Boiling in Bangkok: Summer 2018

After a string of plans changing on me, I found myself with a three day weekend WITHOUT CLASSES, a discount code for international flights and nothing booked.

The only place with flights from Kunming that worked with the weekend plans was Bangkok. As I hadn't been there yet it seems like a good idea and I booked it.

Now, I realise this trip was a while ago now but things got away from me a bit and I'm behind. My apologies.

Back to the point. Bangkok!

I have been to Thailand before but to a different city so I had a vague idea of what to expect. I was wrong. Bangkok is a huge sprawling city with both modern and traditional mixing everywhere I looked. It also has some of the best food I have ever eaten!

I had a late flight, (arriving after 2am), with immigration and customs taking ages. I had told the hostel in advance and they picked me up from the airport. I arrived at my hostel to find the security guard asleep in a chair at the front door waiting for me.

I booked into a small but well rated place in ChinaTown, yes I know I was after a break from China but China Town in other countries is something very different. Actually, I think this one is my favourite. Right outside my hostel was a seafood street which was sleepy hollow in the day but as soon as the sun went down it exploded into activity and chaos.

I only had three days in Bangkok so I made the most of the opportunities I had. Nearly all of my time was spent in a market of shopping center somewhere. I wandered and nibbled constantly. One day my phone said I had walked 35,000 steps in one market!

It was pretty hot and humid during the day, so I copied the locals and sat in the subway stations to cool off. It turned out to be a great place for people watching and sitting with something to eat or drink between heading out into the heat and sun again.

One of the places I most enjoyed was the weekend market. From where i was staying it was a short 15 minutes on a subway which was mostly empty and easy to navigate. The market itself was mostly indoors so I was out of the direct sun, but it was so big and maze like that I was always wandering and never saw the same shop twice. Apparently this place feels everything from furniture to pets to clothes to musical instruments. Its vast!

I looked on the map after going on the first day, 4 hours walking covered less than a quarter of the place. It was another fantastic place for people watching as tour groups would get dropped off but locals would do their weekly fruit and veg shop. It was all going on and very chaotic but loads of fun.

Bangkok has quickly risen in my list of places I want to go back to, and as its so cheap and easy to get to I think I can safely guarantee a return journey and soon. I barely saw any of the city and would very much like to.

Barmy BaMei: May 2018

The entrance to the village with boat for scale.

A long weekend rolled round so Lora, Audrey and I decided to visit the relatively unknown village of BaMei. 

BaMei has claimed to be the inspiration for a  fable written by poet Tao Qian in AD 421, in which he described an idyllic hamlet isolated from the rest of the world, where man and nature lived in harmony.  No-one knows for certain if this is indeed true but after visiting I would say it is. 

BaMei is about 30Km from GuangNan which conveniently has a stop on the newly constructed high speed railway line from Kunming to Guilin. The train station is miles out of  town, over an hour on the subway from my house, but the journey is under two hours, so it is still faster than getting the bus. 

One of the "window" in the cave. 

The original plan was to spend the night in GuangNan and then get the bus to the village the next morning. However, as with all plans, I messed up and we had to rebook Audrey's train ticket of the following morning. Lora and I stayed in a hotel in the center of town and we grabbed a taxi from the station the next morning. 

The village square. 

Once you arrive at the entrance to the village and buy tickets, its a lengthy process to get in. 

First you walk down a small dirt road to a bunch of horses and grumpy drivers.
Then you bounce down a road to the river. Once at the river (after posing for pictures) you clamber into small rickety boats and head off on the river into the cave. We were in the boat for about 20 minutes, 3km, through a huge cave. At points it was lit by "windows" in the cave roof, and at other times it was pitch black. Lora chose this time to tell us of the horror movie filmed in the cave and how no-one survived the monster living in the water under us. 


Our boat driver had a sister who owned a guest house in the village, so she met us and took us to her place. It was basic but clean, cheap and reasonable comfortable. 

From the top of one of the restaurants. Pretty much the whole valley. 

The village is surrounded by peaks on all sides, so it is quiet and (except the river) cut off from the rest of the world. I had been told it was largely undeveloped and still had its connections to traditional China. I was misinformed! It's still nice and quiet but the entire village is guesthouses and restaurants. There is nowhere to go and nothing to do other than sit and take in the green of the surroundings. we found beer and a quiet place and chilled for the afternoon. 

As our train was early afternoon the following day, there was no need to get up early. We ordered our chicken for lunch then pretty much carried on from where we left off the day before. The village is spaced out along a small track about a mile long. It's basically a one way system, horse and boat in, walk that way to get out. We wandered along the road and found the next boat, chilled for a little bit through another cave and thought that was it. We were then faced with another horse, slightly confused we got in and carried on, only to find another boat with ore caves. All in all the village trip involved three boats, 2 horses, 2 taxis, 2 trains and 2 hours on the subway. 



There is nothing to do there in terms of activities or entertainment but for me, sitting in the green countryside was plenty good enough. A very fast trip but completely worth it.  

Phu Quoc: Spring Festival 2018

I got bored waiting for Lora and Dave, (see below)

Picture time (see above)

From Cambodia I flew to Ho Chi Minh for a few days. HCM is fast become a home away from home (away from home) as I know the city pretty well.

I stayed in the same area as when I was there with Mam and Dad so everything was very easy. The hotel I go to is in a little alley off the main bar street so convenient but quiet.

Whilst in HCM I had very little that needed doing except chilling out and buying Tom some more shirts. Shirts bought, I chilled by or in the pool and ate in the food market. Bliss!

I was in HCM for 4 days before heading off to Phu Quoc island for the last leg of my trip. The original plan had been me and Lora meeting on the island, but then Dvid said he was coming too, then Jacki said she was coming swell and our band of two doubled. I booked us two rooms in a hostel near the beach with a swimming pool, what else do you need?

We had four days of beaches and seafood. All the seafood! Nothing but seafood! SO much seafood! It was great!

There isn't masses to do on the island except sit, eat, drink, chill and watch the sunsets. We did a lot of all of these!

Me and Jacki fighting

Cambodia 4. Siem Reap and Angkor Wat: Spring Festival 2018

Siem Reap and its nearby Angkor Wat is obviously the main attraction in Cambodia and is the countries 'must see' place.














I got the impression that a lot of people, when visiting Cambodia, will only visit Siem Reap as part of a stop over to another place. The city does well out of the tourists and as a result it is more together and organised. Public transport exists, traffic lights and rules the road are followed, pavements are for people and not just for tuktuks to blast down avoiding the traffic, ATM's are easier to find and accept international cards, hostels are everywhere and the city as a whole is cleaner.

My hostel was more of a hotel with a hostel bar and swimming pool area. After the quiet of Kampot and Kep, I was ready to talk to some new people. I had my own room but the bar was great and always full of people.

I needed up getting tips from loads of people about the temple complex, to the point I started to dread going. As can be the case, the 'must see' day trips and really not all that enjoyable. I felt the same way about the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. Its a long day with lots of traveling, hot as hell and usually crowded, but you 'must see' it.

I ended up booking a tuktuk and driver through the hostel who took me on a  highlights only tour. My driver was nice enough but was obviously bored with the temples and drove like a mad man between the spots. This actually worked in my favor as I am sure he shaved half an hour off my day, plus the breeze in the back of the cab was well needed.

We left at 9, bought tickets, and arrived to the complex for about 10. At this point in the day it wasn't too hot (30 degrees, after 2 weeks I was getting used to the heat) and so I could walk around fairly comfortably. By the end of the day, this changed and the burning hot sun with no shade was absolutely killer.

The complex is huge, reports vary depending on where lines are drawn but 16 square kilometers seems to be the average size. Inside the complex is a vast network of roads and shortcuts, My driver seemed to know where he was going but I couldn't even keep up on the map. We visited 6 areas in 4 hours which brought me to the very brink of madness. Temples all look the same after the third and my driver was having none of the 'I just want to go home' argument I put forward.

The biggest temple is the Angkor Wat temple, it turns out each one has a different name and Angkor Wat is a temple not, as i thought, the name of the complex. This was my last stop so I was not really in a position to completely appreciate it.

If I had time and was so inclined I would have bought the three day ticket and biked around instead of hiring the driver, but I didn't know about this and didn't really have time. If a return opportunity presents itself I'll think about it, otherwise I consider the Cambodia box ticked.



Siem Reap itself is a small city with a backpacker/tourist area in the middle. It has a huge night market, complete with food, and the bar street. The whole area is crammed with people and fairly chaotic but fun to walk around. My hostel was only a 15 minute walk from here so I could go for food, back to hostel for a swim and then back in the evening for more people watching.

Shopping wise Cambodia had nothing new to offer, I saw all the same stuff as I have seen in Vietnam and Thailand but it was fun looking anyway.

Cambodia 3. Kep: Spring Festival 2018

Kep from Kampot is only about a 20 minute tuktuk ride away, so not a difficult travel day.

I had booked into a small bungalow, which turned out to be more of a hobbit house. It was a small, round stone thatched hut surrounded by trees. Quiet would be an understatement!

Kep claims to be home to an internationally award winning beach, a rival to Thailand or Vietnam. They are guilty of false advertising. Yes, there is a beach but that is about as close as it gets. It's a stretch of about 100 meters of orange sand, rocks and lots of rubbish. There is absolutely potential for this beach, it just needs a fair amount of TLC.

All of Cambodia is the same, everywhere you look is piles of rubbish and plastic. China has battled most of this by implementing the recycling for cash scheme, I think this would work here too. Like I said, the beach could be nice if it was cleaned up a little bit. It could be ever better if the monkeys could be controlled too. They wandered about the beach stealing everything that they could find and run away with. I watched them for ages from a beach side snack place. Although I am sure they were irritating for the people on the beach, they were highly entertaining for me to watch.


 One favourite sight was one morning getting up and heading to breakfast, walking in on the owner and his wife trying to talk a monkey into cooperation. The monkey was on the pool table in the middle of stealing the cue ball. Apparently this was the second time this had happened. Breakfast and a show!


With the beach being a bit of a bust, I went to investigate the crab market. Kep is famous for its crabs, which explains the giant space invasion statue, and nearly all (90%) of Cambodia's seafood goes thought the market here. It was right on the water so boats would just turn up and sell from the side. I love seafood and spent ages wandering about and taking in the sights and smells (not all good smells though.)

Running along the waters edge from the market in the direction of the beach, was dozens of little restaurants and bars. All had tables on the water and all served mountains of seafood. From the tables I could watch the trading and arguing in the market without having to be in the middle of the chaos. Things could get a little heated when prices were being negotiated .

Kep is a really small place that is trying to cash in on the beach nearest to Phnom Penh tourist money. Its not there yet but there are signs of rapid growth. All along the water from the market round to the next small town, about 3 miles, are huge luxury looking hotels being built. Some are nearly finished and others are still holes in the ground, but after chatting to the owner of the bungalows, things get built quickly. I can't imagine it will be long before Kep works its way up the 'top things to see in Cambodia' list.

 I walked around the coast to the next village/town following the coast walkway as far as I could. At times it disappeared and I had to climb over fences to find my way around. At other times it just stops and retracing steps was necessary. It wasn't the most picturesque walkway but it did. The next town was even smaller than Kep and despite being so close, is completely ignored by the tourists down the road. I found a nice little bar on the beach and settled in with my boom for a few hours before walking back around the coast.


 All in all Kep was a disappointment for the beach but it more than made up for it with the seafood and the market.

Next it was back to Phnom Penh for a night before flying to Siem Reap. I have heard the buses are getting better but I was on a time limit and found amazingly cheap flights. A 40 minute $30 flight when compared to a ten hour $12 bus journey seems like a pretty good deal to me.

The journey back to Phnom Penh was as uncomfortable as on the way down but its still only 4 hours, I managed.

Cambodia 2. Kampot: Spring Festival 2018

After the chaos and noise of the big city I was ready for some relaxing and chilling, both had been promised in abundance in Kampot. I had been advised to book a few nights in one of the riverside bungalows that lined the river to take advantage of the quiet. I found a place online with good reviews that looked beautiful. I knew it was a little way out of town but I wasn't to bothered by that. I read on one of the reviews that the riverside bungalows were worth paying the extra $2, which took my total a night to a whopping $7 a night.

I was shown into a room next to the bar which had a little wooden bridge to get to the door so I was immediately apprehensive about where I was going to be sleeping for the next few nights. Once inside though, WOW! I had a huge bed with a mosquito net hanging from the rafters, a mosquito net that I would soon grow to hate, which was about a meter from double glass doors that lead onto my own private balcony on the river.

From the balcony there was a ladder so that I didn't have to walk the extra ten paces to get to the public ladder in the bar. I was straight in the river! I swam in the mornings before breakfast, I jumped in every time I got too hot (which was all the damn time), I jumped in before bed and every time in between. I was on my own, so whenever I wanted to get in, I did.

When I wasn't swimming, I was lounging on my deck with my book or waving at the boat tours that sped past every now and again. It was bliss!

After the first day I started to get a little cabin fever. The rest of the bungalows were all booked out by one big our group of Chinese families. I was reluctant to put myself into the 'oh look a foreigner' situations that pretty much always go with being around Chinese families, especially those with grandparents. The owner was also having a little trouble with their way of doing things and so spent a lot of time checking up on me and making sure I was OK. He invited me back o his house for a home cooked meal, lovingly prepared by his Cambodian wife. I jumped at the invite as so far, I hadn't really found any local food that I was particularly taken with. We went back to their balcony only to be presented with a huge full English breakfast complete with sausages, bacon, potatoes, mushrooms and eggs (plus more). Her theory was that, as I don't live in England I must miss the breakfasts. I won't lie, I do miss the breakfasts and this was a particularly good one, it just wasn't what I was expecting. Not that that stopped me really enjoying the feast.

Just down the road from the bungalows was a small railway bridge which gets used about twice a week for deliveries. It turned out to be a great place to catch the sunset and was also a short cut into the town about 2 miles away. The bungalows had bikes that I could use, but the road after dark was terrifying so I opted to walk with my little wind up torch in hand.

The town of Kampot is tiny. I think I am being generous when I say its a half a mile in all directions from the town square.

As its such a small town, life runs on a different clock. The post office was never open when I walked past as it usually had a sign in the window with something like "gone to the supermarket' or "getting hair cut" or my favourite "out!"
The bars and restaurants all made up their opening hours as they pleased, I watched one turf everyone out so the bar staff could take a nap (it was about 4 in the afternoon).

Despite being such a small place, there was no shortage of restaurants and bars, mostly serving pizza, one claimed to have the best burgers in Cambodia. I don't know if this is true as I didn't try one, it was never open when I walked past.

After three nights in the bungalow I moved into town to stay in The Magic Sponge hostel (another recommendation) which turned out to be possibly the best hostel I have stayed in, and that includes TaiWan. The dorms were in the attic/penthouse and came with their own private rooftop sun lounge areas and bathrooms. The bar had a large seating area under vines so it was nice and cool and a mini golf course. Actually the golf course ended up causing a little problem as some Chinese family that had dumped their kids on me and another guy were not happy that we didn't let them win. We were promised ice cream for the winning team and I wasn't about to let some kid take that away form me. They didn't ask us to entertain their kids again, so win win!

A few nights there and it was off to Kep for some seaside fun!

Cambodia 1. Phnom Penh: Spring Festival 2018

Spring Festival in my current job involves nearly a month off somewhere in January or February. Cambodia had slowly crept its way to the top of my 'to go to' list so I decided to use my month holiday to finally visit the country.

I managed to find cheap flights to the capital city Phnom Penh and booked a hostel. They picked me up in a tuk-tuk from the airport and I had my first hair raising trip in one of the cities many speed of light motorbike taxis driven by a fool on his phone.

I wasn't hugely taken with Phnom Penh, I found it too big, too busy, too chaotic and lacking in interesting things to go and see or do. Maybe if I lived there and knew my way around a bit things would be different but I might actually like the place, but as a tourist just asking through, not so much.

My hostel was in one of the multiple alley ways about a half n hour walk from the river. The hostel itself was nice with a little pool in the bar area, which, in the 30+ degree heat was a real day saver. Every day finished with a relax in the pool with a beer, chatting to the other people staying in the hostel. We all exchanged travel ideas and recommendations of places to see but we all a little stumped with the city itself.

I wandered around by the river and watched the boats coming and going for a while, found a market or two and had a look and that was pretty much it for the city. I had been warned not to expect too much and so only planned on a few days in the city and the rest of the time to travel nearby.

The markets all seemed to be crammed into little side streets and as far as I could tell, they all disappeared a little after the sun went down. They were very similar to the ones we get here in China but, if possible, with even less order and planning. They were interesting to look around, if cramped and busy.


My next stop was one that came as a recommendation from Sean and, as he used to live there I trusted that it would be worth visiting.

I booked a bus to Kampot and readied myself for the 4 hour journey to the river.

ShangHai the Final Frontier: National Day 2018

Last October, National day, I went to Shanghai for a quick trip. During the big Chinese holidays is the best time to visit the big cities as most people who live there will go home to see family. Personally its my favourite time to go. As an added bonus,  I have been there many times so its always a nice familiar trip. For this particular trip, I arrived with no plans and just googled "interesting unusual things to do in Shanghai." I was not disappointed! As it turned out there was a Star Trek Exhibition in town as part of a world tour to celebrate the release of the new film and 50 years of the original series. I am a bit of nerd so went to investigate.

Note: the shark is my number one! 

The show was in an exhibition centre near the airport which was basically deserted. Pretty much just me and a handful of the local fans. I had a blast! Here are some of the best pics.





The exhibition had sets, costumes, scripts, props and miscellaneous other weird and wonderful things from The Next Generation and the new film.