The Sino-Nepal Friendship Bridge

International land borders, in my opinion, are some of the most interesting places in the world. The border between China and Nepal is no exception. After having been in China and Tibet for about 2 weeks June/July 2010 I was eager to move onto a new country and being able to use the internet without any restrictions. As with all things that are deemed government business and especially with anything involving Tibet, leaving Tibet was a headache. The Chinese side of the border is tightly controlled and despite the fact that we were leaving, they checked all our bags thoroughly. For some of us, they took our passports into a back room to scrutinize them further before coming back about 10 min later to return them. This bit was a unnerving because what if they saw something they didn't like and didn't allow us to leave the country? I'm sure they suspected me of being a spy since I'm of Chinese descent.

Several people lost their Tibet guidebooks to the Chinese authorities. I still cannot think of why they would take the guidebooks when you're leaving the country. The China guidebooks all have sections about Tibet but those weren't confiscated. 

After finally making it through Chinese immigration and customs, we walked across the Friendship Bridge. On the Chinese side of the bridge, there were soldiers lining the bridge about 5m apart standing at attention, ready to start firing at any time. As soon as you walk across the line on the bridge that marks the border, the tension that the Chinese soldiers bring is immediately gone. On the Nepali side, all the soldiers were hanging out in a small guard station beside a large metal gate. They were quite friendly and helpful in pointing us to where the immigration office was. To get a Nepal visa at the border, all you need is some USD, 2 passport photos, and your passport. 

View from Victoria Peak, Hong Kong

Overland from Chiang Rai, Thailand to Luang Prabang, Laos

Getting a ride from Chiang Rai to the border is very easy. The are many local buses that depart from the bus terminal in the centre of town. The bus ride takes about 2hrs. At the border town Chiang Khong tuk tuks are waiting to take people to the border crossing for a fixed price of about 60 baht.

At the border it takes no time at all to get stamped out of Thailand so long as you have the proper documents and didn't overstay your visa. For about 30 baht per person you take a small motorised boat across the Mekong river to Laos. The ride only takes about 10 minutes. If you go to the Lao immigration on a weekend or after 4pm you'll be charged an additional fee of 1usd. At this borderyou can get a visa on arrival after filling out the immigration forms and paying the visa fee (30usd for most nationalities).

The Laos border town doesn't have much to offer other than the very highly rated Flight of the Gibbon eco-zipline experience. The weather wasn't good when we were there so we skipped on it. Most people take the slow boat down the Mekong to Luang Prabang, we took the overnight bus. It left from the bus park at about 5pm and took about 15hrs to get to Luang Prabang. The roads in Laos are in pretty bad shape and wind up and over mountain passes. It's almost impossible to driver faster than 50kph due to all the twists and hairpin turns.

There's a common scam at the the border where people say the boat isn't running and you end up spending night after night at the border. Don't be fooled!

The Hong Kong Sevens

The Hong Kong Sevens is the biggest sporting event of the year in Hong Kong. It draws visitors from all over the world into town for big weekend of rugby and partying. The official main event is the special 7 person rugby format, featuring teams from all over the world competing in matches consisting of 7 minute halves and culminating in the final on Sunday evening. The unofficial main is the rampant partying in the stadium and in various parts of the city. While the matches are taking place the place to be is in the south stand in Hong Kong Stadium. Beer jugs aren't allowed in this section but you can purchase 1 litre cups of beer for HK$100. The south stand fills up quickly and is definitely where to go if you want to party and wear a costume. Oh, and occasionally watch some rugby too, the view of the pitch is quite nice from the upper reaches of the south stand.

Lan Kwai Fong

After the day's matches are over everyone grabs some food somewhere between the stadium and Lan Kwai Fong. LKF is usually very busy on weekends but on the weekend of the Sevens you can barely walk through the packed street. It's a massive street party and everyone is on the piss!

Tickets for the Sevens can be bought in advance or on the way to the stadium on match day. There are loads of scalpers right outside the MTR station at Causeway Bay. One would think the scalpers would be a bunch of old Chinese guys but surprisingly they're all Caucasian. The face value is about HK$400, seating is not reserved. Costumes and strong livers recommended. 

View from the KL Tower, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The best views in Kuala Lumpur are from the KL Tower, which itself sits on top of a hill in a forest preserve right in the middle of the city. It's at least 100m higher than the view from the Petronas Twin Towers' Skybridge and you don't need to queue very long to get to the top.

Koh Tao, Thailand

If you've ever thought about getting your scuba diving certification Koh Tao is one of the best if not the best place in the world to do it. There are dive shops galore offering just about every course available. The PADI open water course costs about US$300 and takes 4 days to complete. The cost usually includes accommodation. Koh Tao is the cheapest place in the world to do the open water course and offers really good dive spots to practice your skills. I did my course with Davey Jones' Locker (DJL). The staff there was really friendly, knowledgeable, and did a great job teaching me the course and keeping me away from the coral underwater.

There are loads of restaurants, dive shops, hotels, bungalows, and bars in the main town in Koh Tao. Just like in the other islands there are nightly fire shows at some of the restaurant / bars on the beach.

I spent my entire time in Koh Tao doing the dive course so I didn't the rest of the island. The easiest way to get to Koh Tao from Bangkok is to book a train + bus + ferry combo at the rail station. There are friendly English-speaking staff there to help you. You can also take a ferry from Koh Samui or Koh Phangan. 

Koh Phi Phi, Thailand

For such a small island, Koh Phi Phi offers quite a bit. For starters, it's easily one of the most beautiful places on Earth. It's one of three places on the planet that have amazing rock formations that rise up out of the water as if they were fingers. The accommodation options on the island range from basic guesthouses that run for about US$20 per night to luxury resorts which can cost in the hundreds. There are no publicly available motorized vehicles on the island, the only ones I saw belong to the guys who haul out the rubbish each evening. 

You can snorkel, dive, wakeboard, banana boat, hike, or just laze on the beach. Oh and you can party like a rockstar every night. There are nightly fireshows on the beach and as the fireshows come to a close the party gets started with free buckets and hordes of bucket-loving party goers. Being able to party on the beach nightly is awesome! There are loads of tattoo parlors where you can get traditional bamboo needle tattoos lining the road to the beach so it's very easy to wake up with a tattoo in the morning. 

We were lucky enough to have enough people to hire our own boat for a tour of the Phi Phi Islands at a cost of about US$20 per person and there were about 15 of us. We went to all the usual stops like Mosquito Island but on our own schedule which was really nice. Although we did have some mechanical issues at one point which led to the boat almost drifting into a limestone karst and me almost drowning cause the boat kept slowing drifting away from me but thankfully my mates helped me get back onto the boat. All in all, it was an amazing day capped off with a spectacular sunset; easily one of the most memorable days I've had while traveling. 

To get to Koh Phi Phi, you can take a ferry from Phuket, Krabi, or Koh Lanta. The ferry is about 1 to 1.5 hours from any of those places. There's an airport in Phuket and in Krabi; in both cases the ferry terminal is not too far away. Oh, and if you've ever seen the movie "The Beach", this is where it was shot.

Singapore to Sydney...The Long Way

Back in Hanoi in October I spent some time one day researching how I'd get from Singapore, where I planned on spending Christmas, to Sydney where I would spend the New Year. The straightforward thing to do was to fly directly to Sydney however this proved to be very expensive at around US$450 for a one way flight. So I did some digging and eventually found a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne for about US$195 followed by a flight from Melbourne to Sydney for US$102. Combined with the cost of transport from Singapore to KL I was going to save about US$100. The downside was that I was going to have to get from Singapore to KL by early evening, then take a redeye flight from KL to Melbourne, then spend about 4-6 hours in the airport before finally catching a flight to Sydney; total time in transit would be about 36 hours. Compared to an overnight flight direct to Sydney from Singapore it was a no-brainer...I would save the money and spend 36 hours to get to Sydney.

It all started with a bus ride and short walk to the unofficial bus depot. All the buses to KL departed from here and there were passengers everywhere. I would've rather taken the train (even cheaper than the bus when a return ticket is purchased in Malaysia) but it was fully booked. Passengers on my bus were told to check-in by 07:30 but there was quite a bit of anxious confusion since the check-in window for Starmart (I know, it sounds like a supermarket but it's actually a bus company) was closed until 08:00. Finally someone showed up and opened the check-in window. The bus was scheduled to depart at 08:30 but the actual time of departure was 08:50 and unfortunately we got caught in the massive traffic buildup at the border. The border crossing took over an hour because of the sheer volume of cars and buses. Once we crossed into Malaysia the going was pretty smooth.

We got caught in some more traffic as we entered KL but we eventually made it to the drop-off point in the middle of the city. I went back to the hostel I stayed at to store my bag and make use of the free wifi, got a meal, then got to KL Sentral station a bit too late to catch one of the many US$2.5 shuttle buses to the airport. Since I was in a rush I had to pony up and pay about US$33 to get a taxi to the airport. Very very upset about my timing error and about having to take the bus instead of the train to KL. Oh and I was in such a rush I forget to collect my change at the taxi stand. The only redemption was that the taxi driver did an excellent job and get me to the airport in time.

The flight was delayed for quite a while but we took off with no problems. Since I was flying on Air Asia, not even the water is free so I didn't eat or drink for the entire flight. However since it wasn't full I was able to stretch my legs and take up the seats around me. I landed in Melbourne at around 10:00 extremely tired, hungry, and thirsty. After passing through immigration I went to straight to Virgin Blue to check in for my flight to Sydney, scheduled for departure at around 17:00. I passed the time eating and watching movies on my netbook. After many hours of sitting on the floor next to a power outlet it was finally time to check in. Upon arrival in Sydney I collected my bags and then walked about 2km from the domestic terminal to the Mascot train station to save AU$10. The ride to the city from Mascot costs about AU$5 compared to AU$15 from within the airport. In the end, I didn't save as much money as my initial calculations predicted but I still saved a bit!

Vientiane, Laos - Oct 2010

Arc de Triomph

Vientiane is the capital of Laos. With the help of abundant foreign aid the capital is actually not a bad place when compared with Phnom Penh. The streets are wide and paved and the buildings have a modern touch to them. The riverfront was undergoing a massive renovation back in October to create a beautiful esplanade when I was there. Along the waterfront there are some great street food stalls with seating serving up cheap food and beer lao.

Pha That Luang

There aren't many sights to see in Vientiane other than the riverfront, the somewhat disappointing Arc de Triomph and the Pha That Luang temple. Apparently the concrete used to build the Arc was donated by the US to build roads but someone saw fit to use it for other purposes. The city is however a great place to get some good food and wine. The French colonialism left behind a tradition of baguettes and wine all over Laos. I can't think of anything else left behind by the French that's any good. In fact, it was the French who introduced the squat toilet to Asia. Yep, that's right, the French. 

Sunset over the Mekong River, Vientiane, Laos

Sunrise over the River Ganges, Varanasi, India

This is definitely in my top 5 of all the photos I took in the last 9 months of travelling. We woke up at about 4:30AM and headed down to the main ghat to watch the sunrise...and yea it was totally worth it.

Tubing in Vang Vieng, Laos - Oct 2010

I love tubing! Tubing in Vang Vieng is all about the partying. Whomever came up with the idea of sending people down a river in an inner tube and getting them drunk was a genius. You start by heading to one of the two tubing stations in town where you pay the fee for the tube in addition to a deposit. The deposit is returned in full if you return by 6pm. The total cost is about 10USD for the tubing fee + deposit. Once you're paid up and have signed the disclosure you're loaded up into a tuk tuk and chauffeured a few km down the road to the starting point / first bar.

The locals who work the bars are all really friendly and eager to throw a great party. At the first bar there's a water slide, body paint, and free lao lao (local whiskey)! The atmosphere is incredible as everyone starts up with a bucket, a shot of lao lao, or a can of beer lao. After everyone's had their fill here it's time to actually get into the tube and make your way down river to the next bar.

Mud volleyball getting underway!

The next few bars offer up more buckets, free lao lao shots, and water slides. Some of them have rope swings that start at about 6m above the river, "beach" volleyball, mud volleyball, and one even has a zip line! Although the river has a dangerously fast current during the wet season it's also at its highest level thereby making it the safest time of year to do the rope swings and slides. Despite this several people die here every year, usually because they're too drunk or can't swim or a combo of both. Regardless, if you can swim and you're not too drunk definitely do the rope swing!!

Sunset and tubing...what could
be better?!

While it's definitely not anything like the rest of Laos and has no cultural relation whatsoever to Laos, tubing in Vang Vieng is a destination unto itself. No where else in the world will you find a party scene quite like this one. And if you're too hungover to go tubing again the next day it's easy to spend your day at the many restaurants that are showing Family Guy or Friends all day long.

Vang Vieng is about 7 hours south of Luang Prabang and 3 hours north of Vientiane. It's possible to get here by private bus from Luang Prabang and by public or private bus from Vientiane. The party never stops...unless the local authorities show up.  

Terracotta Warriors, Xi'an, China - June 2010

The Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an are truly an amazing thing to witness. The first emperor of China had them built to protect his mausoleum in the afterlife. Ironically, at that time the nobility in China thought that mercury would give them immortality however it was the consumption of mercury that eventually killed the emperor. The most amazing thing about the statues are the details. Every single soldier is different. The face, the height, the armor...all different. It turns out that of all the statues at the site, only one of them was fully intact. The rest were painstakingly rebuilt from shards. The kneeling archer was saved because all of the standing statues around him collapsed and created a roof around him.

To get to the Terracotta Warriors by public transport you have to first get to the rail station. There are loads of buses in the old city that go straight there. From the rail station you can catch a public bus straight to the site. Once here it's worthwhile to hire a tour guide. The official rate is 100 CNY through the office however you can barter and get one for less. I got my own personal one for 60CNY for about 2 hours. Alternatively you can pay over 100USD for a fully guided tour including transport from Xi'an, which equates to over 600CNY. But seriously, why would you pay over eight times more for the same product?

Sunset over Phuket, Thailand - Nov 2010

Hampi, India to Bangkok, Thailand - Sep 2010

This was probably the longest journey of my travels. Originally I was hoping to travel from India to Thailand overland, but unfortunately the military junta in Myanmar (Burma) doesn't allow for that. The only other possible overland route would require me to backtrack through Tibet and then cross the dodgy China - Laos border. I don't like to backtrack so I had to rule out that route as well. I sucked it up and bought a flight from Chennai (Madras) to Bangkok via Colombo on Sri Lankan Airways for about 170USD. Chennai is located on the east coast of India and Hampi is quite far away.

To get to Chennai I started walking from my guesthouse in Hampi to the bus park at around 6pm. Luckily a bus was already loading up and about to leave. That walk took about 10 minutes. The ride from Hampi to Hospet was another 40 minutes and luckily for me the bus attendant didn't bother to collect my fare even though I was ready to pay him. After arriving in Hospet, the walk to the rail station took about 30 min down the main road, a distance of about 2km. My overnight train to Bangalore (Bengaluru) was delayed a bit but thankfully wasn't too late. I had another train to catch from Bangalore to Chennai in the morning.

When the train arrived I didn't have a reserved bed so I ended up sharing a bed (class AC3) with a very large Indian guy. Other than it being uncomfortable since the beds aren't made for 2 people (let alone 2 very big men) I really didn't mind since I can pretty much fall asleep anywhere. He had a great idea and went to go sleep on the floor but in exchange for his sacrifice he took all the bedding and pillow. I improvised with what I had in my daypack and used my waterproof as a pillow. Luckily the train attendant came by later on and got me a fresh bedding set. I met some interesting people on the train such as some Chinese businessmen and their Indian counterpart in the granite trade. It also turns out they also were making the same connection to Chennai.

In Bangalore I had about 1 hour to kill before boarding the train to Chennai. I splurged and got a reserved seat in the aircon carriage. The only other option was to ride in the human cattle car which I would've done if I were carrying a smaller pack but after the already long journey I didn't want to squeeze into an overstuffed rail car. I promptly fell asleep once the train got started on the 6 hour journey to Chennai. Luckily I did wake up in time to eat and got my last taste of the surprisingly delicious and very cheap food for sale on the train. The India Rail company also has a massive catering arm which serves up fresh hot meals at the stations and on the train.

From Chennai Central Station I walked over to the backpacker area called Egmore with the help of my compass and map which I saved onto my mobile. I should also note that I haven't showered since yesterday morning and I've already done quite a bit of walking while carrying over 20kg. Oh and it's summertime...in southern India. It took me some time but I finally found the post and sent out some postcards which I had been too lazy to send out in the past couple of weeks. Once I got that sorted I enjoyed my last 2 Kingfishers and then took the local train to the airport. I think the fare was like 10 rupees (appx 0.20 USD). I had a lovely chat with a local guy on the train who worked for the military. The friendliest people I've met in India have been on the trains and interestingly enough, many of them have been military personnel.

The Chennai airport is definitely on the disorganized side. Not quite chaotic, but definitely not very organized. First off, I had an e-ticket but to get into the airport they wanted to see a printout of the ticket. Seriously, what's the point of an e-ticket if I have to print it out? After a bit of discussion, I had the security guy check the passenger manifest and showed him my passport, then he let me in. Next up was trying to check-in. The staff had no idea when the check-in opened nor where I should check in. They kept pointing me to the wrong queue. I got fed up with their stupidity and found the correct check-in area on my own. This confusion could've been avoided had there been proper signs posted...but it's India.

After getting through that mess I finally got to the immigration desk. The officer looked at my passport for a while and said he couldn't find my entry stamp. I found it for him and pointed it out to him. He then asked me where the port of entry is even though it's clearly stated on the entry stamp. I said "Sonauli" and he asked me where that is. After explaining to him how I entered the country via the India - Nepal border and pointing out all the details on the stamp including the handwritten entry date he finally stamped me out. I'm still not sure to this day whether he was an idiot or he was looking for a bribe.

The rest of the journey went smoothly. I arrived in Sri Lanka for my layover and made use of the free internet kiosks till I boarded my flight for Bangkok. The airport in Colombo is one of the nicest I've ever been in. Really really nice. I, on the hand, was really really filthy after having traveled for so long on the Indian public transport network without a shower. It doesn't happen often that I can actually smell myself, but today was one of those days. The plane landed in Bangkok on time and then after weaving through the heavy Bangkok traffic I finally arrived at my hostel in Silom around 10 or 11am. It was a long 2 days and rarely has a shower felt so good!

Numbers Numbers Numbers

# of Days Traveling: 263
Highest altitude: 5416m above sea level at Thorung La Pass, Nepal
Lowest depth: 18m below sea level at Koh Tao, Thailand
Longest plane ride: 13hrs from San Francisco, USA to Seoul, South Korea
Longest bus ride: 24.5hrs from Vientiane, Laos to Hanoi, Vietnam
Longest train ride: 34hrs from Xi'an, China to Lhasa, Tibet
Most consecutive days without a shower: 3 during the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal
Longest time spent in one place: 2 weeks in Anjuna, Goa, India
Most consecutive benders: 4 in Koh Phangan, Thailand
Longest time in transit: appx 40hrs from Hampi, India to Bangkok, Thailand
Longest single day of trekking in km: 26km on the Abel Tasman Coast Track, New Zealand
Longest trek in days: 15 days for the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal
Fastest speed driving a motorbike: 90kph in Thailand
Fastest speed driving a car/van: 140kph in New Zealand
Consecutive days tubing in Vang Vieng: 2

Kuta, Bali, Indonesia

Kuta is backpacker central in Bali. It's a 15 min drive from the airport and has everything a traveler wants or needs. While the beach here is not the best it's a great place to learn how to surf. There are loads of board rental places right on the beach that offer surfing lessons. A lot of experienced surfers hit the waves here as well. In Kuta you're just as likely to run into an Australian as you are an Indonesian person. Flights to and from Australia are very cheap so there are loads of Aussies who holiday here. Because of the party atmosphere in Kuta all the young Aussies flock here. All the bars and nightclubs are full of Aussies who are busy getting drunk. Kuta is a good place to stay if you want to party but the rest of Bali has a lot more to offer.

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

Balinese Cultural Show

Ubud is located just over an hour from the airport in Denpasar (DPS) but it feels like a world away from the beaches of Kuta. Whilst it's firmly on the tourist trail in Bali in many ways it doesn't feel that way due to the laid back attitude of the people here. Yes there are lots of businesses catering to foreigners but at the same time it doesn't have the "too many tourists" feel that you get in a lot of places. One thing that is inescapable are the plethora of Balinese cultural shows available every evening. It's only when you attend these that you realize how touristy Ubud really is due to the makeup of the audience, however the cultural shows are actually really good.

Ubud itself is generally a very quiet town with a nearly non-existent party scene. We tried to seek out a party our last night there but there really wasn't one to be found. The main attractions here are the many Balinese cultural options and nearby natural attractions. We hired motorbikes and drove out to the nearby volcanoes and rice paddies located about 1 hour north of Ubud. The roads here are poorly signposted and it's very easy to get lost. Also, there are several police checkpoints so it's important to have an international driver's license. We got stopped at one point but somehow talked our way out of paying a "fine" or bribe. If you don't have an international driver's license but it's advisable to hire a driver since most people ending up paying fines. I would highly recommend exploring the area around Ubud, the scenery is incredible.

The vibe around Ubud is really relaxed and honestly I could've easily stayed there for a week. There are also loads of shopping and dining options in addition to an overwhelming number of art galleries. We generally ate at the cheaper restaurants off the main streets, which were significantly less than the main street ones. In summary, a trip to Bali wouldn't be complete without going to Ubud for at least a couple of days. 

Pura Goa Lawah, Kusamba, Bali, Indonesia

In Bali, a temple is called a pura and you're bound to see puras everywhere. In fact, a traditional Balinese home includes a pura somewhere on the grounds. There are also large community puras all over the island including the Pura Goa Lawah, famous for its bat cave. The pura is located in Kusamba, somewhere between Ubud and the east coast.

The Bat Cave

Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia