Letters Home: Hello from Laos

Family-

I wasn't planning to visit Laos, but everybody I've met along the way has told me, "dude, you have to go to Laos". So, here I am in the rain on my first day in Vientiane after a long night train from Bangkok. And the last 12 or so days... let's see, I last wrote from Siem Reap, Cambodia. After Siem Reap, I went on a 173 km bus ride that took over 7hrs to reach Battambang. Cambodian highways are a bit of an oxymoron... muddy, washed-out, rice patty trails would be a more accurate term. Battambang was really interesting- the real Cambodia away from the tourist infusion you see elsewhere in Siem Reap. I only spent two nights there with the day in between mopeding around the country side. Unlike other moped trips I've taken on my own, in Battambang I hired a guide to follow for a little less than $10 for the day (bike included). It was so worth it because had I gone on my own I would have called it quites when the rain started and never seen the remote places he took me. After about 20 minutes in the rain you're as muddy and wet as you are going to get so no worries- just keep on trekking.

Leaving Battambang was quite an experience. It had been awhile since I'd been on a beach and I had heard really good things about an island you can get to in just one day of travel. So I set out at 7am and 12hours later I was in my bungalow on Koh Chang. In between I spent 2 hours in a shared taxi going 70 km/h down a road very similar to that in the above pic; walked across the Cambodian/Thai boarder; hitched on the back of a moped to get to a "bus stop"; shared the bed of a pick-up truck for an hour to get to a town where I could actually get a bus; then a ferry to the island; and another pick-up truck to Lonely Beach. Let's just say it was quite an experience, but an experience that bonded myself with a Dutch guy I'd spend the next 10 days travelling with...

Koh Chang was exactly what I needed after a pretty busy 2 weeks of solid travel. Six days sleeping in this bungalow, spending the days on this beach, mopeding the island with this gang of misfits, and drinking the nights away on this deck, again with the same band of misfits.

Six days was perfect, but eventually you get sick of amazing sunsets so you have to get off the island. Three of my friends had flights home on the 20/21 of May, so we all headed to Bangkok for a couple days of shopping and nights of, well, boozy insanity...
On the morning of the 21st I said goodbye to the Koh Chang gang and went back to bed. The following day I toured Bangkok before catching a night train on the Vientiane to start off what I guess what you might call phase 3... on more month to go!
Tim

Letters Home: Hello from Cambodia

Hello Family

Happy to report that all is well and I'm enjoying the life of no work and all play. To get you up to speed on the last 3 weeks since I left India- I arrived safely in Hanoi in the middle of a massive down pour and almost immediately fell in love with Vietnam. Hanoi is great- you get to eat at little street side carts which serve very good, very cheap food, catch a glimpse of the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh, visit the infamous Hanoi Hilton (which I thought was a Motel 6 at best) and sweat a lot (and I mean a lot).

From Hanoi, I took a night train south and got a chance to visit the central Vietnam cities of Hue and Hoi An. The highlights here were the two moped journeys around the Vietnamese country side and the purchase of a custom tailored three-piece suit for $60 (coming to a wedding this summer near you!). I spent Vietnamese Independence/Reunification Day in Nha Trang on the beach singing and playing Vietnamese folk songs with a group of locals that assumed because I'm American that I could play Hotel California for them- boy were they disappointed when all they got was Heart of the Matter.

You always hear about how easy it is to meet people while traveling-and to be honest it's true. I spent the previous 10 days with ever-changing group of 3-8 bonded by a miserable bus trip from NhaTrang to Da Lat. The core group consisted of a travel-torn ex-couple form none other than Seattle, a crazy French chick, a lovely Danish gal, and yours truly. Together we saw the waterfalls and mountains of Da Lat, the bars of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), the tunnels of Cu Chi before breaking into two groups. The not so happy couple to Bangkok (and home for at least one of them) and the euro-babes and myself to Cambodia.
Cambodia can both blow your mind and break your heart. In Phnom Penh, we found a really great guest house on a lake in the center of the city and hired mopeds to see what remains from humanity at it's worst- the Killing Fields and S-21 prison. Not pleasant places to visit. To top off an otherwise somber day, while riding home through PP, Maja-the Danish gal- was taking photos while sitting on the back of the motorbike I was driving when a couple of the local hoodlums zoomed passed and snatched her camera right out of her hand! This allowed for two rather unique experiences- first, I thought she said they took her purse (ie. credit cards, passport, etc), so I let her off and went on a mad, almost Bond-style (if it had been successful), chase through PP after the young lads who ultimately lost me in the central market. Finding Maja at the local police station, I realized it was only her camera that went missing and in retrospect my near deadly pursuit playing bumper cars with the local traffic was not entirely necessary. The second experience was with the not exactly ethical, okay let's just call them corrupt, local police. We'll just say that an investigation and police report that would have taken days, or weeks, to complete for the lost camera was completed in 20 minutes once $15 was suggested as a processing fee.

Maja and I got along well, so we struck off on our own to Siem Reap to see the Temples of Angkor. This is the part of Cambodia that blows your mind. Picture 100 foot tall trees growing out of 1000 year old temples in the middle of the jungle. And the great thing is you get to climb and play on them like a giant jungle gym. I wouldn't exactly call the complex safe by any means. In the States such a place would be roped off or extensively hand railed, but in Cambodia you get to climb strait to the top of Angkor Wat using the same ridiculously steep stairs the ancients did. It was awesome!

So all good things come to an end, and I'm alone once again... the last of the team headed back to Denmark yesterday so I'm looking forward to a few more days in Cambodia before heading (most likely) to Thailand...

Tim

Letters Home: Forest was right...

Dear Dad

When it rains in Vietnam, it really rains! I've arrived to the soaking humidity of Hanoi. This is serious humidity like I've never really felt before. Walking in this kind of weather, I'm really glad I opted for the "lite" approach to packing... everything I need for the next two months is in the saddle bag and REI bag in the attached pic. Not a whole lot of room for luxury goods- like toilet paper.
After a month in India, I didn't realise how far from western comforts I was... two 3-5 hour flights on Singapore Airlines and a 3 hour lay over in the Singapore airport seemed like paradise... no kidding! When I used the hot towel they give you on the flight to clean up, I turned it a dirty yellow wiping my face and neck...
The 4 hour afternoon downpour seems to have subsided, so I'm off to get my first taste of Vietnam.

Tim

Letters Home: Next Stop- Vietnam

Dear Josh

Thanks again for everything in India. So, very easy commute to Hanoi (where it is raining easily as hard as it did that day in Kerala!). I slept nearly the whole way on both flights. The Singapore airport is one of the most amazing things I've seen- so modern with free massage, internet, movies, video games and indoor/outdoor forests, etc. After 3 weeks in India it felt like a strange utopia... Already very excited to be in Vietnam- even though all I've done is get myself a room and drink beer waiting for the rain to pass.

Tim

Letters Home: Goodbye to India

Dear Mom

So, after three weeks in India it is time to say goodbye to the subcontinent and head east to Vietnam. The last three weeks have been incredible and building on previous emails, the highlight of the last week has to have been McLeod Ganj.
McLeod Ganj is a small Tibetan refugee settlement in the foothills ofthe Himalaya set-up for His Holiness the Dali Lama and the Tibetan government in exile. A beautiful and peaceful place bearing the sad reminder of the violently decimated Tibetan kingdom. Joined again by Josh and some of his friends from Delhi, we had the unique opportunityto have tea with a Tibetan monk who, 15 years earlier, spent 26 days trekking across remote Himalayan passes to escape the violent oppression in his homeland and to seek refuge in India. Phuntsok's insights into the real situation in Tibet at the moment which he receives in spurts from his family left behind are very disturbing to say the least. Yet despite the hardships of his life, which I don't think I can even begin to imagine, he remains hopeful that a peaceful settlement can be reached with the Chinese government and that one day he will be able to return to his family and his homeland.
An early morning wake-up call on Sunday and a five hour hike delivered us onto a ridge 9000ft above sea level looking out at the southern peaks of the Himalayan range. The mountains we saw were only around 15,000ft tall and as impressive as there were, I could only imagine what the 28-29,000ft big boys must look like- next trip I guess.
So now it's off to Hanoi and the beginning of my two-month journey through SE Asia...
Tim
-Here are a couple video's of Josh and I helping with the rice harvest in Alleppey during our first week in Kerala that I thought you might like...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=127049031840704174

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-194610303882888179

Letters Home: Hello from Jaipur

Dear Mom

Just a quick note to say that all is well and good... I've left the watchful eye and loving embrace of my half-hindi, half- american tour guide Josh and struck out on my own for the week. Stop one was Agra and a 6am viewing of the Taj Mahal- simply stunning. Then a six hour bus ride to Jaipur from which I have many bumps and bruises on the top of my head- not a smooth ride! Jaipur feels like the real India- this morning I was attacked by a cow while crossing the street. Perhaps he didn't like me or was offended that I failed to yield the right of way, but in any event he hit my back-side with he top of his head and lifted me into the air.
I've stayed more or less healthy. Suffered from a bit of man flu last week, but here's a story. A local medicine man (read semi-pharmacist) sold me something called Thaamboola for my cold/cough (see pic). On first impression I would liken Thaamboola to what you find at the bottom of an old spittoon or maybe axle grease. The first dose tasted as such, but the man said take frequently and like a good patient I did. By morning I was feeling better and by the second day I was addicted! Can't get enough of the Thaamboola!

Okay, off to the bus station...

Tim

Letters Home: All good in God's Country

Dear Mom

So, the state of Kerala is referred to in India as God's Country and I have to say it is lives up to it. I've managed to sleep in a different city/town each night thus far with some very interesting transit between stops. In a bit of a hurry to get back to the hotel tonight, so I won't write too much except to say that Josh and I are safe and sound and that if the next however many days are as amazing as the first six, I'm in for a good ride. Pictures to follow in the next email!

Tim

Good bye for now...

Well that's all folks, my London adventure has come to an end. Truly and amazing experience and a period of my life I will always remember fondly... for those of you who were there helping me decide if it was a good idea to move here back in 2005, the answer was yes- a big, big yes!

After two and a half years in London, I'm off to see the world and sharpen my pencil.

But before I go, a big thanks to all of you who supported me along the way- be it living in London, coming to visit, or reading along with my adventures. It's been a really good ride.

So, what's next? The three month scenic route home, a catch-up with friends and family in the states, and a big move to Barcelona!

Thanks for reading. The end.