Andy and I took a walk to get some errands done and things didn’t work out too well. It began OK when we found a little pagoda on an island in Hoan Kiem Lake. 3000 Dong entry fee (12p) and a pleasant little environment. Certainly not as ostentatious as some temples and the like I’ve [...]

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 Our entire itinerary for the day involved getting back to Hanoi, so the early rise was necessary though not appreciated! Breakfast at the hotel was fairly pleasant. Nice and light: scrambled eggs, bread and tea.
Loi herded us all into the waiting minibus and we headed back to the port and onto the small vessel that [...]

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 We were woken at 7am by the boat’s engines starting and had an early breakfast, mainly fruit-based. Today’s plan was kayaking, followed by the 2-dayers going home and the 3-dayers transferring to a smaller vessel.
The kayaking was enjoyable, though I was unlucky enough to be teamed up with the now-hungover pain-in-the-butt from the previous night. [...]

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 The taxi arrived just after 8am to take us to Ocean Tours’ office. There we were bundled into various minibuses based on our destinations and we headed off on the 4-hour journey eastwards to the port.
We had one stopoff on the way, to see a souvenir shop, grab a drink and use the facilities. The [...]

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Two of Sarah’s friends arrived at around 5am from Borneo where they’d been fortunate enough to get onto the Orangutan Rehabilitation Program, where orphaned orangs are reared and tended to before being released. This is something I would love to do, but there’s a 2-year waiting list and 2 grand (UK pounds) fee for the [...]

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This is how much of a dipstick I am (in case anyone had doubts). I spent this morning wandering around some shops and getting supplies – bug bite cream, strong painkillers for my back, some more novels to read. I then popped by the Bull’s Head for lunch and a farewell Coke.
While I was there, [...]

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 My last full day in Bangkok and I didn’t get out of bed till gone 11am. In fairness, I had a lot of kip to catch up on after the last few days and the late arrival last night. The previous post was the result of an email conversation with Elaine and after checking web [...]

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If you do a search on Google for “Bangkok snake”, most of the top hits are about the anti-venin centre located at the Red Cross hospital on Rama IV Road. I’m going to try to get there tomorrow morning – 70Baht to hold a snake for the first time in my life seems worthwhile.
Do a [...]

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 My time in Phuket draws to a close, and it’s a shame as I’ve had a great time. Today I went on an “adventure” excursion. This included white water rafting, 4×4 ATV driving, swimming by a waterfall, ox-cart riding (which I did this time) and elephant riding. I ended up spending the day tagging along [...]

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I made it through 8 beers last night and was up till 4:30 watching a variety of films (avoid Aeon Flux – it’s awful) with one of the Irish girls and the only other single bloke in the hostel.
It chucked it down overnight and in the morning, but by lunchtime the sun was out and [...]

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