Hey Everyone,

Now in Ho Chi Min City or Saigon as everyone else calls it. Went to the Cui Chi tunnels this morning which was very cool. Little tunnels that the VC lived, slept, ate and fought against the yanks. Got to fire a M60 Heavy Machine Gun as well which was very very cool. They had the choice of AK47, M16 or various types of M60. Would ahve liked to have a go at the AK and the M16, but at over a dollar a round it wasn't the cheapest. Anyway they say in Cambodia u can get RPG's so save my moey for that :))))))))))))))

Going to head over to Cambodia tomorrow and try to get straight up to Seat Reap for Ankor Watt. Mian lens in my camera has stopped working so back onto the shit one. Will try to get a new one back in Bangkok but would have been nice for Ankor Watt!

Anyway hope u guys are enjoying the fecking heatwave that the whole of Europe seems to be enjoying at the mo. Hotter at home that it is here!!

C

Good day today. Managed to start getting into the water with the kite and able to move up and downwind under control. Thats all the time i've got here as the weather has closed in but should be able to get some more tuition in Oz or NZ. Expensive but still cheaper (and less painful) to learn here than back home!!

Having to get the night bus to Saigon at 2:00am which will not be pleasant but Ruth is running short of days so trying to travel by night. Cu Chi Tunnels and War Museum tomorrow!!

Laters,

C

Feck Me this kite surfing malarky is hard!! Had about 2 hours tuition over last 2 days and at this rate it's going to take a couple of weeks to get me on the board. Only got till tomorrow evening so will have to continue in Ozz and NZ. Weather still good and looking forward to geting to Saigon and then onto Cambodia :))

Well that's all folks,

Me

That's another night bus over with. Meant to arrive @ 1:30 but crawled in about 2:45!! Now in Mui Ni which is kite surfing central. Going to book 5 hours worth of lessons. Expensive for here but about 1/2 price of back home and should come in handy in Oz and NZ!! Weather is god as well so Ruth is going to be going for some more sunbathing action while i'm off getting dragged face down in the surf. Should be entertaining to watch! Place is pretty quiet and I seems to be either swanky resorts or kite surfing junkies!

Prob be here till Sat night then get another joyous night bus down to Siagon for 3 days of VC tunnels and war museums. Think U can fire some AK47's at the tunnels as well :))

Anyway off to get some rays. Hope all is well out there in the really real world.

Laters,

Me

ps - I'm changed the set up so u can all leave comments without having to go through the hassle of registering...sorry to everyone that has had to already!!

Hey Everyone,

Well with a little bit of help from the blogger help team the blog is back up and running. Also looking at sorting out a photo blog as it's a bit of a pain to upload pics to this site. Will get it sorted when Ruth leaves as it's going to take a bit of time.

In Nha Trang at the moment and after arriving at bastard o'clock on Sun morning had a lazy day sitting on the beach, flying my kite and watching movies. Yesterday we went for a couple of dives which was cool but not a patch on Thailand for vis or marine life. The headed to the mud baths for some mud bathing and mineral water soaking. Met up with our Irish mates and went out boozing.

Today plan on a bit of site seeing and then a big night tonight followed but booze cruising tomorrow. Starts at 8:30 so tonight is going to be big, but early!!

Hope everyone is well and drop me a mail from time to time with all the gossip from home.

Later,

Me

Something Wierd has happened to my blog as I can't seem to get access to the published comments!! Oh well going to try and add a new post and see if that makes any difference.

Fingers crossed...

C

Hey party People,

Well thats me got my first overnight bus trip under my belt. Not too bad, well apart from the guy playing Asian pop music at full blast and the local girls having a full on barney!! Got some blues which made that all go away but then had to change buses at 2:30am. Not the easiest in my dozzy state!

Spent a day in a place called Nim Bin which was a hole and a half. Took us an hour and half just to find somewhere to have breakfast. Went out to the National park and checked out the 1000 year old free and hiked through the jungle for a bit, went to see some cool caves and then some amazing limestone carst scenary. Spent the whole day clinging to the back of a motorcyclcle. Cool experience, if a little sore on the ass cheeks :)

Stopped in Hue for a couple of hours and managed to check out the citadel, alright but they did have the biggest communistic flag i've ever seen. Have some cool pics and will strat getting them on the site as soon as Ruth leaves as it going to take me a bit of time.

Now down in Hoi An and stayed last night in swanky hotel for $15 a night!! We both needed a little luxary after almost 28 hours of buses. Met a bunch of irish and went out boozing last night. Today plan is to check out some ruins and then get a night bus to Natrang for boozing and kite surfing action :)) Finally be able to get the kite out.

Right off before i bore you all to death.

Later,

C

PS - Happy Birthday to Kaitlyn for last week. She just turned 2 :))

Alright Folks,

Back from sailing round Ha Long Bay for 2 days and spending a night on the boat. Well I say sailing but it was more like being driven. Ha Long Bay is kind of like the Whit Sundays in Ozz but with massivo limestone pillars and rocks instead of islands. Wayer was cool tourquoise colour and did a bit of sea kayaking which was kinda hard. Back in crazy Hanoi, dodging mopeds (3 Mill people in the city and 2.8 Mill mopoeds!!). Going to get a bus a hundred Km down the coast to nin Bin to check out some monkeys (Ali will say hi to your cousins :)) and a 1000 year old tree. There are some caves that we might do but see how time goes. The have a tasty 13 hour overnight bus trip to Hue for some kite surfing and sandboarding :)))))))))))))

Blue's will finally come into their own!! Right off to find El Birdo and swap some books. Almost finished the whole Tolkien set in 6 days, one more book to go!!

Laters,

C

Well Monsoon has hit hard in Hanoi as we have managed to hit the tail end of the last Typhoon. Arrived last night into 80% humidity and 30 degrees heat and that is 9 at night. Traffic is mental here. Makes Bangkok seem quiet. Much more Asian than anywhere else that we have been. Millions of little shops selling everything and anything. All the streets in the Old Quarter are named after the product that is sold there. We are staying on Toy street and it is wall to wall cheap plastic crap. Cool lego store though :)

Did a bit of site seeing today but as it was lashing with rain that did not amount to much. Oh and all the museums are closed on Monday so could not go and check out Ho Chi Min's mausoleum. Did get the Balacing pagoda and the musuem of literacy in.

Booked up to head to Ha Long Bay tomorrow for a 2 day trip. Stay on a Chinese junk and sea kiak round the various islands and limsetone carsks. Should be good but hope the weather improves. Looks at the moment like Glasgow in Nov, but a hell of lot warmer!

Right need to get going as we have tickets for the Water Puppetry show at 8 and then packing and boozing!!

Laters peeps,

C

Hey Everyone,

In Vang Vieng at the moment and having a whale of a time. Was going to leave today but bumped our ticket till tomorrow as having too good a time. Laos is a cool place and this is the best place yet. Kind of has that Ko Pangyan feel as it's basically all travellers!

Went tubing yesterday and spent the day going on death slides, trapeses and huge jumps between floating down the river on a tractor tyre, drinking beer and the rest :))

Got some great footage of people doing some insane jumps, managed to get a big crew together so there was abot 16 of us all floating down together. Best thing I have done since I have got here. Weather was pretty good, scenery absolutly stunning and great craic!! Today we hiked about 10km west of the town to some cool caves (head torch came in handy) and then went swimming in a tropical lagoon with some mates we met at the caves. Managed to get a lift back to town on the back of some mopeds.

Heading out tomorrow at bastard o'clock to Venteienne (capital) and then flying up the Hannoi in Vietnam. Going to spend the next 2 weeks-ish travelling down the country to Saigon.

Well thats all the news I have at the moment. Still trying to get that base tan, but at least the last few days have been better weather :))

Missed my little sisters graduation yesterday but called to say well done. So Caroline CONGRATULATIONS Dr Scott. The Golden Child finally gets the title she deserves!!

Right off for aome scran and some more death by Freinds as that is all that every single restaurant and bar is showing!!

Later peeps and thanks for tuning in.

C ;-p

ps - if you want to see the infamous Ko San Road dancing incident then P-Man has managed to upload it. Check it out here:

http://www.livedigital.com/content/529466/

Hey Everyone,

Currrently in Lampra Bang which is in Loas after 2 days of very painful travel by slow boat up the Mekong. Had to stay a night in this scary place called Pat Pong where we were warned that folk would try and get into your rooms at night when u were sleeping and rob you. Sure enough someone tried at about 2ish. Had the door V well locked and barraceded so no chance getting in :)) Also got offered opium by eveyone from old peoplpe to 8 year olds. Glad to have left that place behind.

Amazing scenary on the way up but painful wooden benches for 7 hours on first day and 8.5 on the 2nd. Suffice to say last night was a good night for sleep. Loas is good for caving, tubing, rafting and hiking so going to take advantage and try and get 5 or 6 days in before we head over to Vietnam. Missed the Gibbon experience which is living with monkeys in tree villages and firing around on zip line. Didn't find out about it till we were on the boat to Loas. Ali had told me about it but since i've only got the condenced version of Lonley Planet it was not mentioned.

The boys will be pleased to hear that there has not been one nice day since they left so the tan is heading back to the more white side of the spectrum!!

Hope T was good for everyone that went will try and get onto BBC and find out the highlights.

Later peeps.

C

Alright Peeps,

Mega jealous today as it's T in the Park weekend and i'm missing it. Hope the usual crew manages to maintain the already high level of messiness from previous years :)) Oh and I hope Billy doesn't try his Yoda impression again!!

Now in in the North on the Loas border, nigh here and then over into Loas from a week of caving, tubing, hiking and other assorted sweaty activities :))

Went on the mountain trek from Wed to Fri. Good laugh although the weather was west coast Scotland tastic. Stayed dry on the Wed which was good as we had to walk for about 3 hours at a more or less 50 degree gradiant. Pace was a little slow as we had some useless bids with us who needing a rest every 5 mins!! Great views from the top. When I get a chance and a decent connection i'll upload a load to my flckr account so you can all see. Stayed with some mountain folk on the 1st night, boozing, not the best sleep but ok. Thurs was trekking in the pissing rain through the jungle. Really good as went to some kick ass water falls and swam about in them. Would have been better in the sun but thats the monsoon for ya :( Going was pretty easy but had to be mega carefull as most of it was prime leg breaking terrain. A boy from another of the groups fell and smashed his mouth and teeth up at the lat waterfall so we could only take pics :( Another night in shared bamboo huts then elephent trekking and white (well brown) water rafting. Good but a bit short and lots of waiting around. Reminded me of TA when timing have slipped. Lots of on the bus off the bus shit!! Went out with the trekking crew last night, irish, english, spainish and swedish so a fairly mixed croud for dinner and bevvies. Not feeling too bad today but buckets of Thai whisky are not very forgiving. Shared 2 with this English bird and almost broke her. The London lads who are also coming to Loas said she was in a " proper messy way, like" by the end of the night!!

Will post again from Loas with what i've been up to there but if anyone has any top tips for the place then drop me a mail.

A bientot,

C

Sorry i've been off the radar for a few days. Managed to get myself up from Ko Sammui and met Ruth at the airport. Had a quiet night in Ko San. Actually stayed a night at the same guest house as Rory, but only one night as was a total sh1thole. Sat moved to Ko San Palace hotel which was sweet and then spent the day firing round all the attractions on the back of a tuc tuc. Driven by Lee and his brother Sky. Total comedy as Lee only has one eye and was doing some V dodgy driving while Sky gave a running commentary. Managed to get a sweet new compact camera from IT World. Basically a 8 story mall full of tech shops. V hard not to spend more money, but Ruth was with me and didn't think she would appreciate spending her 2nd night in Thailand trailing round tech shops with me looking at expensive shiney things:) Another quiet night in Ko San watching English bomb out of the world cup.

Sun bumped into Sky again and got taken on one of the craziest tuc tuc rides of my life (Sky much crazier than Lee). This mofo was crazy, cutting through 5 lanes of traffic, going down one way streets the wrong way, on the pavement. At one point he has the tuc tuc doing a wheely, power slides. All good fun but pretty dangerous. Got dropped off at the Grand Palace and spent a couple of hours walking round there taking a few hundred pics. But as it was Sun it was stupidly busy. Got a bit annoyed and very hot as forgot to bring trousers so had to wear a hired pair and Ruth had a hired shirt. All very fetching for the pics. Went to see the reclining buddha which is about 70m long...probably best of all the Buddha that we have seen.

Now in Chang Mai in the North of Thailand. Got the night train up and took about 14 hours. Pretty strange experience but not hard. Left Bangkok at 8ish and arrived here about 10 this morning. Booked up for 3 days of mountain trekking starting tomorrow morning. Basically bit of hill walking, some white water rafting, floating down rivers on bamboo rafts and riding on Elephants. Staying at a nice 3 star so not exactly cheap street but good after Bangkok.

Spending the rest of the day wandering around Chang Mai which is really quiet after the craziness of Bangkok. Got 3 temnples to see and need to get a kayak bag for the water action.

Next post will be on 6th or 7th as will be up a mountain till then. So until then my friends,

C :))