Richard 'so good with chopsticks he only needs 1' Alexander

Hong Kong was great, until i got to the airport. I was a little early for my flight so i decided to get some food before i flew. I went up to the counter to pay for my KFC (fast food joints are only allowed when traveling if they are in an airport. Its the rule) only to find i didn't have any cash left. No problem, just get some from an ATM. I left my 'chicken' at the counter and found an ATM only to discover that my usual visa debit wasn't in my wallet. Not panic time yet, probably just in my other shorts. So i had to go into my big backpack to get my backup credit card. I put it into the ATM and put in my pin. INCORRECT - TRY AGAIN. ok... INCORRECT - TRY AGAIN..but its definitely... INCORRECT - YOUR CARD HAS BEEN RETAINED. OK, panic time. I fished out my emergency $50 and paid for my now cold food. After searching thoroughly through my bag and finding nothing I checked my bag at the check in desk. As i walked away wondering if my life could get any worse, my flip-flop snapped rendering it useless. I was on a flight to Saigon, alone, with 1 shoe, $45 to last me indefinitely and no plans.

Fortunately Vietnam is a good country to be stuck in with a money problem. $45, or 810,000 Dong, goes a long way. My first day i visited the Cu-Chi tunnels which were used by the Viet Cong when fighting the Americans. The tunnels were cramped but quite interesting.
There was also optional gun shooting, a tad insensitive some may say. I, being insensitive, chose to shoot an AK47. It was alarmingly similar to paintball. The next day was raining so i thought i would go to a nice hotel about 2 miles away to use their indoor pool. I went up to a man beside a motorbike (moto taxi's are everywhere) and he said he would take me after we had agreed a price. At this point he started walking away from the motorbike and towards a romantic looking pedal rickshaw. I grudgingly got in and gave the driver a look of "this isn't what i agreed to", and spent the next 25 minutes getting soaked and laughed at by every passing motor biker as well as pedestrians, shop owners, school children, etc.

When i got back to the hostel there was a new person sitting on the bed beside mine.

Me: Hi, you traveling alone?
Stranger: yeh
Me: Want to get some food and check out the night market?
Stranger: Sure, just let me finish by beer
(Stranger reaches into a plastic bag and pulls out an un-open beer. Opens it.)
Me: How many have you had?
Stranger: Um... 6
Me: ...oh

The stranger, Jules, was from Germany and had just finished a year working in Australia. We went out for drinks that night and met some other people who were headed for Dalat (in the mountains, 8 hours away) the next day. Being a few drinks in, we decided this was a great idea and booked tickets right away. The 2 people we were traveling with were an Iraqi/American atheist who used to own a bar in Panama and an Israeli girl. In Dalat we met a couple from Stratford. The 6 of us became travel buddies and took the 'top gear Vietnam special' route up through the country for the next 2 weeks.

Highlights included a beach party in Nha Trang where Jules disappeared, then reappeared soaked. The next day he told us he went for a walk along the beach and fell into the sea. Hoi An, where we all rented scooters and found a deserted beach. That night a promoter for one of the bars tried to coax us in with the promise of free drinks. After assuring us there was no catch, we went along to discover a small bar with drinks completely free from 9pm-11pm. It was only 9:30 so by 11:30 we were out again having drank plenty and paid nothing. Halong bay was a really nice place to finish my trip around Vietnam.

Having spent so long in Vietnam it meant shortening my trip to Cambodia. After flying from Hanoi i arrived in Siem Riep. Today was spent cycling around the Ankor Wat temple complex. It wasn't a great idea to choose to cycle since it is the rainy season, about 35 degrees and the distances are rather large. This gave me the choice of either a raincoat/plastic bag and getting soaked in sweat but having a dry rucksack, or no raincoat and getting soaked by rain along with by rucksack. I came home exhausted but impressed. Next is an apparently awful bus to Bangkok where i start my trip to Bali.

Some snaps.


A Vietnamese local takes a nap.














The crew enjoys some pizza.














Beach time in Nha Trang















Halong Bay.
















Ankor Wat.