TravelStream™ news feed for member kiffster65 on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/kiffster65 en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Tue, 21 Feb 2006 07:20:58 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1140524220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1140524220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1140524220/tpod.html Tue, 21 Feb 2006 07:20:58 -0500 The chronicles of steve in New Zealand: the international bestseller

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Pickering, United Kingdom

So i am home in the big P. Thank you all for taking an interest was surprised at those who told me how much they enjoyed all the entries and i'm glad they did. Now what remains for me i don't know. Any donations are welcome so please give me some money immediately.

See you all soon hopefully.

Steve
xxx
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London, United Kingdom

I flew back from Bangkok on February the 5th into London Heathrow. The flight was ok but pretty standard, i had three seats to myself and got to stretch out a bit, i think the man next to me was annoyed about this given the dirty looks that he gave me, but i didn't care, i'm large and therefore struggle on long haul journeys, so i deserved a bit of room.

I got off the plane and collected my luggage and hopped on the bus to get to the tube as it was under repair at Heathrow. As i looked out of the window and saw the trees with no leaves on and the British road signs and the British cars and the grayness that was distinctly British, it felt like i had never been away. Everything was so familiar that it was almost as if i had been gone for only two weeks. That day was very strange, went to stay at Zena's and just felt a bit weird, again i can't really explain it.

Anyway i used London as an opportunity to see some old friends from Pickering and Uni. I have had a brilliant time down here, i like hopping on the tube and having variety as to where you can go on a night. Have spent a lot of time around the LSE just hanging around as my mate studies there, i used the computer library, the union shop and the cafe, no one says a word about it. I have won the pub quiz the last two weeks as well, i felt like a student again. Went to see 'Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?' which was absolutely brilliant and starred Kathleen Turner who was fantastic. Went to the Tate Modern and was quite impressed by my knowledge of art. I saw one painting and thought 'hmmmmm definitely influenced by Dali'.............and it was actually Dali. I'm so cultural it hurts sometimes.

After about a week stuff from my trip eventually began to filter through and has continued to do so, especially when i talk about it with people. I think it's hard to talk to people about it at great length and sometimes they get bored with it. But anyway the main point is i have started to get well retrospective about my time away but its good. So i have one entry left just to round this off to its proper conclusion........
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1139998980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1139998980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1139998980/tpod.html Fri, 17 Feb 2006 07:09:47 -0500 The chronicles of steve in New Zealand: the international bestseller

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Bangkok, Thailand

So Asia has its end, after Siem Reap we went back to Phnom Penh, went to the same guest house and lazed around for the day before a cheap Air Asia flight over to Bangkok. Had a good day in Bangkok but it was a bit strange going back when i remember how it was when i first went, having an entirely different perspective and now just take it as given rather than be giddy with excitement.

So now I'll just write a quick entry about the four countries i visited:

Thailand: I had so much fun in Thailand and met loads of people to have a laugh with. It was, however, very touristy. Some people didn't like this aspect and would have preferred it to be really remote, there still are some places which remain 'undiscovered' but once they do then it falls to the same kind of bars and things like that. I think the south of Thailand in particular may well become the new lads holiday destination, usurping the nearer places to England like Spain. I could be completely off the mark here but with it becoming easier to travel and the cheap price of all goods, it could happen.

Laos: I really enjoyed Laos when i went through and still don't regret it but it was the least favourite of the four countries. Admittedly i didn't spend long there and it was interesting, just not as interesting as the other countries. Very laid back and all that and probably worth exploring beyond where i went to. Beer Lao is what people were raving about but it was rubbish and really disappointing. As i have said before it will be a vastly different country in the next 5 years as i also imagine it has changed lots in the last 5.

Vietnam: I loved Vietnam, it was a beautiful country, diverse, interesting history and lots of stuff to do. It had a good mix of places to go and just brilliant things to see like the emperors tombs and the historic cities. The cities of Hanoi and Saigon were amazing and in stark contrast to each other. The people were very friendly and open allowing greater insight into their lives.

Cambodia: My favourite, don't know why, instantly loved it though, just brilliant, again interesting history. Its easy to see the history and legacy of harder times in that country and the poverty is evident as well, probably the country that gives a purer sense of an 'eye opener' i think. The people are more genuine with us foreigners than the other countries, its very hard to explain what i mean by this, so I'll just leave it as a big thumbs up for them.

So i have only two more travel journals after this to write, i imagine the reader is quite sad, but not to fear, as with any hugely popular publication, the financial incentive to produce a (often inferior) sequel is too good to miss. So until next time.............
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1139220540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1139220540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1139220540/tpod.html Mon, 06 Feb 2006 06:00:30 -0500 The chronicles of steve in New Zealand: the international bestseller

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Siem Reap, Cambodia

So i have written this entry once but the computer crashed as soon as i had finished it which, needless to say, was very annoying and i almost smashed the computer to tiny pieces to teach it a lesson. I'm sure after i had finished with it then it would never of had the audacity to try it again.

So harking back to something in my previous entry about the intensity of the tuk-tuk drivers, when we were sitting on the bus waiting to set off, another bus pulled up with some fresh meat for the drivers, a fist fight broke out between two of them which was quite vicious but no one stepped in to stop them, blood was drawn and after they had finished they just carried on as normal.

Siem Reap means 'Siamese defeated' referring to a time long ago when they decked Thailand. It was basically a base for us to go and see the temples of Angkor, a group of religious buildings covering an area of 200km square and built in ancient times. It was of course also the setting for classic Angelina Jolie film 'Tomb Raider'. In fact Jolie liked Cambodia so much she declared it her 'second home'.............of course it is sweetheart, that's why you spend a whole 1 week there a year.

The temples were magnificent and all very different. They are very hard to describe in their grandeur but I'll attempt it anyway. The first we went to was big and had loads of faces in the stone and looked like it was off the set of lord of the rings, another had no carvings but was symmetrical and grand, another had lots of trees growing out of the remains and finally Angkor Wat, the main temple was brilliant, looked a bit like Hogwarts. It was fun driving around the temple sights (we had hired motorbike drivers for the day) and pretending to be Indiana Jones climbing over the ruins was fantastic. At Angkor Wat we watched the sun set from the top of the ruins, the temple closed at six and a poor little Cambodian man tried to remove us but couldn't get us to budge until the sun had gone behind the trees.

The site in itself was a little bit of a circus, loads of tourists and shopping markets. Luckily, though, the temples and how good they were transcended this annoying aspect of the day. The kids were always on your back trying to get something out of you, when sitting having a drink a girl came over to us and said 'where are you from?' we replied 'England' to which she said 'capital: London' and in my attempt to try and be funny i carried on by saying 'actually i'm from France' and then she said 'capital: France'. A harmless game ensued but half an hour later after exhausting all the countries we could think of, the little girl of no more than 10 had only failed to answer two questions. It was truly amazing, probably she had been forced to learn to impress the tourists but it did the trick, we were suitably impressed. Another girl gave me a thumb war and i had trouble beating her actually (such small hands), she also gave me a free bracelet when she saw the motorbike exhaust burn on my leg. My flip flop broke on the tour around and none of the stalls had any that fitted me but luckily my motorbike driver had some cobbling skills and fixed it with great aplomb.

We didn't really do much in Siem Reap, it looked like a nice quaint town, but partly because of the heat and partly because we are two of the laziest people ever to have come into existence. We spoke to a few of the younger generation, one lad in a restaurant chatted to us for ages, he worked 7 days a week 12 hours a day for a whole $40 a month, near enough £25. He told us about the problem of Vietnamese immigrants who set up brothels and illegally fished the waters of the Mekong river. Our last night we spent having a few beers with the drivers around our guest house. Here we met one of the biggest heroes of the trip, his name was bee-bee. Within ten seconds of meeting him he tried to sell us drugs and imitated intercourse with his hands. He kept on trying to get us to go with prostitutes and referred to the act as 'boom boom', he then described in great detail using genius sound effects and elaborate hand gestures, his own experiences of 'boom boom'. He smoked two cigarettes at a time, drank beer in one go and when Rhys gave him three quarters of a hip flask of Jack Daniels he drank it all without stopping. I want to be more like him. Unfortunately, he left early to go the disco and get some boom boom. Next morning, however, it transpired that he hadn't had any luck and the girl he wanted went home to sleep rather than entertain the thoughts of boom boom.

So that was Siem Reap.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1138787880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1138787880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1138787880/tpod.html Wed, 01 Feb 2006 05:45:58 -0500 The chronicles of steve in New Zealand: the international bestseller

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The border crossing from Vietnam into Cambodia was simple and a completely different world to the hell hole that was the Laos-Vietnam experience, it was nice, plush and orderly. The difference in the countryside of the two countries was immediately apparent, where Vietnam had concise, green or work-in-progress rice paddies, Cambodia was sparse and seemingly dryer than its neighbour. There was still some farming going on but it was nebulous and looked more primitive. The animals weren't tied to a cart but were just roaming around as they liked. The road was a bit bumpy, some had told me it was a nightmare but i found it ok.

When we arrived in Phnom Penh we were accosted by loads of tuk-tuk drivers each trying to get some business, it was quite hectic as they all scrambled to get a fare. We got taken to a guest house by the lake where all the staff were friendly and it was a nice place so we got a room there and it was a really nice little area, lots of little restaurants and bookshops and things.

The next day we got some motorbike drivers and they took us to see some of the sites. First we went to the shooting range which we had asked not to do but they took us there anyway. I had shot guns before (during my Columbian drug trafficking days) and didn't really want to do it again but we shared a magazine of an AK-47 and nailed the target pretty well. Next was the killing fields, a very, very depressing place.

The Khymer Rouge took charge of Cambodia under Pol Pot between 1975 and 1979, during that time genocide and mass starvation occurred. The Khymer Rouge banned religion and attempted to impose a pure agrarian state where the people worked to farm food and ate what they produced as a collective. The country was to begin again from 'year zero', any of those with education or intelligence were seen as a threat to the regime and executed quite brutally, material possessions were outlawed i.e. watches and many families were torn apart.

The killing fields were the location of mass burial pits of those killed, historians estimations for the death toll vary, the lowest being 750,000 and the highest 3 million, broad consensus puts the figure between 1 and 2 million (a hefty figure for a country with 8 million inhabitants). It has a big tower there filled with skulls from the bodies retrieved from the graves separated into age groups of men women and children. Many of the skulls were cracked and i think i read that the prisoners were killed by being bludgeoned to death so as to save ammunition. It was quite simply an immensely sad place. After this we went to the 'S-21' prison where the Khymer Rouge kept those they felt did not belong in their system. Again quite horrific, pictures of tortured, mangled, emaciated bodies and some of the torture methods were on show. Again it was deeply affecting.

The next day we went to a Russian market which was rubbish because the majority of stalls were closed as it was Chinese new year, we then went to the independence monument which was a bit rubbish as well. The next day we relaxed and just sat around as it was blisteringly hot and we couldn't be bothered to do anything.

All the Cambodians we met were lovely, very friendly and very helpful. As i mentioned before the desperate way the tuk-tuk drivers tried to get business, they were all a bit like that when they had something to sell. It seemed to be in a different vein to that of the other countries though, less like a sport for them almost and more a necessity to get a few more dollars. Maybe i'm wrong but it did seem that way.

Phnom Penh in itself was a great city, and throughout this little tour of south east Asia, i really have liked the cities the most. It's hard to describe the city really but it bustled like Hanoi or Bangkok but had more order to it. I didn't see much high rise, it was mainly four or five story buildings (is this high rise? or is it more middle rise?) didn't think it was particularly dirty in any way, in fact it appeared more clean than those cities I've mentioned.

After only 3 days in the country i could already tell i was going to like it for some reason, can't put my finger on it, but i was well looking forward to the trip up to Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1138357740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1138357740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1138357740/tpod.html Sun, 29 Jan 2006 00:14:17 -0500 The chronicles of steve in New Zealand: the international bestseller

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Another overnight bus was taken down the Vietnamese coast from Hoi An, again not much sleep and i had to get another bus straight away to get to Ho Chi Minh city, but despite barely being able to keep my eyelids open, got to see the acres of sand dunes and coastal scenery which i enjoyed a lot. I started chatting to the guy next to me, an English lad called Ash. He was a bit of a hippy, wearing his Tie Dye clothing and lots of beads, but we found common ground in Bob Dylan and so we talked for hours, basically trying to prove one of us had more knowledge of the man than the other. I clearly won though, my facts were second to none, we did hang around with him a lot in Saigon though.

Entering HCMC i was meant to meet up with Rhys again and found him fairly easily. The area we were staying was well and truly backpacker land, very similar to the Khao San Road area of Bangkok. The hotel was nice and we had Sky TV again, a luxury i aren't used to so another added bonus. That first night we walked around a bit bumped into Ash and hit the beers and we ended up having quite a good night. Next day we tried to go to the cinema but the film wasn't on in English and we tried to go to a bar, famous in HCMC, called 'Apocalypse Now!', but that was closed. So a very unsuccessful day really but the classic Madonna and Tom Hanks film 'a league of their own' was on sky so we managed to salvage something worthwhile from the day.

That night we went to the Guns 'N' Roses bar and had a few quiet ones. In another bar a young lad came over and started talking to us and wanted us to join him and his friends, basically the deal was that his woman friend fancied Ash and wanted to try it on. So we chatted away with about five of them, there were 3 Vietnamese guys and an English bloke called David working over there, all (apart from the woman) were as gay as the day is long and heavily camp with it. We chatted for quite some time and the woman (Chang) owned a bar which she invited us to the next night....(to be continued)

The next day we went to the war remnants museum which was absolutely brilliant but quite harrowing all the same, lots of photographs showing the war and casualties and deformities from defoliants. In fact i was almost instantly transformed into a pacifist after i had been there, Rhys and i hardly spoke for about an hour after we left because we were so subdued. We tried to go to the cinema again but unfortunately the film we wanted to see wasn't in English again so we made our way to this strange woman's bar...........

As we trudged through the door in our ripped/hippy clothing we realised we were in a posh establishment and we went through to meet the Chang. She asked us if we had eaten and we said no and were subsequently brought heaps of food which was the best i had tasted in about a year. We got loads of free booze as well, all Chang's homosexual crew then turned up and we were having a nice little party. Ash decided to go and get some cigarettes and didn't return for 15 minutes, Rhys then decided to go and look for him, again he didn't return. It appeared as though i had been completely stitched up by my friends, many condescending glances from the gay lads and slightly narky comments, as i sat there feeling utterly trapped between a mad woman who kept telling me she was the 'queen of Saigon' and a bunch of offended gay men, i thought to myself 'could this possibly get any worse?'.........Chang then decided to salvage something from the night and started coming onto me. What had began as an evening of free luxury had quickly descended into a complete nightmare, where i was going to have to prostitute myself to make amends. They tried to persuade me to go to a club which i refused and they all just sat there staring at me. So i left them very quickly and said thank you and goodbye, walked down the street and there was Ash and Rhys having a beer about 10 yards away. The pillocks....'oh yeah we were just coming to find you' they said. After almost staving their heads in with a bottle of beer i got them to go to this club to apologise.

Anyway everything sorted itself out and we had a good night in the end, i was slightly disturbed at how much me and the lads had in common, we all thought Brie was our favourite desperate housewives character and liked absolutely fabulous. The next day i went out to buy a Queen album. Make of this what you will.

I went to get my hair cut which was interesting, i asked for a shaved head but he didn't quite understand what i meant and so i just got a short back and sides. After he had cut my hair though he plugged this electronic massage thing in and started rubbing my head quite hard which was odd. Then he got a towel and started whacking me across the back with it, i found his sweeping motion and expression so strange that i couldn't stop laughing and he had to stop to make sure i was ok. I composed myself and he dragged me back in the seat and started walloping me around my chest this time, i think he was trying to get rid of excess hair.

Other activities in Saigon included going to an all you can eat pizza restaurant and watching King Kong (not bad). Other than that it was another city with mental traffic, we took quite a few motorbike rides which was good, strange how there don't seem to be any crashes and no one gets angry.

The next part of my trip follows the advice of 1970s punk band The Dead Kennedys as i'm taking a 'holiday in Cambodia.'
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1137937980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1137937980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1137937980/tpod.html Mon, 23 Jan 2006 09:37:12 -0500 The chronicles of steve in New Zealand: the international bestseller

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Hoi An, Vietnam

Hoi An is a place where you can get shed loads of tailored clothing, basically, anything you want made to measure and for a dirt cheap price ($28 for a suit), i had heard good things about the place and was looking forward to it but on a whole wasn't overly impressed with it.

I had arranged to stay at a sister hotel from the one in Hue and was to be picked up from the bus. However, when we got there we were immediately taken around some hotels which were, to begin with, quite expensive. After seeing one i climbed back on the bus and all of a sudden a man waving a huge placard with my misspelt name on it came wandering around the windows of the bus to take me away. I felt quite important and possibly a little smug as the rest of them had to wander from hotel to hotel and i had chauffeur driven (albeit a crap motorbike) to my pre booked accommodation.

The first day i was there a woman came up to me and gave me all her spiel about her shop and the prices they charged so i went along with her and was shown what they could make for me. Basically they made me flick through a 'Next' catalogue, i was definitely going to get something made, and a shirt seemed a good option so i picked out my style hoping the shirt would look the same on me as it did on the model in the picture. They certainly gave the hard sell when i said i would come back tomorrow, they kicked up a hell of a fuss and the conversation lasted about 10 minutes as to why i should get it measured now rather than later. Through my desire to get it done the next day rather than there and then i unwittingly employed a new bartering technique which got about $2 knocked off the price, so i was measured up and picked the material out and went on my merry way. It was quite hot in Hoi An and i tend to sweat a lot in this type of situation and so when i went to try on the shirt, the lady in the shop had a look of utter disgust on her face when she had to peel the shirt off my clammy body, and after that she didn't try and sell me any more. The shirt though was an absolute perfect fit, the sleeves and chest most notably which i can never seem to get right so i was quite happy with it.

Hoi An was quite quaint and loads of narrow little streets which were quite nice and then a river as well with a market set on it and the most coned hats per capita i have seen in Vietnam. What was more impressive were the school girls. I don't mean this in a laddy sense of 'she'll be alright in a few years, oh yes!' kind of way. It was the uniforms, like the post office girls the uniforms were long and flowing and feminine and sparkling white, more impressive still is that they biked to school and back and there and back at lunch time, there were hundreds of them on the streets at these times, all of them peddling along with part of their dress wrapped around one hand so as not to get them dirty. When i was at school it was so easy to get mud everywhere i think i spent half my time wandering around looking like Stig of the Dump so this makes their achievement even more notable.

I did little else in Hoi An, just wandered the streets really, taking a look, there was a beach nearby that i almost went to but at the end of the day i couldn't be bothered so sat around again. I think a combination of the heat and not really wanting to go to see any of the sights made me lazy for a couple of days. The things listed to do didn't really seem of interest to me as they were similar to other tuff i'd seen on the way such as temples and things like that which i wasn't in the mood for. Didn't meet anyone of interest really, apart from an American man on the bus who lived in the United Arab Emirates, he was a nice fella. On the night i got my bus i bumped into the two Austrian grandmasters again and had a few more games with them before i went off down the coast to Saigon.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1137888600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1137888600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1137888600/tpod.html Sat, 21 Jan 2006 19:20:52 -0500 The chronicles of steve in New Zealand: the international bestseller

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Hue, Vietnam

Was absolutely knackered when we got into Hue after about 14 hours on the bus, i just can't sleep on them for some reason, but anyway, when i got there i went straight into the nearest hotel, had a kip and set off to look at the citadel in the city. This had been heavily bombed during the Vietnam war and was quite nice to stroll around with some interesting bits and bobs. That was all i fancied doing that first day i was there and the rest of the day was spent just wandering around a bit.

Next day i went on a tour to the demilitarised zone which separted North from South, the best thing about the trip was the countryside which was very pretty and i hadn't had much of a chance to take it in yet. We went to an old American army base which was subject to a famous siege, but i forget its name, it had a few old helicopters and planes, the photographs in the little museum were very good. So often with these tours, how good it is depends on how well the guide speaks English and this one was pretty good, she gave us a concise history of the war and comprehensive overview of the things we saw and places we went to. I had studied Vietnam when i was about 15 and was surprised at how much i remembered, think i probably appreciated the trip more as a result. We saw places where the 'Ho Chi Minh Trail' began (this was the network of tunnels that the Vietcong used to travel between the north and the south to take equiment and try and exert influence) and told how once it was discovered the US used Agent Orange to destroy the trees so it couldn't be used as an effective transport route. The after effects of Agent Orange are quite nasty, the vegetation was destroyed meaning large areas of no trees, subsequently in the wet season heavy flooding is experienced with no natural barrier for the water. We went down some tunnels which i was far too big for but it was interesting all the same, there were some beggars around who had some deformities which i assume were from the agent orange. As i said before Pretty nasty stuff.

Day after this i hired a motorbike to go and see some old emperors tomb in the country, Tu Doc was his name and his tomb was quite majestic, it was well worth a visit and far better than the citadel in the city which cost the same price to get in. Not sure what to say about it apart from the architecture was brilliant and it was set in loads of pine trees and had lots of flowing water about. I had to get used to riding the bike on the opposite side of the road, much more motorbikes than Chiang Mai but less cars and it was still fairly hectic, occasionally when i was riding along and concentrating on looking cool a Vietnamese woman would bike up beside me and start having a chat causing me to wobble and almost crash.

In the afternoon i went to the beach, the ride there was through lush rice paddies with all the workers and their conical hats. Rice paddies are absolutely everywhere and i have to confess a complete ignorance as to how it is grown. From what i can gather the land is separated into walled squares and then its flooded, while flooded i think they chuck loads of seeds in, then once the water levels go down, its ploughed and left to grow and picked with the actual rice taken from the stem of the long green stalk. I'm sure i have missed a stage out or something but that's the jist. Seeing the acres upon acres of them is quite impressive and all the people working with archaic farm equipment is a bit of an eye opener i guess, the ploughs are pulled by some kind of oxon and although my farming history is a little sketchy i think farmers in england probably stopped using similar equipment about 50 years ago. The beach itself was ok but i didn't spend long there. I then tried to find a bridge but somehow i ended up in completely the wrong part of the city and near the tomb where i was in the morning despite one attraction being in the north and the other in the south, so ended up going back to the hotel.

Hue in itself was quite a nice city, pretty standard in some parts but quite nice in the areas near the river its built on. I loved going into the post office, its like walking onto the set of Babylon 5 or something all the women who work there wear matching uniforms that look like they could be from the future. The first day i went in it was white trousers and these long blue kind of dress things, but the bottom half of the dress had slits right up the sides. The next day it was a different colour, and they were all spotless as well. I thought it was well good, don't know why just one of those little things that gets noticed.

I spent my nights in the hotel playing some truly epic games of chess with two Austrian brothers, i was the victor on many occasions and in their thick accents both commented that i was 'a strong player' which i liked because i could imagine it was Garry Kasparov saying it. Think that's it for Hue. Next stop Hoi An.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1137505680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1137505680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kiffster65/new_zealand_-05/1137505680/tpod.html Tue, 17 Jan 2006 09:16:06 -0500 The chronicles of steve in New Zealand: the international bestseller

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Hanoi, Vietnam

The traffic in Hanoi is absolutely ridiculous. Thousands of motorbikes beeping down the street, you risk life and limb every time the road is crossed, the trick is apparently not to make any sudden movements. At first i was like a rabbit trapped in the headlights and hopped and swerved my way across the street, this premature technique accidently mimicked Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' video, however, my methods improved and by the end of my time there i walked across the road at a steady consistent pace without looking at the oncoming traffic. Seriously, this was the best way. I'm amazed i didn't see an accident, it is absolute bedlam but strangely it works, watch the motorcyclists more closely and they constantly make little deviations from their course so as to ensure safe passage, i wondered if the Vietnamese men walk in the front door to the family after work and wifes would say 'how was your day dear?' and would the man reply 'traffic was a nightmare'? Are there varying levels to this chaos that can be distinguished? I don't think so.

First day was quite relaxing, Rhys was heading off down to an island the day after and we were to meet up in Saigon. We took a stroll around the old quarter of the city and went to a temple on the lake there which was ok but not great and a market, which again was ok but not great and then went for a few beers that night. We ended up going to a bar that was offering free beer until midnight, off we popped to expect some kind of catch but there was none, i was quite amazed. Free beer, what more could anyone want? Tuk-tuk drivers don't seem to exist, instead everyone asks if you want to ride on the back of their motorbike, which we did that night, me Rhys and our little Vietnam man all on the same bike. It was a tight squeeze.

Next day Rhys headed off and i went to the 'temple of literature' which was a university of some kind and that was quite nice but again not fantastic, worth seeing i suppose. After that it was Ho Lao Prison, which kept American POWs in the Vietnam war and was nicknamed the 'Hanoi Hilton' by them as they were treated very well. It was quite interesting, lots of propaganda such as captions that read 'despite the Americans waging a war of destruction on our country for no reason, we still let them receive presents from there families' In the pictures it seemed as though they were treated quite well also. Had satellite tv in my room so that night got to watch loads of premiership games. Jackpot.

Next morning i went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum and went to see the big man. He's still dead and looks like a waxwork model. He goes to Russia for 3 months of every year to be embalmed or something, it was strange though, no cameras or phones were allowed in and there were lots of guards herding the visitors through and soldiers stood at four corners of the box. It was very kind of respectful but then walking out the other side there was stuff like a replica of Ho Chi Minhs study and his used cars and so what had been a tribute to a very historical figure quickly turned into a cheesy tourist attraction. When i return to England an overthrow the system to impose Communism on the country i want those reading this to make sure that i am preserved when i die and not have it turned into a fanfare..................on second thoughts, think i'll still vote Tory at the next election.

Hanoi in itself was very good, i liked it there, complete contrast to the slow paced Laos. It had loads of stuff to do there and was interesting as well. Fully recommended. Next day it was down the coast to Hue.
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Laos/Vietnam border, Vietnam

So we booked a bus, $18 it cost us but in the end i probably wouldn't have paid 18p for it. In my seemingly neverending quest to find a bus service that matches that of the 128 from Pickering to Scarborough, this is the furthest from that perfection yet. We got taken to the bus station, no English was spoken by the blokes running it, we were told we had to take our tickets inside but then after many telephone calls a boy from the bus told the officiating lady it didn't matter and so we were herded onto the bus with the woman looking decidedly miffed. The organisers were attempting to fill it with as much cheap electrical crap as possible, as apparently the Vietnamese travel to Laos and Thailand to pick up the cheap goods and then take them back. And what would you imagine that these cheap goods consisted of? hi-fis? tvs? fridges?.......... none of the above instead hundreds upon hundreds of rice cookers were being shipped. Surely its inbred into the Vietnamese genes to cook rice isn't it? Why on earth do they need a rice cooker? But anyway due to the sheer volume of goods we had to climb over the (very uncomfortbale) seats to get out when we stopped and were hemmed in by them in a tight space when we were on the road.

The appearance of westerners on the bus didn't seem that well taken and some dirty looks were given, there was Rhys and i and four Israelis. At first they seemed like all the other Israelis i had met and a bit arrogant and annoying but the turned out to be really nice and we got on well, although at one point in the journey in one of the brief moments i did sleep i think i leant my head on the girl's shoulder who was sat next to me and possibly drooled on her. We had been getting on like a house on fire as well, most girls would be quite excited of the prospect of me drooling on them. Her loss.

The journey began an hour later than planned and off we set, it was bumpy and uncomfortable and they stopped every two minutes to check the engine, although what they thought they would achieve i don't know as they simply shone a torch on it and fixing the problem appeared to have been the tying of string to keep the bonnet open for the whole trip. The lights had gone wrong as well meaning there was only full beam capability and thus every car flashed us as we went by, i'm quite surprised i still have proper vision. Couldn't get comfy in the seats at all, slept a little when we were waiting for the border to open. Some of the passengers were sent off in a different little bus in the middle of the night so think there was a possibility of people trafficking going on.

The head honcho looked like a bandit, in fact he looked exactly like the guy off 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' that has the navy ship and turns Indiana Jones over to the Nazis, the rest of his crew looked like pirates as well. So well and truly knackered we had to make it through the border which seemed to take an eternity and lots of pushing and shoving and stuff. Then the bus had to be thoroughly checked before we had to get back on the godawful contraption that was our transport. As we stopped at the first town in Vietnam, Captain Pugwash unhooked a few seats and removed some heavily taped boxes from underneath them, again lord only knows what was in them.

And so it contiued for another 14 hours, we eventually arrived in Hanoi at 11pm, 6 hours after we were supposed to and i never wanted to get on a bus again. The pain was awful, my knees and bum will never be the same, luckily our hotel was good so that was a light at the end of the tunnel, and so began my time in Hanoi which was really good, so on with the next entry...............................
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