Mathew

After 18 days of deathly silence internet and connection to the world has been restored.
Finally I feel like my limb has been re-attached. Picking up from the last posting, in Chang Mai Thailand. We attended a class on how to give a Thai massage....
Needless to say anyone who enjoys pain and torture is going to love a Thai massage, which are totallyyy different to the traditional 'western' massages which concentrate's on deep tissue and muscle. Thai massages focus on specific points accross the body and work by applying pressure to these points. Needless to say, if you didnt like someone you could really seriousllyyyyyyy do some damage to someone.

Anyway, after our fun in the massage parlor we decided that we were in need of something more manly and went on a high way cable adventure into the Thai jungle

After our fun high wire adventures we needed some food and where better to go eat than in the jungle itself! Joining a jungle survival cooking class we set about cooking a currey in a coconut, chicken on a spit and rice in bamboo - which comes out very very weird, nice but weird, kinda like a rod of rice with a flavor of bamboo just to add to the taste.

After leaving Chang Mai, we caught a plane to Luang Prabang which is in the country of Lao. The first few days were spent exploring the town, seeing the temples and particularly a place of great Budist importance where it is said that Buddha's toes are pressed into a rock.

Travelling south through Lao, we travelled down by 12 HOUR coach to the capital city of Lao 'Vientiane' staying over night, exploring the veryyyyy small city which is suppose to have some very lovely french styled houses and there is even an Arc De Triomphe made from concrete which was given to the country by the American government.... What better way to make use American resources, build something as a tribute to France! HA

Leaving Lao, we flew on down to Siem Reap (in Cambodia) which is home of the Ankor Wat temples (as featured in Tomb Raider!)

A total of 3 days was spent exploring the Ankor Wat temples, day one was spent in the back of a Tuc Tuc which while was fun, was not as exciting as cycling the temples for the following two days. Truely the most exciting way to see ruines of a great 1000 year old civilisation is with a bottom that has gone ten rounds with everyone in the prison shower.

Anyway, the actual city of Siem Reap does not have a lot to offer beyond the temples so once we were finshed being tomb raiders we travelled down to Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and is the home of the killing fields which are the center focial point of the genocide of the Khmer Rouge, where after the American / Vietnam war was finished a group of radicals siezed the country of Cambodia and turned the country into a rural education-less disaster where the people lacked the skills and tools required to grow basic foods and grains.

Once we had finished in Phnom Penh, we got a 6 hour bus trip over the Vietnamise boarder where we met up with Siobhans Dad, who is currently teaching in a university inside the capital of Vietnam (Ho Chi Min). Tomorrow we are moving to spend a few days in the Mekong River delta going to see a floatttinggggg village, some floating markets and some other things I can no longer remember. But for now. Its late night soup time :)

Image Galleries are located at: