We were woken at 5am by the younger monks chanting. Fortunately I had my earplugs in so managed to drift off again until 7am when we all got up for breakfast. The aim was to set off relatively early and get to the market town on the south of Inle Lake for lunch and to [...]

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More awesome scenery and dust. We came across a couple more villages populated by different “tribes” though the major differences between them lay predominantly in their clothes. Their languages could perhaps have differed, but as I don’t know them I couldn’t tell! In one, a bunch of children were poking and scratching at my Newcastle [...]

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I woke early despite the 5am arrival time and enjoyed a fantastic hot shower. Worth the $5 alone! Over breakfast I was co-erced onto the three-day trek as I’d have to wait a couple of days for another two-day one to set off. The cost was $10 a day for the guide (and food and [...]

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My bus was at midday so I was told to catch a taxi at 10:30. I toyed with getting the public bus, but this would take up to two hours plus the walk into town to catch it. I said my goodbyes to Peter and a group of lads who’d given me some trekking hints [...]

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So I just missed an airport bus outside the Sofitel on Silom. As a result, I had to fend off taxi drivers trying to convince me that I wouldn’t want to wait for the next one. One even told me to go drinking with him first! Once he moved onto the “is it a holiday [...]

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You know, I really have to go through this blog sometime and figure out how many times I’ve passed through Bangkok in the course of this journey. If I was to hazard a guess, I’d say ten times. Not bad given I’d not even set foot in Asia before March 14th 2006. Is it really [...]

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No, this isn’t that rude. It just describes my back end after many hours on the back of a motorbike along the rather bumpy local roads. I met up with my driver, who’s name sounds like “Cheers” and I couldn’t write it in Khmer anyway, at the hotel at 8:30. Before I start, I’d recommend [...]

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As promised, here’s the video of my day trip around Battambang as a separate post so that those with RSS feed don’t miss it. You can also view the hi-def version if you prefer.

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Battambang is pronounced Battambong. The way the locals say it, it’s more like “butterball”, in fact. Amazingly, it’s the second-largest city in Cambodia. I say “amazing” as you can walk from end to end in around twenty minutes. The bus trip was fairly uneventful – around five hours with one toilet break in a layby [...]

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Thanks to the folks at ebookers, you could win yourself a couple of flights to some rather tasty destinations. Just head to ebookersquest.com and try out the travel quiz there. Tell your friends and get entered into a draw for a 7-day holiday in Hawaii! Yeah, I know I don’t normally plug stuff on here [...]

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