You may or may not have noticed that Slide has been on autopilot the last five weeks. It was cos I was on 'holiday' something which I am not accustomed to. A trip with no surfers, surfing or surf photography... In essence no work- jeez I didn't even take my laptop or cameras. There wasn't even any sea (well I did fit in one dip in the briney in Vietnam) and I was mainly doing what tourists do i.e- wandering about pointing at things and going "ooh!" ...
Thailand- easy peasy, lovely people, whores are freely available on most main drags, bad traffic in Bangkok, the only country not ravaged by French rule or American/Commie military ding dongs and it shows. Millions of tourists and I can thoroughly understand why. Although many of them are old, overweight and travelling by themselves- i'e they are on a 'whoriday'. Their prerogative as long as they keep it legal the creepy fuckwads.
Laos- Asia as you'd imagine it. Totally unspoilt. No one treats you like a walking ATM. It's not chock full of people ticking off Lonely Planet things to do. It was cool as fuck. Luang Prabang in the Golden Triangle was one of my favourite places- so laidback its not even funny and you can imagine being there 200-years ago and it not being much different. Vientiane the capital is a chilled river town, in the 60s it was infested with spies and the base for the CIA's Air America during the secret war that went on at the same time as the Vietnam conflict. It's a capital that doesn't seem to care it's a capital city. Laos also is unique in that it has no Maccas, Starbucks, KFC etc. The only country I can think of to be corpo free. It's not bomb free as there are still hundreds of unexploded US bombs. Not that they officially bombed the crap out of the country though. That said they were never officially at war with Vietnam either...
Cambodia- Of all the countries in the region that have been through the ringer of French colonial rule then being the battleground for the Commie/US ding dong that was 'Nam Cambodia suffered most. It was thanks to the US bombing of Cambodia and their puppet installed US friendly leader that the Khmer Rouge came to power. Bringing with them a 3-year reign of terror and millions of executions. Read up on it, even though it sounds like a plot of a film, they marched the entire urban population out into the country to farm rice and build dams. A total agrarian commie pipe dream. Millions were executed, many with a hammer to the back of the head while kneeling on the edge of a mass grave as bullets were too expensive. After the Vietnamese invaded and ousted the KR hundreds of thousands died of starvation as the country was a total mess. In short the place has one of the blackest histories of any country and this all happened in the 70s... Not only that none of the men responsible ever stood trial and died peacefully of old age. Now it's a country emerging blinking into the lights of the present. It's got the amazing Angkor Wat temples, sublime scenery and much more it's also a bit desperate, begging kids and mine victims. But still a cool place to go. Just be aware if you arrive in Phnom Penh by bus they erect riot fences around the bus so you can get off and get your bags before the impending assault of taxi drivers, touts and tuk tuk dudes. Scary.
Vietnam- Saigon/Ho Chi Minh city is cool as, unless you want to cross the road, in which case you will shit yourself. It's a live game of Frogger. A million mopeds on every road and no pedestrian crossings. Hanoi was a bit hannoying. Hoi An is a heritage town half way up the coast and that's an amazing spot, especially if you want a tailor made suit or dress. Vietnam needs 5-weeks in itself and we didn't have enough time to do it justice.
Everywhere we went we had awesome food. Like unreal food. The Mekong fish being a personal fave along with the Vietnamese coffee- a strong espresso mixed with condensed milk...
If you want to go somewhere without your board and enjoy travelling with a little bag and no hassle then SE Asia is a cool trip.
