PP day 2 (& some Cambodian soup)...and Bangkok

I had a nice leisurely breakfast yesterday, chatting at the Okay with Joshua (from Nigeria via Singapore) and with Sangky (a 7 year old member of the Okay household). Sangky is a bright lad who has already devised a plan for a satellite system to defend Earth from alien invaders. I'm sure we will be safe in his hands. Joshua was heading for a Sunday church service. Maybe I should have joined him for something out of he ordinary!
Instead I went to along to the Russian market as planned - and gave in to a few tempting bargains, including the new belt I badly needed. No single photo could do the place justice. It is a marketplace for virtually everything, including jewellery, watches, fake designer clothing, apparently looted or fake Bhuddist relics, motor bikes, as well as local foods of all sorts. The Barras pales by comparison!
I had an afternoon stroll in the city after another tuk-tuk ride. My picture shows the Independence Monument at the end of a long wide boulevard (shortly before the darkening sky turned to a torrential downpour). If I had turned the other way though, the scene was one more of post-war devastation - completely flattened buildings for street after street. The Pol Pot regime seem to have wanted to destroy everything of cultural or educational value and return the country to the stone-age with just peasant farmers and no monetary system.
I'm giving you another soup picture today. This time it's the "rice and chicken" at the Okay GH, but it is so delicious and full of garlic that it deserves a mention. This was my second!
I met up with Claudia from Holland again in the afternoon on her return from her Killing Fields and museum visits. In the evening we headed out together for a meal at a nice Khmer restaurant nearby. Like a lot of hot cities PP seems to come even more alive in the evenings - with night markets and people just out for a stroll. I felt rather sorry to be leaving so soon.
I'm now in Bangkok and checked in to the Rambuttri Village Inn - in the Banglanphu area near the river. This is backpacker central, but I'm very pleased with my choice of hotel so far. It is like an oasis in this gigantic and now mostly very modern city. And there's a rooftop swimming pool very close o my top floor room. all for about US$19 per night.
It's 6 pm and it feels like I've had a long day already. I was up at 5:15 for the fight from Phnom Penh - in the very pleasant company of Diane from Rugby - flying back to the UK today at the end of an 18 month world tour. Di, you are an inspiration, with your positive attitude to getting the most out of life despite your difficulties!
It wasn't quite as easy as I hoped to get fixed up with an onward flight to Delhi, but I finally got something sorted out for Wednesday.

For my two days here I don't think I'll be going very far from the Rambuttri Village. Everything is on the doorstep, and I suspect that 'll be tempted to lounge by the pool for a while reading my latest Michael Connelly book.
My last picture today is of the river close to the Bangkok hotel.
PS. Again the sky darkened very quickly in late afternoon and we had long downpours for much of the evening

Phnom Penh day 1

Well I've done much of what I wanted to do today in PP, after deciding to hire my own tuk-tuk service (for $15) with driver called Napp. We first went 15km or so out of town to the Khmer Rouge "killing fields" at Choeung Ek, and then to the museum of the genocidal attrocities (housed in a former secondary school at Tuol Sleng which they turned into a terrible prison and torture camp).

I was actually glad to be on my own in these places. Speech is more or less forbidden anyway, and the best way to see them must be just to walk in thought and silence. No graphic pictures here of course, but I'll give you an oblique shot of the pagoda at Cheoung Ek.

As it happens I bumped into a Swedish couple who had been companions on the journey from HCMC - and a rare fellow-Scot. None of us felt like speaking much.

I'm not giving history lessons here, but I certainly hadn't realised quite how bad things were in this country until really very recently. After all that the Cambodian National Museum was a good way to get a bigger perspective on what Cambodia has been about over the centuries.
Photos aren't allowed inside, but you can have one of the fine internal garden and pond area. The other pictures are of of the back of Napp's head and some of the street scene from tuk-tuk level (the local version is really a motorbike with a trailer) , and a group of novice monks walking past the royal palace. There is a lot of (re)construction going on around the city and it has a pretty positive feel about the place.

I've decided to fly to Bankok on Monday with Air Asia (a Thai low-cost airline) and then look for the best onward connection to Delhi. That leaves me with another day in PP, and the right thing to do seems to be to hit a market area called Psar Tuol Tom Pong (also known as the Russian Market for some reason). I'm told it is one of the cheapest places in Asia for all sorts of goods, some of which may even be genuine. So now is the time to give me your shopping lists.

I'm beginning to take more to the Okay GH here. I had very pleasant chat tonight with Claudia from Holland, who had just arrived on today's version of my own trip yesterday. I had a lot of sympathy for how she felt - and we had a lot in common to talk about over Nepal.

Another day, another country

Just checking in to let you know I've arrived safely in Phnom Penh. It has been a long tiring day, leaving Chau Doc in small rowing boats at 7 am, firstly to a fish farm and then to see the production of various local products. Then we split into those heading for Phnom Penh and the others heading back to HCMC. That left about 12 of us on a very long and hot (and noisy) boat trip up the Mekong towards PP - from approx. 9:30 am till 5 pm with a 1 hour border and food stop, and then an hour-long bus ride into Phnom Penh.

The Okay Guest House here was included in the deal, and I can't object. It is a fine place and rates highly in Lonely Planet, but I have to confess that it is too much of a backpacker haven for my liking right now. I consider myself a different kind of traveller - but don't ask me to define it. Maybe I'm just getting old (although I'm not the oldest here), or maybe it's just that it is getting near time to come home now.

Anyway, I'm happy to be in Cambodia. It seems nice and laid-back and relaxed compared with Vietnam. I think our bus driver used his horn once on our 1 hour journey. In Vietnam (or Nepal or India for that matter) it would have been once every 10 or 15 seconds. No kidding!

My initial impression is that it seems a lot like Laos - outwardly very Bhuddist and peaceful. Of course Cambodia has had a very troubled recent history, and I confess that I'll be visiting some of the evidence of the Khmer Rouge attrocities as well as some of the national treasures. But I'll save Siem reap and Angkor Wat for another time. I can tell you that the Angkor Beer is pretty good though.

I was thinking of flying from here to Bangkok and then to Delhi, but Ive discoverd that there is a cheap daily bus service to Bangkok and maybe I'll use that - more so that I can see the land than to save on cash. It's all up for further investigation tomorrow!

Mekong Delta & Chau Doc

It is 9 pm here, and I've just got back to our overnight hotel in Chau Doc after eating with Biff from Texas and Ling from Hanoi.
Today's trip has been long and very interesting and I'm not going to do it justice here. It has been a tiring day and we need to start again at 6:30.
Suffice to say that the Mekong Delta area is a really fascinating place, with the land very fertile and the huge and complicated delta network a kind of water-borne version of a normal working and market city, with all sorts of goods being transported and traded from boat-to-boat, and most of the buildings standing on stilts in the water.
I've now added a couple of pictures just to give an impression of the scale of the Mekong here, and some of the narrower passages we can take as shortcuts.
By the way the HK nurses reappeared and joined us for the first part of today's trip; so it was good to see some familiar faces.
Tomorrow a dwindling band of us will continue our Mekong tour, finishing with a border crossing to Cambodia and a 1 hour trip to Phnom Penh arriving about 6 pm.

and now: Vietnamese Garlic Soup!

Maybe it will seem a bit on the morose side but I spent yesterday morning at the preserved parts of the Cu Chi Viet Cong tunnel network northwest of HCMC - which at one time extended all the way to Cambodia. What the VC got up to was hugely impresive - with guile and determination against the might of (mainly) US forces. Much of the afternoon was spent at the "War Remnants Museum" - a Vietnamese version of the war story, with lots of captured or abandoned US equipment. I know I've been hearing one propaganda version; so I'll refrain from political judgements in this little story.
I also saw around the now renamed "reunification palace" - built as the intended seat of government of an independent South Vietnam, and the local Notre Dame Cathedral, but I think the prize for the most impressive building goes to the post office of all places. That's the interior, with Uncle Ho looking down over us.
Again there were very few Europeans on the trip; they were mostly from Hong Kong or Singapore or Korea this time, with a couple from LA. While I was doing my best to tag along with 5 HK nurses, I was rather disappointed to be lumbered more with the attention of an 8 year old Korean boy called Shiang, or something like that. For some reason he seemed to think I had a kinda big nose, and found this a great source of humour. It didn't help that the rest of his family seemed to agree with him and share his sense of humour!
Things improved though. I now have a favourite restaurant here, and last night they eventually agreed to prepare some garlic soup for me. I think they thought I was nuts, because various tasty soups are completely central to Vietnnamese cooking - and I wanted something different.
Anyway I'm pleased to report that it all turned out excellent - maybe even better than the Nepali stuff. I've no idea what the recipe was, but it contained lots of tofu and vegetables (carrot, mushroom, parsley, celery, coriander) as well as plenty garlic. Tha's today's main picture, along with the post office interior and a typical HCMC traffic junction. OK, you can have a pic of the HK girls too - outside Notre Dame. I'll spare you the old US planes, helicopters and other armaments.
Today I'm going to have something of a rest in HCMC and look around now I feel a bit more comfortable here.
Tomorrow, though, I'm off again - on a trip through the Mekong delta and then on into Cambodia.
Somehow or other I need to get back to Delhi in the first day or two of July!

HCMC

I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (still equally know as Saigon it seems) a couple of hours ago. Despite the touts who are always hovering on arrival, I found the hotel I wanted to get to pretty easily - selected from Lonely Planet as usual.
Already I have eaten and arranged a trip for tomorrow - mainly to see some of the war-time tunnel network used by the Viet Cong, as well as some other local sights.
I'm in the usual tourist neck of the woods, but this is a huge city which seems a little intimidating at first. It all feels quite comfortable in this neighbourhood, but I don't think I'll be doing too much exploring on my own!
By the way I'm glad I took the daytime journey option. The route mostly followed the coast fron Nha Trang - and it is very largely unspoiled beach-front. There are a few embryonic developments, but very little really.

Day at sea

Today I went on one of those organised trips again - this time to four of the small islands off Nha Trang. One of best day trips ever I think it is fair to say, and all for US$7 (OK, plus a few little extras on the way). The trip included lunch and a mountain of exotic fruits, and a crew in party mood. That's them doing the post-lunch entertainment - including the one in the middle who seemed just slightly embarrassed to have 2 half coconuts strapped round his chest!
Most of the customers were Vietnamese - including quite a few "ex-pats" who escaped from VN in the 70s and made new lives in the west. No boat people amongst them I think, but I heard some amazing stories. That's Lam-Phol in the picture and his daughter Hang - now both Danish citizens, and Paul (probably Phol originally too), now from Houston Texas and trying hard to look like just like "Uncle Ho" (Chi Minh) - I think as a kind of sarcastic gesture, but it seems to go down well with the locals. Sorry about the overexposure. Lam-Phol escaped on one of the very last American flights out of Vietnam, together with wife and 8 month old son.
We had a "floating bar" after lunch, where the rules were that you had to jump into the sea and use a lifebelt to swim up to the bar. That's me taking off (as elegantly as possible) and in the lifebelt. It wasn't the only time I was in the water or shirtless, and the result tonight is that I feel a bit barbecued in places. Did I mention the snorkelling too?
I'll attach one more picture, this time of a cable car arrangement from the mainland to Hon Tre (the largest local island). Maybe not an alternative to a new Forth Bridge, but pretty impressive anyway.
I could happily stay here for days, but am off on my continuing journey early in the morning - this time to Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon as many folks still call it).

Two post scripts here: I can't edit photos on this computer (I've just discovered), and even worse news is that I have now learned that the Miss Universe Finals are due to be held here in Nha Trang on the 14th July, with the contestants arriving a week or so earlier.
PPS. Some pics now added.

Nha Trang

Well I've arrived after a rather tortuous overnight journey, and found a hotel, been for a short walk, swapped a book and had a coffee at Shorty's book-swap shop - and I've had a look at the beach. Photo attached - showing it virtually deserted at 10:00 am. Maybe I'll take a couple of days here to chill before resuming my now hectic schedule. Again there are worthwhile-sounding outings; so I'll maybe take advantage of some of those. Right now I'm waiting for my room to be made ready and I think that I'll spend a bit of time there recovering from that overnight journey.

PS. Here's a picture of the same beach at 4 pm. Not much difference!

Hoi An

It is 8:30 in the evening here. When I arrived at midday (after the short ride from Hue) I was given the option of continuing the journey south tonight - as far as Nha Trang (on another overnight bus). I feel that my time is now short and decided that I would take up this offer after spending the afternoon in Hoi An. Well I've had a nice enough day, wandering around with Bob from North Dakota, but departure has been delayed from 6 pm to 9:30 pm because they are having to fetch a replacement bus. I have a feeling that it is going to be a rather shattering journey. Ah well, that's the downside of this kind of travel. By the way Bob has been travelling around Asia for the last 4 years - with a 10 month "break" in Australia. I don't think that is going to happen to me though. I've had a fine time in my travels so far, but am quite looking forward to getting home before too long now.
Bob is exactly the same age as I am, and thus was spot on for the Vietnam war draft. He escaped because one foot is a size bigger than the other - something for which he has been eternally grateful. As for me, I'm just glad I wasn't born American - because my feet are the same size, and there is a fair chance I'd have been a long forgotten statistic by now.
I can attach a couple of pictures of Hoi An - one of the harbour area and one of the market. I bought a pair of sawn off long shorts there, which were modified for me at 10 minutes notice!

Hello from Hue

Nothing much to report here except that I've been wandering around Hue city today, and will be moving on again tomorrow - just a short distance this time to Hoi An. And it will be a daytime journey. Last night's travel from Hanoi was a bit of an endurance test. Hanoi had hours of torrential downpour in the afternoon; so when our departure time of 6 pm was due, the city was in a state of gridlock with lots of badly flooded roads. We eventually left two hours late, and arrived in Hue 3 hours late at about 10 am today. The weather here is extremely hot, but at this time of year there is always the threat in the air of late afternoon rain. Today I think we will get away without it. For the first time on my travels I actually have the internet here in my hotel bedroom. Not that there is any shortage of internet cafes anywhere here. They tend to be full of kids using the computers to play daft games though. The atmosphere is usually too full of noisy excitement for comfort. I can attach just one picture - of the bridge reserved for bicycles and motor bikes.

Like Hanoi this is a city of motorbikes. I think Hanoi has something like 3.5 million people and 2 million motorbikes. Hue is an ancient city with a unique citadel and memorials to old emperors. Sadly it was smashed up mainly by the Americans during that war, and seems to have been rather neglected ever since.

Leaving Hanoi

I've decided to head south in Vietnam, this time by bus - hopefully a relatively luxurious version. I've booked an open ticket to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), which means I can choose to stop off for a day or two here and there. It is something like a 40 or 50 hour journey in total; so I fully expect to be taking a break or two. Take-off is at 6 pm today.
Before I go I have to give a plug to Hien amd Huyen, my favourite travel agents - at ACB travel just along from my hotel. They have been genuinely friendly and helpful - and I'm going to add their website to my link list. Here's a picture of the two of them.

Halong Bay

Vietnam is growing on me, and I'm certainly glad to be here for a while.
Yesterday I went on a 1 day outing to Halong Bay - and a long boat trip round some of the fantastic islands there. I'll let a couple of pictures try to give you some impression, but the reality is better. We landed briefly on a couple of islands and explored some equally impressive caves. We were a harmonious bunch of about 20 people, half of them Vietnamese, and my new best friends for the day were the four Lychee Girls in one of the pictures (3 from Singapore, and 1 from Vietnam). I'm down to meet the Singapore team again later today to visit the water puppet theatre - whatever that is.
It is a pretty long drive to Halong Bay (about 150km) and of course journeys like this in a strange land are interesting in themselves. It is clear that what I have seen of Vietnam is a basically fertile land of rice paddies that is very rapidly transforming into a dynamic new economy. There is mile after mile of hi-tech factories, many in production and just as many being built. The infrastructure is already pretty good too, with lots of investment going into that as well.
A rather depressing comparison with what you see driving around central Scotland!
Special thanks today to Wei Wei, Chris, Edelyn and Diep for your very pleasant company!

Hi from Hanoi

Just a quick note here to say that I arrived safely in Hanoi yesterday evening. Again it is difficult to sum up first impressions. It is a huge city, with a smallish "old quarter" and that's where I am - along with most other tourists. I can already tell that there are scams aplenty, and admit to having been done slightly on the journey from the airport - despite the warnings!
The place is reminiscent of Kathmandu, although somewhat more prosperous. It is certainly a hive of all sorts of activity. It seems that many Hanoi citizens seem to both cook and eat on the pavement - at least on the bits that aren't covered in parked motorbikes.
My hotel is the Asia Queen, but it seems to have about two or three other names too. It is perfectly acceptable. One rather surreal factor last night when I switched on the TV was to see two channels showing reruns of Scottish SPL football games (Celtic vs. ICT and Dundee Utd vs. Motherwell) and on another channel a full orchestral perfomance (oriental orchestra all in black tie etc) playing some kind of classical music, but with a Scottish bagpipe soloist (Amazing Grace and Scotland The Brave). This, I felt, was rather beyond my expectations of a welcome!
I've taken a couple of pictures but can't post them now because of absence of editing software to cut them down a bit.

Next steps

OK, here's the latest on my plans. I'm flying later today on a short internal Lao Airlines flight to Vientiane (or Viangchan) - the capital city of Laos, and tomorrow afternoon I'm moving on to Hanoi in VietNam. Having decided I want to go to VietNam, the next issue to deal with was the visa. Unlike most countries in this area, an advance visa is essential. I was able to get this done through the consulate in LPB at relatively short notice - but at a cost! At least that's the intention. I can't collect it till about 4 pm. And it is pouring rain here just now; so the internet cafe is as good a place as any to be.
Laos has made a very positive impression on me, and I'd love to spend longer here. The countryside is beautiful - much of it rugged mountain jungle, and the people are very welcoming. Oh, and the food and the beer are probably the best so far. A good place to come for a few weeks of trekking in the future maybe - but I already sent my boots home.
As I've said here before, I feel my travel time is rapidly expiring, and I'm keen to use it to get around a bit - especially after staying in one place for so long.
One of the good things about travelling alone - or independently - is the freedom to make change decisions at short notice as the mood takes me - or as I am influenced by others.
Yesterday I met up again with many of the people who had been on the waterfall trip the previous day, and they all had interesting experiences to share. This included breakfast with Haley and Elizabeth, two fine sisters from LA - who came up with some useful tips for my trip there later in the year.
No new photos to share with you today, but I'll attach Moira's Luang Prabang link - because the pictures sum the place up perfectly.
In Hanoi, I'm sure the city will be worth a good look around, but my main plan there is to get on a boat trip round the islands of Halong Bay.

Another day in LPB

This is such a nice place I've decided to hang around for a while. Moira's comment link provides photos which are far better than mine, but there is no doubt this is one of the most photogenic places I've seen. Today's main activity was one of those organised trips - out to the Tat Kuang Si waterfall area, and another meeting with a few bears. I walked all the way to the top of the falls, and got completely soaked in the process. With the heat here today, though, that was perfectly welcome! I'm still giving some serious thought to my next move. In a way it is a luxury having no detailed plan; in other ways I feel I sometimes have to make some difficult decisions from the wealth of fascinating choices. I won't tell you about how I see my options here and now, but I think I'll stay here yet another day and then move on again on Friday.

On the whole I'm pretty pleased that I changed my original plan from one which would have taken me to southern India and Sri Lanka just now. So many places to see and so little time!

Luang Prabang

Just another brief update today. Things went broadly according to plan except that the 6 hour speedboat ride turned out to be nearly 9 hours - including a 1 hour engine repair stop. It was a pretty small narrow boat, with 8 passengers and a boatman "driving" at the back, with a huge motor and a long rotor blade arm. I haven't got a picture of the whole thing, but I'll post what I have to give the general idea - as well as what the river looks like. It felt like we were doing about 40 mph (or should that be knots), but maybe that's just because we were so low in the water.

I was with two dutch folks (Willem and Carolyn) and the rest were Lao. The boat was obviously built for the Lao folks - 'cos they tended to fit into the required space while the rest of us were pretty uncomfortable to put it mildly! I've come to the same lodge as Willem and Carolyn. This whole place (Luang Prabang) has made a big early impression. It is a really nice mix of old French colonial influence and ancient Bhuddist wats. Here's a picture of one, taken at dusk; so I'm sure it doesn't really do it justice. And the people are nice too! Bad news is that I bought another t-shirt at the night market - as if I didn't already have enough stuff to lug around!

As has now become the norm, I'm not yet sure what I'll do tomorrow. Favourite is probably to stay here and move on the following day, maybe for Viangchan.

Huay Xai

I'm pleased to report that I was feeling a bit better this morning and just about up for the bus ride to the border town of Chiang Khong and the river crossing to Huay Xai in Laos. But that's enough travel for today. I've had a stroll around the area, and up to the local Bhuddist monastery. The photos are of the steps, and of the view looking back to Thailand from my lodge window. My options from here were down to either the slow boat (2 days) down river to Luang Prabang, or the speedboat option (6 hours).

Since I'm beginning to feel that my time is rapidly running out I'm going for the latter.

Spoke too soon!

I guess I've paid the price for boasting about how I haven't had a day of illness on my travels. That has changed over the last 24 hours - but just with a badly upset stomach which I'm sure will recover fairly quickly. Anyway, my plan for today had been to head for Laos and get started on a river journey to Luang Prabang. In the morning my stomach told me this would be a bad idea; so I have just lain low here all day - until heading out for a low-risk meal this evening with Alicia - a fellow traveller from Canada. She has just arrived from Laos, and is heading for the Golden Triangle; so we hade a useful exchange of experiences.

That's it for now.

Chiang Rai - and Thai garlic soup!

I'm at the Golden Triangle Inn and it seems like a fine place, and Chiang Rai generally has a very nice relaxed feel. There is a night market here, as in most Thai towns- with plenty of choices of places to eat as well as yet more shopping opportunities! I headed there last night and chose an ordinary looking place in the market square. I decided to remember my mission and asked if they could do a garlic soup. I don't think he had heard such a request before, but he did a fine job anyway. Not much like the Himalayan variety; more like a garlic version of French Onion (complete with bread and cheese on top) as well as chicken and various Thai spices and lemongrass. There is a picture in case you are interested. I needed a long sleep last night and more or less managed that. Today I've been strolling around CR, eating, investigating bus options for escape tomorrow, buying a new book (I'm going through about one a week), and buying a new pair of reading glasses (from a proper optician). I haven't told you here before now, but I lost my (varifocal) specs somewhere around Annapurna Base Camp, and have been using cheap glasses from Pokhara, which are pretty lousy to be honest.

My new purchase isn't the whole solution but it will help.

Does anyone remember Spike Milligan's "I left my teeth on Table Mountain"? I think I have a new verse for it!

Golden Triangle

Something of an epic day yesterday. I decided to book a group excursion to the so-called Golden Triangle - where Thailand meets Burma and Laos, and which was once the centre of the opium business. My plan was to get off at Chiang Rai on the way back rather than return to Chiang Mai.
It worked out well in the end, but only after a rather bad start.
I was up at 5:45 for breakfast before departure at 7:00 - but the minibus didn't show up. As I was becoming more frantic I was being given promises that the bus was just a few minutes away. The fact is that it had gone without coming by my hotel and was well out of town. Needless to say I was kinda unhappy with this and my feelings were made abundantly clear. Anyway, they came back for me and we finally set off again at 8:00. The others on the bus had been allowed to vote on the matter; so I'm grateful to them - a fine bunch of 9 in total (from all corners of the world, and Belgium) + courier and driver.
One thing that had not helped my general demeanour whilst waiting, by the way, is that the hotel's poodle decided to cock its leg and pee against my rucksack - which was waiting by the door. With the assistance of the kitchen staff , I made an effort to clean it up, but I fear that it will never be quite the same again. At this time I thought the puddle on the floor was the only golden triangle I was going to see today.
It was a long drive to the border town of Mae Sai: after 2 pm when we got there. We had a couple of stops on the way to visit some hill-tribe people - the kinds with elongated necks or ears and the like. I found that a bit distasteful and counted myself out.

Undoubtedly the highlight for me was my 1/2 hour crossing on foot into Burma. It is difficult to summarise even that short visit, but it was a mix of army border guards and local people trying to sell counterfeit copies of everything that you can imagine - from Scotch Whisky, cigarettes, watches to Viagra. One fella was genuinely friendly and took my picture by a roundabout. When I offered him a small tip he became very nervous and wouldn't accept it because the army would be watching. I'm pleased that I managed to have a laugh with some local women - just making fun of mutual inability to communicate in any other way. BTW none of the others chose to cross the border and I think they all regretted it.

It hadn't been part of my original plan, but I decided to go along with most of the others on a speedboat trip on the Mekong River - a gigantic piece of water even this far from the ocean. This included a 1/2 hour stop on the Laos side of the river - again with shopping opportunities of course. I bought a map I wanted, and which I had failed to find in Chiang Mai.

I was dropped of in Chiang Rai (at a guest house suggested by one of the others) at 7 pm - pretty tired after a long day. I felt sorry for the others who still had the best part of a 3 hour trip to get back to Chiang Mai).

I've done a postscript edit to add some photos: a picture of a bit of Burma (left) and Laos (right) from Thailand, me at a Burmese roundabout - and Gee a Korean New Yorker from our team, who decided to copy my pose at the Golden triangle monument (but looks far better)!

Escape to Chiang Mai

OK, the news is that I left Kathmandu yesterday on a flight to Bangkok, and onwards this morning to Chiang Mai - in northern Thailand. I didn't arrive in Bangkok till 7 pm and so took up a good offer of accommodation near the airport and returned there this morning to take my chances on flights to CM. It all worked out very well, and I was here at the back of 11 am and I am now checked in to the SK Guest House (from Lonely Planet recommendation). I was in Thailand 8 years ago, and this is as far north as I got; so I feel that I'm starting again where I left off last time. Although I didn't get to see Bangkok city, I can already tell that this country has come on a long way in the few years since I was here. Bangkok has a brand new airport. It is 45km out of the city, but definitely one of the best I have seen in terms of general efficiency. I took a wander from the hotel last night and sure enough found a more traditional Thai place to eat. It was full of Thais singing karaoke - pretty badly but funny anyway, and I think that is the whole point.
I'll stay here for a max of two days then head further north to see if they will let me cross to Myanmar for a short visit, then try to roughly follow the Mekong river through Laos and Cambodia. That's the plan anyway, but I reserve the right to change it completely!

A rough bike ride!

Here is a picture of Chuda standing at the site of what he plans to turn into a fish farm. The whole site is at least 3 times as big as what is shown in the picture. At the moment he is paying lots of money for one of those giant Komatsu excavators, as well as a team of two operators. It is a big project, and I hope it pays off for him. Certainly there are several other fish farms in the area - because there is natural water in the ground, and the clay nature of the soil means that it is relatively easy to create man-made lakes.

To get there I hired a bicycle (as it happens from his brother Ishwori) - and cycled about 12km each way. This was one of my worst experiences so far - not because of the searing heat, but because of the state of the bike. It was designed for someone about a foot shorter than I am. And when I paid a roadside repairer (all of 5 rupees) to try to raise the seat, he succeeded in ruining the thing altogether. Not only was it no higher, it was now pointing upwards at an angle of about 45 degrees.

Apart from the bike though, it was another very interesting experience.

This afternoon I came back to Kathmandu by bus, and am back at the Potala Tourist Home.

My job with the Namuna School is more or less done for now, but we will continue by email (as we do some further editing). So the time is approaching for me to move on from Nepal. I'm considering a couple of options, and I'll be sure to let you know here before too long.

It's a small world!

Well I'm certainly glad I came down to Chitwan for a few days. It makes a pleasant change from the hustle & bustle of Kathmandu. Suaraha is just a tiny village on the edge of the national park - and it turns out that my friend Amit from Canada has been here for the last five weeks - doing some voluntary work in the local school. As a result she seems to know everyone in the village - including Chuda's younger brother Ishwori and his family! So apart from all the interest of the jungle I've found it to be a very friendly place. It is very hot though! I think this is just about the height of the hot season, before the monsoon.

I've already done a canoe trip on the river which skirts the national park here, and been on a jeep safari through the park yesterday and, this morning, an elephant ride. On the way we have seen lots of the very special animals which live there - and I'll attach some pictures here. You will probably recognise most of them - except maybe the Sloth Bear - perhaps the scariest so far!

Best bit for me was having a bath with the elephants. If it wasn't for the delay on my digital camera, there would have been some great pictures - 'cos I kept getting thrown off, or sprayed with a trunk-full of water. As it is you will just have to be content with me climbing on (by holding on to the ears and having the elephant lift me up using its trunk) and a big splash with me in the middle of it!

This afternoon I've hired a bicycle and plan to take a trip to Chuda's hole-in-the-ground which he intends to turn into a fish farm. But it is scorching at the moment and I am waiting for it to cool down a bit.