Getting up to speed

Note - The next couple of posts are reproductions of earlier emails. It will give you an appreciation of the trip so far. Light on details for those of you who came in after the opening credits...

Sent early June 2007

Following is a description of the trip so far. Tried to attach photos from my ipod (thank you former work colleagues, this device has saved me from talking to many a dull person) but can't seem to upload correctly and the guy who runs the internet cafe has gone off to plow his rice field.

Spent about 2 weeks in Hong Kong and from there did 3 days in Beijing. Very impressive particularly with all the construction for the Olympics but really loved the amazing history of the place. Great Wall, Tian An Men square (no tanks), Forbidden City (which is open??) and the Tsingtao beer factory (can't all be museums and history) also very dirty/polluted which I was advised repeatedly would be gone by next year (if the Chinese can perform that miracle, maybe they could do something about getting the Pies a premiership as well).

Hong Kong is still an amazing place but quickly discovered that unless your a shop-oh-olic that eating and drinking seem to fill in most of your time. I fear being forced to book 2 seats on the plane trip home if this standard keeps up. My hosts Adam and Lynn (former work mates from the casino ship days) have been most kind but were becoming somewhat "encouraging" about me booking that trip to Vietnam, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos (Iraq, anywhere...just basically out of their sight and flat). i got a cheap return flight to Hanoi (to continue the southern Asian communist tour).

Hanoi was a lot like Springvale/Richmond but only a lot more humid. Stayed in the Old Quarter which is a collection of preserved French pre-war buildings near the Hoan Kiem Lake (or the lake) and visited Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum's twice (can never get enough of viewing a dead body...) I visited by myself and then got suckered in as part of an organised tour, there ain't a heck of a lot to see there. Was there during Anzac Day but failed to get up in time to attend any of the services (strip me of my citizenship and send me to replace David Hicks) due to a nasty battle with the local white spirit the night before (spirit won solely due to home ground advantage).

Dave Macdonald (ex CDS and CRM support) and another friend Steve were in Thailand (Pattaya and Bangkok) so i caught up with them for about a week ($80 return flight airasia) which involved mainly of getting drunk. this portion of the trip can either be best described as:

1. forgotten from memory due to alcohol consumption
2. unwilling to admit for fear of moral retribution in the afterlife
3. uneventful to waste time mentioning

I will leave to you to decide the appropriate reason. once Dave and Steve left, I potted around for a while and changed my London bound flight as I seem to spending very little in SE Asia and the weather is oh so good.

Caught a bus to Siem Reap in Cambodia, imagine travelling to Sydney on a road constructed by blind kindergarden kids made out of oatmeal (very bad). Once there though, I think this has been the best part of the trip. The ancient Angkor Wat temples are here and I think are on a par with the Great Wall for amazing oldness (yes, my describing skills are up there with Dickens) plus the Cambodians are the friendliest and easiest going people I've meet so far (once you get over the fact that they killed over a million of each other during the civil war) plus it is the least tourist-y destination I've been to.

I've been here a couple of weeks, currently in the capital Phnom Penh, (the kindergarden kids got the contract to that road as well). Though apparently much improved, this place is much like you'd imagine what the wild west was like. Everyone talks of gangsters running the joint and you are a somebody if you have a relative over the age of 35 years old. The "famed" killing fields are close by and after you visit them you can buy a copy of the DVD of the same name (bit like buying Martin Bryant pictures in Port Arthur I thought).

Plan to make a move to Laos as I feel it would be an incomplete trip if I didn't visit every temple Buddha decided to build on this earth plus I still have a bit of time to fill in before I head to Europe and really start spending money. My travel plans has become a bit complicated as I need to head back to Hanoi to get back to Hong Kong to connect to my London flight (mental note: future career with Flight Centre unlikely).