Hello From Asia

Hi everyone hope you are all ok.

First of all I’d like to congratulate Sensei Ian on getting his Sixth Dan which is well deserved especially as he has had to put up with me for the past fourteen years!

After the last time I spoke to you I went on a tour of the DMZ in Vietnam. The DMZ is Vietnam’s demilitarised zone which is where most of the fighting between the Viet Kong and the Americans took place. Today there are reminisces of the American bases left which I was able to walk round and also got to learn how the war unfolded in the region.

After the DMZ, two friends and me decided to hire mopeds in an attempt to do our own top gear style challenge and ride the 140 Kilometres to the town of Hoi Ann. The ride was fantastic, we took the mountain road which afforded us some great views of the towns below and of the sea. Once we arrived in Hoi Ann there was very little to do apart from buy suits. Hoi Ann’s one redeeming feature was its 15p half pints, which we spent all day in the pub drinking.

Next we got a bus to Natrang which was mainly a seaside town with excellent beaches and spent a few days relaxing and took a boat trip around the local islands before moving on to Saigon. First we went on a tour of the cu chi tunnels, which were used by the Viet Kong to evade the Americans during the war. We also got to see how they lived in the tunnels with some even being born in the tunnels and spending the majority, if not the whole of their lives there. Once we had crawled through the tunnels we were led to the firing range where we were able to shoot targets using an M16. The next day we went to the war museum which was quite disturbing as it showed some of the disgusting things the Americans did during the war as well as the after math of their use of Agent Orange which left hundreds of people deformed and scared the landscape for over thirty years.

As if the horrors of the war museum were not sobering enough we moved on to the capital of Cambodia Knom Penh and took a tour of the killing fields, one of the many sites where Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge carried out massacres killing everyone from babies to the elderly and now their skulls and bones are displayed in a tower four stories high. After the killing fields we were then taken to S21 a school that was converted into the biggest prison of the country responsible for holding prisoners until they were transported to the killing fields. S21 also contained rooms where the soldiers could torture and rape their victims. The next day we decided to spend the day going around the king’s palace which contained rare extravagances such as a hall with a solid silver floor and a solid gold Buddha with encrusted diamonds. However so much of the palace was closed off to the public as the king still lives there, that it began to get a little annoying.

The next stop in Cambodia was at Siam Reap the home of the temples of Angkor. When I got there I thought that Angkor was just one temple Angkor Watt but actually it is about the size of a small city and took me three days to explore and still I didn’t see it all. While I was there I went to Angkor Thom which was the main city and one of the first structures on the site. I also went to Preah Khan which featured in one of the tomb raider films and is famous for having trees growing through and on the stone structures. Of course no trip to Angkor would be complete without a trip round Angkor Watt, one of the biggest buildings I have ever seen. Angkor Watt was absolutely amazing with intricate carvings on almost every surface; it was so good that I actually went there twice as I wanted to see it at sunset when the sandstone building changes from a greyish colour to a beautiful golden colour.

Once I had explored Angkor it was time to move on and this meant enduring a 29 hour trip taking two different mini buses, two different coaches and a ferry before eventually arriving in Koh Phanganan island situated off the south east coast of Thailand and is most famous for hosting the monthly Full Moon party and the weekly Coral Bungalow’s pool party. The pool party is exactly as you would imagine one bar with a big swimming pool and the beach beside it allowing you to get drunk and swim in the pool or the sea which is probably not the best idea ever but it was really fun. The full moon party happens on a beach called Hadrin and sees all of the bars on the beach bringing out huge stereo systems and blasting music all through the night and the following day while locals spin fire sticks and throw poi to each other. The night was amazing and lucky for me my guest house was just five minutes away on the hills overlooking the beach meaning when it all got a bit much (or rather when I was too drunk to stand!) I was able to go lay down for a bit before carrying on till about 1pm the next day.

As well as Koh Phangan I also went to the island of Koh Tao where I completed my advanced diving course meaning that I can now dive without an instructor to 30 meters. While doing my night dive on the island I found one of the biggest turtles I have ever seen, it was so big that at first we all thought it was a boulder under the coral! Once we realised what we were looking at we waited till it started to move away and spent the next 15 minutes swimming along with it under the water.

With my diving course complete it was then time to move on and go to the island called Phi Phi. This island actually consists of two separate islands one call Phi Phi Don and one called Phi Phi Lay. I stayed on Phi Phi Don as the other is a national park and does not allow people to spend the night. Phi Phi was the place where I spent my birthday, as a treat I went on a tour to Phi Phi Lay which is also the location where they filmed the film The Beach and although I have not seen the film apparently it is customary to have a picture taken while you are jumping as that is what they do at the end credits. This trip was really fun as I got to go to some of the smaller islands surrounding the two main islands and saw some monkeys as well as going snorkelling and kayaking. After a long day I went out to the Reggae bar which quite bizarrely contains a Muay Thai boxing ring and hosts various professional and amateur fights each night while you drink. Some of the professionals were amazing and they were throwing each other through the ropes and on to people’s tables.

The other islands I visited were Koh Samui and Phuket but I all I really did there was go to the beach and chill out before touring the various bars dotted about on the island.

With Christmas fast approaching it was time to make my way over to Sydney where some girls I had met in Vietnam had kindly offered to put me up for a few days. Christmas in Australia wasn’t quite what I had imagined it would be. Firstly the Australians don’t really decorate the inside or outsides of their houses and although when I’m at home I think it can be a little tacky I quickly began to miss it when it wasn’t there. Secondly I expected to be on a beach all day lying in the sun and having a BBQ, now I did spend the day on the beach but unfortunately the sun was nonexistent and in fact it pretty much rained for the whole day so as you can imagine I was a little disappointed, but we did get to go to Bondi pavilion and see some great DJ‘s perform so the day wasn’t a complete disaster. The next day was the day of the Sydney to Hobart boat race so myself and a friend went to Wattsons Bay which overlooks the harbour to watch the boats start.

With Christmas out the way it was only a few days to go until New Years Eve and fortunately the weather that day was a lot better. We spent the day at observatory hill which affords a great view of the harbour bridge and also allowed us to bring our own alcohol. As the fireworks in Sydney are such a big deal and draws a crowd of around two million people we had to get to the hill at about 11am to secure a good spot but armed with a bag of goon (similar to a four litre box of wine but far worse) each and a case of beer the 13 hours quickly passed. The fireworks were great but I think that they have been hyped up quite a bit for what they actually are. After the fireworks were finished we went into the centre of Sydney and found a street party which we joined for an hour or so before going to the park to finish of the rest of our alcohol and eventually made the walk home at around 4 am or so.

Once New Year was over I did as every other backpacker does and headed north along the east coast stopping at Newcastle and Port Macquarie both of which were fairly quite towns with little to do other than go to the beach and in Newcastle going to the Yarra Valley for a wine, cheese and chocolate tour. Having seen the lack of night life in these towns me and a couple of friends decided to risk going to the fully booked town of Byron Bay and chance our luck at finding some accommodation and as luck would have it we manage to get a place on the beach. Byron Bay is probably the biggest party town on the whole of the east coast and what started as a five day stop turned into a ten day stop with us getting incredibly drunk every night at one of the various bars in town.

My next stops took me to Surfers Paradise, Brisbane, Noosa and Rainbow Beach all of which were nice but Surfers and Rainbow had little to do during the day except go to the beach and surfers is a bit to developed for a beach town with high rise buildings lining the beach. Rainbow on the other hand has almost nothing there and only the one street in town, but it does also have the coloured sand which are up and the hills and is one of the only places in the world to have this weird sand that will actually change colour from a sandy looking colour to shades of red, white and purple. While in Noosa I didn’t really spend much time in the town as I had a tour booked to canoe through the everglades that are there. This was fun as its one of only two places in the world that has everglades the other being in America. We spent three nights out in the jungle getting up on the first day to canoe the 8 kilometre round trip to the pub and a beach. The second day was a little more gruelling as we had to travel double the distance to get to the everglades main lake where we stopped and went to another beach and surprise surprise another pub before going back and spending the night back at our bush camp. Compared to these three towns Brisbane is completely different as it is a city similar to Sydney but further inland meaning it has no beach close by except for the fake one the city’s south bank just next to the river. If you’re wondering what a fake beach is then I can tell you that it’s a swimming pool outside that has been surrounded by sand that is shipped in to the city. This may sound rather stupid but apart from the free walking tour around the city there is very little to do during the day and you find yourself spending quite a lot of time relaxing at the fake beach.

Finally it was time for me to do the second tour that I had booked while I was in Byron which was a trip departing From Hervey Bay to Frasier Island famous as the island is made from nothing but sand and is one of the only places where a rainforest grows on sand. This tour was a 4x4 self drive tour and was a great laugh driving through the rain forest and on the beaches was such an experience and even though it did rain a lot on the first day everyone still managed to have a good time. The second day we drove along the east coast to Indian Head a place where the tiger sharks like to hang out and then to the ship wreck which has been there for something like 100 years. On the last day we spent the day relaxing at Lake Mackenzie which has water so fresh that you could actually bottle it unfortunately after we left the lake to go back to the ferry disaster struck. The track leading back to the ferry was block by a fallen tree that was massive and impossible to move and caused us to have to turn round and drive all the way across the island at a ridiculous speed to find another track to get us there. Luckily the jeep I was in made it in time and just before the ferry departed the second jeep arrived and managed to get on but the third jeep’s gear box broke and left the eight passengers stranded in the middle of the rain forest on an island with no phone reception causing two of the guys to have to run to the ferry terminal to find assistance. From there a ranger drove out to the jeep and picked up the passengers but had to leave all of their belongings behind till the next day when a tow truck could come and collect the jeep. When I left Hervey Bay they were still there waiting for the jeep to come back.

The next stop on from Hervey Bay was a town called Bundaberg the town where Queensland’s famous Bundaberg rum is made and while I was there I went on a tour of the distillery and had a tasting of some of their different rums which made for quite a fun day. At the moment it’s the turtle breeding season so I decided to go to Mon Repos the beach where the turtles lay their eggs. As turtles only hatch at night I ended up being on the beach from 7pm till midnight but watching a clutch of 200 baby turtles erupt through the sand like lava from a volcano was one of the best things I have ever seen. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to see and adult turtle laying its eggs on the beach but seeing the hatching was good enough.

At the moment I am in a town called 1770 and was one of the first places that Captain Cook visited when he first came to Australia. There’s not much to do here and unfortunately it’s raining at the moment and the two roads into town from the south are flooded meaning I am stuck here until the busses can get through. At the moment that’s ok as I’m not due to leave till tomorrow but if I can’t leave then I may end up missing my sailing trip which could be a problem.

I'll have to go now

Speak to you soon

Ian

Pictures From This Blog

Ian's first blog and pictures

Ian's second blog and pictures




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