Hanoi and Chiangmai - No Same Same

It appears in Asia that they are obsessed with saying "same same".THey just can't say the word "same" once. Incidentally, there is a roaring trade in same same t-shirts with the tourists.

I'm currently now in an internet cafe in Chiangmai, THailand. Its in the North of Thailand, near Burma and the GOlden Triangle. I flew from Hanoi to Bangkok, then we got an overnight train to Chiangmai. I spent about 13 hours on the train and slept on a hard sleeper bunk. Its a different experience to travelling by plane or bus. Travelling by train is more comfortable and slightly more expensive than bus, and its better for your ass. COnsidering that i slipped on the stairs on a boat in Hanoi and landed on my backside.....that's another story.

I prefer train rides over buses as they are more comfortable bus also because you get to see more of the countryside. Its goes through towns, villages, nature and you get to see more of Thailand that way. Tim and I had a seat to our ourselves, and next to us was a chick from Holland. We talked to her most of the night about travelling, Europe, drugs, and even a bit about tax!~

How come How long


THe last two days, we have spent in Halong Bay which is about 4 hours from Hanoi. It is one of the most beautiful places in the world. There's about 1600 islands (yes 1600!) in this area. We took a cruise and saw all the islands. It was so peaceful and serene. It reminds me of Milford Sound, in New Zealand. WOrds cannot describe how awesome this place was.

We cruised for a while and then we went to this massive limestone cave. It was huge, like half a kilometre long. THere were heaps of stacalites hanging from the roof, it was just simply unbeileveable. Think Jenolan Caves to the power of 1,000,000.

We were supposed to go Kayaking, but the bastards running the tour ripped us off. In fact we were supposed to go to several islands and that didn't happen either. So we had to call up the Captain and complain and eventually spoke to the tour operator who then took us to an island the next day to appease the tourists. These Viets are just dodge cause they try to do the absolute minimum.

We slept over night on the boat. From time to time, these hoochie mamas on little paddle boats would come up to our big boat and try to sell us food, beer and drinks. It was fun negotiating with them. In fact, I tried a pick up line from my viet phrasebook and pointed at Tim "Can I kiss you?". She gave us the biggest cringe i've seen in my life and just paddled as fast as she could away from us. Apparently that line doens't work in Vietnam.

That night we went to the top deck of the boat and all 14 tourists sat around talking. To me that has been one of my most interestnig experiences on tour. THere was one dude, Bob who really inspired me. Just to hear everyone's travel stories and where they had been was amazing.

I so want to see the world now, as much as I can before I get too old. There's just so many places i need to see, like the Jesus statue in Rio De Janiero, the pyramids in Egypt, cross the Ocean from Antigua to Europe, the Inca Trail in Peru. I want to see India, South America, Canada and more!

Meeting all these people on my travels has really inspired me to travel even more. And i've met so many interesting and varied people from backpacking.

On the bunk below me in Hanoi, was a lawyer from Melbourne who works at Allens. I met these two Spanish guys in the door way of the hostel who work for the Spanish Consulate in HOng Kong. THis Canadian guy i had been hanging out with he's been to the Himalayas in 3 different countries in the last two years and is now studying chinese in CHina. Bob, is a private tutor in Taiwan who's been travelling for the last 30 years. On the train last night, the Holland chick just quit her Public Relations job in London to go travelling. Amazing people with amazing stories.

I'm out like no two things the same same,

DJ Ho.