You can't drink and come to work; you're not airline pilots!

Well my trip is quickly coming to an end. I just got back from a 4 day trip to Cambodia and let me tell you I am tired. Going drinking the night before a 7 am bus always sounds better before you stuff yourself full of Indian food, drink copious amounts of beer followed by several of Cambodia's "Thai buckets" (I said I wouldn't drink any more of these, but I lied). The first bar I went to with this guy James (we met in the taxi on the way to the airport) was full of old white men and Cambodian prostitutes (or at least I assume that's what they were). They kept on grabbing me and trying to get me to dance. The beer combined with the girls made me think staying was a bad idea so we moved to the bar across the street and promptly got trashed.
Prior to my trip to Cambodia, I was on Koh Tao where I finished my Open Water certification and completed 3 of my 5 advanced dives. At first I wasn't so sure if diving was my thing, but I quite enjoy it now. The only downside to going on 7 dives in 3 days was that I was too exhausted to drink or really explore the island. The only thing I really saw was the ocean, which was quite nice.
I hadn't planned on going to Cambodia, but after spending a week on various Islands, I was ready to explore something new. Generally there are two methods for getting there; by bus or by plane. The bus costs about $50, but takes anywhere from 12 to 16 hours while the plane costs $200 and takes 1 hour (not including a 5 hour bus ride to the Siem Reap, which costs $7). Being pressed for time and lazy I flew. In total I've taken 7 flights, 3 buses, 3 ferries and 2 trains, so naturally based on the sheer number of flights, I've blown away my initial spending estimates....oh well, I'll probably only be here once.
While in Cambodia I spent the majority my time exploring ankor wat, as it is the countries main attraction and the locals there are crazy. After getting off the bus I was behind a high fenced gate where a security guard waited for the passengers to disembark so that he could "let us out". The problem was that as soon as he opened the gate I was instantly surrounded by people trying to offer me accommodations and transportation. Eventually after countless offers of "tuk tuk" and the like, I don't even acknowledge these peoples presence anymore.
Tomorrow I'm going to go to the Tiger Temple, visiting the death railway along with the floating market. On Saturday I'll probably visit the royal palace and buy a crap load of counterfeit products, which will pretty much wrap up my trip.

Oh yes, it's a onesie!

I arrived in Ko Phangan last night after spending the evening in Bangkok. That city is massive, and I look forward to some exploring towards the end of my trip. I met some cool people on the ferry to the island and it turns out they are staying at the same hotel as my friends from Chiang Mai, which worked out well as I found everyone very quickly.

I introduced each group to each other and we went out last night and just started wandering and drinking. Eventually we made it to the beach and started ordering more Thai buckets, even though I promised myself I wouldn't as things have tended to get pretty messy. Eventually some of us went to a bar, while the rest remained on the beach (I guess most of them ended up at a rave later). I met some girls who then invited us to a pool party where I continued drinking and eventually decided to jump in the pool. I don't remember actually jumping in, but it must have happened because the next thing I remember is that I was wandering around the town drunk, shirtless, wet and barefoot at about 6:30 am. Keep in mind I never usually last beyond one or two in the morning...stupid Thai buckets. To add to that, I left my camera out while in the pool, so clearly when I went to go retrieve it, it had been stolen. It's not a huge deal, as I've uploaded most of the pictures on facebook, so in the end I've only really lost about 2 days worth of pictures and my insurance should cover the theft (I have two coverages one from MasterCard and one from the travel company).

Tomorrow is the big full moon party, and once it's over I'll go to Ko Tao for scuba lessons, chill out on Ko Chang or Ko Samet for a day and then likely go to Ankor Wat in Cambodia. I figure that as much fun as island hopping is (and let me tell you, it is awesome!) Ankor Wat will leave a more lasting impression.

Well, I'm off to go find a disposable camera and some food.

I call it my epiphany toilet!

I've been in Vietnam for the past week and it has been an amazing experience.

One thing I've always found difficult was orienting myself in a new country or city, so when people come up offering you cab rides in currencies you are unfamiliar with it can be difficult to know when you're being taken for a sucker. In this particular instance I was taken for such a fool. This guy came up offering a cab ride for 100,000 dong (about $6) and after declining the offer he followed me to a cash machine. Afterwards, I went to a information desk and asked what the appropriate ride should cost, upon which I was told it should cost 30,000 dong (about $2). I went back to the guy and offered 30,000 dong, which he promptly agreed to (warning sign #1). I followed him out the airport and things got a little weirder as he quickly directed me to an area outside the airport / taxi loading area at which point I stopped and realized that something was a little off. Lucky for me as the guy tried to convince me to continue, a cop came up on a motorbike, laughed and directed me to were the legit cab drivers were (I later found out the common scam is to get you in the car and take you wherever the hell they felt like).

After this incident everything went fine and I met some people at the hostel and headed straight for a bar. Unfortunately, the bars in Vietnam close at midnight, so after only 1 beer we returned to the hostel where they served us until 2am.

The next day I did a little sight seeing and visited Ho Chi Minh's body and some other minor sites. On Monday I went to Halong Bay for three days and chilled out on the beach and enjoyed the scenery. Finally, last night I took a night train to Sepa which is a small northern community with some beautiful mountains and many minority villages.

Due to the early closing of the local bars in Vietnam my drinking experiences haven't been spectacular, and I missed an opportunity to see Japan play Saudi Arabia in the Asian Cup (soccer), which based on the people that invited me would have involved heavy drinking.

On Saturday I'll be heading to Bangkok and leaving for Ko Pha Ngan on Sunday. Ko Pha Ngan is the site of the full moon party which promises to be interesting, if not drunken. However, I plan on avoiding those Thai buckets...

By my calculations, through a series of stupid decisions I've overpaid stuff by about $30 so far in Vietnam...not bad, yet it still doesn't sit right (if you know me, then you should know how I feel about spending money unnecessarily). One a similar note, I find it hard not to haggle over 15,000 dong, even though it's equivalent to $1, but everyone seems to do it!

New pics are up on facebook. Enjoy.

Careful, you get a little handsy when you've been drinking.

I just finished solidifying my plans for the upcoming week. I'm heading to Bangkok this afternoon followed by a flight this evening to Hanoi (Vietnam). I'll probably hang out there for a bit and take a 2 day boat tour of Halong Bay. If I have time I may try to head south to Dalat or further north.

I went drinking with some of the people I met on the trek and things got a little messy. If my recollection is correct we went to five bars and I was conscious for the first four. The beer here is strong around 6.4% and eventually we started ordering some Samsong buckets (I think that's what they were called) which as far as I know consist of two ingredients; redbull and vodka...lots of it. Things went downhill after a series of drinking games and eventually we somehow made it home in one piece. All the pictures are up on facebook unedited, so some of them suck pretty bad. One of the more memorable incidents was when this guy Paul decided to give some children "life advice" about what they were currently doing (they were trying to sell Flowers at 2am) and ended up giving them 100 baht to "start off on the right foot".

The next morning I was awoken by loud banging on my door. As I got up and answered it was the Tailor who had my suit ready for my final fitting. I drunkenly put on the pants and jacket and realized that the colours didn't match. It turns out that I had previously mentioned that I liked this one other fabric, but wouldn't have time to come back into the shop. The tailor took that comment as "please track down my saleswomen, locate the fabric and make me a second suit". At this point I had no choice but to stumble to a cash machine (drunk I might add) take some money out and pay them so I can nurse my hangover. In the end I really do like my second suit!

When I finally got up and checked out of the hostel, I went to the zoo with the same people and stumbled around for about two hours. We refused to walk, so we waited for the tour bus to come back after it dropped us off at each exhibit. We had breakfast at this small Thai shop where the women serving us said we looked a little "down" and gave us some Japanese tea to make us feel better. This stuff was great. It tasted horrible, but I felt much better and more awake afterwards.

Later the next day we went back to one of the bars we had previously been drinking at and the owner came up to us and let us know just how drunk we had gotten. I guess after all the other bars closed, we tried getting back into his bar for more drinks. He thought we were great.

Eventually, I tried booking a ticket on an overnight train to bangkok, but it was sold out, so I ended up staying in Chiang Mai for an additional night. This morning, I'll probably just explore the city and get a massage.

Give me some hungry chicken!

I Just returned from a two day trek into the jungle and let me tell you, it was awesome. Apart from the 3 hour hike on the first day, we stopped at a waterfall and hot springs and met some villagers from two seperate settlements. We stayed overnight in the second village and set out first thing in the morning to go ride some elephants (which didn't stink anywhere near as bad as camels do for the record). Afterwards, our group helped build some rafts from bamboo and floated down the river.

I still can't believe how cheap everything is here. I have an air conditioned room to myself for the "heafty" cost of $10 and my custom suit (which is being delivered tomorrow along with my final fitting) was just under $225. I watched them weave the wool!

Anyway, I met some people on the trek and we've decided to go drinking tonight, and as long as I don't feel like crap tomorrow I plan on taking the overnight train back to Bangkok followed by a flight to Hanoi (Vietnam) on Saturday morning.

All my pictures will likely get posted to facebook (some are there now), so get with the program.

Did I mention my new hammer pants? They're great!

Appletenny please and easy on the teeny

I'm currently in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. I arrived in Bangkok yesterday and after some deliberating, I decided to head straight for Chiang Mai instead of spending the night in Bangkok. It was a tough decision, made harder by this girl I met from Calgary in the airport. She tried, unsuccessfully, to convince me to join her tour group, but when I discovered the hefty $2,200 price tag I declined. We exchanged email addresses, so we'll see if I meet up with her later (sorry no pic).

I'm still a little confused about what day it is, I probably should have looked into the whole time zone thing prior to leaving Canada; however time zones were the least of my concerns when I realized that Taipei was not in fact in Japan. Lucky for me Taiwan recently removed the visa requirement for entering the country!

Today I'm doing a little sightseeing on a nearby mountain (I use this term loosely), which has a temple and a zoo nearby followed by a 2 day trek up into the mountains tomorrow. I'll probably hang out in the city Friday and head to Phuket on Saturday.

Sorry, no drinking stories yet, I've kept it low key so far.

Welcome

Welcome to my travel blog. I'll do my best to keep it current and up to date, but I make no promises.