The Long & Winding Road https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/ Mon, 13 Apr 2026 08:51:02 GMT World Nomads Adventures Well the last 5 days have been really good.  I took a bus from Bangkok to Chumphon again and then caught the ferry over to Koh Phangan.  I met up with Matt the the pier when he arrived.  We headed to Haad Rin which is the touristy beach that hosts the full moon party.  Saturday and Sunday we just hung out at the beach, played frisbee, football, volleyball and worked on our tans a little bit.  There was also a vast number of women, primarily Scandinavian, that decided bikini tops were not needed at all.  We weren't complaining one bit!  The bungalow we were staying at was at the top of a pretty big hill, far away from everything and everyone.  It was a long walk to town or the beach everytime but it was very quit and relaxing and the view of the sea was great.  On Monday we we signed up for the Snoop Dogg boat tour which went around the whole island.  It turned into a really good day.  There were free treats all day and if you know anything about Snoop Dogg you'll know what type of treats I'm talking about.  It was a very hazy day.  We went to a waterfall, chilled at some remote beaches, played volleyball and went snorkling as well.  We had a really good time and made some new friends from Switzerland.  After that day, Matt and I both slept for about 13 hours!  So yesterday was the full moon party, we spent the afternoon at the beach again and I now have the darkest tan I've ever had in my life.  We had a great dinner which was an all you can eat buffet of roast beef, chicken, veggies, potatoes and gravy.  It was the best meal of my trip so far.  It was even better than Christmas dinner on the beach in Cambodia.  So after hanging out there watching a band for a bit, we headed down to the beach to party with around 15000 other people.  It was a really fun night and it was definitely one of the coolest parties I've ever been to.  Insane and crazy would be the words to describe that night.  But we both survived and were now awaiting a taxi to begin our journey to Railay Beach over in Krabi province which is another of my favourite places here in Thailand.  We should be there for a couple days and then its over to Koh Phi Phi to do some more scuba diving where I've heard it's incredible https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/29930/Thailand/Koh-Phangan-Partying Travel Thailand a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/29930/Thailand/Koh-Phangan-Partying#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/29930/Thailand/Koh-Phangan-Partying Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:24:00 GMT 1 Well I am actually back in Bangkok again for the 4th time during this trip!  What happened was that my tattoo wasn't finished and they wanted to let it heal before they did all the white that was going in it.  They told me to come back after a week.  So we caught a bus from Bangkok to Chumphon where we then caught a ferry to Koh Tao.  On arrival we checked in at Ban's Dive Resort which was a really nice place.  We chilled for two days letting our tattoos heal and then we started our open water scuba diving course on the 3rd day down there.  It was a 4 day course which involved classroom stuff, watching DVDs, the first session in the pool and then we did 2 dives to 12 metres and on the last day we did 2 more dives to 18 metres.  It was probably one of the coolest things I've ever done in my life.  It is so cool being able to breathe underwater.  We saw blue spotted stingrays. eels, so many fish and a lot of beautiful coral.  Now that I'm certified to dive I can't wait to dive again which will probably be in Koh Phi Phi when we get there.  And then we should be hitting the Great Barrier Reef sometime in April before Matt flys home.  Koh Tao was such a cool, chill island as well.  I had been there once before and it remains one of my favourite places in Thailand.  So after the diving I travelled all the way back to Bangkok for my tattoo to be completed.  Matt stayed in Koh Tao and I'm meeting him in Koh Phangan tomorrow where we'll be experiencing the infamous Full Moon Party on the 10th, should be a really good time.  Last night on the bus and boat ride I started talking to 3 girls that I had met while waiting for the taxi to take us to the pier.  The 4 of us pretty much hung out the whole day.  After like 8 hours of talking to each other we finally decide to introduce ourselves.  The 2 girls introduce themselves as Sarah and Kelly and I'm like no way, those are my 2 sisters names!  Then the 3rd girl says her name is Katie.  That was even weirder because my mom's name is Katie.  So I'm sitting having dinner with Katie, Sarah, Kelly and me.  What the hell are the chances of that!  I just got the tattoo finished and I'm waiting for the bus to take me to Koh Phangan.  https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/29929/Thailand/Scuba-Diving-in-Koh-Tao Travel Thailand a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/29929/Thailand/Scuba-Diving-in-Koh-Tao#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/29929/Thailand/Scuba-Diving-in-Koh-Tao Fri, 6 Mar 2009 23:52:00 GMT 0 So after Chiang Mai we caught a minivan up to the village of Pai.  It was a very curvy road and we knew it might get ugly when the driver handed out barf bags before the journey began.  The driver went as fast as he could around all 700 curves on the way there.  Of course, some people couldn't handle it and started barfing into the bags.  The driver just seemed to speed up and throw more bags at everyone.  It was gross but really funny at the same time.  Luckily, Matt and I did alright to hold everything down.  Pai was really cool and we had a pretty relaxing time there.  We stayed in bamboo bungalows at a really cool spot on the river. We rented some motorbikes for 2 dyas and just drove around checking out the area.  We saw some cool waterfalls, awesome scenery with rolling hills everywhere, and found a public pool that we chilled at for awhile.  The next day we drove pretty far to a place called Lod Cave which was up near the Burmese border and was really cool.  We did a guided tour through the cave on a bamboo raft.  It was pretty much pitch black in there so our guide had to use a kerosene lamp to see where she was going.  Huge caverns with crazy limestone formations inside though.  It was really fun walking around in there.  A funny story from Pai was when we were approached by this French guy at the pool who handed us a flyer for an art show on a hillside starting at 6pm.  We had the bikes and it wasn't too far so we decided to check it out.  We meet a girl who seemed to work/live there and she tells us it starts in about an hour and for us to hang out with her friends from England while we wait for the show to start.  When we finally go into the show, she puts gold glitter around our eyes and we the know its just going to get weirder from there.  We buy a beer and wait for the show to start.  They had built a whole contraption out of bamboo which was supposed to be a cryogenic freezing lab.  There was one small problem with the play though.  All of the French actresses quit when they saw how cheesy it was so they recruited local hill tribes people to play their parts.  But they didnt know French or English and the guy directing them couldn'ty speak their language either so there was only communication by actions and hand signals.  It was really weird and all we wanted to do was leave and wash the stupid glitter off our faces.  We finally escaped but that stuff was stuck on my face for about 2 days after that.  I will never go to a French art exhibit/play in Thailand again.  Very bad idea!  So after Pai we headed back to Chiang Mai on the local bus instead of the crazy fast minivan to avoid what happened on the way there.  We spent a couple days there and had a really good time again.  We decided to grab an overnight bus to Bangkok which turned out to suck pretty bad.  The bus could barely make it up hills!  We were literally going like 10km/h on every incline.  I couldn't believe it.  But luckily, it is mostly downhill from Chiang Mai to Bangkok so we made it there in about 10 hours.  But it smelt horrible the entire way because of the toilet right below us.  Pretty brutal trip!  Anyway I'm back in Bangkok for the third time during this trip, staying near Khao San Road again.  We did a little bit of shopping and I actually just got the first tattoo of my life.  It's on my arm and its based on one of Alex Grey's paintings who's one of my favourite artists.  It's also on the cover of Tool's 10000 Days CD who are my favourite band so I thought it was a good idea.  It looks like a 3 sided head with 3 faces all blended together in one head.  It's crazy that I just got a tattoo but I think it looks pretty cool so I'm happy.  Matt is getting a tattoo across his chest as I write this.  It's angels holding a banner that says "Almost Taken in Koh Chang" in Thai lettering.  It's a reference to his vicious motorbike accident which nearly took his life.  Its looks pretty sweet too.  Our next stop is Koh Tao to do some scuba diving. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/29928/Thailand/Pai-Chiang-Mai-and-Bangkok Travel Thailand a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/29928/Thailand/Pai-Chiang-Mai-and-Bangkok#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/29928/Thailand/Pai-Chiang-Mai-and-Bangkok Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:21:00 GMT 0 Well today is Valentine's Day and I'm in Thailand with my friend Matt so there's not much romance going on for either of us today.  Yesterday we rented a motorbike and drove up to Doi Suthep which is a temple overlooking the city of Chiang Mai.  I had done the drive last time I was here but it was Matt's first time in Chiang Mai so we decided to go anyway.  It was a beautiful day and an awesome drive.  We tried to go swimming at the university after that but it was members only.  We tried a hotel but they wanted 5 bucks and the pool was kinda shit and the sun was going down so we bailed on that idea.  Instead we went to the mall next door and went glow in the dark bowling.  I am proud to say I didn't crush my ankle this time and I bowled my highest game ever, a 169 including a turkey which is three strikes in a row.  Matt actually got 4 strikes in a row one game and bowled a 195 which I couldn't believe.  We went to Roots Rock Reggae last night to see the local reggae band and to look for my friend Ping Pong who usually hangs out there.  He must have been working on a trek cuz we didn't see him but we had a good night anyway.  Today we still had the motorbike until 1:30 so we went for a saturday morning drive along the river before we had to return it.  We are both still feeling weird from the food poisoning so we decided to just go see a movie instead of doing anything too physical.  We saw Benjamin Button which was a very well done and unique movie.  See what happens tonight, tomorrow were heading up to village of Pai to relax in the country for a couple days. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/29927/Thailand/Lazy-Days-in-Chiang-Mai Travel Thailand a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/29927/Thailand/Lazy-Days-in-Chiang-Mai#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/29927/Thailand/Lazy-Days-in-Chiang-Mai Sat, 14 Feb 2009 23:11:00 GMT 0 Well I'm getting pretty lazy with the journal writing because it looks like only write in it every 10 dyas or so now.  After our day of rest in Vang Vieng, we decided to go tubing one more time the next day because the first time was so much fun.  This time we saved our $8 and just swam or grabbed tubes from the bars as we went along.  It turned into another day of mayhem with some new friends from Perth.  We ended up getting a lot of free whisky that day and were pretty much useless by the end of the river.  We went out to Smile Bar at night and had a great time.  The next day we grabbed a bus up to Luang Prabang.  The bus ride was amazing with some of the most stunning scenery I've seen on the whole trip so far.  Just so much untouched forest and mountains everywhere with a little road running right through the middle.  We arrived in Luang Prabang, ditched our bags, grabbed some eats and then walked down to check out the famous night market.  I had read it was the most tranquil market in Southeast Asia and it definitely was.  No one tried to get us to buy anything at all.  Everything seemed to be fixed price though because they wouldn't barter at all.  We didn't buy anything because it was pretty expensive compared to Thailand where we would be in a couple weeks.  The next day we rented bikes and rode around checking out the city and some of the temples and sights in the historic district of town.  During the afternoon we took a minivan tour to an amazing set of waterfalls in the forest.  They had so many pools of turqouise water everywhere.  We swam right behind the falls of the biggest set!  It was a really cool spot.  That night we went to a really cool bar called the Lao Lao garden which was on a hill with a bonfire and candles everywhere.  We met a whole bunch of other travellers who were heading to the local bowling alley so we decided to join them.  It was a really good time other than the fact that I hit my own ankle with my ball during my release of my first bowl attempt.  Excrutiating pain for sure, don't try that smart move ever.  That bowling alley is really funny too because it is the only place in Luang Prabang that serves alcohol after 12 so it turns into quite the bowling party once everything else closes.  The next morning we booked our tickets for the slow boat ride up the Mekong River to Houay Xai which is where we needed to be to do the Gibbon Experience which we had booked online.  The slow boat journey was very long but had some amazing scenery along the way.  We spent 9 hours on the boat the first day, got to pak Beng that night, checked in at a guesthouse and awited part 2 of the trip.  The next morning we boarded a boat again and completed the 8 hours all the way to Houay Xai.  A lot of ipod listening, playing crads and sleeping kept me from going insane from being on a wooden baot for 2 days straight.  Overall though, I thought it was a really cool way to see some remote parts of Laos you would never see by road.  We headed straight to the Gibbon Experience office off the boat to check in for our 3 day trip which was starting the next morning.  The Gibbon Experience is a very unique program that brings you right into the canopies of the forest by using ziplines to get around and sleeping in treehouses that are 100m off the ground.  We had booked it 2 weeks before and were pumped to check it out.  Day 1 included getting driven 2 hours by road and 1 hour on a dirt path to a remote village in Bokeo Province, Laos.  After that it was about an hour walk to our treehouse.  They gave us harnesses when we got to the staff housing because the only way to get in or out of your house is via ziplines.  Some of the lines we were hitting were over 400m long with amazing scenery all around.  After ditching our bags, we hiked and zipped all around the forest until the sun went down.  Our group included Matt, Adam and Ashley from Ontario, Doni from Ireland, 2 girls from Melbourne and myself.  We all got along really well and had a great night in our treehouse playing cards and listening to tunes.  The next morning we were woken up at 7am to go on a trek to search for the elusive gibbons.  It was a pretty lame attempt because our guide just walked for like a half hour, stopped, and told us he had seen gibbons here before.  We sat and listened, we could here them but no one saw anything.  Then he just took us back to the treehouse.  Another guide showed up to give us a little tour of the forest and brought us to some of the ziplines we hadnt been on before.  It was such a good morning and I got some really cool videos while zipping over the treetops.  The guides told us we had to get to treehouse 1 for lunch, the only problem was that treehouse 1 was occupied by a german lady who was the worst person I've ever met.  Everyone hated her so much just after a couple hours of being in the van with her, that no one wanted to go for lunch with her or sleep in the same place as her.  So we all crammed in treehouse 3 while her and her smelly husband along with poor Rod from Portugal had the spacious number 1.  She refused to switch treehouses after the first night which is what the guides told everyone to do.  It would have been cool to check out that treehouse and zip some different lines but she was too much of a bithc to comply.  The turning point of the whole experience was dinner on Day 2.  It tasted great and everyone ate heaps of it.  Little did we know that we were eatingfood with vicious bacteria in it and that we would all have food poisoning within 24 hours.  I was the first to get hit.  About an hour after dinner my stomach was aching, I was getting the chills and I just felt weal all over.  I spent about 6 hours huddling under 2 blankets while everyone else drank and played cards.  By about midnight, I had never felt worse in my life.  Having diahhorea in a treehouse with an asian squatter toilet that is 100m off the ground is really not that fun.  Add the constant vomiting at the same time and I was ready to just throw myself over the bannister of the treehouse.  By about 2am, 4 out of the 7 of us were all barfing or had the runs or both.  It was an awful scene and I would never wish that upon anyone.  I didn't sleep the entire night and felt like hell the whole time.  Lucky thing Matt had some Paracetamol left over from Vietnam because one of the girls from Australia had a really high fever and was very ill.  The 3rd day was absolute hell as we all had to hike and zipline our way out of the forest with no energy while throwing up along the way.  It sucked a lot!  Matt and Doni both felt fine all night but they strated to get ill during the van ride back to town.  A couple pistops needed to be made.  So when we got back to the office Adam and I decided we were going to talk to the boss to try to get half our manoey back becuase it was a very expensive activity.  They were hesitant at first but thankfully they refunded everyone in our group about half of what we paid.  We just relaxed that night trying to forget the nightmares of the previous night.  The next morning which was today we decided to leave Laos and head back into Thailand.  Before we crossed the river we decided to try and eat something because we hadnt eaten for about 24 hours.  And guess who was at our restaurant being as bitchy as ever, the german lady and her poor husband.  We were about to order our lunch when she blew up on the waitress tellin her that she saw the cook run her fingers through her hair while preparing their meal and she wanted a new dish made.  The she proceeded to walk right into the kitchen to explain to the cook what she was doing wrong.  Matt and I could not believe our own eyes.  I feel extremely sorry for her husband because he has a life of hell in front of him.  She told us she didn't think we should eat there.  We ignored her.  Matt then ordered a banana shake and the waitress sarcastically asked Matt if she was allowed to touch the banana.  Pretty funny though cuz the german chick heard it and looked so pissed off.  I hope I never run into them again.  So after that we got stamped out of Laos, took a boat across the Mekong, got stamped into Thailand and caught a local bus to Chiang Rai.  From there we caught another bus to Chiang Mai which is where we are now https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/29381/Laos/Laos-Adventures Travel Laos a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/29381/Laos/Laos-Adventures#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/29381/Laos/Laos-Adventures Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:44:00 GMT 0 So it's been awhile since I've written but I'll try to do a little recap of the past 10 days.  Our last day in Hoi An, we made a trip to the post office to send our suits home as well as some more souveniers and artwork I bought.  After we cleared that up we went down to the beach on the bicycles we rented.  It was an amazing beach and a really good afternoon.  The next day we booked a bus up to Hue which used to be the capitol of Vietnam back in the day.  The first night in Hue was definitely an interesting one.  We went to a great Japanese restaurant but Matt started to feel really weird during dinner.  He felt like crap and it was raining so we just chilled at the hotel after dinner.  Then all of a sudden, Matt feels really sick, his face is red and he burning up.  Midway through the night, he starts feeling even worse so we decide to go to the hospital to see whats up. This hospital was the most unorganized and unprofessional place I've ever been to.  They reduced Matt's fever with paracetamol and then did some tests and left him with an IV hanging out of him.  After about 2 hours of waiting, I go for a stroll to find an English speaking doctor to see if we can leave or if he has to stay overnight.  During my walk I notice some pretty brutal injuries including one guy who must have bailed off his motorbike onto hid face because most of it was missing.  Everyone was in the same room, they didn't have separate rooms and no one was getting any attention.  So finally I'm told that Matt has to stay overnight, so I cruise back to the hotel.  The stupid part about the doctor was that as soon as we got there initially, he tells Matt it's probably Dengue Fever or Malaria scaring the shit out of Matt before they did any tests at all.  When he gets back to the hotel in the morning, he tells me all the bullshit they were feeding him at the hospital.  So he slept until 6am, a doctor then told him he definitely had dengue fever, they swithced him to a new bed and told him he had to stay for 2 days at $100 US a night.  He fell asleep again and then 4 new doctors woke him up later on.  They tell him he doesn't have dengue fever but a chest infection and something was low in his blood.  They didn't know the English word and Matt couldn't read it when they tried to write it down.  So then they tell him he needs an x-ray which will be an extra $20 on top of the $40 he had already paid just to be looked at.  So after the x-ray Matt feels fine and wants to leave the hospital.  The another doctor comes up to him and tells him that he doesn't agree with the first doctor and thinks he's fine other than the chest infection and go home right away.  The only way he's allowed to leave is if he writes out a huge statement saying it was his decision to leave.  He felt fine and thought they were just trying to get money from him so he left.  He just chiled at the hotel room for the next two days, took the meds they gave him and he got better so thankfully he didn't stay and pay the hospital $200.  During those 2 days, I explored the city of Hue on a bicycle and celebrated Tet which is the Vietnamese New Years Festival.  We decided it was getting too cold going up the coast of Vietnam so we booked a bus to Savanakhet, Laos after 3 rainy and cold days in Hue.  At the border we are surprised to hear that out of all the countries on the visa list, being from Canada means we have to pay the highest price for our Lao visas.  The damage was $47 US!!  I don't know what Canada ever did to Laos but they sure have it out for our canadian bank accounts.  Savanakhet was a pretty small town without much to do there so we stayed one night and then grabbed a bus to the capitol Vientiane the next morning.  We took the local bus to save some cash but no A/C for 9 hours is really not that fun.  We were pretty exhausted after that ride and all we wanted to do was lie down.  The problem was every guesthouse was full.  It took us like an hour of searching and phoning places to find a room.  We ended up dropping $23 US on a room which sucked because  we usually try to keep it under $15 a night.  Vientiane was pretty cool, the first day we rented bicycles and just cruised around town and saw most of the sights.  The next day we grabbed bikes again and saw their national monument which we missed the day before.  Our afternoon was spent at a Lao sauna and massage at a Bhuddist temple in the forest.  It was really relaxing.  The next day we went to the bus station to catch a bus to Vang Vieng to do some river tubing.  The bus was full cuz we were late but we got offered a ride in an A/C minivan from some guy.  So were waiting for the other 5 people to show up for about 15 minutes.  All of sudden 5 lao girls walk up, open the door, give us the weirdest lookever, then pile in around us.  They didn't speak a word of english and we obviously knew no Lao.  But it was a hilarious drive with them at really high speeds around mountain corners.  They all got out at random villages along the way and we were dropped in Vang Vieng, the Koh Phagnan of Laos.  We fell asleep right away for about 5 hours.  I went out for a couple drinks that night while Matt slept.  This town is pretty strange, it has a small town feel but it is party central at night on the island in the river.  On my way home that night, the streets were full of drunken tourists and police with Kaleshnikovs staring everyone down and searching some people for drugs as well.  Very weird scene, kinda scary with all the huge guns around!  The next day which was yesterday we went tubing.  It might sound like a nice relaxing afternoon but it is quite the opposite.  It's more like drinking at riverside bars with dangerous ropeswings and diving boards into the river and tubing a little inbetween the 10 bars all the way down.  It was a really fun day even though I did fall down some wet stairs, kicked a rock really hard underwater and hurt my neck on one of the ropeswings.  Matt didn't do any swings all day until the last bar.  It also happened to be the biggest on the river.  I went first and landed ok after being launched like 30 feet into the river below.  The I proceeded to watch Matt do a 180 onto his chest from the same height.  He said it felt like his ribcage caved in.  After tubing we crashed hard from about 7-10:30pm, almost went out but we were so sore from tubing, we just fell asleep again until 10am.  And today I remain very sore from the tubing trip.  My foot is the worst after kicking that rock.  Today we are doing nothing but recuperating from out injuries. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28477/Laos/Hue-and-into-Laos Travel Laos a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28477/Laos/Hue-and-into-Laos#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28477/Laos/Hue-and-into-Laos Mon, 2 Feb 2009 20:22:00 GMT 0 So after our 5 days of shananagians in Nha Trang, we decided to move on.  We spent one last day at the beach on Monday because our bus to Hoi An was not leaving until 6:30pm.  When we showed up for the bus they told us our sleeper bus was stuck in another town but we could take a normal bus for $1 less.  Our ride was a 12 hour journey so opted for the refund and scrambled to find a sleeper bus out of town.  We caught one at 7pm and embarked on one of the longest, scariest bus rides of my life.  The horn rules the road in Vietnam and let me tell you, this bus driver had the loudest one yet!  Every single motorbike he passed, he would honk at them, along with overtaking transport trucks in the dark on a curvy mountain road with the South China Sea looming beneath us to the right.  My sleeper bus compartment was built for Asians as well so I think I maybe slept for 1 hour max the whole way due to the horn and the fact that I couldn't really lie down because I was too big.  Thank the lord for my video ipod to keep me laughing and sane.  We checked in at Phouc An hotel in Hoi An when we finally arrived and it is probably the nicest hotel I've stayed in this entire trip.  We have comfy beds, A/C, hot water, free internet, bicycles and an awesome free breakfast buffet every morning all for $15 a night between the two of us.  Hoi An has been pretty cool so far.  It's a small town with lots of tailors and nice restaurants.  The old part of town is actually a World Heritage site and is pretty cool.  Yesterday I finally buckled to the heckling tailors I had been avoiding for three months here in Asia and bought a new suit.  I got a jacket, shirt and pants for $150 so it was a pretty good deal.  Turned out really nice as well.  I also grabbed some Chinese lanterns and some more artwork which I will need to send home tomorrow.  Today we checked out the My Son ancient ruins which were part of the Champa Kingdom's holy sites.  Pretty cool but after seeing the temples of Angkor, it didn't really compare to those.  Very cool location though with jungle and mountains all around.  Had a pretty good boat ride back into the old town as well. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28159/Vietnam/Hoi-An Travel Vietnam a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28159/Vietnam/Hoi-An#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28159/Vietnam/Hoi-An Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:11:00 GMT 0 We left Dalat on Wednesday for Nha Trang and it was one of the most beautiful drives I've ever been on.  Nha Trang is the most popular baech in Vietnam and we were hoping for some sunshine after the cold weather up in the mountains.  We were only planning on staying for 3 days but we've been having so much fun here that tonight will be our 5th night here.  On wednesday night we went out for some drinks and ended up staying out pretty late.  My first mistake of the night was using the ATM and bringing all the money out with me instead of leaving most at the hotel whichI usually do.  My second mistake was not realizing I was being pickpocketed on our way home as we were surrounded by a motorbike gang made up of ladyboys, ladies and boys.  The bastards took my wallet out of my pocket, stole the 1.7 million Dong which is about $115 CDN and returned the empty wallet, thankfully, which had my credit card inside.  I didn't even realize what had happened until we got back to the hotel.  I was so pissed off that I was tupid enough to carry that much money on me but at least they put my wallet back in my pocket after robbing me.  The next day we walked around town to check outthe city.  Went to a really cool photo gallery of a local photographer who had some serious talent.  All black and white photos of Vietnam and the local people here.  After that we checked out a pagoda which kinda sucked other than one of the hugest Buddha statues I've ever seen.  It was pretty impressive.  The next day we just hung out at the beach because it was a really nice day and we just wanted to relax.  Crazy big waves though that were just crushing us.  That night we went out and were surrounded again by a gang and the ladyboy/trannie that robbed me 2 days before was with them.  I pushed him off his motorbike then kicked out the back tire of the bike as he tried to drive away looking pretty scared of the big westerner coming at him.  We threw some rocks at the gang as they drove away and then headed back to the hotel.  When I get to the hotel, don't I realize that my wallet is empty and I've been robbed again.  I couldn't fuckin believe it!  This time it was only like 10 bucks so I didn't really care but I admitted they were really true professionals and knew the fine art of pickpocketing very well.  Yesterday we went on a boat cruise to some of the surrounding islands which was really fun.  We went to an aquarium first which was ok.  After that we posted up to jump off the top deck of the boat and do some snorkling.  Had a great seafood lunch which was all you can eat and then the boat leader dude went out in the water in a floating bar and he served us red wine and pineapple while we floated in buoys.  The wine was pretty bad but it was fun drinking in the sea.  The funniest part of the whole trip was this elderly French couple on the boat that just looked absolutely pissed right off that they were a part of this booze filled party in the sea.  They didn't even participate in any of the activities the whole day and just sat there with grumpy faces.  We thought they were going to just lose it and tell everyone to stop having fun.  After the floating bar it was karaoke time but the catch was that they picked the songs and the singers.  They had a guy on the drums which were made out of garbage cans, buckets and a ragged cymbol.  Another guy with Buddy Holly glasses rocking their selected setlist on the guitar and they trip leader was singing.  It was so funny.  They asked me where I was from, I told them Canada, so they dragged me up on stage to sing Yellow Submarine.  No idea what the connection between The Beatles and Canada are but that was song I was selected to sing so I rocked it out as best as I could after a day full of beer and wine!  Everyone else got a song connected with their home country.  I guess they didn't know Oh Canada!  The whole trip was one of the funniest days of my life.  Another really weird thing that happened yesterday was after we went out for a couple drinks we ended up walking through the big town square area to find a very strange sight.  It was really late, like probably 4:30am and the whole place was filled with people just stretching and doing squats and lunges on all the park benches.  We were pretty drunk so we obviously joined in.  Then we see a group of people surrounding a big tarp with a Buddhist shrine and incense burning.  But there was also tonnes of snacks, dumplings and fruit on the tarp.  They invite us to have some food so we start eating dumplings with our new group of friends of Buddhists that meet at 5am to exercise, pray and eat Choco-Pies and tangerines together.  Have to say I had no idea what the hell was going on and why all these people were up that early.  It was definitely one of the weirdest moments of my life.  Then all of sudden the street lamps go out and everyone in the group other than me and Matt are gone within 2 minutes.  So weird!  Got home at like 6:30am wondering what the hell we just were a part of.  Today we just slept in till around 1pm and hit the beach again for a tough day of swimming and frisbee.  God I love having no job, best feeling ever if you have cash in the bank but no work schedule. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28157/Vietnam/Crazy-Nha-Trang Travel Vietnam a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28157/Vietnam/Crazy-Nha-Trang#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28157/Vietnam/Crazy-Nha-Trang Sun, 18 Jan 2009 02:35:00 GMT 0 Our second day in Mui Ne was last Saturday the 10th, we booked a jeep tour to see all the sights around town.  It was a really fun day with the highlight being trying to sled down huge sand dunes on krazy karpets.  Our attempts failed and we ended up eating large amounts of sand.  We got some really good pics though!  The next morning we booked a bus to Dalat which is a town up in the mountains of Vietnam.  We arrived to find it colder than we thought it would be.  We had arranged a place to stay over the phone when we were in Mui Ne but when we got off the bus it was so cold that we just stayed at the Peace Hotel which was right where we were let off.  It turned out to be areally good hotel even though our room was so cold!  Monday morning we rented a motorbike and I drove the two of us around town to check out some of the sights.  Matt still has a motorbike phobia since the accident so now I just double him.  We went to a place called the Krazy House which was the weirdest tourist attraction and I can't even really explain it but I'll try.  It had different themed rooms with giant bears and kangaroos inside of them.  It felt like something out of Dr.Suess or Willy Wonka.  After that we cruised over to the Dalat Palace Golf Club to enquire about playing but it was way too expensive so we just hit some balls at the range.  We then drove over to the cable car which was pretty cool.  It took you over the city of Dalat and the views were pretty amazing.  Then we proceeded to get really lost and ended up at a place I had read about called the Valley of Love.  For lack of anywhere else to go we paid the 15,000 Dong entry fee which is $1 CDN to check it out.  It was pretty frikin hilarious walking around that place.  It was all Vietnamese couples taking pictures and falling in love along with Disneyland-esque tackyness all around.  We did some unnecessary male bonding and took some hilarious pics of the twop of us at the Valley of Love.  The funniest part of the day was when we were returning our tandem bike we had rented.  We had asked the lady we rented it from to get anaction shot of us riding by but as she was taking the picture, Matt leaned left and I leaned right and somehow the whole back rim totally bent in half causing the bike to fall over along with us laughing in hysterics.  It was all caught on video as well by an elderly guy who was filming us for some reason.  I would love to see the footage!  We felt bad but she knew it was an accident and not our fault so she didn't charge us anything extra.  The next day we embarked on our canyoning trip we had booked the night before.  This was definitely one of the best days of the trip so far!  It was just Matt, the 2 guides and I for the day but we had a great time.  The day involved hiking, swimming, abseiling down cliffs and waterfalls, jumping off cliffs and a really good lunch.  It was really slippery abseiling down the rock of the waterfalls and I slipped twice banging my knee pretty hard both times but I made it down eventually.  The best part was jumping away from the rock at the end, letting go of the rope and falling into the pool below!  The evening was spent freezing our buts off at the bar across the street from our hotel playing pool, scrabble and a very long game of poker that the owner of the bar ended up winning. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28156/Vietnam/Adventures-in-Dalat Travel Vietnam a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28156/Vietnam/Adventures-in-Dalat#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28156/Vietnam/Adventures-in-Dalat Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:15:00 GMT 0 So the past 3 days were spent in Saigon.  We went to a really cool museum called the War Remnants Museum which basically outlines all the atrocities of the U.S. soldiers from the American War which is what they call it over here.  Incredible photos and artifacts from the war though.  We also went to the Reunification Palace which was cool as well.  It used to be the main building of the South Vietnamese government before the war was over.  It was also the sight of where the North Vietnamese tanks broke through the gates to take control of Saigon and declare the war over.  Next stop was a town called Mui Ne.  The bus ride there was crazy as usual.  Our bus driver must have used his horn like a thousand times in a 5 hour drive and I'm not even exagerrating.  The horn is everyone's best friend in Vietnam.  It is also so annoying when you are in the bus though.  Completely unnecessary but I guess thats how drivers roll over here.  Today we checked out the beach in Mui Ne.  I've never seen so many kitesurfers in one place in my life.  It looked really fun so we enquired about some lessons.  It was crazy expensive at $250 US for a 5 hour lesson, so we just swam in the hugest waves, getting battered, and then relaxed on the beach to ease our pain.  Really fun night out at the Wax Club during the evening though. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28091/Vietnam/Hangin-in-Saigon-and-Mui-Ne Travel Vietnam a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28091/Vietnam/Hangin-in-Saigon-and-Mui-Ne#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28091/Vietnam/Hangin-in-Saigon-and-Mui-Ne Fri, 9 Jan 2009 01:33:00 GMT 0 Yesterday I woke up feeling pretty sick so I didn't feel like doing anything except for lying in bed.  Matt went out and I just chilled out all day watching movies.  The only thing I accomplished was to grab some bus tickets to Saigon for the next day.  Watched The Black Dahlia on TV during the evening, pretty good flick.  Had an early night as our bus was leaving at 6:45am today.  Caught the bus to the Vietnam border and then on to Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon.  It was a long 6 hour ride but it feels good to get to a new country.  Saigon has the craziest traffic I've ever seen in my life.  I thought Bangkok was pretty nuts but this city definitely takes the cake.  So many motorbikes with absolutely no rules.  Crossing the street was hilarious, you just walk really slowly across the street as hundreds of bikes zip by you missing you by mere inches.  There are intersections with no lights or stop signs and everyone just rips through them with ease.  Incredible sight to just sit and watch a busy intersectin for like 5 minutes.  This country should be fun! https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28090/Vietnam/Heading-to-Vietnam Travel Vietnam a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28090/Vietnam/Heading-to-Vietnam#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28090/Vietnam/Heading-to-Vietnam Tue, 6 Jan 2009 01:23:00 GMT 0 Yesterday we were pretty much ready to leave Cambodia for Vietnam but we screwed up the date when applying for our visas so we actually couldn't get in until the 6th.  So we had three days to kill in Phnom Penh.  We went down to the river to eat and just stroll around all afternoon.  We caught a couple happy hours, played some pool and relaxed by the river for awhile.  The evening was pretty funny because we ended up at a club where we were the only foreigners around.  They treated us like kings though and we had a fun night full of Jack and Cokes.  Today we came back to the mall we had stopped by for a bit yesterday.  Matt bought a bunch of things but I mainly just teased shopowners making them think I was interested in all the junk they wer trying to sell me.  Dinner brought us to The Pizza Company where I had the best pizza of my life!  It had bacon, sausage and sheese in the crust!  It was insane.  Really goos restaurant though.  Kinda just hung out at the hotel in the evening watching movies. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28089/Cambodia/Stuck-in-Phnom-Penh Travel Cambodia a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28089/Cambodia/Stuck-in-Phnom-Penh#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28089/Cambodia/Stuck-in-Phnom-Penh Sun, 4 Jan 2009 01:16:00 GMT 0 Yesterday we switched guesthouses because someone stole $50 from Matts shorts out of our room.  We also wanted to check out another part of town.  Today we hired a tuk-tuk driver to take us to all of the sights in and around Phnom Penh.  We started the day going to the Killing Fields which is where Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime killed thousands of innocent Cambodians during his brutal reign of terror during the 70's.  It was pretty crazy being at the sight of mass graves, the freaky part is that they have only dug up like half of them so there are still thousands of skeletons under the ground.  After leaving the Killing Fields, we headed over to Tuol Sleng Prison aka S-21 which served as a jail and torture centre from '75-'79.  The place really gave me the creeps with all the black and white photos of all the victims inside.  We also saw the rooms where the poor, innocent people were tortured for being educated or just because they were from the city instead of being country folk.  I still can't beleive that all of this happened so recently.  While the rest of the modern world was going through the hippie liberal 70's, Cambodians were being killed for nothing except to help Pol Pot's view of a perfect egalitarian society.  It really opens your eyes to the problems in the world today looking at this sort of thing though.  It also makes me thank God I was born in a peaceful, prosporous country that gave me the opportunity to do something with my life.  After the depressing morning, we headed to the National Museum after a bite to eat.  The museum was really cool and the courtyard was really beautiful.  Lots of really cool artifacts from the temples we had seen in Siem Reap a couple weeks before.  We then checked out the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda.  It was cool but I think Thailand's Royal Palace was definitely more impressive. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28088/Cambodia/Learning-about-the-Khmer-Rouge Travel Cambodia a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28088/Cambodia/Learning-about-the-Khmer-Rouge#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28088/Cambodia/Learning-about-the-Khmer-Rouge Fri, 2 Jan 2009 01:02:00 GMT 0 Well it's now 2009 and I must say that 2008 was a really good year for me.  I started it off going to Costa Rica and Panama in January and had a blast with my good friend Jordan.  February was equally as fun because I went out to Vancouver and Whistler, B.C. and had a great time.  I started planning this trip around May or June and August brought Lollapalooza in Chicago which was amazing.  I had a great going away/birthday party in September and since October 21st I've been exploring southeast Asia and loving every minute of it.  The new year shuld also bring a lot of excitement.  For the next 3-4 months I'll be going to Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and finally Australia where I'll be working for about a year.  Not too sure what to expect when I get there but I'm really looking forward to what lies ahead.  I'm not going to make any New Years resolutions because I always break them but I'm just going to try to embrace life this year and live every day to the fullest. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28087/Cambodia/Looking-Back-and-Ahead Travel Cambodia a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28087/Cambodia/Looking-Back-and-Ahead#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28087/Cambodia/Looking-Back-and-Ahead Thu, 1 Jan 2009 00:54:00 GMT 0 Today was New Years Eve and we thought it would be a great idea to go down to the local Cambodian shooting range and shoot some crazy guns!  When we got there, we had the choice to shoot AK-47's, Uzi's, Tommy Guns along with M-16's and other huge machine guns.  I chose the AK-47 because it was only $40 to shoot off 30 rounds.  The guy loading the gun then asked me if I wanted to shoot a live chicken for $20 extra.  I politely declined feeling it was unnecessary to kill anything for fun.  Even though Matt did ask him if we could keep the meat if we shot it.  I shot a target 30 times, it took like 2 minutes and it was over.  Waste of cash but at least I can say I've shot an AK-47 now.  Matt opted for the Tommy Gun and shot off 40 rounds in like 10 seconds.  We took some pics with all the guns and then headed over to the Russian Market to look around.  I ended up buying a hilarious blue silk robe with golden dragons on it.  I don't even wear a robe but it was so comfortable that I had to buy it.  The market was enormous and you could really bargain a good deal there.  We cruised by the Vietnamese Embassy, grabbed our passports and then headed back to the guesthouse.  We grabbed a bottle of Thai Rum to start the night with.  We drank, played pool and chatted at our guesthouse for awhile.  At midnight we all shot fireworks off our patio, out over the lake.  It was a good time.  We ended the night in style at the Heart of Darkness nightclub which was pretty good. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28086/Cambodia/New-Years-Eve-in-Phnom-Penh Travel Cambodia a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28086/Cambodia/New-Years-Eve-in-Phnom-Penh#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/28086/Cambodia/New-Years-Eve-in-Phnom-Penh Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:43:00 GMT 0 So we found out the National Park was closed because the only raod to it was being worked on.  The only reason we came to Kampot was to check out Bokor National Park so we grabbed a bus up to Phnom Penh to celebrate New Years Eve in the big city.  The bus ride was brutal, hitting some crazy bumps with everyone coming off their seats like 2 inches and hitting the ceiling with their heads.  Arrived in one piece and checked in at a guesthouse on the Boeng Kak lake.  Grabbed a tuk-tuk over to the Vietnamese Embassy to drop off our passports to apply for our visas because our next stop will be Ho Chi Minh City aka Saigon, Vietnam.  We had a pretty relaxed evening just playing pool and chilling by the lakeside.  We knew tomorrow would be a big one. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/27579/Cambodia/Phnom-Penh Travel Cambodia a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/27579/Cambodia/Phnom-Penh#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/27579/Cambodia/Phnom-Penh Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:20:00 GMT 0 Today we decided to leave Sihanoukville for Kampot to explore Bokor National Park.  We arrange a taxi with our hotel guy and the 1991 Toyota Camry shows up with 5 people already in the car.  Driver and two in the front and two more already in the back.  They expected two big 6ft guys to squeeze in there with them.  We just laughed and said 3 in the back was the max for the 2hr drive.  So we ended up getting a new car with 6 people in it instead of 7, for only $1 more.  The ride was still brutal but we got there after dodging cows, dogs, children and potholes at 100km/h!!  Pretty fun drive though!  Kampot was a very small town with not much to do in town.  We ate on the river and it was the worst meal of my trip.  The chicken was definitely not chicken and was very questionable.  I can't beleive I ate half of it before I realized it was really gross.  Had an early night because we were going to the national park the next day. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/27578/Cambodia/Over-to-Kampot Travel Cambodia a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/27578/Cambodia/Over-to-Kampot#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/27578/Cambodia/Over-to-Kampot Mon, 29 Dec 2008 18:20:00 GMT 0 Today we decided we were going to rent bicycles, ride over to the Vietnamese Embassy to apply for visas and then check out the other beach in town.  The only bikes we could find were a pair that included one normal black mountain bike and one tiny weird bike with little tires and a really tall seat.  It had little kid stickers and lime green fenders.  I was definitely the coolest kid on two wheels that day.  Turned out the embassy was closed on sundays so we just continued over to Victory Beach.  Neither of us brought boardshorts so we went for a dip in our jockeys and then baked for a little bit in the near 40 degree temperatures.  We ate at a really cool restaurant that had a whole small airplane right in the restaurant and the servers wore airport grounds crew uniforms.  It was pretty cool.  We had a huge Sunday Roast at a place called Mick and Craigs for dinner, watched the Chelsea game and played some pool at the Cool Banana, then called it a night. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/27577/Cambodia/My-Tiny-Bike Travel Cambodia a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/27577/Cambodia/My-Tiny-Bike#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/27577/Cambodia/My-Tiny-Bike Sun, 28 Dec 2008 18:20:00 GMT 0 Today was Matt's birthday but since we partied pretty hard the last couple nights, tonight was really chill.  I kind of just cruised the internet during the afternoon while Matt recovered from the giant bucket he chugged the night before.  We grabbed dinner at Monkey Republic and then watched Team America at the funniest movie theatre ever.  It was just 3 levels of comfy pillow chairs and sofas with a guy running the show by switching DVD's and projecting them onto the wall.  He had a lot of imported snacks and a fridge full of beer and pop.  He just goes on the honour system, so you could actually sit there all day watching movies, eating and drinking, and then just pay him like 20 bucks at the end of the day.  It seemed like he had a pretty easy life going on. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/27576/Cambodia/Matts-Birthday Travel Cambodia a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/27576/Cambodia/Matts-Birthday#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/27576/Cambodia/Matts-Birthday Sat, 27 Dec 2008 18:20:00 GMT 0 Last night we booked a boat trip to some of the surrounding islands for today.  There were about 20 of us on the boat and we had a really good day even though it was pretty overcast the entire day.  We played volleyball, soccer, swam, drank, listened to tunes and just relaxed.  The guy John running the trip was really cool and did a good job ensuring everyone had a good time.  After a great afternoon we all decided to shower up and then meet back up at John's restaurant for a BBQ dinner.  I grabbed the barracuda again which is always amazing.  We all finished the night dancing at the Dolphin Bar while celebrating Matt's Birthday which started at midnight. https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/27575/Cambodia/Boxing-Day-Boat-Trip Travel Cambodia a_hayes11 https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/27575/Cambodia/Boxing-Day-Boat-Trip#comments https://journals.worldnomads.com/a_hayes11/story/27575/Cambodia/Boxing-Day-Boat-Trip Fri, 26 Dec 2008 18:20:00 GMT 0