Back in the Swedenland

The flights home turned out to be boringly unproblematic and I have now been home in Stockholm safe and sound for the past few days. I managed to get a week and half more off work, which I will use to get back into the Swedish way of life. I've tried getting as much done as possible since getting back, drinking loads of water straight from the tap, eating decent burgers, pizza, chips and kebabs... you know Swedish food. Otherwise things are pretty much the same as when I left Stockholm allthough the sun has had his hat on quite a bit, which is nice of him. I can tell you all that I successfully managed to get a grand total of zero checks off the checklist which I made at the beginning of the trip. Also for all of you modern cats out there who have a facebook account, you will notice I have uploaded pictures from the end of my trip (Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Bangkok) taken with my new camera which I bought in Bangkok, but didn’t want mention on here due to high jinxing-factor. And I think that’s about all for this time… Thank you all for reading and I look forward to seeing you all on here for my next trip, which looks certain to be Africa in less than a years time if all goes to plan. Take Care!

ONE last night in Bangkok

Sihanoukville would have been the perfect ending to a perfect trip, had it not been for my usual naivety which always seems to hit me towards the end of my trips. The brutal trio of sand, strong breeze and sun (or Earth, Wind and Fire if you wish) burnt my face pretty badly, leaving my face in blisters and peeling tan. Apart from this mishap Sihanoukville was brilliant with good weather and a great nightlife. I stayed by the beach for four nights before heading in a western direction, where i decided to jump off in the small town of Koh Kong close to the Thai border. Here I got Suka, a local motorcycle driver to drive me around to all the surrounding natural beauties including some impressive waterfalls, beaches and big mangrove swamps. The morning after Suka's brother took me to the border which I crossed by foot, then found a white van man who drove me to a town called Trat where I caught a bus to Bangkok. Getting off the bus I got stopped by police who searched through my entire luggage for drugs (they didn't find my massive supply of heroine) and then got stuck for an hour on motorbike in the horrendous Bangkok-traffic. After this my bum was rather sore (no the police didn't harm me) but I met up Josh again and also Isabelle and Marcus who missed their flight a few days ago (I think to be able to meet me.) We spent one night in Bangkok making the world our oyster for the last time in quite some while I suspect. Now I've been walking around the Khao San Road area with the boys who are curing their hangovers, until Josh and I have to catch our flight at half past eight tonight. So with any luck I should be back home in Stockholm by sunday morning (I can't tell you what time as this would create a mass hysteria of mobs of waiting fans at the airport) but I can tell you that Sunday night will be a great night to be out and about in the capital of Scandinavia.

Cambodyeah

Crossing the Vietnam border in this direction was completely hassle-free, you literally feel the change of people's attitudes as you cross, seven hours by bus from Saigon took me to Phnom Penh. The weather was gorgeous for the entire busride but as the doors opened so did the skies. So there I stood, on the "wrong" side of town in a monsoon/typhoon/windy rainy storm, trying to get a ride to the "right" side. When the thunder and lightning persisted a tuktuk driver drove me through the flooded roads lined with huge fallen trees and bent roadsigns. During my previous stay in Phnom Penh I stayed lake-side so I decided to vary my trips and chose the other tourist option of river-side (allthough in these conditions the whole of Phnom Penh seemed to be riverside.) I did my usual hectic sightseeing, walking around markets checking genocide-museums and visited a barbershop (I say barbershop, in truth it was just a random man in the street who happened to own the combination of a chair, a mirror and a hair clipper.) He cut my hair very short, but at the price of less than a dollar I can't really complain. Out of my two hectic stays in this capital city I must say I preferred staying lakeside, but Phnom Penh on both occasions was great. Now however I have reached a new town after almost 5 hours on a bus showing a Cambodian singing stand-up routine where both the male and female character sounded like Janice from "Friends," it did have the entire bus in fits of laughter though, kids standing on their seats, hard of hearing grandmothers having the jokes retold, so they must be doing something right. The town I've reached now, on my speed-dating tour of South-East Asia, is the beachside town of Sihanoukville, where (fingers crossed) there wont be any monsoon or Blackpool brothers, so I that I can return to Sweden with a somewhat respectable tan.

Saigon With The Wind

Nha Trang was supposed to be a few relaxed days on the beach, but then along came my temporary room-mate Aaron and his brother Dean, both from Blackpool, and introduced me to Northern English drinking-sessions (or just a "Sesh" for short.) A few days on the beach, quickly turned into six days on the bottle. I managed to make it to the beach once in these six days despite the weather being wonderful, the rest of the time was spent booze-cruising or just simply the same without the cruise, not that I'm complaining as we had a top, mad, sound crack of a time. However the prolonged "seshing " meant that I had to skip Mui Ne with its beaches and sand dunes which are supposed to be stunning. Instead I caught a 12 hour bus straight to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) which is an absolutely crazy city, it doesn't have anywhere near the same beauty as for example Hoi An or the charm of Hanoi, yet somehow it has something very appealing. During my 24 hours here so far I've tried to cram in as much as possible, visiting war-museums and historic places, but mostly just soaking up the chaotic atmosphere. The amount of two-wheeled motorised vehicles in Saigon is indescribable, it has a human population of about 5.5 million and a motorcycle population of about 3.5 million, thus crowding every street crossing and alleyway with hundreds of bikes. Strangely though it is never difficult to get through the traffic as a pedestrian, you just step out onto the road, walk normally and as if by magic (or religion, your choice) the sea of "motobikes" just parts around you, it's so easy it could probably be done blindfolded, but as my trip is nearing it's end without major incidents I won't risk it. I've had a great time in Nam, even though due to dishonest people, like a midget in a urinal, you constantly have to stay on your toes (believe it or not though I have met some friendly souls in Saigon) but my permitted stay runs out tomorrow, so I've decided to catch a bus from here to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, and from there we'll see what happens...

Stressing Down The Coast Of Vietnam

I guess the title pretty much gives this latest installment of the blog away. Since writing last I've crossed the 17th parallel and gone through the Demilitarised Zone from the Vietnam (or as they refer to it here, American) war and visited UNESCO sights four and five since leaving India, in the form of the two historic towns Hue and Hoi An. Both places were interesting, however Hoi An is one of the prettiest towns I've ever seen (albeit commercial.) Set on the banks of the small river Thu Bon is the ancient port known by western traders back in the days as Faifo. I was lucky to arrive here on the 14th day of the lunar month, which only happens to be "Hoi An Legendary Night" filling the streets with people, candles and small bonfires. Coloured rice-lanterns illuminate the narrow alleyways full of tailors (there are more than 200 tailor shops in this town with a population of 70 000) craftsmen and artists selling everything from traditional rice-hats and cheap tailor made suits to giant wooden Buddha statues (luckily my bag is too full to buy any of their souvenir crap.) However both towns got only 24 hours each of my attention as I must rush to see everything, I have now returned to Beach-Life and hope to spend a few days on the beaches of Nha Trang, weather lately has been quite miserable but hopefully it will take a turn for the better soon.

'Namazeing

(Note the title is a play on not only two but three words!) After the very hectic travelling the past few days, I felt I deserved some relaxation, so I tagged along with the four Brits I met at the Laos/Vietnam border and their two friends Vickie and Louis to the UNESCO sight (third in three weeks) of Halong Bay. The place is absolutly amazing with an archipelago consisting of more than 3000 vertical limestone islands, which mysteriously rise up from the turquoise Gulf of Tonkin, unfortunatly the bay is clogged up with about as many touristboats as there are islands. We chugged around the bay during the day stopping off at caves (which were jam-packed with tourists and tackily lit with coloured halogen lights.) Then when the sun started to go down, many of the boats went back to the mainland giving the bay back it's natural beauty. We spent the evening Kayaking into the sunset then relaxed on the boat all night drinking beer and playing cards before catching some much needed sleep on the boat. The morning after we headed back cruising between the rocky isles and heavy fog (adding even more mystique to the location) before catching a bus back to Hanoi. In Hanoi I've mostly just wandered around and I really love the town, allthough Vietnamese people are without a doubt the rudest and unfriendliest people I've ever encountered (however I haven't been to Russia yet.) Usually I have quite a good sense of direction but in Hanoi it's just impossible to walk anywhere without getting lost. I think it's the combination of thousands of small streets which change name and curve without logic, the unhelpful locals who don't speak very much English and the fact that my Vietnamese isn't quite what it used to be which make this maze of a city so difficult to navigate and every stroll an adventure, but this may be what I like so much about Hanoi the sense of satisfaction and relief when you actually get through the chaos to where you want. Now though I have to hurry on south through the country to have time to see as much as possible, my nightbus takes me on a 14 hour trip to Hue tonight where I'll see what else "Nam" has to offer.

Hanoiing

It's too difficult to summarise the past few days, but I'll give it a shot. Where to start? The hours since my last post have been very hectic, I can tell you all I did cross the border on my second try allthough it wasn't the smoothest of transitions. On the Laos-side of the border I met four Brits (Alex, Jack, Jamie and George) so together with the two people I met the day before there were 7 of us using this complicated border. We managed to get a bus which was supposed to take us to Hanoi, but we realised these guys were very dodgy (they all had leatherjackets for one) and decided to jump ship earlier on in Thanh Hoa, and not pay what we had agreed. This of course caused havoc in the small town, and we were stalked by probably the entire population, until we managed to shake them off and find refuge at the trainstation. The train didn't leave until almost midnight and reached Hanoi about four hours later, here me and the Brits decided checking in to a hotel was not needed and decided to find a bar or someplace to sit instead until we could get a trip to the nearby Halong Bay. And that is pretty much where I am now, sitting at an internet place in Hanoi, waiting to see what happens today. Whatever happens later on in my life, I doubt I will live to see much more epic and hectic birthdays. Allright, now I've got five minutes to pack my bag before we apparantly leave for Halong Bay...

April Fool!

So first things first: Luang Prabang turned out to be a really nice town, very clean, friendly people allthough the whole place felt a bit artificial where every shop, hotel and restaurant had signs made by the same company and nothing really seemed genuine. The weather didn’t treat us too well but we did manage to get one nice day out by some wonderful waterfalls. After our time in the UNESCO listed town, Josh and I had different plans for our trip so we decided to both go at it alone for a while, Josh traveling to southern Laos whilst I would travel north to eventually reach Vietnam. The solo travel on my part started at 07.30 AM with a 16 hour ride in a minibus. This turned out to become the bumpiest ride I’ve ever experienced, and the bumps made everything from sleeping to reading and even drinking water impossible. Also the loud South-East Asian pop music and loud South-East Asian women throwing up didn’t make any of this easier. The minibus had seats for 11 but at one point we were 19 human-beings, 1 pig and several chickens crammed onto the vehicle (luckily the non human beings traveled on the roof after some discussion.) After 16 sleepless hours we reached Sam Neua and I decided to check into a guesthouse to catch 4 hours sleep before heading back to the bus station to catch a sawngthaew (glorified pickup-truck) for three and a half hours to get to the Vietnam border, this ride was free of live-stock but I’m pretty sure the stuff being transported in plastic sacks was alive at one point but had now been dead for at least a week. When I got there I would find out whether or not my gamble had worked out, the previous 28 hour journey could all be in vain as I had not yet acquired a visa, but I had heard rumours that Scandinavian citizens do not need visas to enter Vietnam. Luckily this was rumour turned out to be true… however I did not have a ticket out of Vietnam so I was denied access to the country, despite desperate attempts to convince bordercontrol. My only choice now was to head back, not the whole 28 hours but back to Sam Neua. At the border I met fellow Swede Anders and the Danish Josefine who both had the same problem, so we have now arrived at an internetplace and are scheming on an escaperoute out of Laos...