...Yeah, I'm off on another of my whirlwind adventure from the 11th of October till the 16th of December. Thought I'd let you guess know since I'm actually rather enjoying this place a little more recently. For those interested its 2 and a bit months in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia and possibly the Phillipines if I have the time and money, learning shit, silly goose people off with my tin whistle and generally finding something pure about this rock-bucket-shit hole we call a planet.

I'm gonna bring a video camera with me and film some weird and wonderful stuff while there, hopefully stuff like some 'Red Shirt' riots in Thailand, the western exploitation of Laos, and the morbid histories of both Vietnam and Cambodia. I'll basically play some images along to some punk music and shove em on my youtube account and post em up here at some point.

Anyway, yeah, au revior and all that shit.

You need to hunt down Duskwing. Find out what happened to him.

But seriously, sounds awesome. Hope your trip is fun and you better share vids and pics with us. :1

Let me know if you see Mu Sochua in Cambodia.

Also, have a fun/meaningful time.

awesome, looking forward to the videos, pics, and epic stories you'll tell us.

can you speak any of the languages there

Take me with you >.<

Don't forget to tell a lot of jokes about the King and Queen when you reach Thailand! They have a great sense of humor over there.

Cool man. I've always wanted to go to Laos and Vietnam. Have fun there, man.

So, which meteor are you going to blow up this time (jk).

While you're in South East Asia, why not go to Indonesia too (shameless self-country promotion)? Bali perhaps (you should already know this one), or Bandung. In Bandung, there are lots of cloth store (or factory outlet, that's what they call it) and delicious food. Though the most important thing is that they dirt cheap (with only $5, you could eat a very good food... I usually only need $1)

.... and who knows if you could meet me there (in Bandung, I mean) ^_^

I've been told most people in Thailand speak English, so I should be ok there. Hopefully. Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia are former French colonies, so I'm hoping I'll get by with that. When I went to Cambodia before, I noticed the young people speak English and the older people speak French as a second language. I'm gonna buy a £10 'Teach yourself Vietnamise' CD Book course and listen to that on long bus journeys until I reach Hanoi.

I realised in the planning of this trip that I'm gonna have to endure a 24+ hour bus journey from Vietianne (Capital of Laos) to Hanoi (Capital of Vietnam), so I think I'll need all the entertainment I can get.

But this will probably be one of the last travels I do. Still wanna go to West Africa and India, amoung a hundred other places, but having a long term girlfriend who wants to settle down and doesn't have much interest in going anywhere other than mainland Europe and North America, makes this kinda thing pretty difficult. But who knows what'll happen. Don't wanna get too mature anyway. Those people are assholes.

Come back alivvee~ D:
Jk I know you'll be fine. Take a picture of a tarantula! My Philippine friends told me they're the size of dinner plates over there!

Watch out for river monsters in Southeast Asia. I hear there are some fish that are really huge around the rivers there.

Hey, HoS, I have a question. Some of my mates and I were planning on going on a trip to southeast asia sometime in the future, and I was just wondering how you sort of get the ball rolling on the whole thing. Like, do you go to some travel agent or plan it on your own or what.
Thanks in advance.

I'm jealous! That would be cool to see some of the awesome architecture...I'd also like to see the Philippines, since my Grandma's from there.


Sounds fun! Is this a trip with family, or class, or just some friends?

Can't wait for pictures

Well, the main thing that will mess you up is obviously money. But you gotta put this in perspective. South East Asia, overall, is a very cheap part of the world to travel (the only other place that comes close is eastern europe) It may cost you $750 Canadian (probably more, actually) for a flight from Toronto to Bangkok, probably changing flights in Europe and the Middle East on the way, but once you get there, the cost of living is much more in your favour.

So yeah, your first task to is sort out your budget. Nothing worse than cashing out to fly to other side of the planet only to find out when you get there that you can't afford a bowl of soup and have to sleep in a bus shelter. Include things that you feel you MUST do e.g. diving, skydiving, entry to Angkor Wat, Taj Mahal, whatever...

I can only speak for myself, but I spent some days on the internet looking for the best value places and putting it up on a word document for easy reference. When it comes to sleeping arrangements, look on this site: www.hostelbookers.com DO NOT book anything through a site called hostelworld.com. I booked through them once when me and my girlfriend travelled round Greece, and their a con and a scam. Avoid them.

But don't go too over the top with the planning. Personally, I budget for flights, accommodation and transport. Food and beer and other extras are near impossible to budget for, but remember the part of the world your in. If you don't find living off bowls of noodles, cheap beer and bottled water you can survive on less than $5 US a day, when it comes to food and stuff, with out too much hassle.

Next step is decide who your going with. If your going with friends, make sure their good friends. Being on the road with anyone for months on end can test even the longest friendships, so just make sure these people aren't assholes, or have the potential to be assholes.

Gotta go play football now, but I'll post more when I'm back.