and the reason for rushing from Bangkok to go south. Or to be more specific it was in order to get to the full moon party. This was so looked forward to by almost everyone i`d spoken to in the past couple of months in S.E asia. It had never landed on new years since its initial start up in the late 80`s, so had the potential to be huge. We met up with loads of people i`d met over the past few months, a little bit like friends reunited. I ended up spending most of the night with Keith and Jill who i`d met initially in Shanghai and then managed to bump into them again in Hanoi and vang vieng. I had the most amazing of times, it`s like glastonbury at night with all 30`000 people out to have a good time. The place is absolutely banging, i was fueled on red bull and anything else i could get my hands on and went at it on an epic scale from the initial taxi at 7.30 pm until the return taxi at 7.30 am.

Without doubt the largest party i`ve ever been to and a night i hopefully won`t ever forget.

Back to our arrival; We (well Will) had booked accommodation at a place called "sea view thansadet", it was on the north east of the island secluded from Had Rin (which, sorry Bangkok, is now firmly the seediest place i`ve ever visited) but after we got there on some of the worst roads known to man, we found the resort to be absolutely abandoned. No-one behind reception, empty `ant infested` huts. It was so creepy. Here we were on a remote island, on a remote beach in an empty resort. I`ve seen my fair share of horror films, i know what happens in places like this and for that reason we packed up and made tracks with the thought that if all else fails then we`d camp up here for the night.

Luckily we found a place down by the next beach. We had to spend one night in one hut, another 2 in another hut, new years day we had nothing but didn`t care and then the days after we`d sort out when we got there.

The days leading up to and following on from new years were spent doing exactly what i`d be doing back home. Eating to much, drinking to much, and promising myself that i`d get in shape after all this was over and so not to worry about stuffing my face.

That`s about it, if one things for sure, sitting around doing nothing has helped considerably with the catching up of the book and this blog. So Happy new year again and sorry its a little late..... take care and maybe i`ll cya before the start of the next one. Maybe.

A very merry Christmas...

2010-01-07T04:36:00.002Z

It may be 2010 as i write this but the belated sentiments are still just as heartfelt. I hope everyone had a really good Christmas. There`s loads of people i missed not seeing, definitely strange not being in the UK, and doubly strange by the fact it was 30 plus degrees in temperature. My Christmas morning was spent applying suncream instead of opening presents.

We`d left Bangkok the night of the 23rd and watched `Shooter` as we hurtled towards `Thong Sala` and our boat transfer to Samui. Samui was never really on my Thailand agenda it just seemed logical to stick with Will seeing as i was staying with him in Ko Phangan at new year. It was alright, it`s a very holiday resorty place, plus it was soo expensive relative to my budget. We had a really funny Christmas eve at mango bar and then Christmas day decided to have a BBQ at the hostel with a bunch of people. We said to everyone to get there own meat at the local tescos (yep, Tesco!) and then we`d cook it all together later on that day.

We decided i was the least hungover of the 2 of us so i got the designated driver position and Will would act as the trunk and carry the shopping. We borrowed this motorbike from rich, the hotel owner, and it really was the worst bike u could imagine. The engine backfired all the time, you had to keep the revs above a certain level at all times to stop it from just cutting out. So when returning you can only imagine how ridiculous it was to have me fighting with this bike with crates of chang beer between my legs and Will dangling on the back with bags of shopping for the meal... truly a surreal moment for the start of Christmas, and a day that didn`t actually get any less strange as we continued to have this huge barbecue with an ever increasing party size and eventually ending it with us all heading down to the beach to carry on partying for the night.

I`ve gotta say despite my enthusiasm for Koh Samui the memory of lying on the beach looking into the sky with hundreds of the large lanterns being let off and then having fireworks going off around them is for sure one of the most memorable pictures i`ve seen in the past 6 months.

Not like i took any pictures of any of it after making the STUPID decision to leave my camera back at the hotel.

Sin City

2010-01-07T04:12:00.005Z

After the very angry start to Bangkok, i had a sleep, got showered and calmed down a bit. I`ve got to admit i really enjoyed the place. I`d been told it`s a real love it or hate it sort of city and i`ll be making another 2 stops there before leaving Thailand, so there`s definitely a chance of it changing. As for now though i`m firmly in the former camp. It`s by far the single most touristy place i`ve been to, Koh san road particularly, but there`s a real cool vibe here, and i know that`s a really crappy sentiment but it`s true. There`s a passion for fashion, everyone`s busy doing things and there`s plenty of nice cafes and bars to hang out in. That`s not to say it doesn`t turn seedy as the sun sets because it really does. Everyone is asking if you want to go to a ping pong show, ladyboys roam the streets on mass. But it`s so flamboyant, so theatrical you almost can`t take it serious and that somehow takes away the threat from the place, if that makes any sense.

We spent one of the days at cankaunjing, ka ka cajuggycug, kakycan... i have no idea what the market was called. It was big and started with a K (maybe a `C`). Big is a gross understatement, this thing is gigantic. We spent six hours here purely in the clothes section, and never even backtracked once. I ended up replacing all my t-shirts for a fraction of the cost of my original selection, plus this means i might actually have photos of me not always in the same top from now on.

Another of our excursions took us to the giant Buddha, which is, well....big i guess. The day after we did the royal palace and surrounding area, which i really did enjoy and for the final day we booked tickets to go see some muay Thai boxing.

We`d gone on `Championship Tuesday` so the headline act was a pretty big fight. We drank and shouted at either of the fighters just for a laugh and had a proper good night. The locals get into it so much, and the fighters respond by kicking the hell out of one another. 5 rounds, 3 minutes each. One fight, a guy got cut up so badly that by round 4 both were absolutely covered in this one guys blood, it was like that scene from carrie. The headline act wasn`t even the best fight but it didn`t matter as by the time it finished and the stadium began to clear me and will jumped in the ring for a round of our own, this before security had the chance to chuck us out :D

Kingpin

2010-01-04T06:25:00.005Z

Our last day in Luang Prabang ended up turning into quite a long one. We thought we`d take a trip to the other set of waterfalls, so as you do, you call down a tuc tuc, argue about the price for a while, then set off on your way.

We`d been told about doing this tree top zip lining thing back in town and seeing as it wasn`t very expensive decided to give it a go. Plus Will is petrified of heights so it promised to be highly entertaining no matter what. Some of the distances where pretty epic actually, one of the 20+ lines was a mammoth 200 meters and at a pretty good height as well. Will predictably had a little panic but by the end everyone had a good laugh with it.

This is where things start to go slightly wrong and as usual it started with a drink! That turned into 2 and that developed onto drinking games. I`ve got to explain that Luang Prabang entirely shuts down after 11, every bar, every restaurant, everywhere except the bowling alley. There you can drink till whenever as long as you`re bowling! We got a lane then a shot of absinthe then, well.. to be honest facebook may be a better reference as my memory certainly isn`t. I remember my flip flops being devastatingly slippy and being dragged around the floor by many people but that`s about it. I don`t know if i won, lost or if i hit any pins at all.

Bearing in mind we were off to Bangkok in the morning i can now safely say that this wasn`t the greatest idea i`ve ever had. I think it was 4 or 5 when we got in, we jumped into a our double bed (all three of us sharing the same bed at this point to keep costs down) and at half 5 (not long enough of a sleep to declare it a new day) Lauren woke us up as our tuc tuc driver was outside and waiting to take us to the bus station.

The bus was a nine hour journey and to be fair the most unpleasant one since, well...ever. At one point 2 drunks got on board and took the 2 seats behind me. They reeked of the same rice wine whiskey that had almost taken my life in Beijing. That alone would of been enough to have me wrenching but they were also eating eggs. Not hard boiled or anything, just eggs. He had it smeared all over his face and hands and at one point tried wiping it on the back of my seat. After a few hours the inevitable happened. All over the back of my seat and floor. It smelt worse than they did. This also made the next god knows how many hours go by so slowly. By he time we arrived in Vientiane it was just a relief to escape the smell.

This next bit is a tad dull so i`ll spare you the details, but essentially it went: taxi to the border, through one checkpoint, a bus to the next border checkpoint, a tuk tuk to Nong Kai train station, then the purchasing of a ticket to Bangkok. Which to add to our extremly bad moods where told they had no seats so the only option was the floor. We`d been awake for 2 days now, the idea of sitting on a floor for 13 hours didn`t go down well at all. We stood and talked about what to do until the guy at the desk informed us of 3 cancellations and therefore space for us, which we took admittedly (hard seats mind) and after 4 hours in the idea of the floor was quite an attractive proposition, at least then you could ly down. These things are impossible to sleep on you see and meant all that was left to do was drink whiskey with our newly acquired Thai friends.

On our third day now and man i was grumpy, apart from the time spent eating cake at Bangkok train station which temporarily lifted my mood, i was seeing red, i had ichy feet a banging headache, sleep deprivation and a doubled up hangover.

After another 30min public bus ride to Koh San rd i`d had enough, i got off the bus, walked into the nearest hotel and checked in. I said we`d switch to something better the next day but you know you probably won`t when you say that, and then crashed on our hotels unique beds, unique as in the fact it was a mattress that was made to be less comfy than if they`d just stuck a large rock in the room for you to ly on. We laid there for a while until Will uttered the line he most often does "fancy a drink then?" "you know what, yes i do" "nice one, lets go!"

Illness, Elephants and 3 in a bed

2010-01-04T02:45:00.005Z

We`d gone to Luang Prabang to rest up, eat some proper food and hopefully after that maybe a bit of trekking. Yet Will, who had picked up a stomach virus between vang vieng and the journey here, was almost instantly bed bound. So as Lauren and me enjoyed the local temples and stunning market, Will was back at the hostel spending an equal time between toilet and bed. We even found this amazing little `all you can eat buffet` on one of the market stalls and took great pleasure in telling Will all about it when we got back.

A couple of days in and Will felt ready to tackle something minor, we thought a trip to the local waterfalls would be alright and the waterfalls really were pretty stunning but Wills stomach really wasn`t doing well and he`d now also picked up an infection from his tubing wounds. This meant back to bed for him, this time with more painful walks to the toilet.

This left the two of us with a slight dilemma as we wanted to do a 2/3 day trek, but because of visas running out and people needing to get places for Christmas we`d have to do it sooner rather than later. This meant the possibility of having to leave Will in bed and just do it on our own. We decided to give him 2 days to try and get right and went about booking a guide and so on, then just waited to see whether he`d be well enough to join us.

We again wandered the markets, eat more and more food (i`ve actually put weight on since arriving in south east Asia, think there`s something in the food.. that or the vast consumption of alcohol. Detox after new year i think) We also took a trip back to our `all you can eat buffet` only to find he`d gone and put his prices up. Probably to re-coup from the last time i wiped him out.

Judgment day came and Will was feeling much more of his old self, he wasn`t continually on the toilet and he`d had his cuts cleaned,creamed and bandaged up, so was ready to go.

"first thing first; bike ride, 4 to 5 hours...." "easy" "all up hill" "balls" he wasn`t joking, there`s nothing more demoralizing than going at a walking pace while on a bike. Anyway that`s done, next! "walking to a village and then we`ll be sleeping up there as well" "ok, that sounds alright as long as it`s not all uph.... "all uphill again guys" "ill, GODDAMMIT" and after another 4 hours walking up very steep, very tiring dirt roads, we arrived at Mong Jong. A spectacular place unlike anything i`d seen so far, no other travellers in sight and stares like we were the first people they`d ever come in contact with. And then without so much as 20 words spoken to our hosts ZZZZzzzzzZZZzzz Out like a light, all 3 of us before 7 o`clock. We only got woke to be fed and then it was straight back to sleep. Only an eventful trip to toilet broke my sleep before being woken again at 6 to carry on trekking.

The toilet trip went something like this; it must of been sometime around 3 or 4 in the morning, there`s no electricity so no light. I do have a torch but i think i must of got it in some cheap cracker last Christmas as the light it emits is so low. But anyway i used it to navigate out of the mosquito net and to the huts exit. The sky was unbelievable, i`d never seen the stars that bright, and the fact there was nothing else as far as the eye could see except blackness just made everything else that little bit more stunning... but i had more pressing matters and walked on to the toilet. It had only just been built closer to the hut (still only a hole in the ground) but thank god as the other designated toilet would of taken me 20 minutes to of found it. As i got closer i started to hear a rustling in the bush next to me, i shone my crap light all over but couldn`t see anything so carried on. More rustling to my right, this time definitely closer. I looked again and saw nothing, but as i brought the light back round to the front of me, there it was, this giant pig looking me right in the eyes, and i`m not kidding but this thing was huge and the faint light made it look like some sort of ghost pig or a animal harbinger of death if you will.

I hadn`t been that sacred since looking through my window one night and seeing the face of a burglar trying to break in, only to realize it was my own reflection.

Where was i, oh, 6 o`clock and off walking again. We`d actually woken in cloud cover so visibility was piratically just feet in front. It had made the steep `dusty` roads now steep `slippery` roads and meant the next hour or so was spent slipping and sliding our way down a hill. The weather gradually cleared and by the time we made it to the adjoining village it was back to its usual sunny self. From here we would canoe to the elephant sanctuary and then onto a much bigger canoe ride back to town. Will and me definitely proving to be the worse kayak team known to man. As Lauren and the guide elegantly and gently paddled downstream, the two of us went about hitting one another with paddles, getting stuck on rocks and generally making a nusense of ourselves.

We ended the trek with a visit to the local whiskey town where a wedding was taking place. This as with any social event in south east Asia meant being dragged in to the mix and being fed anything they themselves were eating and drinking.

Heavens waiting room

2009-12-27T05:50:00.006Z

Tubing in Vang Vieng is something of a backbackers cult out here. As far back as Vietnam the question would regularly pop up "have you been to Laos?" "nope" "NO! well you`ve gotta go Vang Vieng, you HAVE to go tubing!" "oh ok"

Now, after 5 days of 24 hour drinking, marker pen tattoos and hurling myself off swings into water, i can officially say i`ve been and just about come out alive, and yes, it`s as good as people say, and even despite my half body bruise, a busted knee and cuts on my leg " you`ve gotta go to Vang Vieng, you HAVE to go tubing!"

We`d planned 3 nights here, that quickly turned to 4 and just as quickly into 5. We where staying at a hostel called SpicyLaos which not since the chinesebox in Beijing had i stayed in a place with as much of a family-esq atmosphere to it. The moment we arrived after a 2 hour flight and 6 hour bus journey, we were introduced to everyone, seated around a fire and had a take-away delivered to our laps. We spent the night chatting away and when morning came had assembled a fairly large party to tackle the river with.

The basic premise of tubing for those unfamiliar is as follows:

1. Rent tube and jump on tuc tuc to the top of the river and to the entrance to bar one 2. Receive a plethora of free shots (usually taken from the bottle) then top up on beers until the idea of getting on a swing 30 feet above the river seems like a good one. 3. sit in said tube as you float down stream towards the next bar, grabbing onto the bottles attached to the rope to be dragged in by. 4. Carry on drinking until the next ridiculous contraption to fire you into the water is once again, in your own mind `risk free` (to give you an idea of these things, bar 2 has a zipline with a spring at the end so when you hit it, the handles fly back and you go spinning forward, usually with the intention to do a 360 and then hit the water, while more often than not doing more of a 568 and crashing on your neck/shoulder/back. Bar 3 has a cannonball platform and another large swing, something i thought would be more fun if more of us got on it at the same time and almost resulted in the losing of something very precious to me after landing with my legs spread. Bar 4 has a mud-pit/pool, and 5 (or that might of been 6, maybe 7) has the now infamous death slide, named for a very obvious reason)

These basic steps were repeated for 4 days straight, sometimes we played games, sometimes swapping beers for buckets, but the basic premise always remained the same. I wasn`t even in a state to take pictures, everything you see here and on flickr has basically just been pillaged from laurens camera.

I had such an amazing time here. Granted it wasn`t exactly cultural but i`ve been out long enough now to justify a little break, my bodies ruined but thankfully we`re off to Luang prabang for some much needed rest. One more day of this and i think it could of been the last you`d hear from me.

Dawn of the Dead

2009-12-16T16:58:00.012Z

"Siem Reap" or more importantly the base station for exploring the Angkor Wat temples started pretty badly. We`d spent 6 hours on the bus from Phnom penh and arrived at midday in the city, Lauren who had started the day feeling pretty badly had got progressively worse, so much so that by the time we got to the hotel she was ready to collapse. I`d been looking forward to angkor wat so much in the planning of this trip, that it was probably the single thing i was most looking forward to within south east Asia, so the fact that it looked like Lauren was going to be bed bound for at least a day completely sucked, we could only really afford 3 days here as we still had it planned to do Laos and get to the full moon party for new year, so not being able to do it all together was a bit of a kick to the gut.
The morning came and Lauren was worse than the previous day, we had no real option but to carry on. We decided to skip some of the bigger ones, leaving them for when Lauren was better.
First stop was "the Bayon" a fairly small ruin known more for the face sculptures rather than it`s size... i`d like to pretend i can remember about anything i read of this but i think it`d be pretty obvious i would be copying and pasting from wikipedia. Because of that here`s the related link for your reading pleasure.

After a few more stops we got to the so called "tomb raider temple" which was used during the filming of the said movie. This one was outstanding, tress had completely taken over parts of the walls and you could follow roots through one wall to another and again as it went downwards into alleyways. It was like being a big kid, with the lure to scrambling over the rocks impossible to resist. We had arrived at sunset as well which gave off some amazing light as it shone through all the open cracks, really magical place.

The next days and Lauren was still no better, she`d been bed bound since arriving now and hadn`t seen as far as outside the bedroom walls. I felt awful that we were carrying on without her especially as she`s the exact sort of person you`d want around for the this type of thing.
This day we did the larger of the 2 loops, taking in some of the further afield sites. We also decided this time to stop by the actually `angkor wat` and take the time to explore that. By the time the day was through we`d done all the major temples and felt fairly templed out.
Day 3 and the final day of our passes, emma had done enough of pretending to be Indiana Jones and opted for a day on facebook instead, Lauren who was still ill had to just stay in the room once again, and so it was left to me and Will, who decided the best thing to do would be to buy a bag of beers and go get a comfortable spot on one of the temples, maybe not the most respectful thing in retrospect but we just chilled and chatted and eventually watched the sunset before returning.

Lauren was now back on her feet, not exactly what you`d call full health but she was set on seeing things the following day. She`d offered to pay for me to extend my pass by a day if i`d show her around, which to be fair i was more than happy to do. We started early-ish to try and get as much in as possible, but off the bat i could tell she wasn`t well enough to be doing it. We went through temple after temple, lauren`s mood getting slightly worse by the minute, i felt bad as i could tell she was really struggling but at the same time she was getting very irritable .
On top of this the zombie children where out in force. Usually you can have a bit of a laugh with them, smile, hide from them, and it`s all taken in jest. Will`s amazing at it, but at this one point i got caught off guard on my own. Lauren had gone off to the toilet or something and a little 8 year girl sprung out from nowhere "you want a fridge magnet" "no thank you" "one dollar" "nah, no thanks" "one dollar" "(ignore) "fridge magnet, one dollar" What am i going to do with a fridge magnet?" "one dollar" "i don`t even own a fridge" "one dollar" "one dollar" [all this delivered in a single tone moan, hence the `zombie children` name] "one dollar" "no, sorry but i have absolutely no use for a fridge magnet and in no way in the world am i going to buy one..very sorry"........................................"one dollar" (arghhhhhhhhh)

Saving Private Ryan

2009-12-16T16:54:00.004Z

ARGGhhh! Sihanoukville.....this place still gives me nightmares. We arrived to the beach mid day from Kep and instantly got hounded by vultures, these girls offering bracelets, waxing, manicures... their relentless in their selling. Horrible, vile people, who despite saying "no thanks" and "sorry but i don`t want it" hundreds of times they still continue to harass, actually trying to tie things to you as you walk or sit, eventually when you do break free they hurl abuse from afar. At one point one of the girls screamed "i hope u F@#*ing fall and die, and so does all your family" *gulp* another girl tried throwing my own drink over me at one point for not wanting a ankle bracelet. I hated this beach with a passion i really did, and the idea of doing a island hoping adventure the following morning was warmly welcomed.

This day out i loved to bits, i`d never done much snorkeling in my life and it made me all the more excited to do my scuba diving license.. it was just cool to be in perfectly clear water, checking out the coral and sea life, even if it was on quite a small level. We did 2 beach stops, had a big fish BBQ and also had the opportunity for 3 or so dive spots. It was only the dash from the boat across the beach before the bombardment of evil beach minions that managed to taint a really relaxed day.

Recess

2009-12-16T16:52:00.007Z

We caught up with Will, Emma and co back at the hostel in Phnom Penh and after a look through our shedules decided to do a trip south to the coast and a bit of beach time before templing it up in Siem Reap.

We (meaning me and Lauren) had done Phnom Penh the day i`d arrived and decided an extra day relaxing and exploring in Kampot would be time better spent before joining up with everyone the day after.

I`ve got to mention our meal together at FRIENDS that same night. It was a charity based restaurant with all the money going to the street kids and orphans who where then trained to be the chefs at the restaurants. A bit like what Jamie Oliver did in the UK, but the food was amazing and was also the last time our considerably large group would be together...anyway

The extra day allowed us to rent bikes once again and explore the area between Kampot and Kep, i woke up on the wrong side of bed this day as things were annoying me much quicker than usual. The roads were really bad as well, it was basically off-roading on road bikes and then to top everything off i was in what is quite possibly the most pitiful biking accident of all time!

I`d pulled into this pagoda for a quick look, there was nothing really there and i was about to exit until this monk came running over saying something to me, i thought i`d hang around and see what he had to say but as he made it to my bike he put his hand out to rest on the handle bar and ended up turning on my throttle... this as you`d imagine sent the bike forward, me sideways and left a nasty exhaust burn on my arm and a fair few cuts and bruises on my leg. Thank god there was a nice hammock and beach at Kep so i could just chill out and laugh at the fact that one of the most peaceful kinds of people in the world had just sent me skidding along the floor. oh well.

The next day and after re-joining with the now slightly depleted group we set off to rabbit island from Kep for a two night stay on this little deserted island. This would be my first island experience of the trip and i was excited at the prospect of doing nothing and have to say despite the lack of experience i performed it like a pro.

It also happened to be thanksgiving on one of the two days, and seeing as we now had an American in the ranks with Lauren, we held a somewhat shabby, slightly more drunken version of our own, turkey hats and roast chicken included.

After a few water fights and a stunning sunset the actual highlight of the time spent there was getting in the water after every light had gone out and swimming with these glow in the dark plankton, it sucks that i couldn`t get a photograph as words, especially my writing, could never do it justice, but it was basically like being in a disney film. Every hand stroke sent hundreds of these tiny glowing globes off in the same direction, it was stunning and hopefully i`ll get the chance to see it some more when scuba diving in Thailand.

Cambrosia!

2009-12-16T16:33:00.010Z

awwww dammit, I`ve got so far behind again, i`m actualy sat on thee `angkor wat temple` with a beer at the moment trying to get back to "now".... i realize according to the blog i`ve been in Dalat for quite a while now, but the truth is we set off to Laos tommorrow with Cambodia done and dusted.

I won`t spend any time talking about Ho Chi Minh. It`s a nice enough city for sure but it lacked any desernable feature. It was only really meant as a stop over to Cambodia anyway, i`d only just realized my visa was about to run out (again) so there was no time to hang around. The rest of the group still had a few days spare and had decided to explore the Mekong delta for a few days before arriving to Phnom Penh by slow boat. I on the other hand jumped on the next availible bus and got out of the country before breaking the law. I`d planned to meet back up with everyone anyway so it was a nice chance to have some time to myself and save a few bucks in the process.

Lauren who i`d last left in hong kong had also just finished Thailand so it was by chance that she was arriving into Cambodia the day before i did as well, so it meant i had a friend waiting anyway, yay!

The border crossing was slow and uneventful, everyone tells you how corrupt and drawn out it is, but in reality the sign says $40, i paid $40, and i walked out with a 30 day Cambodia visa. Maybe the next one will be troublesome, but Vietnam > Cambodia is/was incredibly easy.

First impressions of Phnom Penh was that it`s ridiculously hot, very very busy, and to be honest very similar to Ho Chi Minh in a lot of ways, if maybe a little more deprived. I met with Lauren who`d booked us a room at a near-by hotel and after a happy catch up of the prior four weeks, found ourselves on a tuc tuc heading to the S21 prison camp, and with it about as big of a mood killer as the world could of summoned, it`s not like i expected anything else but it was a little more powerful than i first had expected it to be. The place which had seen so much death and torture was made all the more creepier given the fact it had once been a primary school, add this with some of the unmovable stains and markings and the place really gave me the creeps, and to be fair i was happy to leave the place when we did.

Our next stop was the far more happy sounding and uplifting "killing fields" this was where they believe over 17`000 men, woman and children who had been detained at S21 had been sent to for extermination.

Lauren who`d spent the previous night chatting to travellers who`d been through Cambodia already had heard from one couple of a place 150k away from here in Kampong Chnang, near the river, where they`d biked to and had said it was a pretty amazing experience with the chance to go somewhere not many people go and the chance to live real non touristy life for a few days, just the fact we had to bike it there sold it to me instantly. The morning after we headed off for the 3 hour drive north west to Kampong Chnang and after checking into an enormous hotel for the night, which was absolutely deserted bar the 2 of us, we headed off down to the river banks and ended up befriending the local kids. It was nice to be around local people, the kids where really fun and happy to just climb over abandoned shacks, and laugh as we showed them pictures of themselves. Even the family we bought our coconuts from ended up coming out with photo albums of their wedding and pictures of people they`d met before. We just hung out with all of them till sunset then headed back for the night.

The day after and on our way to obtain food from somewhere we bumped into another couple who told us we should head over to the floating village a couple of K`s away from where we where staying. We had time to kill before going back seeing as the schools we`d planned to visit aren`t open on Sunday. (a slight mis-judgment, but to be fair i didn`t even know what month it was never mind the day) so we decided to head onwards and check out what it was like.

We`d jumped on a boat with what i think was the smallest, youngest and most inexperienced of boat guides and went exploring the village. It was a bit like Venice if Venice replaced all it`s buildings with tiny wooden shacks, lost all it`s money, got a lot smaller and made its population far more welcoming and friendly. It was a really nice day, as was the day before it, we had to head back to the capital shortly after that, but it was nice to be back travelling with Lauren again, as was the travelling without a hangover (a novel idea that i think i lost somewhere in Vietnam)

Dalat

2009-11-21T02:55:00.007Z

This is more like it, on a sleeper bus to Dalat, on a road unsuitable to be called a road, with a high chance of death! Me and Em, one earphone in each listening to Genesis, watching the rock crumple around us as our bus creeps around the cliff edge... but despite the impending death, the views where once again stunning. If Thailand has the beaches, Loas has its tubing, then surely Vietnam has to win on scenery.

Dalat is high in the hills, there`s not a great deal to see and do there but it was just nice to be back to the real Vietnam. The first day we visited "the crazy house" which to be fair is far cooler than it sounds. It`s part guesthouse, part tourist attraction and was designed by this crazy old woman who sits there selling tickets still to this day. Definitely worth a look, after so many historical things its nice to see something that`s clearly so bonkers.

The day after and we where back to motorbikes, just a look around the outlying hills but as always when you put a bike in the equation i had an awesome day.

Off to Kos

2009-11-19T18:14:00.004Z

A quick one this.. Na trang is the Vietnamese party city it seemed, expensive bars (for Vietnam anyway) big beach with sun loungers, lots of drink, bad music and a load of restaurants.

Ok here`s a summary of my 3 days in Na Trang in as fewer words as possible.... Arrived, checked into hotel, went to the beach, went to a pool, got drunk, fell asleep, woke up, went beach, met up with Liam and Steve, played drinking games, given the new nickname of Dicky Downfast, got drunk, fell asleep, just about woke up, beach, beach party, sleep, bus to Dalat..

That was really it though, i laughed my ass off and had a whale of a time, but we didn`t explore or anything, it was like being on a lads holiday for a few days, but it wasn`t my reason for initially travelling. Definitely a nice break from temples though i`ve gotta say that.

Flip Floppery

2009-11-19T17:54:00.004Z

In our happiness from the bike ride we`d actually gone for a drink on the night of arrival (actually quite a few drinks) We`d been told of a place that did a home brew for 3000 dong.... and considering one pound is 30`000 the news of this had sent my liver quivering in fear. And rightly so. Before the night was done we had a table of 20 people drinking together and i`d somehow at the mention of it being one of the girls birthdays, that we should have a party, and not just a normal party but a fancy dress party, and on top of that i promised cake. You know, as you do!
The day after we woke at 1 i think, it took another two hours to face breakfast and then another 2 to rent bikes, and by the time we`d gotten anywhere realised we had to get costumes, get changed and get out by 8. So that left us precisely no time to do anything else. I`ll let facebook tell the story of that night but it went something along the lines of Bar, Bar, Beach, Bar and ended with me with no shorts sat on the rear carriage that a bike was pulling, with just Will, being taken home. I`d somehow managed to keep hold of what was the prop of the night, the helmet to my fancy dress had been grafted by everyone and ended up being worn by the entire crowd and a few sneaky attempts to steal it by some. The following day and i was back to hangover central, it was the best "full on" night out of the trip though so i was less resentful about this one. We did mange to get on bikes and make it to the beach this time though. Oh i also picked up my shirts and shorts, i forgot to mention that! The first day, we all went and got tailor made clothes done. I was thinking a suit but opted for grey tartan shorts and a white shirt.
That night we donned our new clothes and went out for a couple of sophisticated, happy hour, g & t`s.

6`o clock and the alarm goes, We`re off to Na Trang tonight, but wanted to do a day trip to My son before leaving. Their considered to be Cambodia's Angkor wot, which after seeing them doesn`t bode well for Cambodia. No that`s harsh they where`t that bad, i think i was probably the biggest supporter of them in the group, but i wasn`t exactly taken aback by them. Will dubbed them quite possibly the worst ruins he`s ever seen, and in his own words "he`s been to turkey". The highlight of the day was actually when my flip flop got washed downstream and then watching Pascal jump in after it, saving it from absolute oblivion.

One day like this

2009-11-16T16:20:00.006Z

In my quest to convince Will to buy a bike with me and ride the coast we decided on at least renting one first, just to see if it was do-able. The strip between Hue and Hoi`an is considered the nicest in all of Vietnam, especially since it was dubbed as the highlight of the top gear episode, i mean i was excited enough just to be getting a bike so to be doing it in what was meant to be such nice scenery, i couldn`t wait.

10.00 am.. none of us had ever been on bikes before so the first thing to do was learn! We went up and down the street a few times and once everyone felt comfortable set off on the main road.Hues roads aren`t quite Hanoi`s, that place was just mental. That's not to say that these are much safer, you still get people transporting sofas and dining sets of tables and chairs on the back of their bikes. I even saw 5 people on the back of one bike at one point; driver, kid on drivers lap, mum with baby strapped to her front and a kid standing on the back. Anyway we were off, we filled our tanks, we where on highway 01 and heading out of Hue.

12.00 First proper stop of the day, we`d done a few brief stops before this, buying ties to strap round our head Rambo style, another place for a drink and more bike accessories, but now we`d stopped for a wander on foot at these waterfalls.The biking was amazing by the way, we`d only done flat open city roads by this point but i was enjoying it more than i`ve ever enjoyed anything.....ever.
There`s no enforced speed limits, there more like just guidelines and the roads where getting quieter so despite the waterfalls being as good as they were i was just excited to get back on the bike.

3.00 Stopped for dinner at this point, just some fried rice and a drink then back on it... we where coming up to the Hai van mountain pass next which is now possibly the most fun hour of my life. I`d totally gotten comfortable /cocky with the biking at this point, turning into corners, overtaking the sparse traffic. You start to wind up this almost vertical road in the cliff face, before looping round on yourself and revealing the most amazing of views. I didn`t even take many photos which is strange for me as usually it`s pretty high on the priority list, i was just lost in my own mind enjoying things.

5.00 The sun starts to set quite early here, by 5 we where going over this huge bridge, i was pushing pretty hard to get there before darkness and sun was just dipping out of sight, by half 5 i was flying down the beach front towards Hoi`an.

6ish It had just gone dark when we came past the marble mountains of Hoi`an, we decided to go up, seeing as we where there, and just reflected over the days events while overlooking our arrived town. By 7 we`d checked into a hotel, dirt covered an exhausted, i`d enjoyed myself so much this day and could of happily continued to Ho Chi Minh...Without doubt the best day of Vietnam, probably the entire trip, quite possibly ever! and officially in love with bikes.

Home and a "Hue"

2009-11-16T15:31:00.005Z

As i mentioned the first day of weather in Hue was horrible and led to very little being done, bar a bit of drinking and typhoon weather forecast watching, we basically just chilled out at the hotel.

I had a few friends coming up the next day in the form of Will who i meet in a drunken session in Hanoi and Sally who came to Ha long bay with me, so decided i`d save myself for a proper a night out with them...and after another rubbish day of weather on the following day the night out couldn`t come soon enough.

The day after and with a mighty hangover we (with the inclusion of emma who had travelled down with Will from Hanoi) rented bikes and went for a whistle stop tour of Hue`s highlights.

First stop was the tomb of Tu Duc which was pretty cool, he was probably quite a guy back in the day, having one of the largest tombs i`d yet seen with gardens and lakes, he also had over 147 wives and numerous bits on the side, so he seemed like he lived his life on a pretty grand scale.

"Family guy"

2009-11-16T14:48:00.006Z

The next few nights where spent at the home of a friend of the family. I`d never met them before but it`d been arranged that they`d pick me up from the hostel and show me the way to theirs.

It was nice to see somewhere outside the very center of the city. Because of our usual time limits with each place you rarely get to see the outskirts of the town. The interest in you as a tourist definitely increases, just a walk to the local university on the first night resulted in being followed my an entourage of young students all wanting to ask questions and practise their English.

The next day i was taken to the local pottery town (bat Trang) where i was able to meet the people who designed and made some of the products.

After the second day i had to move on though, it was sad to say bye to Tien and the family, the kids and everyone had made me feel really at home and i`d been fed to the point of bursting but i had a lot of distance to travel before my visa ran out.... i`d planned on riding to Hue from Hanoi, i`d test drove and looked at quite a few bikes but nothing that was reliable looking and cheap enough to go with so decided i`d do a bus to Hue to make up some time and then try to sort something from there.

From Sapa to Hanoi to Ha long bay and back again

2009-11-06T06:39:00.013Z

Oh man i hate when i get behind like this, my memory is awful trying to think back to anything that i`ve done.

It`s been a miserable day in `Hue` weather wise, typhoon Mirinae hit the central coast a day before yesterday and the area`s experiencing pretty bad tropical storms, and doesn`t look like letting up anytime soon either.

Anyway i thought i`d take the opportunity to have an epic catch up of the last 8 or so days.

Sapa seems ages ago now :S the bus wasn`t that eventful to be honest, we did pass two lorries that had melded into one in what must of been an almighty crash, but ours was the usual uncomfortable, slow, depressing journey that i was expecting.

I kept away from the tour options for Sapa, i`ve been trying to do more and more on my own recently, so there was only me and one south Korean guy on the bus that where actually backpacking, the rest where locals returning home. I got chatting to him (he`d only started learning English 12 months prior) but we decided we`d save some money and share a room. We ended up with a hotel, free wi-fi, towels, 2 double beds, all for $4 so 2 dollars each. He was a dead nice guy, i can`t remember his name as usual, but he`d spent 21 years learning different forms of martial arts and then the last 6 in the Korean military, so yeah he was hard as nails as well.

We did a bit of lax walking on the first day, neither of us had slept well and didn`t fancy anything to extreme, we thought we`d save that for the next day. The plan was to go to Cat Cat village, meet the locals, stroll around the rice paddies and then loop back on ourselves and then back to the hotel, and to be fair for the most part we stuck to it. The village was awesome, a few too many tourists which killed it a bit but it was nice to see people getting on with their lives, the rice paddies again were really cool, exactly how you`d imagine them but on a much vaster scale, so It was only on the loop back that things started to go a little off track.

You see we`d seen village folk crossing this river on this bamboo bridge/ balancing pole and disappearing over the hill. We thought we`d go explore and then just come back at the next turning point. So we went over this one river, then another, then up a small-ish rock face. "Bruce lee" in front of me was springing all over the show over rocks under tree roots, i was just scrambling behind trying to keep up.

It was nice to feel like i was properly trekking at this point, no paths or signposts... at one point we got to this dried up mudslide which was honestly nearly vertical. He pointed to the top, so i just sorted suggested "sure, lead the way then" It was so slippery trying to get up, by the end i was covered in mud, i`d been using anything for levitation, so my knees elbows and head were caked.

Eventually we made it though, the view was pretty spectacular and we thought we`d go a little further and try and get right to the very top of this hill.

The trail of the villagers had gone by this point and we found ourselves climbing round the outside of this tree, until the floor, which looked like it was made up of twigs and branches partly fell through (it`d looked pretty steady before hand) and as we clinged onto the biggest tree branch we could find you could see from the partly broken floor that it was a vertical drop to the bottom of the hill. I was scared s**tless at that and for the first time wondered at what exactly i was covered for on my travel insurance. We slowly creeped back round to were we started and found a different route down, i slid and tumbled the entire length but after hitting the river again we both let out a sigh of relief at what was easily the stupidest thing i`ve done since setting off. Still fun though

At the night we went out to celebrate not dying with a bottle of herbal wine which was served in a gasoline tank (nice) and just before leaving this little fella in the picture above came over looking a bit lost, i think he was just intrigued by everything, he didn`t ask for any money or beg, he just played hide and seek and laughed at us acting stupid. *I only mention this as i like the picture so much :D

*Back to Hanoi, wash, shower, drink, drink, err drink, sleep, wake up, off to Ha long bay

I was quite lucky with our group, i coaxed everyone from our room to join on the same tour.. we`d all had drinks the other night so knew it`d be a good laugh. On the bus alone we went through 2 litres of vodka while meeting the rest of our group and playing card games (ashamedly the drinking seems to of increased considerably since leaving China) Thankfully by the time they let us loose in the kayaks though we`d mostly sobered up (you`ve gotta love their attitude to health and safety over here)

The bays amazing by the way, in the same way as i was stunned by the great wall, the experience of Ha Long was similar. I could easily of stayed there weeks rather than the few days we did.

I mean the first morning on the beach at half 5 and that was our view, definitely beats driving in the rain to work (sorry guys) This day we again got in Kayaks, just the two of us this time, and headed off in the direction of these far off islands with the intention to only come back once we`d found something cool. After four hours in pretty much one direction we arrived on this unmanned beach and after a little exploration found this fairly large home and introduced ourselves to the residents. It`s quality when you stumble on things like this, they invited us in and gave us tea and wine, they showed us to the top of this hill on their island and had a little game of football, they even had a go in our kayaks while we swam alongside.

Even the ride back served to the adventure as after an hour of rowing against the current we were beat and couldn`t continue for another 3 hours. We changed our direction and headed towards this little fishing boat and haggled for a lift, the guy was pretty apprehensive at the first, i think he thought we were kayak pirates and after his belongings, but after alot of pointing and smiling he let us on and before long we where sharing a can of beer and he was letting us steer his boat towards our island, kayaks being towed along behind, it was an awesome end to and awesome day.

Back to Hanoi!

Pro Evolution Soccer: Vietnam Edition

2009-10-29T06:18:00.011Z

I`m sorry this is getting completely out of Sync, and i promise the rest of Vietnam will be in a much more chronological order, but i forgot to mention this random moment that happened off the plane and it probably deserves a mention...

I arrived off the plane to Hanoi to the usual "want a taxi, cheap price for you" which i said no to and jumped on the bus. This is where things went a wee bit weird. I sat next to just this random guy, skinny, glasses, he introduced himself as something, i can`t remember, i`ll call him jack (oh that reminds me i was talking to two students at the lake the other day and one said he`d choose his English name (you can choose your own English name when at school) to be jack, as his brother had picked "Micheal" and their surname was "san" basically he thought it was the funniest thing to be able to say Micheal Jack San when introducing themselves. He laughed at this story quite a lot until straight faced said "not so funny now he dead")
So anyway back to the bus jack, i asked him if he could tell me where the bus drops us so i could find my way to the hostel and he said he could show me to where the hostel was instead., i thought ok, suppose he could just be being nice and he was fairly weak looking so i thought at worse i could take him.
He then paid for my ticket (cheers) and on route to the hostel asked if i wanted a coffee "yeah sure" (free is free when all said and done, even if his plan was to drug me and steal all my organs, which he didn`t by the way) Then after this really nice, undrugged, cold coffee he showed me to the hostel. He then asked if i fancied seeing his cyber cafe??..."urmm not sure, hell why not" he said he had pro evo, that was enough for me. Actually he said "do you want to get beat at Pro Evo!" which sounded like fighting talk :D
He paid for the taxi there and true to form there was a real cyber cafe and next door was the promised Pro evo building. Lines of 42 inch LCD tv`s all accompanied with 2 people competing against one another.
He seemed to be head of this cyber mafia i`d somehow found myself part of and i was given someone else's seat at a TV (awkward) he took the pad and passed me another one and as everyone had gathered to watch, all laughed as i got beat quite badly. "re-match" he says. "Fine by me", and this time i score first, to absolute silence. He was fine and still smiley but the rest just looked at me and although didn`t say anything, i somehow got the impression i wasn`t supposed to win. With or without organs there was no way i`m letting someone win. So we just carried on like that, every time i won, i got death threat looks and every time he won got a round of applause, and at the end he just turned to me and asked if i was tired, i said yes, and then someone wheeled out a bike and he rode me back to the hostel......video below :D

It was an absolute insane day, i`d lost my travel partner, nearly missed my plane, been looked at in disgust by the visa people in Nam (that`s another story to be told in person i guess) and spent the night playing Pro evo in a building more suited to cooking up heroine than playing computer games.

ok sorry about that...fast forward back to now>>

Miyagi`s town

2009-10-29T05:48:00.005Z

Is it racist to keep referring to Vietnams most loved and influential leader as Mr Miyagi?? yeah..probably :)

So anyway, what i first though as a unhealthy obsession to "karate kid" turns out to be for "Ho Chi Minh", Vietnam's president from 1954 - 69 (should of known some of that) But he`s well loved over here and his face pops up more than even Mau`s did in China.

I went to visit his old house and the palace. His body which is usually kept in the mausoleum next door was on holiday in Russia, something he seems to like doing every October, so i wasn`t able to see that. (then again saying that i didn`t go to Mau`s either, there`s something about queuing to see a dead dude that doesn`t appeal, i find the idea of madame Tussaud's creepy, so this is on another level)

The rest of the city is insanely busy and loud but has quiet a cool character to it, just crossing the road is as much fun as any sightseeing spot plus I`m in a proper party hostel here which has been good for being back alone. I`m popping to Sapa for 4 days in a few hours on a night bus (the routes supposed to be quite a scary uphill windy road, so that should be fun). I am looking forward to a bit of quiet on getting there though and it also gives me the chance for some proper trekking.

Hong Kong Phooey

2009-10-29T04:59:00.009Z

I know i said i wanted to do as little flying a possible but hong kong wasn`t initially on the itinerary either, i hoped to just train it from Kunming or Nanning but the national day had changed all that and extending my visa seemed to involve opening a Chinese bank account and having money frozen for something like 2 months, this meant hong kong became my only real option. Thankfully Laurens flight to Bangkok was from HK so we thought we`d train it together again and part ways there.

Day one and i don`t remember at all what we did, i think we just eat! oh actually i do remember we took the star ferry across to hong kong island to see the lights and had a little wander around the place. It was strange being back to a big western style city, allot of suits walking around, european style pricing, english speaking. It wasn`t a negative first impression it was just so different to what we`d got used to.

The following day we did Victoria peak which i guess is the most iconic of all hong kong imagery. We went up when it was only dusk and at the top found out you can`t go up and down freely :) this meant a few hours freezing at the top waiting for sunset. We did manage to get a 30 min toilet break though.

The view itself is spectacular, despite a layer of mist covering the horizon, it`s 100% worth the ride up, and gave you that feeling that your actually standing somewhere you`ve looked at and imagined being while researching the trip (kinda like the great wall, but colder). Once back on our own side of the river we explored the neon craziness that is "Nathan street", grabbed some food and explored the night market. Hong Kong really does only come alive at night, it`s like it`s having a nap during the day waiting for people to finish work... which is lucky as the next day we ended up waking at half one and putting an end to our plans of seeing the Buddha before we`d even set off.

We were meeting some of Laurens friends for the races at 6 (night time horse racing is this big thing ever Wednesday over there) so we only had a bit of time to explore Soho and a look down the antique street. Before u know it though we where having drinks and placing bets..... and winning. Nothing big, we were betting the equivalent of a few quid each time. But we went 3 for 3, including an outsider taking 1st, so it paid for our drinks..

I haven`t really made my mind up on Hong kong, even now 3 days after.

The view of the skyline from both the boat and the high point was pretty awesome. But it felt a little to much like being back home, i liked feeling like i was actually travelling in China and here i was just another person in a big crowd. Lauren could probably make a desert in Iraq fun, so there was no chance of not enjoying myself, i just don`t know how much was down to the city and how much was due to Company.

Saying that we`ve parted ways now so it`s back to solo travelling, China was amazing, it really was, and if i can meet similar people from here on out then i think i might be extending my trip.

...onto Vietnam

Skipping forward for a second

2009-10-24T06:29:00.002+01:00

I`ll get to Hong Kong in a bit but this is an abbreviated version of the prior hour and a half:

"what time is it" "12" "crap i need to book a hostel for vietnam, i`m going to be there in 4 hours" "excuse me the internet isn`t working" (click,click,click) "ok, cheers" [book hostel] "how do i get to the airport?" "bus A12" (say goodbyes and go to bus stop, and start chatting to a guy at the stop) "what time`s your flight?" "2:55" (eyes widen) "good luck" [oh that`s not a good response] (half one before the bus shows up) "how long does this take" "45 mins" "shit" (one hour later, running off the bus to the check in desk and three people start helping me check in quickly) [passport, check, flight details, check] "you should run sir!" (security guy sees me running and lets me jump to the front for baggage and security check) [i could of hugged him i was that thankful] "final call for VA791 to Hanoi" "(owwww double shit" (running past gate 7, gate 8............. still running, jumped half the escalator... 11, 12.....) [i`m gate 20] "hurry" (the woman had seen me as she was pulling the elastic chord over the entrance door) (quick smile to say thanks, and take my seat) "your lucky :) " "i know"

The great outdoors

2009-10-20T02:53:00.002+01:00

We arrived in gulin at 6ish and jumped a bus to yangshuo, now yangshuo isn`t exactly large but as it was pitch black when we arrived and there`s no english signs or people to understand us, we were basically just left hanging out at the bus station, neither of us have phones so we had to ask a local to borrow theirs, which is easier said, and ask the hostel to come pick us up. Which they did... with 2 vespas! My backpack isn`t large so that`s not a problem but Laurens is 47 pounds which is ridiculously heavy, but hey they plonked it in the bit were your feet go, we jumped on the back and set off. Just one of us slightly slower than the other.
The morning came and with it so did the sun, glorious sunshine. I hadn`t seen a blue sky since those febreeze rockets were shot into beijings sky, so it was nice to be back to flip flops and t-shirts. We rented bikes for the days events. The first one which was wheeled out was lilac, i thought Lauren could have that while i wait for the "man bike" which so happened to be bright pink. I looked at Lauren with that " ok lets just obviously swap" sort of face, to which she turned around and rode off. Guess it was me and the barbie bike for the day then.

We rode to the river, chucked our bikes on this truck, which we were promised would be waiting for us at the bottom and hoped onto our bamboo raft. It was something like a 2 hour cruise to the end point and a welcomed chance to relax after having spent 30 hours travelling. We eat fruit and just chilled and even the promise of our bikes being returned turned out to be true.
10 minutes down the road, and a few dodgy looks at my bike later we got to `moon hill` [probably best to look at pictures than trying to explain] but we hiked to the top (which was longer than we first thought) and then rushed back for our lunch at the hostel (which was now sooner than we`d planned)

Yesterday we decided to get off the beaten track, which to be fair was already fairly off the track anyway, and rent mopeds for the day. I`d never been on one before and as the first thing i did was run over laurens big toe i thought maybe it should also be the last.. We pushed on though, me trying not to crash into every car and bus and Lauren doing her usual handstand while taking photos, steering with her feet routine. But after a few mins though i was loving it and joining in with the photo taking. The scenery was some of the nicest i`ve ever seen in my life, and everyone was waving and saying hello. The family we stopped at for a snack all came out and had photos with us and practised there English. It was just such a nice day and we ended it with big reveal of the Li River (which incidentally is on the back of the 20 yuan note)

Kung Fu Panda

2009-10-16T08:35:00.003+01:00

Currently 4 hours into our 26 hour train journey from Chengdu to Guilin, me and Lauren have said our goodbyes to Rich and Shell and are lazily doing anything to keep boredom at bay. We went to see the panda breeding base this morning, which when used with a panda card *sold from all good supermarkets for 10 pence* is free to get in with. There`s no cages or mistreatment, it`s amazing! I didn`t go to the zoo in Beijing for moral reasons and for just that little extra effort in coming here, feel priviliged to of seen them in a much better enviroment. There shockingly adorable and at the same time absolutley useless. They sit, eat and every so often gingerly walk around the place...... like old people (joke)

"Big Buddha"

2009-10-16T08:08:00.005+01:00

We only had two nights in chengdu which we spent at sims hostel, it would of been nice to of had an extra night or two i reck, but Rich and Shell were booked on a boat cruise and lauren was heading off to Shanghai for the 16th, plus my visa is getting worryingly close to running out, so we had to get a move on.

We`d paired up in private rooms so that was a blessing to be be able to spread out a bit more than usual, i`d literally been living in dorms since Rome and a private shower was a luxury greatly missed. Also it meant we could order take away and eat it in our room, which was a first for this trip.

Ordering take out in China from a menu with no pictures and no English writing is one of the funniest things you`ll ever do in your life. Trying to mime noodles and chickens is one thing thing but saying you want to take it away is something else, i ended up having to go into the kitchen and pretending to carry a bag out. All this as well as having to steal enough chopsticks for us all to eat with. [and for the record soy sauce is nigh on impossible to mime, FACT]

The day after we took the 2 hour train to Leshan to see the worlds biggest Buddha, standing at just over 71m it`s frickin huge, i was well impressed with this place.. we also had the place almost to ourselves which made it extra cool, especially as we`d heard the rumors of queues of up to 4 and 5 hours during the national day :O owww

Catch up episode

2009-10-15T18:09:00.005+01:00

Sorry for the lack of updates recently i think i got a little to comfy in Beijing, enjoying just strolling around in the sun without a care in the world. But i`ve been on the move since then and am currently in Xi`an. We`ve spent the last three nights here and in a few hours we`ll be heading to Chengdu.

The beijing set on flickr is up to date now with new photos.. i didn`t get up to too much in those last few days after the parade, we all visited the 798 art district which was good fun, i learnt to play mahjong (kinda) and also made a return visit to both the temple of heaven and wafujing market. The day before getting the train i again rented bikes, and at the nightime after doing the hostels BBQ made a trip to the visual arts building.

Ok Xi`an! we arrived to rain which to be honest i`d had enough of in Shanghai, but at least this time i had company from john and lauren who`d travelled down with me. (extra kudos to lauren who snuck me from the soft seater i`d booked onto and into a spare soft sleeper bed) In the queue for the hostel pick up we bumped into another manchester couple (shell and rich) who were both a proper laugh as well. We ended up staying in for the most part of the day, braving the weather every now and then for beer runs, the big bottles here are 2.5 yuan (25 pence) so a few turned into many and many turned into many more, so much so we ended sneaking two bottles of vodka into the bar downstairs and only calling it a night once every drop had been had.

The day after and yep, more rain, not as much as the previous day but enough to be warned against renting bikes, but not so much as for us to take any notice. We rode as a 4 with one of the bikes handles slightly broke (a lot broken actually) and that one obviously being mine, we rode to the Muslim quarter, through back alleys and markets. It was so wet and i didn`t take many photos but we stopped off for indian esque chinesse dumplings and had such a laugh it really didn't matter.

Before returning the bikes we stopped by the bell tower for a music performance and some food, then back again for the night and a few more quiet beers.

Yesterday we did the terracotta army, which despite people in the hostel claiming it to be a disappointment it really wasn`t. We ended in pit 1 which probably went some way to help as it was by far the most impressive of the tombs, 3 and 2 were a little uninspired its got to be said.... 1 was vast though, hundreds of warriors perfectly restored, they looked ace and i`m glad i got to see them.

So that`s that, Chengdu from here to the pandas and hopefully a day trip to leshan. It`s a 16 hour hard sleeper for the 4 of us. Just need to go stock up on pot noodles for the ride :D

National day

2009-10-03T01:47:00.013+01:00

There was a myth i heard about the Chinese government before i got here, about their ability to alter the weather... obviously placing it in my mind as complete bullshit (Americans keep saying BS instead which angers me greatly). But it seems it holds some merit. According to "China daily" the rain we experienced last night was government induced. They supposedly shot rockets into the sky with chemicals to clear the pollution in time for national holiday, and you've gotta hand it to them the weathers been the best its been since arriving here!
The plan was to go to the bar and spend the day watching the parade on a TV with a beer. Reason being, as eloquently as the Chinese put it "not everyone is invited" we'd known there was no way to watch it properly in the square as that was reserved for government officials. But we'd thought/hoped to at least see some of it.

Lo and behold the street at the end of the hostel was blocked off as if the parade was going to go straight past, and the after the police dude confirmed it we set up shop with our beers and after an hour or so got to see a bunch of tanks ride through.
The pictures on 'boston.com' are far superior to anything i was in a position to take, so again just look there.

The night time there was supposed to be a big ol fireworks display, but again it was impossible to get anywhere close enough to see anything. I befriended someone outside a hairdressers and we eventually ended up watching it with this family in their store front :D

The missing days

2009-10-03T01:34:00.013+01:00

This place really is feeling like home now, the last few days have been amazing... i get to wake up in this hostel, grab breakfast and eat it in the courtyard, in the the sun, then walk out in flip flops and shorts listening to whatever play list i choose for the day

The summer palace was/is huge, we didn't do everything...to be honest i don't think we even did half, but the weather had been cleared of pollution, which was a first for Beijing, and we were treated to views that others had said where impossible over the past weeks, so it was nice to know we were seeing it at its best.
I don't even know what i did at the nights as these days have blended into one.

I think the day after a few of us decided to rent bikes and hit the streets. We stopped by the temple of heaven where i also bumped into Adam and Ally which was the couple i mentioned from the boat and we also rode past the Preparations for national day at Tia'men square. I got pulled into some ping pong game, i got a shave off some guy in the street (who i've gotta add had the thickest glasses i've ever laid eyes on) and enjoyed a beer on the edge of the lake.

Granted this isn't the most exciting entry to date but the days haven't exactly had structure as of late and i've been taking less and less photos recently so my source for remembering things has dried up
It's national day tomorrow so maybe i'll have something slightly more cohesive to write then...

Wall-e

2009-09-27T04:04:00.015+01:00

I`m having an awesome time here, the day trip to the great wall is easily one of the highlights of the entire trip so far. I`d signed onto the trip through the hostel. I originally just wanted to it on my own but it didn`t cost much more and at least it meant everything was sorted, the start time was 5:50 though which didn`t fit quite so well with my now somewhat lazy routine.
The walk was around a 10k hike between Jinshanling to Simatai, i didn`t want to do the usual Badaling bit as it just sounds horribly overrun with people and street sellers. I wanted to actually feel like i walked a bit of it rather than just go get the postcard style photograph, than come back. Also this was far more remote and the extra effect it would take would mean no chance of the dreaded "American family"

The ride there is just over 3 hours, and not the comfiest 3 hours either, about 10 of us cramped in this pretty tiny van, then add in some insane driving.
The walk itself was stunning, i mean really stunning, for such initial high hopes the fact i was in no way disappointed is testament to how cool this place is. You got to walk on original wall and at times had views from in front and behind where you couldn`t see a single person. By the end you where genuinely knackered and this huge zipline that you take to cross the river was a ridiculous amount of fun. They also chucked in a quick buffet before the 3 hour return journey.
We got back for half 7 and the hostel was having its daily event sort of thing. Monday (today) they have a free BBQ, Thursday is a sort of tea party and Friday `walk day` it was dumpling making, so we got the chance to fill up on these amazing dumplings. This, as food and beer usually does, drew a bit of a crowd and got everyone chatting and having a laugh. We`d also had a few beers by this time so when the suggestion to go to wangfujing market to eat scorpion came up it sounded like a pretty good idea. I tried pretty much everything put in front of me from, snake skin to sheep penis, scorpion was actually the only one that had a decent taste as all the others just made me want to vomit.
Back at hostel we all stayed up chatting about the nights events and then 24 hours after waking, i crashed out on my bed. Definitely a good day.

I was too tired to do anything the following day so apart from going for a Chinese hotpot with a lad from the hostel i really just sat around and enjoyed a day off.
The guy serving us did give us a proper laugh though as he came over and said i looked like "big ham" we obviously had no idea what that meant, but the guy was persistent and kept saying "big ham" "big ham" i tried helping him out by saying "like a pig?" (not sure why i said that?) but he then pointed at his feet and said "footballer" "ahhhh, beckham?" "yes, big ham"... quality! i was happy with that, despite the lack of any truth in it, he became my favourite person for a short while :)
Oh actually i did so something, Ben, a roommate who`d just checked in said he was off to a couchsurfing party and if i`d like to come with. So i ended up playing guitar hero at some girls house, drinking this 56% rice/vodka wierd drink, at some point dancing in a club and making it home alone. None of which i can really remember, and i`m only able to write this as i`ve been informed since with pictures and videos of the night from ben.

The 2 of us sat around in pain for the entirety of the next day with only a trip to the Olympic stadium to get a change of scenery from the hostel. Today we`re doing the summer palace and then the city almost shuts down for the start of the national holiday.

Beijing

2009-09-26T11:16:00.004+01:00

First off the hostel here is the best i`ve stayed in, which is a good job considering i`m stuck here till the 6th of October. For some reason i`m the only person who didn`t get the memo about Chinese national holiday, which means every train, bus and plane, hostel and hotel is booked up. The Chinese don`t piss around when it comes to holidays, all 1.7 billion of em get up and go somewhere.
This obviously means i`m in Beijing for the parade on the 1st which will be insane (check out the far superior pictures than mine on boston.com) but the place is in overdrive at the moment and there`s a proper buzz around the place. Security's at a maximum and it`s the 60th anniversary so it`s going to be huge. A few people have warned saying to keep a low profile as it`s a really strict festival and one i don`t think touristy, photo happy foreigners are all to welcome to. Sure i`ll be fine though...

My first day which was spent in a very tired state was at the forbidden city and the surrounding areas, it`s a good job it`s hugely impressive as anything less than stunning and i would of been found asleep on the floor. Like everything in Beijing though it`s epically big, i`d always thought it was a single square, the one you see in every film set in ancient China. But it`s not, there`s like 7 of them, then hundreds of corridors coming from them, then a huge garden area as well.

I slept like a baby that night, well till 5 o clock at least, when my alarm went off and i had to get ready for the great wall trip.

This is the start of what was

2009-09-26T10:26:00.006+01:00

The following 12 hours have the potential to topple the Milan train journey, I`ve been guided into the shanghai waiting room along with a hundred others like cattle to the slaughter. I`ve got an hour till boarding but for the fact it`s a 110 yuan (11 quid) train journey that travels across half the country to Beijing, i`m somewhat sceptical about the quality of my journey. When you purchase your tickets there`s the usual class difference to pick. Soft sleeper; as in 4 bunk beds, toilet etc, Hard sleeper; 20 odd beds in one carriage 3 bunks high, Soft seater; which i`m guessing is something like a regular seat, then hard seater; which again as i`m yet to use a train is only off hear`say but seems to be a school bench running the length of one carriage. Obviously being the Cheap skate i am and my love of pain, i went with the hard seat.

I`ve been in Shanghai 3 night/4 days now.. i ought start with the boat and go from there i guess.a
We all stepped off the boat, happy to be back on steady ground again and had decided to all meet up after finding a ATM and chucking our bags in the hostel. Mine the "Mingtown Etour Hostel" wasn`t to bad to find and was shortly back at the meeting spot for the others. Some had a little more trouble than most, but eventually we all pretty much met back up and allowed kev to show us around. Kev was the Chinese Japanese/English speaking dude and had said he`d take us to get some good food. He first led us to the old town, it`s the place in the pictures with plenty of red lanterns and was my first experience to Dim sum. Although i`ve now been told it`s not really unless it`s in a soup or something like that!! But there basically little pork filled dumplings with a oily sauce inside. There Amazing (i know i`ve been saying allot things are amazing recently but these things really are, and for 6 it came to like 40 pence)
The old towns pretty cool, quite touristy but plenty of good street food and a bunch of souvenir shops to have a gander at. I can`t remember where we got took for the night meal, i was unable to re-find it over the following days, but i do remember that 11 of us split 11 meals, 15 or so bowls of rice and 22 beers and only had to cough up something around two pound ten each. After japan this was a god send. Oh crap, we`ve gotta go through ticket inspection, guess i`ll pick it up either on route if i have room or after arrival when there`ll probably be tear stains on this page :)

The train journey really wasn`t that bad, i didn`t get much sleep but i least had a seat this time, and was able to watch 30 rock on my lappy.

Ok next day, and rain! nothing but rain, not even umbrella copeable rain but the sort that makes it virtually impossible to go out in. I did venture out at one point to the modern art museum which was kinda part cool, part completely up it`s own arse... There was the video game flower on display, projected on a big screen in a large white room with a PS3 pad available to mess with. That was neat to see it given a spot in a place like that and at the night i went to visit Sarah a girlfriend of a ex-work colleague, well actually i went to meet her twice as i`d forgotten to change the watch from japan time and arrived an hour early first time through.
The next day and more rain, it was a real bummer not being able to go and explore, and this was now my last night. I`d met a Scottish couple the other day and spent most the time chatting and drinking with them, and after grabbing some lunch (which wasn`t great) i headed off to the station.
Talking of food the night before i went into a random restaurant with no English menu or person and after pointing at other peoples plates and saying chicken quite allot she went away and came back with just a fried chicken, feet head, everything! i poked it with chopsticks for a bit and in the end resorted to dumplings from a street market.

The boat that rocked

2009-09-21T03:03:00.004+01:00

I was expecting the boat to be like the flight over, days of just me rambling in this thing for company, not many other foreigners and alot of boredom.
The reality is it`s been as good as any hostel I`ve been to. There`s about twenty of us English speaking lot from all over the globe and it`s been a proper laugh, we stayed awake drinking on deck, doing karaoke, and having dinner/breakfast with one another. The sea has been steady for the most part and honestly if I got told I`d have to stay a few days longer I wouldn`t mind in the least. We`re all gonna grab breakfast after dropping our bags in the hostel and there`s a British couple doing the same route through china so I may be tagging along with them for a little while.
We`ve been having Chinese lessons off a guy called Kevin and I`m really looking forward to China now, I know the basics of the language and got a good list of things to see and do, and a bunch of cheap as chips hostels to stay in along the way.

I know this is only a short entry but it`s still a boat when all said and done and mainly all I`ve seen has been water... we did do karaoke last night which i really wish i had a camera for. I didn`t sing but one Chinese guy did one of the greatest versions of Jon Bon Jovi`s "it`s my life" which had ever muscle in my body creasing up to stop me from crying with laughter. So you`ll just have to look at one of the sunsets we where there to witness instead.

I can see Shanghai now and it`s been cool to actually feel the distance rather than flying here in an hour from Tokyo, anyway tanoy says we`ve gotta go.. cya

List time

2009-09-20T16:58:00.004+01:00

Mainly as a way to entertain myself on this boat here`s a won`t/will miss list of Japan.

WON`T - The cost of this place! it`s ridiculous, even doing it as cheap as possible, eating once a day, skimping on activities it`s still 4 times the cost of anywhere else I`m visting (bar europe)

WILL - Politeness; with a very limited vocab you never feel helpless over here, people are quick to run to your side, give u directions etc... saying that at the same time it is hard to get past that point with them, to have a conversation is really difficult on the whole, even when they`re able to speak english, their amazingly introverted.

WILL - Food here has been really nice, I`ve tried all kinds of new stuff, certain sushi which I`ve never seen back home, the otoymaki, taky yaki (octopus dumplings) ramen

WON`T - Food here is also massively lacking in meat, veg, it`s to expensive to buy fruit and the portions are a little small for my comparativly much larger appitite.

WON`T - Crossing a road here is a very organized affair. The street can be the width of a car, a gap small enough that I could jump from pavement to pavement and yet there`s a green man crossing, there can also be no cars coming either way for as far as the eye can see but yet the queue will grow until the little man pops up and then everyone crosses together. The times when I`ve thought sod it and just quickly walked over have resulted in a look of shock from the locals as if I`d offended Budda himself.

WILL - Transport isn`t just the most effcient, clean and quick, but it`s also the most polite.. nothing like a little song when you arive at your destination and then a electronic "thank you" from the ticket machine as you go through.

WILL - I can`t imagine a cleaner place the world over. I saw a few pieces of litter in a month, and that was a real effort to search out. It`s not even like they have a good number of bins it`s just they have enough respect to just not launch it on the floor.

WILL - The amount of arcades and easy access to manga. I should of been born in Japan really, comics, games, movies, gadgets, cool design... it`s like listing my hobbies and interests.

Japan Retropective

2009-09-20T16:32:00.003+01:00

I`ve officially left Japan now, we`re a night into our boat travel and the next thing we`ll be seeing is shanghai. I`ve really enjoyed myself the past few weeks. Japan was always `thee` country I wanted to visit and was as insane and attractive as I`d hoped. Their attitude to holding onto the countries history and yet embracing future technologies is something that`s lost on many parts of the world and something to be admired.
If I had to name highlights it would probably include...the gundam model which was amazing, the goverment building night view, the karaoke in shibuya, everything about tokyo i really enjoyed. The stumbling onto the festival in Nara was as cool as it was surprising and the giant budda in Todai-ji temple was quite something. Hiroshima and the sunset at Miyajima hold fairly strong memories as well.

I`ve put together a collection on flickr of an overview from Japan, so basically anyone who hasn`t been arsed to click through all the photos can see an overview here (yes I`m on a boat and a wee bit bored)

Ugly Sister

2009-09-20T16:20:00.003+01:00

Rough guides opening line on Osaka is "Japans equivalent of the elephant man", and it`s true. The first day or two I strolled around, it`s impossible to think anything but this place is ugly. Compared to Fukuoka or Tokyo this place is like a street market. The shops are amazing mind you, some of the most desirable things I`ve seen throughout all japan, but as i lacked the budget to go shopping it was somewhat wasted on me, as was the number of places to eat and drink, as again I really didn`t have to budget to treat myself to expensive foods nightly. The people here as well had a slightly different attitude compared to the rest of the places I`d visited, people crossed roads on a red light, people bang into one another, fashion is taken to a new level of extreme, girls even showing shoulders, which although none sound like a big deal, for japan it really goes against the grain.. everyone has this slight edge to them and with it also came the first littering I saw since arriving (on a side note Osaka has the best looking population of any place I`ve ever visited, the place is a cat walk of a city)

But yet the more time you spend here, the more u grow to have a soft spot for the place, if I could pick up any city and stick it to the side of the UK, it`d be Osaka.............no that`s a lie it`d be Tokyo but it`s that sort of place. Love to live here but to sight see it`s a no-no.
For that reason the day before leaving for China I popped over to Takarazuka, the birth place of Tezuka who created Astro Boy and therefore the birthplace of Manga and Japanese animation (anime) It`s a tiny place and I`d only gone to see the manga museum really but the sun was out and as a trip away from Osaka it was a nice half day, plus on my return I checked into a capsule hotel, it was my last night and I wanted to give it a go you know. I mean watch the video, but I slept awfully. I`d once again bumped into the couple from Hiroshima who were doing the boat ride tomorrow and had a drink with a few other Brits as well, but in terms of sleep, no way! It reminded me way to much of hospital, the hard bed, the crappy pillow and especially the scrub like robes you have to put on. Probably not the best thing when you know you`re spending the next few days on a boat but it was a laugh and an experience.

"Fukuoka" pronounced `fu` not `fuk`

2009-09-13T05:47:00.012+01:00

I left Hiroshima amidst the baseball frenzy of a carps home game, i hadn`t watched any sports since leaving England and was gutted not to be going. I was considering if it might be possible to go to Fukuoka to check in, then return to watch the game and grab the last train back afterwards. But after doing that journey for the 1st time my desire to do it another 2 times over became a little less appealing than it initially had been.
I checked into this cool hostel `the khaosan fukuoka` and while he was entering my details i had a skim through this free city pamphlet, and there it was, hawks vs eagles, still baseball just a hell of a lot closer, 6 o clock start at the yahoo dome! I dumped my bags and shot off on a 45 minute bus journey to the match.

The ticket was only a thousand yen, that`s like 6 pound 50, and for a country this expensive i thought that was pretty good going. Obviously the cheap seats meant i was the furthest from the game, our seats had no backs and the band was directly behind us, but seeing as the extent of my knowledge extends to `three strikes and you`re out`, i`m pretty sure i wasn`t going to understand anything for the next three hours wherever i sat. It was really just a chance to get to experience the atmosphere of sports in japan, and quite a strange one at that.
Maybe "strange" isn`t the right word as it kinda implies it wasn`t fun, which it was. They just definitely have their own way of doing things over here, that`s all. For a start no-one claps, everyone has these hollow plastic sticks to bang together, then they have these crowd conductors (guess u probably call them that) who orchestrate what songs/chants are sung. But it`s the chants themselves that are the strangest of things. They`re just so overwhelmingly complicated, involving waving, pointing, twirls, singy bits... the video doesn`t show it off to well, but it`s like a more complicated `Macarena dance` and just about everyone in the crowd knows it. Well actually it wasn`t even an `it` there was loads of them. Each one had it`s own routine and singing section. I mean back home we can shout a chant out together, maybe not perfectly in tune. But imagine if you gave us all sticks, you could probably see within seconds everyone holding there head because there mate next to them will of decided to hit them with it instead.
It was a quality night though, everyone came and left with a smile despite in the end losing, and although i didn`t have a clue what was going on, and couldn`t join in with a single dance thing (this was despite the efforts of the two girls sat next to me and a 4 year old who couldn`t help laughing at my rubbishness) i`d spent the money i`d saved on the ticket on a nice few beers. So i quietly got a bit merry while everyone else sang there way through the game.

The next day and heavy, heavy rain. I`d planned on just walking around the town before going off to `insert name of festival if i ever find out` festival. But that seemed unlikely now. I`d heard off a few people that there was a big indoor mall like complex called canal city which was in walking distance, it supposedly had good places to eat, some cool arcades (got to the final boss on tekken 6) and if i got bored of that there was a cinema that showed films undubbed.
Oh i also had the nicest dinner here, in the way Hiroshima is known for its Okonomiyaki , and Tokyo for it`s sushi, here was for its ramen soup. Ramen`s like a noodle soup, slightly spicy (well it can be) plenty of spring onions and usually a couple slices of pork, and yeah it was delicious.
I slowly walked the shops and arcades, i even stuck my head in the inhumanly loud pachinko room and just before resorting to the cinema i took a look outside to find the rain had just about stopped and the sun was starting to shine again. I thought i might as well give the festival a go if the weather was to continue like this

The pictures from here probably do more to show what it was like than any ramblings from me, i wasn`t sure what they were celebrating, it was alot of people dressed in white and banging drums and bells. Have a look here for pictures and here and here for the videos

My return to the common room of the hostel was greeted with a lot of people speaking English and quite a few of which were drinking. They where off out to some 3000 yen all you can drink rock club, and i quickly took them up on their offer to join. Now i don`t have any pictures from the night and the fact family are probably reading this means it`s best if i just say i had a few more than your recommended daily amount and that i got the metro back at 2pm the next day, in a state that i think looked as though i`d just learnt how to walk for the very first time, sooooo.... next!

Well actually there wasn`t a next, i got myself 4 hamburgers and a bag of bread to toast and apart from a short walk in the afternoon, the day was spent mainly in a state of pain and tiredness.

My rail pass officially dies today so it`s a short wait now until the boat pulls in, then i`m off to China.

Hiroshima & Miyajima

2009-09-10T04:37:00.014+01:00

Hiroshima has probably been the biggest surprise of the trip so far, i wasn`t expecting all that much from it, but felt i couldn`t miss a city thats had such an impact on recent history and yet now i`m here it`s an amazingly good looking, nice city to be in.
The first thing you see off the tram is the `A bomb dome`. It`s barely able to support itself and obviously only a shell of a building, but when you consider this to be one of a very few number of buildings that would of been visible in august 1945 it has a considerable impact. I think the thing i`m liking so much about Hiroshima, and this feeling continued through to the peace flame and the museum, was its emphasis not on misery and loss but on optimism and hope for the future. The people who were lost have a building within the peace park which is incredibly tastefully done and well looked after. But on the whole, the place is a monument for peace, for the eradication of all nuclear bombs and a reminder of the horror of Nuclear war. Another uplifting thing was the amount of school groups from all over that where being taken around and having everything explained. It`s just good to see it being told and having a visible impact at such an early age. There was a french choir at the Sadako monument, if you don`t know the story, then read it! I`ll even put a link so just click here! They had a little ceremony where they presented a reef of cranes and sang a few songs, so that was nice to be there to see that.
Walking towards the museum you pass the `flame of peace` which will only be extinguished once the last nuclear weapon on earth has been destroyed. Then you come to the museum itself, which again is really well done, there`s no blame or hate. Just an underlying "let`s never let this sort of thing ever happen again, anywhere" message throughout.

Ok, serious bit over, i`m sure i`ll revert back to pictures of toilets and stories of me banging my head again before long.
The next morning i set off to Miyajima, it`s a little island that takes less than an hour from Hiroshima, I`m actually going back tonight to watch the sunset seeing as it`s little effort to do so.
The place is famous for it`s tori shrine that stands in the water at the islands entrance. It`s a cool little place, i mean it`s tiny really and you basically go to see that one view that`s in every book, travel guide and pamphlet on Japan. Oh and i learnt why every things painted that bright orange you see in all the pictures. It`s the same reason for the red in China and that`s because it`s believed to warn off bad spirits.. so there you go.
I Didn`t fancy the 2.5km walk to the top of Mt Misen, so after a good look everywhere i hopped on the ferry back to the hostel.

Bet you wish your toilet was hot like this

2009-09-08T11:28:00.007+01:00

Pointless post this but what the hell. I just had to mention the toilets here. This is pretty much the standard, but the light comes on when u walk in, the toilet seat opens, fresh water is put in the bowl, you get a little light inside the toilet for no reason than i guess that it looks cool and also the seat is heated which is changable....... i mean come on, that`s just awesome. I couldn`t NOT mention this.

I have friends back home that if they had this i`d probably never get to see them again :)

Geisha Hunting...Sucess! kinda

2009-09-08T10:33:00.004+01:00

This may be a little scatty but the last few days have been a little like that. I`ve really just spent time walking around the city and visting things i stumble upon, rather than searching out particular hotspots.One of the days i rented a bike and spent the entire day just wizzing around from place to place. Makes a nice change from walking. I rode over to the manga museum at one point which had previously been shut and spent a good hour out in the sun reading `lady snowblood vol 1`... the place is basically just a library dedicated to manga. There`s exhibitions and workshops etc but for the most part it`s just books and DVDs which you take and read or watch in one of the rooms or outside on their terrace. There was an international section and a kids bit aswell, so yeah, it was a pretty relaxed day. To be honest it`s been soo hot here lately part of the fun has just being doing quite little while out in sun.I did go to the imperial palace today though, it`s free to be taken around, you just have to apply for permission from the tourist office before hand that`s all. That was alright, to say it was the `Imperial Palace`, i don`t know, i guess i just expected it to be a bit more epic. I also went down the main geisha street (again). With it being my last day here i was hoping fate would do me a favour and maybe i`d see one. After a 10 minite wait hanging around one popped out of the door which was directly in front of me, i grabbed my camera, as u do, and took a few photos. As i did this others around me had noticed her and literally starting sprinting towards this girl, i think she was a Maiko, which is sort of a Geisha apprentice, and she looked petrified...these people were ramming photos directly in her face and stopping her from moving to were she was going, and i just felt horrible that i`d somehow been a part of this mob that had continued following her down the street. So i left after that. 12 days to see a Geisha, and when i happen to see one i left in a downbeat mood :(

Off to Hiroshima today for 3 nights and seeing as i`ve given the camera a rest for most of the last couple of days i`m really looking forward to arriving somewhere new and exploring a whole new area of Japan. Washings done, batteries are charged and the blogs up to date. Just a relaxing 2 hour train ride to go.

On a forgetful note, i bumped into some school kids the other day at To-Ji flea market. They were doing their english assignment and had to interview english speaking people i.e "me" (although you wouldn`t guess it from reading this blog). It was really sweet as they read sentacaces off these bits of paper and tried to respond to my answers. Their english teacher sort of listened over my shoulder accessing them on how they were doing and after they all wanted signatures and photos, it was a nice moment and thought i`d write it up seeing as it popped into my head.

Himeji

2009-09-08T01:02:00.005+01:00

Part one of the day`s done, and success! I`ve got a chinese single entry visa and a boat confirmation from the ferry people to get there. It`s all falling into place now, plus a lad who did the boat trip in reverse has given me his China rough guide book so thats saved me a few pennies as well. Only the one moment of panic today when i arrived in Osaka and read on the back of my pick up receipt that it had to be collected between 9 and 12, and seeing as it was 5 to 12 as i was walking through Osakas underground, i had to get a move on. But anyway that`s all dealt with now and the fact i got it for 24 quid rather than the 60+ that it would of cost me back home, so doubly happy at the moment.I`m on my way to the 2nd part of my day now, and a chance to check out japans oldest and biggest remaining castle, hopefully there`s a cool looking picture of the place under here by the time you read this....

Dam it, should of kept my mouth shut about the good picture, i tried, but it was really difficult to get anything that properly showed it off, for a start it was huge, far bigger than i expected but you can only see it from either quite away away, as shown by the pictures, or right under it, as the view leading towards it is blocked by little alleyways. It`s well worth a look though, it might just not look it from the photos that`s all :( Inside it was all dark wood and had a really old heavy feel to everything. You`ve got no shoes on, like all places in japan there left at the entrance. So you get to creep round Bruce lee style. It actually reminded me of that place at the beginning of batman begins. A good day in all, back off to Kyoto now to find some place to eat and drink for the night. Pants are already becoming a little slacker round the waist, so think i need to eat a wee bit more before going to China, were no doubt i`ll then get extremely fat indulging on cheap food.

Takayama...Fail!

2009-09-07T12:33:00.004+01:00

I had a day off yesterday, i`d done 15 hours of walking on the Geisha hunting day so apart from a visit to the big food market and a visit to the manga museum to find it closed. I sat and read, listened to podcasts and talked to people. It was like a Sunday afternoon back home when you just can`t be arsed to do anything, so i didn`t. Today i`m off to Takayama, hopefully it`s as much fun to visit as it is to say. But it has just started raining so hope that goes away before we arrive.
One hour to go, can`t stop calling the place tappan-yaki instead off Takayama, maybe i`m just hungry. Bad planning by me, i`d read it that the place was 1hr 30 to reach, but in fact there was a transfer followed by another 48 minute train ride. So instead of 3 hours on trains, by the time i get off, it`ll be more like 5! Ignoring that hiccup, the town was really pretty, a little quiet, it felt like a place a place samurai would of retired too. Wooden houses, subtle design, not to loud.. i was going to go to the old farm houses at Hida folk village, to see a more traditional lifestyle than that i`d experienced so far. But apart from the now `time limitations` the weather was starting to turn bad as well. I couldn`t get the best of photos but the sky above us was clear blue, with just a few scattered white clouds, but just a little further away towards the mountains was the weather of the devil. I`d never heard thunder this loud in my life, and the sky looked like that reveal shot of Mt doom in lord of the rings. Then this dark mist started to descend on the town, and everything went pretty dark. I was already shooting on the highest exposure i could, but soon it was too dark to get anything of merit.

I thought the idea to rush around to the old town farms was going to be a journey wasted and on my way back to the station all the rain in the world started falling... so yeah, not the most productive of days, but it did give me chance to listen to the latest adam and joe podcast which amused me greatly. I`ve got to pick up my visa in the morning so that means another trip back to Osaka but i`m going to try and fit in a visit to Hemeji to see the castle providing things go smoothly.

Geisha Hunting...Fail!

2009-09-07T11:35:00.008+01:00

I`d heard all manners of problomatic stories at embassies etc so had decided to get up really early and get off to Osaka and get the first of my Visas sorted as soon as possible, i had my passport, my passport photocopy, the filled in documents and a passport photo.. so i was fully prepared. I got there at 9 as planned and by 9:05 was outside all sorted. Apart from a few questions, she stamped it and told me to pick it up friday at the cost of 4000 yen (about 28 quid) so although at the time of writing i don`t have either my passport or Visa, by tommorrow i should.

So with my morning dealt with much quicker than aticipated, i thought i`d revert to big kid mode and go off to Osaka`s famous aquarium for the day. I don`t think i`d been to an aquarium since sea life in blackpool when i was about 6 and i really enjoyed myself. The building itself was pretty impressive and directly next to it was this ferris wheel, bigger than any i`d ever seen. On closer reading that was because it was the biggest in the world at 112m high.

I got back for around 5 and just went and sat at the imperial palace, sun bathed a bit and wrote up the book, i`d met a couple from sydney in the hostel the other night and had arranged to meet up for a beer and hopefully spot a Geisha or two. Seeing a Geisha is like seeing a panda in the wild over here, or for me it`s as likely as finding the door to Narnia as we saw squat. But i did have a nice beer in good company so all in all a good night.

Monkey see - Monkey Do

2009-09-07T11:19:00.009+01:00

This was a fairly chilled day so i`ll keep it short, i got out after a longer lie in than usual. I was heading to Arashiyama and to their bamboo groves and after a 30 min train journey was there. Off topic but the JR rail pass is amazing, it`s intial cost is soul cruching but you get on and off anywhere, they`ll make reservations for free in seconds... after the problems we had with the interrail passes in europe, this is just a joy to use, anyway back to the day, i`d felt like i`d seen so many temples by now and the admission fees were beggining to drain my daily budget so much that i decided to skip the main attraction of `Tenryu-Ji` and go straight on to the bamboo groves. There`s not really much to write about apart from the bamboo, i mean it`s alot of Bamboo, a really impressive walk and looked nice though. I resisted going on the train which you get led out too. It was suppossed to be some of the niciest train scenery in the Kansai area but it was called the `romance train` and everything was heart themed etc, and even i didn`t have the amount of shame you`d need to go on that by yourself, so i opted to walk back instead.
It had only been and hour or two walk and i still had plenty of the day left, i`d had the day jotted down as a time to do some washing and planning, the chinese visa was still unresolved and the boat to Shanghai not confirmed i had plenty to do, but thought i couldn`t go back without at least visiting the monkey park, which i`d heard a few people talking about over the past week or so.
The monkeys here are free to roam and aren`t tagged or caged so i didn`t feel bad about visiting, in fact the only enclosure is for the humans in case they want to feed the animals, so that was kinda cool.

Like i say the rest of the day was washing and thats really not worth writing about apart from the fact i did a full wash with what must of been a few tissues left in a pocket, so i ended up with tissue decorated clothes and a fun hour job picking each piece off. But apart from that it was a bit of drinking then bed.

Deer Hunter

2009-09-06T11:31:00.015+01:00

This day was one of those where you just happen to stumble on something you had no idea was going on. I arrived to the streets crammed with people, loads of spectators with flags and cameras. I still haven`t figured out what they were celebrating if anything at all but it was a full on street party, with these dance groups leading the way. I hope the pictures turn out as impressive a spectacle as it was. It was really refreshing from the mornings sort of solo walk to suddenly being around so much life and colour. The dancing led to todai-ji temple (past countless deer, who line the streets in Nara) and ended in a final dance display with each group taking center stage for a single dance.

I had to abandon the party temporarily for a look in the temple as it was fairly epic from the outside, and despite the shrine fatigue i was mildly suffering the giant Buddha inside is well worth a look.
I really liked Nara it`s a gorgeous place and given the time maybe i`ll go back and explore the rest, as after i`d watched the final dances and eaten some more `food on a stick` it was going dark and i had to be back at the hostel before i got locked out.

Quite alot of hostels have this idiotic rule about curfews, we tried rebelling the night before to no luck, so as for now i have a bedtime.

Ninja Gaiden

2009-09-06T10:40:00.006+01:00

...active led me here, to Fushimi-Taisha. This is again a shrine, but one that was up a mountain lined with 30`000 tori gates. Plus it was dedicated to the gods of sake and rice. It was a good change of pace and once you hit the halfway point and people opt to take the opportunity to go down the smaller route. You get a chance for a bit of solitude, a bit of time away from the endless crowds. I did bump into one old couple who started chatting away to me, asking where i was from and where i was going, and after asking for a picture with me, i pushed on to reach the summit.

The route is broken up with these little shrines that mostly consist of stone foxes with little red bibs on, foxes are believed to have the power to possess humans in Japanese mythology, so there was something kind of creepy walking through them with no-one else around. I finished far earlier than i thought i would. I was expecting it to take most the day but by 1\2ish i was down and ready to head back. I was thinking of heading to the imperial palace parks and relax there. Which incidentally is where i`m writing this now. But as i was half way to Nara already and pretty much had an entire day left, i got off the train heading back to Kyoto and 5 mins later was going back the way i came and onto Nara. God i love the JR railways and this pass.

Kyoto = (Shrines + Gardens) x Shrines

2009-09-06T09:44:00.006+01:00

Ok, it`s taken a little while but it feels like i`ve got the hang of this travelling malarkey now. Tokyo i went at the place full speed, and it took 2 days in Nikko to rest up, and kyoto, 4 days in seems to hit the right kinda pace somewhere between the two.
The first day resulted in my first planning error, as on arrival i was told i wasn`t meant to check in till the 28th, a day later.....Craaap! The guy suggested another place down the road "the budget inn" not the most faith restoring of names but it was 2 mins walk and the same price, he also rang and booked it for me etc and the night was fine, no panick.
Kyoto seems big, feels even more so than Tokyo without the massive underground, but i knew i had a long time here and this time was going to take it at a slightly more relaxed pace. The major, or really just the most popular area of attractions seem to be in southern Higashiyma, mainly for the temple `Kiyomizu-Dera` but there`s a stream of impressive sights and shrines in the surrounding area as well. In order not to miss anything i followed a walking guide from lonely planet. I usually hate doing that, i don`t like the idea of walking the exact footsteps of someone whose done it all before, just loses the chance of surprise, but at the same time it took me to places i would of sure to of missed without it and had a nice chilled day. God knows what i did that night, i`m checking my camera...crap it`s on the other card. Lets just say nothing. On to the next day!
The weather so far, since arriving in London, has on the whole been amazing but as i arrived to kinkakuji (more commonly known as the golden temple, for reasons kind of obvious) the sky was a horrible grey and the humidity was unbearable. The temples cool, i mean it looks nice, but your only view point is from across the pond and i`ve seen that photo 100`s of times researching the trip and i don`t think you get anything extra from being there in person, or maybe it was just the weather making it look less impressive than it is

A short walk down the road close to the entrance to Ryoan-ji and the heavens opened, first time to feel rain in months and it bucketed it down. I`d just got to the temple and to shelter as it started to come down heavier but was pleasantly surprised to read from my book that this place, which is counted as the nicest of zen gardens in japan is best seen when raining (silver lining and all that) I sat for a good hour waiting for the rain to stop, with my legs dangling over the edge. It`s not like i had a moment of Epiphany but i came out feeling pretty good about myself and back to a blue sky and sunshine. The road then bends round to ninna-ji, which again is covered in temples, shrines and gardens. You could honestly be anywhere in Kyoto and be within a stone throw from any number of world heritage sites. At the night (i`m back on this camera card now) i went for an overly pretentious sake drinking tasting session with two sisters from the hostel, it was a good laugh actually.. despite the guys analytical ways. We got a tad drunk and learnt a little in the process.
By day 3 i was wanting to do something further a field, i`d done a fair amount of slow, quiet, shoeless walking and now fancied something a little bit more active.....

A holiday from a holiday

2009-09-02T06:02:00.013+01:00

Nikko's a little place north of Tokyo, it was once a place were Japanese high rollers pumped loads of money into lavish shrines and memorial temples etc, it's now a national park and world heritage site. I'd just done 4 busy days in Tokyo and I'm thinking Kyoto is going to be equally busy so nikko was me having a two day rest, travellings hard u know, lol! The little lodge I was staying in is super sweet, there's a big fire in the main section, a yoga room for morning exercises and cosy rooms. I had no-one on the bed above me and a friendly Canadian couple who had moved to japan a few months back in the bed opposite.

The day I got here, after an almost vertical uphill climb with my bag, my body didn't want to do anything but grab a can of asashi (asashi seems to be japans carling) and sit out enjoying the clean air, something Tokyo may be somewhat lacking. The temperature just that little bit more northern was far cooler and I can't believe I'm saying it but it nice to be a little bit cold. I'd been sweating since the beginning of august and now I was considering putting a jacket on. I got to bed at 9.15 about the earliest I have done since maybe turning 16. I didn't even need an alarm to be up for 7.

Shrine time; I picked a fairly non-strenuous walk for my day, probably about 10-12k so that it encompassed the main shrines and also the disappearing monks.
The first thing i hit was the sacred bridge 'shin-kyo' which leads you towards the first of the temples. It goes on for quite a bit, exquisite temple after another. I got there one of the first and had the place to myself, for quite a while. It made a world of difference being able to walk around with no queues or crowds of people taking photos.
The disappearing monks are these fellas below, called jizo statues, protectors of travellers. Their thing is if you were to count them one way, then the number would be different on the return route, hence the disappearing thing. I lost count mid way the first walk so I can't say either way.

Seeing as nikko was my treat away from the cities, I also had my first proper sit down meal. A place called 'hippari dako' recommended from lonely planet, it was amazing, I had pork balls and chicken tareyaki with noodles and rice. My body had gotten used to my own cooking and microwaved meals so I think it came as a shock to the system. I'd also gone over on my ankle by this point, nothing bad but thought it best to go back and rest. It was so nice taking my backpack off and not seeing a sweat outline where I once had it rested. So after another clean shave, which I'm starting to get used to, I settled down to watch some BBC world in possibly the most relaxed state since setting off. Another early night and I was back to my best again.

I've just seen a bullet train go flying past, shit they go quick. I'll be on my way to Kyoto shortly.

Rise of the robots

2009-08-28T07:37:00.015+01:00

This day was ridiculously packed, i'd quickly realized chatting to people and reading up in a few of the hostels books there was no way i was going to see all i wanted to in 4 days. I'd done the fish market and imperial palace but still wanted to look around Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku (which are all fairly close together) Akibara, Rippongi, Tokyo bay, ginza, and so on. I'd said originally i wasn't going to rush any one place, preferring to see less but more of it. Yet everything here was so intriguing i decided i'd go against my own rule and just see how much i could see in the one day. It was a Sunday so it's the main cos-play day in Harajuku, plus there's loads to see and do in the surrounding areas. I thought a start there would be as good as any. I got there to find an empty bridge, obviously cos-players aren't as eager as i was to get out of bed on Sunday morning. No worries the garden that it leads across to is incredible. I got to see a little Japanese wedding and morning prayers, i also wrote a best wishes wooden plak for Joni back home as i missed his birthday and hung it on one these giant trees.
By the time i'd done all that the bridge had begun to gather a crowd, not as many as i hoped but i'd also found out that the kids were back to school that monday and so quite a few would probably be leaving it :( i did get to see the worlds politest punk band though. Dressed in overly cliched punk outfits, they screamed through song after song and in between bowed, smiled and said thank you. Not quite the 'f*** the world' attitude expected, but entertaining never the less. Around the corner the path leads you into the park where all the high quiffed Elvis dancing groups hung around. God knows how they must have their hair during the week as some of them were comically big. They were just out enjoying themselves i think irrespective of whether we were there or not. The park itself tops the list as being the busiest, happiest park i've ever visited. Everyone in there was doing something, not like at home where u get a few kids scrapping and and the others sit in the corner drinking strongbow. Everyone was either skipping, throwing frisbees, practising theater shows, couples were juggling to one another or hula hooping. Loads of people were playing all types of instruments or singing in groups. No-one was doing it for money, just purely to entertain themselves. A girl ran over at one point and dragged me into this massive skipping line thing. It was just amazing to see everyone so busy as a means to relax. Towards the end of the park was this b-boy festival going on. It was free to walk in, they had loads of food stalls, break dancing competitions, a MC stand, Mixing tent. Like i said Tokyo is just busy, i'd planned so much for today and yet finally when i dragged myself away from here half the day had gone. I decided i'd pop over to Shibuya as that was close, so i got my move on and left only to be distracted at the bridge by more cos play people.

The main reason for wanting to visit Shibuya was 'guiltally' the crossing you see in near enough all guidebooks and films based in the city....and for anyone laughing that i went all them miles to see a zebra crossing, well it was ace. End of that, and on to Shinjuku.

The sun was starting to set by now, so really i'd just managed to time the day right. Shinjuku is good for two things; shopping and the neon lights, and seeing as i was on a budget shopping would be a bad idea.
I started to make my way over to the government offices as you're allowed to ride the elevator to the 42nd floor, but i had no idea what time it stopped running and as it was unlikely i'd return here before leaving i got my skates on. The View from here was quality, they say during the day in good weather you can see mt Fuji from the south viewing station..

That was it, my feet were killing now, i was horribly sweaty (god help whoever was sitting next to me on the metro ride home, and my eyes were having difficulty keeping open. On the return to the hostel, i saw Viktoria and a bunch of Manchester lads, 2 of which i'd met the other day, having a drink. You could tell by the way they were dressed they were obviously off out and by the types of lads these were, I knew I'd end up following.. "you coming karoke? It's that one from lost in translation!" "I don't know, I'm an awful singer, and i had a bad experience in Amsterdam" "no worries none of us are". As anyone who knows me, also knows it doesn't take alot for me to change my mind, so I popped to the nearest 7-11, bought a few cans and got up to speed, popped on a different top and was done. Ready for a night out.
I think everyone woke up the next day in a near life threatening state, but there was no rest, we'd decided to go see mt fuji at like half 10. God knows how we dragged our lazy drunken arses out of bed but we did and after pratically racing to the station found out it was booked up for the day. To think I could of stayed in bed, lol, oh well at least I had the day to go explore Tokyo some more. Fuji can come later. There's a section on the metro that leads to Tokyo bay, it's made from reclaimed land and is easily one of the quirkist places I could ever imagine. There was a sort of art instalation piece in the shape of a life size gundam model. I mean I love these things when there like 30 cm big. Seeing one this big was like a life achievement ticked off. Saying that I did keep staring at it hoping it'd start walking on it's own accord, you know like the statue of liberty does in ghost busters *spoiler, sorry!

Next door to this, well 5 mins walk was the sega amusement building, joypolis, a muscle park amusement, a 9 storey mall and a Market called decks 'oh there was also a huge ferris wheel that could be seen a short distance away. Seriously it's the sort of place 10 year olds go to in their dreams. I bumped into 2 of Victorias friends in the sega place and she gave me a little plush toy of stich, as from 'lilo and...' so currently I'm walking around like a Japanese schoolgirl with this fuzzy little blue fella sticking his head out of the side of my bag.

I got back mid afternoon, everyone had gone back to the hostel and there beds, and were still asleep! I gotta admit my hangover had passed but tiredness was kicking me in the face everytime I tried to do anything.
So that's where we started these Tokyo posts, since then I've arrived in nikko. But as for the rest of time in Tokyo.... Once they woke we eventually ended up playing cards and finger twister (funnier than it sounds) into the early hours and i ended up agreeing to going akibara with ben in the morning before leaving for nikko. I really should of gone to akibara mid-day at some other point, but the morning would just have to do as I wasn't going to miss it. Computer games have been a massive part of mine and my brothers life it'd just be wrong to not go to the so called gaming meca while I was here. I kept looking for motorstorm, so I could take a picture to send to work, but no luck. There was some awesome arcades though, there's nothing like seeing a 60 year old dude giving this teenager an absolutle tanning on street fighter 2 turbo. For a country so camera happy, their not big on taking photo's in these places, but I did the best I could.

Welcome to friendlyville

2009-08-27T10:30:00.010+01:00

Ok it's been a while since writing in this thing, I've had 4 days in Tokyo and leave for nikko in the morning. It's the first place I really wish I had an extra day at. It's just been soo busy I really haven't stopped. I decided that tonight I'd have a bit of time just relaxing, catch up on washing (clothes washing not 'me' washing) and fill in this entry.
Right so let's start at day one. After arriving on time and somehow figuring the tube system to Asakusa, I was left with the simple job of finding the hostel. Because my flight had been brought forward a day, I'd be staying somewhere for one night and then another for the following 3. I followed this little map to the letter and yet 25 minutes in i hadn't found squat. I asked a few people and they tried to help as much as they could but kept implying that I was quite a way away. I was sure I was in the right area and they just weren't sure where I was asking. I carried on, and asked the next cute girl where I was. She didn't speak a word of English but sort of implied she knew where I meant and that she could help. She then walked for the next 20 minutes, past where i'd started (seems I'd taken the first corner wrong), until I was at the door to my hostel. She smiled, laughed, bowed then left. I wasn't sure whether I'd just asked the right person at the right time. But it's really not, everyone here is like than. Everyone.

I needed to sit by this point, I hadn't the energy to leave the place so i concentrated on the basics, shower, relax, update blog, food, beer... I thought if I got the blog up to date, then I was free to relax for the night. Finally since setting off, the book was at the same point as the blog and even better news is I'd met two Americans to share a beer with, the night was done and I was ready for a first proper day.

At 4 my alarm went (off subject, I love the iPod touch, but why the hell can't you use songs for the alarm tone rather than 'strum' or 'chime' or something else equally annoying?) I was getting up for a visit to the fish Market, that place is insanely busy, I'm surprised it's even allowed. It'd be like letting people freely walk around a working cotton mill and assuming no one would get injured. There's knives everywhere and trolleys and trucks flying around with complete disregard for anything in their path. I mean these people are grafting away to make a living and here I was taking photos thinking it's all great. They must think we're mental.
After the fish Market I darted off to the imperial palace and gardens which, although a little disappointing you can't get very close (the pictures I got really are as close as possible) it was a nice way of spending the afternoon. I got back to the hostel to find this guy giving a 10 minute shiatsu massage experience to anyone willing to give it a go. And although I wasn't envious of him having to touch my soaking wet back I wasn't one to miss out on something free.

I hadn't plans for the night so when some girl came into the room wearing a kimono talking about a festival. I couldn't help but to investigate and wrangle an invite, she's the one in the pictures who looks like Mariah Carey did when she was nice, and less mental. She can also speak 3 languages and is in the process of becoming a doctor.
'Azabu-juban' festival I think it was called, Japanese have festivals seemingly daily. Have a look through the pictures, but it was nice to be around so may people all just enjoying themselves eating and drinking everywhere in sight.

Crap, I forgot to mention i visited the Asakusa temples, they were only 2 mins from our hostel and to say it didn't have too much page space in lonely planet they were stunning. I tied a prayer onto the temples ropes along with the thousands of others and strolled around for quite a while.

The Real Madrid.......sorry

2009-08-22T00:03:00.001+01:00

First off i think this could be a long one, so just be ready to skim read. I have 11 and a half hours before touching down in Beijing then another 3 hrs 30 till landing in Tokyo. So if i can`t sleep on the move, which i haven`t been able to since setting off for London then i`ll be writing in this.
Flight screen says 5272 miles till landing and although i`m sat on it we`re not taking off for another 25mins due to air traffic.

Ok where to start, i s`pose i better fill in the gap from Madrid to here.

My mood hadn`t got any better on arrival in Madrid and wasted the first hours strolling around the City. I decided i`d just call it a day and just go relax at the hostel and then start again with a better frame of mind the next day. The hostels kitchen was starting to get a bit busy so i thought i`d go get some food to cook then sit in and hope someone would say hello. The second i sat down with my pasta i got called over to join this table who i think had just started on their second bottle of wine which they poured me a glass as well. It`s funny how we didn`t do any group drinking when the three of us were together and yet when you`re on your own every solo traveller seems to find one another. Like a moth to light, we are to alcohol. Three bottles down and the kitchen had turned into something of a medieval grand hall, every table and chair had been pushed together, and everyone was passing food back and forth with people having conversations all over the show, the 4 had turned to 8 and then 8 into about 12 or so. It was a good cure to the days mood.
A few had decided they were going watching this flamenco dancing at a local bar and Tim, this Australian i`d befriended wouldn`t allow me to bail so in no time at all i was changed and ready to go out. The show was actually really cool, it wasn`t some horrible tourist trap that you get alot of, it was local people watching proper dancing in this tiny, sweaty, downstairs bar. I think with the exception of us i couldn`t point out another tourist which was nice.

One of the people in our group named lael (think it`s spelt like that) started chatting and we decided to go for a quieter drink as everyone else was going getting ruined. I had the flight and a lack of Euros, i wasn`t just going soft. She was from L.A and quickly dispelled all American stereotypes by being more interesting and intelligent than anything i could say. It was a nice way to end the night to a day that a few hours before i had completely written off. So after being chucked out of a few bars for closing time we called it a night and went back to the hostel.

Back to now, Planes about to set off, i`ve never been on a long haul flight so having my own little screen which is showing the take off is amusing me to bits, i`m like a big kid playing with everything that`s able to be messed with....this thing better hurry up though as my adjoining flight is only a hour and a half after this is meant to land and we`re currently running almost an hour late.

Oh and i know it`s off subject but all planes should have soundproofed cubicles that babies can be chucked in as soon as they start crying.

I woke in the morning and grabbed some sugar puffs from the kitchen, hadn`t had sugar puffs since i was a kid... there like the crack of the cereal world so after another 4 bowls i went to get my tube to the airport.... That`s it really, now i`m here. The moodiness from the other day has gone i think and as long as i get that connecting flight to Narita airport i`ll be in Tokyo, checking into my hostel, around 15 hours from now.

Shit, completely forgot, when i was on my travel to get food back in Madrid i walked passed a hairdresser that said "unisex haircut, 7 euros". I thought the day couldn`t get any worse at the time, plus i`d need it cutting in the next 4 weeks and japan would be expensive. So i went in and got seated straight away, no appointment, obviously this place was a quality establishment. I went on the explain as best as i could "this but shorter" she took that as her cue to get the clippers and buzzcut a strip on the side of my head and said "this short?" in a way to suggest i could say "no, could i have it a bit longer on the bit YOU JUST SHAVED OFF" she went around the rest of the sides then took a few chucks out the top with scissors. Then she took me to have it rinsed and while doing so showed me this bottle that i thought was shampoo so i just said yes and she carried on washing. Then after she blow dried it she took this bottle and started applying it into my hair. It was wet look gel, and she was trying to shape it by slicking it back. I came out looking like a Russian mafia mobster, i had to laugh, then obviously wash it out as soon as i possibly could.

Back to the flight, i`m 8 hours in now (no i haven`t been writing constantly) and officially the furthest away from home than i`d ever been, Air China have been amazing, i`ve had 4 beers, a small bottle of wine and 2 meals to no extra cost. I`m guessing that`s the norm for these types of flights but for the price i paid i was expecting to be flying with cattle. So far i`ve watched Bee movie, Meh! Lost in translation which i already loved, Charlie Wilson's war which i really enjoyed and am now watching catch me if u can. I know i`m rambling on but i`m bored out of my tree, someone needs to hurry up with that teleportation technology, wish i had a sleeping pill or even a bottle of vodka, both do the same thing for me

OK another quick update, i`ve really got nothing better to do, but i`m on the japan flight now, Beijings airport is amazing by the way. I hope when i inevitably get stuck at an airport overnight that it`s as clean and nice as there. 1708 miles to go, which sounds a tad far but whatever i`m gonna try and get some sleep as by the time i get to bed in japan it`ll effectively be 2 days since i will of last slept.

Man up

2009-08-21T10:42:00.007+01:00

The departure from 3 to one has been harder than i thought. My heads a bit all over the show at the moment, i just left my rucksack on the train for a moment, not my day pack but my actual 12 kg big backpack. I bought a croissant and a bottle of water during the interchange at Valencia, headphones on, no speaking. It feels like the funs been sucked out of everything at the moment. Now i`ve got a 4 hour train journey feeling like crap.

Ok that`s the last of the moaning i had a really good 3 weeks, from the first drinks at the Colosseum to chilling on the rocks in Cinque terre and finally chilling at Merv`s. I`ve been planning this trip as a solo thing for over a year and been thinking about it for the last few. I`ve no reason to complain.

I`ve just got on the train still in a bit of a mood and while checking tickets walked directly into a signpost, it was like a Marx brothers clip, had to laugh though as i`d been doing it all week and Sam seems to find people walking and tripping over things funnier than anyone else i`ve ever known.

Skip back 5 days, after our park trip in Valencia, we were on our way to Merv`s place for a chill out and a chance to shower. The place was really nice, cold beers in the fridge and the prospect of drinking and eating cheaply for the next few days. I didn`t take many pictures as you can tell but i know my trigger fingers going to go into overdrive as soon as i hit Japan so i took things slowly. After anally unpacking everything, washing it all and charging all my battery's. Then meticulously repacking everything. It also gave me a chance to have my first clean shave, which i haven`t done since i was able to grow stubble properly. It felt nice, i had clean clothes, clean underwear and no face fuzz. I looked awful mind, hobo-chic is all i can really do and everything else looks like a disaster.
I sat and relaxed reading Ewan McGregor/Charley Boorman`s long way round book which i`d found on the bookshelf. Definitely going to be doing my beginners bike license when i get back, i`ve been saying it for a while but that`s just put an extra explanation mark on it as something to do. I can say that with no fear now seeing as i`m miles away, and out of firing range from my mum.

The days flew, it`s amazing how times manges to go so fast when you re doing nothing, before i knew it i was here on my way to Madrid still feeling slightly sick about the transition. bo-ho...

Final Goodbyes

2009-08-20T07:54:00.003+01:00

I'd spent the last 3 weeks in the pocket of them 2 and now as i pull away from Gandia Station it feels like i've left a massive part of my home life at that platform. Apart from a moment at work when i nearly went, this was the first time emotion kinda got the better of me. Obviously not to there faces, that would of resulted in years of ridicule but i just stared out the window speeding towards Valencia finding it hard to hold back the tears. At work i was in a rush, i still had things to do, your head doesn't have to deal with it, now i've got no option but to sit here and think of the things/people i´ll miss.
I wanted this to sound like a thank you post but i fear it'll end up sounding like a teenage love letter so i'll keep it short, Basically thanks to everyone reading this, thanks to Mervin for putting us up and a massive thanks to Sam and Lance for not only putting up with me but for being two of the best friends i could wish for.
Now it's just me, this book, this pen and single flight out of here!

Welcome to the Ghost Town

2009-08-20T07:33:00.004+01:00

We've made it denia now, the first leg of travelling is over... the next train we get is to Madrid and my first departure out of Europe in my life.
We arrived in Valencia early. Still hammered from the previous nights events. We got on the train just in time and as Sam slept lance and me watched hotel Chihuahua dubbed in Spanish. Funny experience, the film itself was less so.
Now none of us knew anything about Valencia, i thought and hoped it was the F1 race that weekend but its next week so no seeing Schumachers return...Booo.
So anyway we wandered, slowly, it was 370 with a hangover, my head had no idea what was going on, over to the nearest travel shop to pick up a map and a little guide. We had to be in Denia for half 5 so we had over 4 hours to have a good look round. The park which runs the length of the city center splitting it in two looked like a good idea, but then again so did hiring a 3 man bike thing. We must of looked so special riding around on this ridiculous contraption. It soon became a game of "how fast can we go on it" "how high can we take it" or i "wonder what it's like off road"

The place was deserted, so we had the town to ourselves, we saw only a few people all day, it was like 'i am legend'. Everyone must of been either at the beach or having one mighty siesta. We jumped into the one open bar we found for a shandy and some shade.

Maybe we gave it less time than it deserves, but we were all looking forward to our villa stay by this point with plenty of good meals and relaxed drinking sessions. So maybe i'll go back one day and spend a few days having a good look round. For now and the next 4 nights though i'm doing nothing but burning in the glorious sunshine. Temperature has just hit 40o on the thermometer outside and there's a mattressed up sun lounger waiting for me.

BARCELONA

2009-08-20T07:03:00.007+01:00

Gaudis cathedral and the Nou Camp, that was the hit list for Barcelona, even though we had 2 nights, day one was always going to be an effort after what had gone on the previous day. By the time we'd showered, changed and had a little sleep we were ready for a cold drink and some proper food, bar some pasta at Cinque terre and a pizza in rome we hadn't had since getting on the train to London so this was a treat to ourselves and good preparation for the for the following days site seeing marathon. After a good few litres of sangria and a belly fully of tapas dishes it was time to call it in for the night.
Alarm went early, everyone got up, quick espresso from the hostel kitchen and 2 mins later were on the metro to the cathedral. Extra kudos has to go to Barcelona's underground; never late, never longer than 3 mins and always super clean and cool. The cathedral was as mental as i'd hoped, we'd been through Italy where all the great buildings had these regimented, perfectly symmetrical Arch's and domes, even the most extravagant buildings like the trevi fountain and the Basilica all had a sense of logic in its design. The cathedral had none and i loved it for that.

As i said to Sam, while lance rushed off to get his phone which he'd left back at the hostel kitchen, i can't wait to go back in 50 years and see how much more has been done on it in the ever ongoing construction. We didn't have time to queue and go inside but would love to on return one day.
Off to the Old town for some food and a stroll, it's not that overly impressive as a spectacle i thought as i whole. Maybe it was architectural overload by this time, but it did have a atmosphere i felt quite at home in, and of all the places i/we've visited this ranks highest on a list of places to live. By 2/3 we were on our way to the nou camp, we'd just sorted the train to Valencia at this point.. i was excited about this one, i know it's only a football stadium and all and nothings quite like going to be Anfield but Barcelona are hard to dislike.

The tours pretty good, we got plenty of the cheesy touristy shots but it's impossible to avoid. Have a look at them on flickr anyway. From there we spent the evening in Gaudis park which again was awesomely strange then spent the night having drinks on the street near the la Ramles and then stumbled to the N6 night train at half 3 in the morning.

Bear Grylls special: Trains

2009-08-18T14:50:00.007+01:00

We arrived into Milan midday, followed our directions to the hotel and arrived shortly after. The hotel was nice enough, it was real cheap and not to far from the center. You learn quickly in Milan that it's real easy to jump on and off the tram system, after paying for our first journey and seeing no one bothering to check tickets and the way the locals don't bother to validate theirs. We thought we'd do as they do and jump on and off whenever needed.
I'd actually been to Milan before and unlike Rome had been fairly underwhelmed with the place. It seemed to lack a bit of personality and just came across a tiny bit hollow. But saying that i didn't venture out at night as i'd been tired from the days walking so was looking forward to taking a few pictures at the night time.

So with a bottle of wine in hand we headed off for the Duomo to enjoy the sunset and the chance to relax before having to deal with what to do next. It was actually scaffolding free which i was amazed at, the place always seems to be in a state of Restoration/repair. Even the golden statue of Madonnina which the last time i was here was completely boxed off and only imaged through reading about it was on show in all it's glory. It was really nice to see it again and definitely worth a visit at night as the white of the stone makes it all the more impressive when viewed against a pitch black night sky.

The morning came and the start of what turned out to be a horror 24hrs began....

I'd actually left writing all this until it was all in the past and in our memories developed from a horrible 'journey' to what most stories like this do and become a memorable 'experience'.
We'd woken early so to go online and work a route out in getting over to Barcelona, we were thinking Marseille for a night then train out to barca the next day, but that wasn't able to be booked in Italy and had to be done once in France. That was fine we thought, we also looked into maybe going to Bern, Switzerland for a day and night training it the following night. But we'd already had problems booking night trains so close to departure so thought it's probably better to get closer to our eventual destination and to follow the south coast of France.

Train one "Milan - Nice" It started well we'd stocked up on salty snacks and alcoholic beverages, we had a cubicle to ourselves again. For once we had reservations so no chance of getting thrown off. We talked, we laughed, we slept. After 3 hours an overly handsome, didgeridoo playing, English speaking Spanish guy called phillipo joined our cubicle. We spent the next hour talking to him about everything from language to Religion to anime. He'd just come back from a sailing holiday and was just one of those people you wanted to speak to as they were genuinely interesting. He helped pass the time until our destination in Nice.
Train2 "Nice - Marseille" Italy was officially done, we'd swapped train networks, we'd stopped using the 4 or 5 words of italian we knew and swapped them to the 4 or 5 French words we knew. It was a short train, it was something like 2 hours and completely uneventful, bar those two finding it amusing to do anything to stop me falling asleep.

We arrived after 10 at night, to late to be making hostel bookings so it was down to 'do we sleep on the beach, the train station or push on, leave France and get to Barcelona by morning. We worked out we could get a night train heading towards Portugal, get off at Toulouse and then local train it in the morning to Barcelona and have an extra night there. We got to the platform and asked this guy if we could get on this night train, he sort of walked on the train and off it, then back on and then off it. Then said "10 euro's each" and to get on. We sat down getting comfy ready for our 5 and half hours sleep. When some one came up and said they've reserved that seat and showed me the ticket. I obligingly moved and sat somewhere else, then the same thing happened again, then again, this time to sam and lance. It quickly dawned on us we weren't going to have a seat for this train. We ended up stood outside the toilet with some homeless looking dude in the corner. It's past midnight now and we were too warm and tired and the train still hadn't set off. By the way this wasn't like any of the other trains we'd been on up until now. This one was dingy and sweaty, there was crowds of people lying on the floor, there was animals in boxes, it was like a shanty town on tracks.

Lance was somehow in some incredibly good mood and made us laugh for the first hour or so, then tiredness kicks in and legs started to getting itchy. I had to sit down somewhere, i was stood between this toilet door and someones bike and was so restless at this point i had to move. I Decided i'd climb into the top luggage compartment rack, give that go. So i climbed up and tried to get comfy, it's really not designed for people, i can now say that as a fact, and quickly realized that it wasn't a great idea and i should probably get down.
We had to move, we had to sleep, anything to get us out of this position. We walked down the train, banging into sleeping people and stepping over carcases on the floor, and found a little space on the floor for maybe 1 and a half people in the doorway of two adjoining carriages. Lance and Sam kind of huddled together and molded themselves into the space on the floor while i tried to find something similar. The only place i could find was under this double seat. The two people had fallen asleep and leaned there chairs back almost horizontally so as to leave enough space to crawl under. Now i don't know how i'd react if on my way home from manchester some 24 year old, scruffy looking, possibly smelling by this point, person crawled under my seat to get 40 winks but i'd probably either feel sorry for the guy and give him money or ask him what the hell he thinks he's doing. But i was to tired to care and for the next 4 hours drifted in and out of sleep, head on my day bag and my feet dangling into the carriage walkway.
At one point, and this is the gods honest truth, the guys hand,who was sleeping on the chair above me, fell down the side of his chair stopping inches from my face. At the same time (i was listening to my ipod for most the journey) the song "hobo blues" by Seasick Steve came on. I sat up and looked at Lance who was awake and had one of those laughs that you can only do when everything gone completely to shit.

We got off in Toulouse after very little proper sleep laughing out heads off. It's what i imagine altitude sickness to be like. Our bodies felt like crap and yet everything was hilarious to us as we recapped over the journey we just had, yet the funniest thing was we'd only done 2/3rd's of the route.
It was half 6 and another 2 trains to go. The next one to Nabonne was Luxury we had seats and space and as we pulled into our destination the sun had begun to rise.

Train 5 "Nabonne - Barcelona" The last train. It would arrive in Barca at 12.05 almost 24hours to the minute from when we set off on the tram from our Milan hotel. It was spent in a state of sleep and reflection from the journey just done. Bear grylls may be able to survive in a desert with just a twig but there was no way he'd of got off them trains....especially with a smile on his face :D

Barcelona's been good and i think we're fully recouped, Valencia tomorrow morning. Hopefully get a chance to write it up on route.

Freefall Traveling

2009-08-18T14:37:00.002+01:00

The easy life became a tad harder in the past 12 hours, we'd decided from La Spezia we'd get a night train to Paris, have the full day and night there then jump on the following night train to Barcelona. Thing is the Trains fully booked and the night supplement is looking higher than we'd be led to believe when booking so close to departure. This has meant us leaving Paris out of the plan and jumping on the first train that's heading north. Just so happens to be Milan. So we're going to stop there for a night before deciding where's next. The initial plan is out of the window so from here on out it's winging it to barca.
There's something cool about not knowing , i should know i've done it for 24 years (thought i'd get it in first) we know we're hitting Barcelona some time around the 15th so it's just a few days where only god currently knows where we'll end up.

It's still 31 outside, we're in an air conditioned cubicle all to ourselves, these two are sprawled over 2 seats fast asleep and i'm listening to becks golden age album, so it's not all bad

Hope every one's good back home, it was the first time speaking to my brother since leaving so had a few extra thoughts of everyone back home and at work (ex-work). Hope all's well.

This is the life

2009-08-18T12:34:00.003+01:00

It's around half 8 on the 9th of August. I'm sat on some rocks out at sea looking back at riomaggiore in Cinque terre, it's honestly stunning. It's quiet and chilled out and about the best cure from busy Rome. We're all just sitting here watching the sunset, we haven't met our fellow hostel roomates but we've a kilo of pasta ready to cook so shouldn't be to hard.

To be honest this post was really just an excuse to put up a few pictures as there's no much to be said but plenty to be seen.

When in Rome

2009-08-14T07:49:00.008+01:00

Writing this on the floor of a crappy old train, with no reservation and in all likelihood of getting thrown off. It was only a last minute spot but it seems all 'IC' trains now require you to have a seat reservation. Despite this massive variable we should be in Cinque terre in 3 hours.

Oww crap conductors coming!

Ok she just walked past, i guess that's not the end of that but it's less than 3 hours to sweat it out now.
Back to Rome, this was kind of Lances treat of the trip, it meant slightly more expensive flights and a longer distance to travel but he thought a travel through Europe without seeing Rome would be a wasted opportunity. First day we arrived from London we got checked in to our actually pretty nice B&B and headed off with a few beers to watch the sunset at the Colosseum, it's an awesome place and probably a little bigger &more grand than i'd remembered plus being able to drink in public with friends outside a modern wonder is something to remember. The next day was a return to the Colosseum and forum, man it was warm, i think the internet had said it was 32. Visited the Trevi fountain at the night time then finished a bottle of wine off at the Spanish steps. *Does feel like i'm just listing places we've drank so far. Oh actually while on that subject we found this bottle of 95% Lime tasting devil juice in our b&b which has magically found it's way into lances back pack.

The last day was spent between the Vatican, Pantheon and piazza Navona and followed by an almighty walk back to bed. Check out the flickr link from the pictures tab at the top. I ought to go as the ticket nazi is on her way, i'll let you know how it goes.

UPDATE: A different guy, a nicer, friendly looking guy, came to get our tickets. We got a little telling off but all in all we saved a little money and will be in Cinque terre soon enough, the trains no less comfy, they've now got seats, i've upgraded to a bag!

LAN-DAN

2009-08-07T16:44:00.005+01:00

First off just a quick note, because i'm doing this in a book and copying it over whenever i get to a Internet cafe the dates aren't exactly helpful. plus it's always going to be a couple of days behind so sorry*

Carrying on, we're (we being Lance, Sam and me) are currently flying to Rome, so thought i'd quickly run over the past 48 hours.
We got in late on the Tuesday night, sometime round 11 and met with Lances cousin Vicky. A quick trip to the off license, a catch up with Luke and Vicky and off to bed. It's an amazing apartment, i should of taken a picture in retrospect, but it's only a one bedroom apartment so Luke got the bed, Vicky had the couch, Lance and Sam on the blow up bed and i had the bean bag... it's like an 8 foot, ùber comfy bean bag, but still a bean bag. It's definitely a strange feeling when you wake up with your arse on the floor, your legs in the air and your head stuck somewhere in between.

Ok, anyway next morning, first stop on our little site seeing tour; "weatherspoons?" sounds good!.... 4 shandys to start the day, happy days! "17.45" "you what??" sad time :( lol, anyway we went off to Trafalgar square, walked over to the houses of Parliament and big ben, then spent a bit of time watching some the street shows under the London eye. One of which was a break dancing group with one member looking a spit of stringer bell from the wire, check the flickr for proof but for the entire show i couldn't get it out of my mind. So a fairly surreal moment having Stringer bell spinning on his head then asking people for money. I ran quickly to avoid being shot.
Back to the pub for a few more then a night stroll to Piccadilly circus, then headed home.

And that's where we're up to at the moment, cheers Vicky for putting up with us and for those that know us 3, we arrived on time with no hitches or mad rushing, which in whatever way you look at it is a small miracle. Plus we even stopped by Boots for a meal deal to save money, logical and on time. This surely can't keep up!!

Sweet Goodbyes

2009-08-06T23:48:00.008+01:00

It feels like i've just stepped onto a rollercoaster, it's that same feeling you get when you've been in the queue for hours and hours and felt like you've hardly moved, yet suddenly, you're there strapped in thinking 'What the crap am i doing' you've been looking forward to it for ages and you know you're gonna enjoy it. But your brain can't stop thinking how illogical it is to be doing what you're doing. And that you'd be far happier safe and sound watching from afar.

All the leaving parties are done, goodbyes said, for the first time it's all real. I've had the best few days saying bye's to people, yet it's all the more difficult when you love your job and have some really close friends, but at the same time nice to know/think you'll be missed. Cheers everyone for the pressies and the send off.

London in 1 hour!

Packed!

2009-07-30T00:49:00.002+01:00

Ok packed! It's nearly a week away before i actually lug it on my back and set off but i've got no other free night now until then so it had to be last night. If anyone has stumbled on this i honestly don't know if this is the right amount of stuff to pack. It's just what i'm taking. It's based on a whole bunch of books and websites so hopefully it's all stuff i'll need and won't be to heavy.

Worryingly little when you put it in a video like that. lol. See list below for overview.

Lock and key, Berghaus Backpack, t-shirts x 3, long sleeve t-shirts x 2, Chequered shirt, Underpants x 3, Shorts x 2, Socks x 4, Micro Fleece, Flip flop, Buff Neckerchief, Converse Trainers, Waterproof Kag, Swiss army knife, Mosquito net, Sleeping bag liner, Plug Adapter, First aid kit, Travel Towel, Mosquito repellent, Toilet bag, Zip bags for tablets, Sunscreen, Sink stopper, Chargers, Day pack, Moleskin Journal, 2 pens, glue stick, Lonely planet book, Lumix +case, Canon EOS 450 +case, Hard Drive 250gb, SDHC Cards x 6 8gb, Ipod touch 8gb, Paper wallet (document)

Miss List

2009-07-26T18:34:00.024+01:00

When you decide you're going to do something like this it's inveitable that you end up reading and following a whole bunch of blog's and travel forum's as most of the best information is directly from those doing the very same things you'll shortly be doing. I'll sort out some proper link tab from the main menu at some point but for now i've just stuck a bunch of the best of these sites towards the bottom of this post.
Recently i came across one "http://www.twobackpackers.com" and a post called "things i'll miss and things i won't". So with it only just over a week away now before heading off and everything i do is becoming "the last time i do this" or "the last time i'll see them" i guess it's a good time to completely rip off their post and write up my own list... so anyway here goes

Things i'll miss and why!

My Laptop - I love my macbook, i really do... i feel like i'm leaving a pet alone in a room to care for itself every night while i'm away doing what i'm doing

The Plough - I think if not for this place i could of afforded to of done this trip maybe a year or two back. While paying for everyone i know to come with me. In a Ferrari!. Painted in solid gold

Friends - I have the best of friends i could ever wish for. Some of which are the late-ist friends you could imagine, but still wouldn't trade for anything.

Work - I get to do design work every day with some of the best people you could ever meet, i've never and probably never will laugh so much for the rest of life.

Pro Evo - No game has every taken over the way this has at work, nothing has every made me as angry and nothing has ever made me laugh quite so much. Bye bye Moonpig :(

Bed - I think everyone would write this, there's just something special about your own sleeping grounds. Also i think it may be a while before i get a double bed again.

Basketball - I only started playing with a team again a few months back, was almost a good enough reason to hang around for a bit longer.

Computer Games - There's a whole bunch of games i'm a tad gutted i'll be missing out on. COD6, assassin creed 2, Mass effect 2, ODST, splinter cell: conviction. I mean i've been working with games for the last 3 years it'd be strange if i didn't miss them at all.

Movies/Cinema - Same as games really, avatar, Where The Wild Things Are, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, green zone :( at least it's going to be a good pile of things to play and watch when i get back, put it that way.

Wardrobe - 5 T-shirts WTF :@ Plus no jeans for a year. i've never 2 gone two days before with out jeans, i feel like i'm going to start showing withdrawal symptoms before long

Family - I have to write this or i'll get a clip around the ear :D

Those big events - Every year there's always those events; weddings, engagements. (2 of my good friends are expecting their first in November, so missing that's going to be pretty disappointing)

Things i won't

2 Hour commute to work - It's like the opening scene from Office space, each and every day....

Desk job - I'll miss the work and the people, but sitting at a desk 10 hours a day, i can happily do without

Routine - 1-8'o'clock alarm 2-Drive to work 3-Eat lunch 4-Drive home 5-Try and do something fun in the limited hours 6-Go bed, Repeat from No 1

Britains weather - It's July, height of the summer, lets see what it's like outside at the moment, yep, it's raining. Wow, surprise!

http://www.twobackpackers.com/ - Really cute little site about two people setting off around the same time as my departure. Still in early stages but you get a feeling it's one to look out for.
http://www.yobosayo.net/ - A really slick, well put together site. Nicely organized and the photo's are incredible.
http://www.twoguysaroundtheworld.com/- Voted one of Lonely planets best travel blogs of the year. Worth a visit for the HD video podcasts alone.
http://simondbooth.travellerspoint.com/ - Just been put onto this by a friend at work about one of his friends, he left his job in 2007 and hasn't returned since.
http://www.nomadicmatt.com/ - This is one of those that everyone seems to link to, i haven't used it a great deal but for the sheer attention is gets it's worth a look.

Like i say i'll hopefully get round to including a proper link section with more blogs/information sites to come