Well hello everyone!

Its been a while and im guessing u must all be bored and missing me therefore
instead of writting the same old stuff over and over in emails iv decided to update
my blog!

Life has been good in recent weeks, tough obviously sticking the heat, endless bottles
of beer and of course the walking around all day with nothing important to do!

Ok so places we have been since we last spoke

Ho Noi (Vietnam)
Ho An was pretty nice city but not my favourite place in Vietnam. It was some what strnage in ways, well i thought so anyway! The highlights where visiting Ho Chi Mi (the savour of Vietnam) dead body which has been preserved for over 30years and you can go look at him. Yes weird is not the word, very strange set up and the funny thing is, he may be the hero of Vietnam but his dying wish was to be cremated, so to respect that they shoved him in a glass topped coffin and made a tourist attraction!

Had some not so comforabtle times when i went out for a night with some people from another hostel, when i got back to mine in middle of night the doors where shut and no one would answer, so in true style i lay dwn on the ground and slept outside the hostel until they opned thier doors at 8am! The funny side of it was that the next day when we went back after being out and about hey had installed a bell at the door and a HUGE sign saying BELL!

While here we booked a trip to Halong Bay, it is one of the natural wonders of the world and many of you may know it from the recent episode of top gear! Was amazing boat tripand enjoyed some kyacking and snorkling! The second night i spent on the local island as the other guys returned to Ha Noi, i met a bunch of irish people on the beach and ended up meeting them that night for a mad one, it wwas funny because one of their friends lives in my grandmothers house back at home and they went to sschool with my cousin! Rnadom! Good craic and again in true style was about 2 minutes away from missing my bus the nxt day!

We needed to get our china visa so naturally headed to the embasy to do so, not as easy as we thought considering that they would not let us thro the door and refused to give us a visa, yes illegal but they didnt care. So we went back to our hostel and strangely the woman behin the counter offered to sort our visas for $65. No forms needed, photos, information! Sure to her word a few days later passpots returned with what looks like a visa, money talks!

Loas

Our next plan was to head to Loas, mainly for the tubing we had heard so much about! One issue was how to get to Loas and one way only which we could afford was the "bus from hell", it was going to take 24-30hrs on the bus and when buying the ticket the guys basically made it very clear that this would be hell on earth and we are not gauranteed a seat! We had heard horror stories about this well known bus trip! But in the end it wasnt to bad, we got a seat and then theympacked the bus with cement, chairs, tables, and about a million oacks of women sanitary towels! Under the seat, around the seats and behind the seats! It was mental but we met some kool people on the bus and ended up traveling Loas with them!

In Loas the main highlight was Vang Vien to do the tubing, look it up on YoUTUBE! Brilliant craic, basically got a roaring river, bars on the edge and MASSIVE big tree swings into thewater including slides and all! Its madness, everyone drinking buckets, jumping of these
massive jumps into river and they get thrown a boy for the side to get pulled in, great
craic but be careful not to die!

We then headed up to north Loas to a small place called Lamb Perbang. It was a nice place with old architecture and markets etc. Quiet expensive tho. I decided i needed some exercise so i rented a mountain bike and cycled a 65k round trip up through the mountains to a big waterfall, it was a brilliant day but everyone thought i was mad, all the taxis passed by filled with tourists and once i got there i had random people walking over to me asking was i the "mad man cycling here?" Great day

Northern Thailand

So we returned to Thailand to see the north. We got to Chang Mai and spent a few days enjoying the city and getting loads of green curry in me belly again! Love the stuff! We booked a jungle trek and spend three days in the jungle, was pretty good! Good times and met quiet a few kool people! This included Elephant Trecking (not good as elephants not treated well) also bamboo rafting and then to top it of some white water rafting whichi really enjoyed! Altho after three days of drinking thai wiskey and the local moon shinei was happy to get back to a bed and a semi warm shower!

We then headed up to Pai which is further up north, i had never been here before and it is a MUST for anyone heading to Thailand, it was what thailand was like 5 years ago. It was really nice, chilled out and loads of live jaz music! Here we rented some motorbikes for the day and it cost us 3pounds incl insurance! How mad is that. We drove up thro the mountains and around a load of waterfalls, ti was really nice. To top it of we also went to some Natural Hot Springs, it was really warm, like a bath, u can even hard boil an egg in the water!

I finally got to give the whole Yoga a go, it was great! 1 day a days course which included 4 hours of yoga, it was mad, i was dying a death after that, really hard work, mum never told me that! But im really glad i did it and have notes they gave me so i can do it myself!

We have now returned to Bangkok in anticipation of our flight to Hongkong! Well when i say Hongkong i mean a random place in china baout 3hours from there,but the flights where cheaper there! Its gona be hard trek getting to Hongkong from this place but we will get there! Im really looking forward to China as i will get to meet up with my mate Leddy Bear and have some good times!

So thats all from me now! Im gona head on and get another green curry, i wonder how many i can eat in the next 24hours before i leave lol!

Hope all is going well at home and the summer is treating u all well!

Speak soon and take it handy!

Tommy

P.s. 27 DAYS TO AUSTRALIA ... AWESOME!