Time for a spot of work!

Folks,

I'm not going to lie to you all, if indeed anybody still checks my blog. At times the blog has been a burden to me and clearly it still is, I had planned to post at least another five entries on my travels but I just haven't got round to it. Originally I would have posted even more. I would prefer if the blog was more spontaneous and less rigid if I'm being honest. That's what I intend for it to be in the future though.

Suffice to say I'm well behind posting anything further than the Thailand Part I entry. Since that time in Thailand I've been to Lao, Thailand again (Part II obviously), Malaysia (in total about four months, I travelled around for two and mostly hung out in Kuala Lumpur for two), Indonesia (two months) and now I'm in Perth, Australia (about three weeks). If you wish to see an exact list of the places I've been to please refer to my journeys to date entry and look at the countries above on the list. My oldest sister, Denise, lives here so I've been fortunate enough that she has let me stay at her house.

I'd love to be able to post on the places I've been in these countries as I've had some amazing experiences. However at the moment it's not possible - I might do so in the future though. In the meanwhile if you are considering travelling to these countries get in touch and I'll give you my thoughts and opinions on where to go and what to do. Either that or we can chat about it the next time I see you :)

As I expected, eventually my funds began to run low. I can't believe it is almost the end of November, time is moving so swiftly, I left Ireland in January! An English friend of mine (Gary) in Kuala Lumpur had a job in Perth lined up. When he was telling me about the work and the money I said to him, wow that's good stuff, if there is an opening for work please let me know. Later that evening Gary asked me was I still in interested in the work and obviously I was. Turns out Gary was missing his girlfriend back in England and wanted to go home instead of taking on the work. Garys people talked to my people and now I have his job! Thanks Gary!

I flew to Perth a couple of days later and stayed with my sister. However, I flew into Australia on a tourist visa so legally I couldn't work in the country. The guy organising the work on the farms insisted on me getting a working holiday visa, a visa to work for 12 months here. So I had to fly back to KL and get a new visa. I didn't mind much, apart from the costs, I got to see my friends in KL again for a few more days and have a laugh. Obviously smoked more weed, a hell of alot actually :)

Originally I was looking to go working in Korea, teaching English, but I decided to put that on the back burner for the moment. The work in Australia was about to start and the work in Korea wouldn't have started until March. Additionally I wouldn't have found out if I'd get the job until January! Besides, I can always reapply and at least now I know more about the process and such. The work I have is due to start within the next few days. I'll be working on grain farms here in Western Australia for the next three months. Think I'll be able to earn in the region of about 8,000 AUD.

With that money I intend to get back on the road and travel to Sri Lanka, India, Nepal and possibly Bangladesh. Before that I'll be back in Malaysia to visit some friends and will likely skip up to Thailand to visit my Irish friends Joe and Shane. I hung out with these guys through Viet Nam and Cambodia and we kept in touch. They came to work in Perth and I've been lucky enough to meet up with them again over the past few days and create more banter! Great lads, like brothers to me.

Anyways, that's the update from my side. Please feel free to leave a comment or get in touch by sending an email to liamoconnor2001@yahoo.co.uk . Apologies if the formatting of this post isn't too hot - the blogger site seems to be rejecting or simply not implementing all my format changes (such as basic ones like paragraph spacing).

Peace,

Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit

Thailand - Part I

Bangkok

Took a flight from Phnom Phen to Bangkok as I was sick of buses and, besides, travelling by land you only receive a 15 day visa. Travelling by air you receive 30 days. When I got to Bangkok I was pretty tired and had some downtime. I did go to Phat Phong with a friend (Ron) which was quite a horrible experience. Basically the epi-centre for sex tourism in Bangkok. It was like a slap in the face! “You want see ping pong show, sir” was constantly whispered to us. Pretty much all the bars we wanted to go into were go go bars with girls dancing on tables.

We honestly only wanted to go out for a drink! We swiftly ended up back at the guesthouse. We originally went out as we believed it was far too expensive at the guesthouse and, besides, we wanted to see what it was like out in the Bangkok nightlife. The prices were quite steep as well considering where I had spent the past two months of travel.

We did go visit the reclining Buddha, the palace (without entering) and some temples. Took a nice cruise up the Chao Phraya river to get there which was refreshing and away from the hustle and bustle of the mostly narrow streets. Avoided the notorious Khao San road mostly but did wander there to see what all the fuss was about. The Phad Thai on the street was great for 25 BHT. To be honest I was more interested in getting to Ayutthuya, the old capital. My stay in Bangkok was a short one, only stayed four nights but I'm sure I'll be back in the future.

Ayutthuya

It was cheap to get there from Bangkok on the local train. Amazing to take a train for 1.5 hours that only costs 15 BHT! Ayutthuya lies north of Bangkok and the journey was an easy one. We did get third class tickets I suppose. Still, not bad at all. We got a Tuk Tuk for 40 BHT to the hostel, after the usual haggling over the price.

The ruins were great to see, much prefer old ruins to modern day temples. I do like history though so that's only natural on my part. The ruins looked even more impressive at night, with the lights poignantly directed on the sites. Ayutthuya is relatively small so only spent a day and a half there, getting a night train the following day.

The night market was wonderful for food and as always is the case in Asia is the cheapest available. Always so much on offer and cheap. A spicy curry with rice 35 BHT and chicken skewers were 5 BHT each - wonderful dinner!

We biked around this small city and took pictures of the ruins. The biking itself was glorious, splendidly sunny and thoroughly enjoyable. We biked til about 18h00, stopping to take pictures and to go for a walk around ruins in places. We stopped at a peaceful Buddhist temple and grounds in the beginning and relaxed there for a time. Saw some Elephants as well but I was quite unhappy at seeing them being chained up and looking rather miserable. All in all I think we covered between 8-12 km on a 'culture vulture' day. Not bad and great exercise. Unfortunately things turned a little sour when we got back to the hostel. The rain began again and this time it started mildly enough but gathered momentum. Thunder and lightening swiftly followed.

The rain continued and was really heavy prior to leaving Ayutthuya so our last few hours were spent watching Japanese pranks dubbed in Thai! Japanese humour is eccentrically funny! The train to Chiang Mai wasn’t great and was delayed, arriving after midnight into Ayutthuya. The carriages kept on crashing into each other when the train was coming to a stop so wasn’t easy to stay asleep.

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai itself – the capital of the North – was relatively relaxed compared to the craziness of Bangkok, which of course was a relief. The moat, where most of the backpacker hostels are situated, was a little confusing and caused me to get lost a few times. You think you are at the right side to get back to your guesthouse but clearly are not! There is plenty of ruins to see in Chaing Mai but when the weather is so hot and you have just came from the ancient capital motivation may be wayward. We stayed at Same Same guesthouse, Julies guesthouse was full - a very popular hangout spot in Chaing Mai. Same Same had free wi-fi and the beer was strong and cheap so not bad! Red horse was about 8% and only 40 THB! The weather was incredibly warm during the day.

My time in Chiang Mai was relaxed, apart from visiting a few temple ruins I didn't do much sightseeing but then I knew I would be returning to Chiang Mai at some stage. I was eager to get to Pai, a place I heard so much about..

Pai

Pai is a small hippy town three hours North West of Chiang Mai. The roads are extremely steep and full of twists. Being hungover is not advisable. I wasn’t so didn’t bother me so much but others on the bus were feeling the strain from their stomachs and had turned a grayish colour. I had intended on staying two days in Pai prior to arrival. By the time I had made it to the bamboo bridge a guy told us about on the stop off half way the plan changed to a four day stay. In the end I stayed eighteen days I loved the place so much. I only really left because my visa was running out and I’d have to do a visa run or pay a fine of 500 baht a day!

After spending so much time in big cities or even simply cities it was wonderful to be at a location where after midnight the streets are literally deserted. No one around. The population of Pai is circa 5,000. I did have a scooter crash which was a pain but the wounds were relatively superficial. The annoyance was more that they that the major cuts were on my hands so I was bandaged up for about 9 days to protect against infection. Also, I was on anti-biotics, again for infection, and couldn’t drink during this period. In hindsight this was actually an excellent turn of events. I had been drinking far too much, as everybody tends to do on holidays. However, I had been travelling two and a half months and with drinks before I left Ireland I would estimate I had drank 75/80 days, which is a tad excessive I believe. I got a tattoo in Pai which I am very happy with and it always makes me smile when I look at it.

The tattoo is in Japanese and means “peace, love”. These are two characters I will never get bored of, no matter how old (or young) I get. Days melted away in Pai, mostly playing chess and smoking joints in the evenings with Filip (Belgian) and a few others. We had a few parties but not that much, the guys were more interested in getting stoned by the bungalows which of course was fine with me! When the day finally arrived where I had to go and do a visa run to Burma I really didn’t want to do it but had to. Then Rafa (Rafael, Belgian) wanted to do a boat adventure in Lao after we had heard the idea from Rob, a young English guy who had done this already. We decided to go for it and I got my Chiang Mai ticket changed to one going to Luang Prabang by slow boat the following day with Filip, Rafa and Eithan.

Until next time, ciao everyone..

Peace,

Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit

Cambodia

Andre, Danny, Louise and myself with two locals in Siem Reap

Angkor wat ruins

Angkor wat sunrise with Andre

Sunrise at Angkor wat

Andre, Louise, Richard, Monika and myself drinking Mekong whiskey on the beach!

Danny, Monika and Andre - clearly boozing

Emma and myself playing chess on the beach

BBQ at the beach, locals cooking for the evening

Sun setting in Sihanoukville

The Killing Fields - so quiet, given what happened there in the 70s

Commemorative stupa at the Killing Fields, bones and clothes from people murdered there

Monkeys hanging out in the park!

Country - Cambodia

Capital - Phnom Phen

Currency - Cambodian Riel/US Dollar (US Dollar is widely accepted and mostly preferred)

Phnom Phen (Est. population: 2,000,064, May, 2009)

The journey to Phnom Phen wasn’t too bad, took circa four hours to arrive and met a few Canadians and Americans on the bus. Of course, with me slightly opposed to Lonely Planets I didn't know where I was going in the city to stay! I chatted to a few Canadian and Americans who I met on the bus from Ho Chi Minh.

We got rickshaws/tuk tuks to the lake at Phnom Phen, where all the backpackers stay. I shared a room with an American girl and we got a room for $7 a night. The guy who showed us the room, after showing us the room, immediately whipped out some weed and was trying to sell to me! It was the first time someone showing me a room in a guesthouse offered me weed!

The following day I met up with the two Emmas from Sweden in the evening for drinks and food. We went to the Killing Fields and the S21 torture museum the next day which was really difficult to take. To know what these happy people had to endure during the period 1974-9. The Killing Fields is rather serenely quiet, in stark contrast to those horrendous events during the reign of the Khmer Rouge massarcers.

I was recommended to go to the Killing Fields first which - as it turned out - as good advice indeed. If I had went to the S21 museum first I sincerely doubt I would have went onwards to the Killing Fields at all. The s21 site is the location for the initial screening of the 'educated minds' - all those of any educational status were considered from the 'new' era of progressiveness.

The 'old' was prior to the fall of the Angkor empire. I read a book entitled the 'Memoirs of the Cambodian children' or something to that effect. Parents who were of the educated status ditched there glasses even in an attempt to appear uneducated. Strange as it may seem this was a common occurrance at the time. The grave irony of the situation and tryanny is that Pol Pot, the leader of the regime, was in fact an educated individual himself. One of the many forms of the hypcrisoy at the time.

The three Irish guys got to Phnom Phen the next day and we hung out again, boozing as per usual! It was the first taste of Beer Lao I had (obviously from Lao but imported) and it is a top beer. Many people had told me about it and I wasn't disappointed. The Mekong Delta trip the guys did, as it turned out, wasn't as good as they expected. Too many tourists.

However, I decided I wanted to get out of Phnom Phen and get to the beach in Sihanoukville, the only sightseeing I wanted to do in Phnom Phen was the Killing Fields/S21. Besides, I was weary of my schedule so I booked a bus ticket to leave the following morning. The Swedish girls decided to come along with me and we agreed to meet the guys there. That night before we left we got really stoned, I could bearly talk, it was great!

Sihanoukville (Est. population: 199,902, province, 2008)

Sihanoukville was cool to hang out but nothing unbelievable to be honest. I found Viet Nam The beach itself was a little overhyped and the water dirty (there was plastic and other crap floating around). The Swedes and myself shared a room for $10 a night so it was cheap. Danny, Joe and Shane arrived the next day after staying to do the Killing Fields and S21, which we already did.

There was some great BBQs in the evening - two meats, some piece of fish with BBQ potatoe and salad. One place gave you a beer included for $3! The same place had $1 beers and $0.50 beers between 10 and 11! We basically swam during the day and had drinks in the evening. We met a few of our friends we hung out with in Viet Nam – Richard (Canadian), Monika (Polish), Andre (American) and Louise (English). Just bumped into them at the beach we were staying at, the Serendipity beach, was fantastic to see them all again.

Rich told me about Mekong whiskey, he found a spot where you could buy a bottle of Mekong, coke, lime and ice all for 5 bucks! We did rounds of Mekong whiskey on the beach, great banter! We had plenty of banter! Decided to stay a extra day or two, was great to be back on the beach and out of a city. Got a massage on the beach one day and I showed my shoulders to the woman, they were badly burned and peeling after Viet Nam.

She got some fresh aloe vera stalks and it clear it quickly. She wanted $20 for it all! I gave her $12 and told her that'sw all she was getting. You always have to haggle in Cambodia! I paid $3 for some buddhist beeds and that more than I should have paid as well, this have them though!

Siem Reap (Est. population: 139,458 , 2006)

We all left the same day to go to Siem Reap, mainly to visit Angkor Wat – one of the wonders of the world and one of the largest temple ruins, built in the early 12th Century. I almost missed the bus there - I stayed over with a friend and woke up at about 7, we were being picked up at 07h30. The guy running the guesthouse had to drive me to the bus station and the bus was waiting for me! We had to take two buses, one back to Phnom Phen and another to take us to Siem Reap. Danny had some weed so we had a version of our woreos from Viet Nam. The bus gave us water and some cake so we put weed into the cake and voila, we had wake!

We went to Angkor Wat for the sun rise has we heard it was amazing and it truly was a sight to behold. I was wrecked getting out there, stayed up to watch the champions league. The sunrise was majestic and there was so many temple ruins. Andre paid some guy to give us a mini tour but Louise and myself kept on joking around. By 11h00 we were quite tired and had enough. We went back to the guesthouse and I had got stoned and took a nap.

It was a pity I had such little time, we had such a great group of people there - the two Swedish Emmas, Danny, Shane, Joe, Andre, Louise and myself. A great crew and we had plenty of drinks. After two days though I had to go back to Phnom Phen to catch my flight to Bangkok.

I'll hopefully be posting an entry on Thailand in the next day or two.

Peace,

Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit

Viet Nam (Nha Trang and Ho Chi Minh)

Both stays were relatively short due to my desire to leave Viet Nam and make my way into Cambodia. Only stayed a day and a half in Nha Trang, even though I had originally planned to stay longer. Ireland played England in the six nations rugby but didn’t manage to stay up late enough to be able to watch the game, was too drunk at that stage of the night! The next day we went on a boat trip to visit three islands off the coast of Nha Trang. We started jumping into the ocean from the top of the boat after a few early morning tigers. It was great fun until I realised my camera was still in my pocket! Damn I loved that Cannon camera. Unfortunately it didn't dry itself out. Other than that incident it was a wonderful day out on a boat with music, beer and a great atmosphere.

Quite annoying with respect to the camera but worse things can happen on a long trip so not to worry. We boarded another night bus to Ho Chi Minh (aka Saigon), which was certainly an interesting one. The bus driver floored it and was overtaking trucks and such. I played chess with a guy called Vernin who actually turned out to be quite the bullshitting talker. The game finished up at about 04h00 with him yapping on and procrastinating over rather straight forward chess moves. Eventually I won. Tried to get to sleep after taking some valium but that was impossible with the maniac driving the bus - noticed that the windscreen was severely cracked when we stopped during the night so that didn't inspire any confidence! lol

Ho Chi Minh was crazy and I thought the traffic in Ha Noi was bad. Again I travelled with my Irish friends (Danny, Joe and Shane). Accommodation was more expensive than when I was in Ha Noi but it wasn't too bad, something like $3 or $4 a night I think. My impression of Ho Chi Minh is probably somewhat tainted - firstly we arrived at circa 06h00 and so were all tired. Secondly, the time I spent there was too short. I think I only skipped through the city in about two or three nights.

We visited the Củ Chi tunnels and the Cao Dai Temple in Tay Ninh (near Cambodian border) one day to do something touristic. The tunnels were much smaller than the tunnels at the DMZ and actually had been widened twice for tourists. Fun to visit but to be honest I was starting to tire of hearing about the Vietnamese war at that point. The visit to the temple was short, the purpose of which was to witness the midday service. The ceremony was interesting to watch, especially with the traditional dress and the formal nature of proceedings. The elders sat at the front of the group and it was easy to distinguish the hierarchy as a result.

Other than that we met other friends (Andre from NY and Louise from the UK) we met in Hoi An and Nha Trang again. Therefore we partied some more before I left to Cambodia. The Irish guys stayed around for a tour on the Mekong Delta but I decided to do that again the next time I visit Viet Nam - along with Ha Long Bay and Sa Pa. Viet Nam is such a wonderful country though strangely the stories I have heard from fellow travellers have been very varied. It seems people either love or hate Viet Nam but I would certainly consider a return trip there.

Unfortunately uploading of pictures will have to wait until I arrive back in Malaysia. At the moment I'm in Bali, Indonesia, and will stay in Indonesia for another two weeks before returning back to Kuala Lumpur. I left my laptop with a friend there and will be working on getting this blog of mine up to date when I return. I'm planning on going to Perth in November, the flight is quite cheap at about 50 Euro so I'm probably going to hang out in Malaysia until then. I can live cheap and there is plenty of wonderful Indian food! Yeah! I'll update this entry further when I get back to Malaysia. So for now...

Peace,

Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit

Overdue Update

I thought it time enough to return to my blog after such an absence away from writing literally anything. The months that have passed in between have moved with such swiftness I can hardly believe it is July already. Anyway, I think my log entries up to now have been too long, even if they were fun to write and think about. However, it wasn't always easy to write them, to find the time and to continue. The main reasons for my lethargy was the slow upload for pictures and the frustration of breaking my Cannon camera in Nha Trang, Viet Nam. Broke one in Lao as well! Also, when I got to Thailand - specifically Pai - my days were all quite the same! I stayed there for 18 days the first time I was there!

Nonetheless, I hope to again write more often over the forthcoming months, when I can. However, I don’t think I will have the time to write on each city I travel to. Perhaps I will write on each country instead, with a short dialogue about each place. So, my rather detailed accounts I had previously jotted I intend to condense into one blog entry, for each country I visit.

Currently I'm in Malaysia and have been here for about seven weeks now. Within the next week I will go to Indonesia once I can get my visa organised at the embassy here in Kuala Lumpur. Then I will stop off at Melaka for a few days before getting a boat to the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Shortly I will post on Viet Nam and jot a couple of other posts on Cambodia, Thailand and Lao thereafter. Unfortunately there will not be as many photos to post here as I would like, with the camera incidents in Viet Nam and Lao!

Peace,

Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit

Hội An 25 - 27 February

***FOLKS - HAVING ISSUES LOADING PHOTOS AT THE MOMENT, CONNECTION SPEEDS AREN'T THE BEST BUT WILL KEEP TRYING OF COURSE***

Country - Viet Nam

City - Hội An

Population (Hội An) - 121,716

Currency - See Hanoi post here

The three day biking trip finished at about 15h00 on the final day and I had such an incredible time. As previously stated, relatively expensive by Vietnamese standards but worth every cent. The biking guys recommended a hotel to us so instead of going to find somewhere we were fine with them taking us there. No worries. Easier for us in any case.

We had intended spending one night in Hội An again as we were behind our own self imposed schedules. Especially mine, I only had so much time between Viet Nam and Cambodia before I had to be in Bangkok on 12th March. However, we had to stay two. The night bus for the following night was completely booked out. Outside of our control so we just accepted that. Besides, I had heard that Hội An was beautiful.

The hotel was great, I shared a room with Joe for 15 USD per night, so 7.50 USD each. The room had two double beds, mini bar, television with a bunch of channels, bathtub and wonderful air conditioning - vital in this part of the world! We bumped into the Austrian guys we met in Hue by chance again who were actually staying at the same hotel. Paul came out with us for dinner but Philip was feeling good so he stayed behind. Of course only getting there we didn't know where to go for food. A dude with flyer's coerced us into his pub which had a restaurant upstairs. No issue for us. The food was amazing. The chef even came out, shook our hands and personally explained the specials to us!

I spoke to three Norwegian girls (Erika, Chrissy and Elley) who were just finishing up their meal and asked them to join us downstairs for some drinks. Even had a lively debate about how many continents there are in the world! In my mind there are seven (North and South America (the Americas), Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe and Antarctic). As it turns out this is speculative and much opinion based but that is for another discussion or blog entry perhaps. In short, there can be between four and seven continents in the world, depending on what you view as a continent.

We had a bunch of drinks and then Erika told us about a place called Salsa club. Free rum and coke between 22 and 23h00!! I can get behind that and so did about another 15 people when I spread the word..Close to midnight we went down to the beach where each night there are beach parties. Not unbelievably pricey but at a premium to the happy hours we had at the earlier venues. Still, plenty of banter with everybody and met alot of great people. I was coaching Erika how to play pool where we ate dinner and there were a couple of decent New Zealanders I hung out with down at the beach. Along with the Cork lads of course.

Unfortunately we left relatively early at about 02h00, Danny wanted to watch Liverpool play Real Madrid in the Champions League so we ventured back early (Liverpool victorious 1-0). Got a little high off some Ho Chi Mhin weed and watched the game, a late end to the night. How very unusual.

The next morning I got up relatively early. I don't know what it is but I don't sleep so much in Asia. Could be the heat. Could be not wanting to waste my days. I don't know, it is what it is I suppose. I went for breakfast with Elley, the girl from the Isle of Man - the spring rolls were magnificent :) Okay, more like brunch I'll admit. We had breakfast at about 11h00 but only manged to make it to bed at 07h00. We took a stroll around Hội An after. It is such a small cozy place to be. Bigger than Hue but not by much.

I priced the renting of a bicycle for the day and was surprised by how cheap they were: 1 USD per day! I convinced Joe and Shane to rent with me and cycle to the beach for swimming. It was only 4km, hardly a trek. It was lovely to travel at our own leisure, really good to get exercise too after the three days sitting on a motorbike. Actually made the swimming more enjoyable. Unfortunately Danny missed out on this day - fast asleep in his bed! Was great fun fighting against the waves, of course I couldn't possibly win hehe. All in the name of banter. That night we went back to the same place for dinner as the night prior, it was simply that good. I had lovely chicken, Danny, who loves tuna, had to get some tonight after sampling mine the day before.

The early part of Thursday evening was actually sort of like a re-run of the day before, we had some beers and went to the Salsa club. In fact, I told quite a few people about the free rum and coke deal but when we got there the promotion wasn't on! However, it was buy one get one free so wasn't the worst either! We did manage to make it back to the first bar and catch the free shuttle bus to the beach party before midnight which saved some cash on scooter taxis. Didn't have the best experience of them when we left to watch the game yesterday. Trying to jerk us around.

The other Irish guys decided to pass on coming out earlier in the night (yeah, I know, are they really Irish?) so I was hanging with some Australian guys. I did know plenty of people from the night before so it was fine. At one point my banter book went missing! A dude from New Zealand helped me located it. Someone was simply adding an entry!

Friday was quite a fun day before we left for our bus at about 18h00. The Cork lads had more energy now after having an early night so were up a bit earlier than me, who arrived back at the hotel at 06h00 :) We went for a stroll around the town. At the beginning the route was similar to what Elly and myself walked, near the river and up the town through the winding streets, if you could call them that. We stopped off for some wonderful lunch, I had the spring rolls which were brilliant. Favourite food in Viet Nam: noodle soup and spring rolls.

After that we walked around more and ended up buying some clothes. I bought a sleeveless wife-beater tee shirt (I didn't name them that!) and a pair of shorts that have subsequently split at the seam! Didn't exactly cost me a fortune so no big deal. On our walk back to the hotel we found a great bar that claimed to have the best pizza and burgers in town. We stopped off there and played some pool. The bar was so close to the travel company where the bus was leaving from we decided to get our packed bags and bring them there in time for the start of happy hour at 16h00!!

The plan worked out very well indeed. The burgers looked great and though western food I decided to indulge by splitting with the Austrian guy Philip. It was indeed a great burger, by Asian standards anyway. Nothing over the top. We bumped into both Paul and Philip back at the hotel and so they had came along.

I also got a pizza for the bus ride to Nha Trang. Can always eat pizza cold, no problem there! Similarly to the burger the pizza was wonderful. Better than the burger in fact. I really enjoyed my time in Hội An and would recommend to anyone considering a trip to Viet Nam. Biking tour aside the best place I stayed in Viet Nam and that is saying something.

Nha Trang tale to follow...PEACE

Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit

Hue and the bike tour 21 - 24 February

***DRAFT POST - MORE TO FOLLOW***

Country - Viet Nam
City - Hue
Est. Population (Huế) -

1,119,800 (2004 Census)

Time to leave Ha Noi. We stayed longer than expected. I had budgeted about 3-4 days but ended up staying close to a week. If you read the Ha Noi posting you would know this already. However, never going to be disappointed about that fact. We had so much banter there. Mostly booze-related activities and some days seemed a little living in a groundhog world but if I could change anything about that week I wouldn't.

So we organised an open bus ticket to travel around Viet Nam. So this gave us tickets to everywhere we wanted to go: Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang and Ho Chi Mhin (aka Saigon). We organised this from the Cork guys (Shane, Joe and Danny by the way) hotel. The bus left at circa 19h00 and would arrive into Hue some 12-3 hours later. We were seriously tired when we got to Hue, I don't sleep very well on buses, despite all the Vodka we drank. Unfortunately this would tend to reoccurr throughout my bus tours in Viet Nam. So we got to Hue at about 08h00 in the morning and intended to stay one night.

If you don't book a place to stay in Asia that is never really an issue. The locals know when the buses will arrive so they are ready in wait. We organised a place quite rapidly and before we knew it we were on our way to a hotel on a bus with a motor biking dude as the guide for directional purposes. The room was fine, two beds which Shane and Joe would share the large and Danny would have the single. I had a mattress on the floor which I volunteered to take, just didn't really care where I slept, only one night after all.

We went to find some breakfast after getting into our room. Looked at a few menus but decided we could find better. We didn't want to take the first available option - that would be too easy. Then these local guys said they would take us to this local Vietnamese place on their bikes for free so we agreed. The food was fantastic, arguably the best I had in all my time in Viet Nam and so reasonable price wise. While we were there the guys who couriered us there explained that they organise tours going from Hue. The tour loops west inland in a boomerang fashion and ends in Hoi An three days later. In totality, two nights and three days of motorbiking in the countryside.

It didn't take look for us to be convinced despite the price which was 60 USD per day. I was sceptical, espcially considering budget but in retrospect it was worth every cent. So we paid a deposit and said we would meet at the same place at 08h00 the next morning. After that we bought some copy dvds, both Danny and Shane had dvd players. We started to watch a movie but sleep overcame me. When I woke I went for a stroll around this small city. The guys slept on for ages..

We went for drinks then but nothing hugely important to note, drank some beer, played some pool. We did meet some decent Austrians (Paul and Phillipe) who were hanging out with a German guy (Daniel). After we had drinks we got a sort of Tuk Tuk, cycling style, with locals at about midnight and ate some food with them.

Next morning we met, as agreed, at the local Vietnamese 'restaurant' with the guys who were to take us on the trip for the next few days. We didn't bother eating as we had eaten at our hotel.

People, I know I am going to fail miserably in my attempt to convey how good this trip was. In all my travels around the globe this is now the stand out feature. Usually I'm quite against bikes for my own personal reasons which I do not wish to discuss here but this trip was simply amazing. Five bikes, four Irish guys and one girl from the Isle of Man. Five drivers (one driver and paying tourist per bike).

It was so very hot, baking in fact. The first day I think we must have biked about 80km. I think everybody was chatting to their drivers at some point but I had a great time with my driver and we were chatting almost constantly on the bike. Hieu (pronounced you) was such a great guy to be on the bike with, my experience of this trip - obviously - could have been different should I have had a bad driver. In actuality they were all good people. No issues.

I'm not even going to try break this down into a day by day recollection of what we did and where we did it. The days became meshed into one other. No actually. Each day was even better than the last and it is difficult even saying that because the days we spent were arguably the greatest of my 26 years and 207 days of existence up to that point. Seriously. Not only of my travelling life but of my life entire. So, we motorbiked from Huế which is close to the coast in Viet Nam and went inland close to the Laos border. The road we mostly used was the Ho Chi Mhin trail, the road built in honour of their great twentieth century revolutionary.

The landscape was breathtaking. Forgot Ireland. Forgot Niagara Falls. Forgot everything you know about beautiful if you haven't seen this. And if you have seen the 'off the beaten track' magnificient magnificent will understand what I'm trying to write about. The scenery made me fall in love with this country. I will be back next year at some point without a doubt. I told Hieu I will be back next year and have his contact details for a trip North instead of West. I know I won't be disappointed.

Two main points of remembrance stick out in all our minds - for those of us whom were on the trip I mean of course - is: 1) When we stopped off at a waterfall and went swimming; and 2) The locals who are incredible. I continuously would say tiếng chào (phonetically sing-jao) to everyone. Hello. If they didn't wave back at the western guy on the bike I either got a smile or a nod from older people which is an acklowledgement in Asian countries. I must have said tiéng cháo to about 200 people over the course of our three day adventure.

So, in essence, we did alot of biking over the course of the three day trip and stopped off to photograph the views, which were out of this world. We typically started the day relatively early at about 09h00, after breakfast. We biked the trail and had so much banter, it was such a laugh.

PEACE,

Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit

Ha Noi 15 - 21 Febuary

Country - Viet Nam
City - Ha noi
Est. Population (Ha noi) - 6,232,940 (2007)
Currency - Vietnamese Dong (VND)
1 VND = 0.00004599 EUR
1 EUR = 21,743.7 VND (at the time of writing)

When I got to Ha noi I took a cab to the hotel I was booked to stay in. Quite a reasonable place to stay and the original plan was to stay for about 3-4 nights and then move onwards to the south. However, clearly this plan didn't actually happen whilst at Ha noi. In terms of traffic, the place is crazy but there was alot of banter there. Scooters is the preferred mode of transport and walking across the street can be very interesting! They tend to just change course whilst you walk. If you don't start walking you might not make it to the other side.

After I checked in the hotel I went and got some food and decided to go check out Hoan Kiem - the "lake of the restored or returned sword". The lake is quite large and takes about 20mins to walk around. It is also located in the centre of Ha noi so it is easy to remember as a good landmark. According to the legend, emperor Le Loi handed a magic sword called Heaven's Will - the sword that brought him victory in his revolt against the Chinese Ming Dynasty back to the Golden Turtle God (Kim Qui) in the lake. Tortoise tower can be seen on a small island on the lake.

After that I took a nap and then went to the Irish bar recommended by a friend at PricewaterhouseCoppers before I left. Manchester United were playing Derby in the FA Cup at so I wanted to figure out where I would go later for drinks. Firstly I went to get some noodles on a street corner. Always want to sample the local food. 15,000 VND for delicious noodles so I was understandly happy with that! ad a few drinks with a decent English dude before he had to depart to meet friends elsewhere and then started chatting to two Swedish girls. Conveniently for me, Emma and Emma. We hooked up with a dude from the States (Jess) and played some doubles pool which was a laugh.

Strange thing about bars in Ha Noi is officially they are suppose to close at midnight. So at midnight the police came in to usher everyone out of the bar. The barman - Brendan from Mayo - knew a few other bars to go to so we went off there for more of the same. The night ended a little bizarrely as there was some argument about Brendan not paying is tab, didn't really affect me so much.

The breakfast at the hotel was great! Large slice of watermelon, bread, fried eggs and coffee all of which was included within the 87,000 VND price per day! I had agreed to meet the Swedish girls at 11h00 outside Finnegans so I went there after breakfast and they were true to their word. We went for a walk around Hoam Kiem lake but we were all tired so we didn't venture far. Ha Noi is a big city but not much on the city seeing front. I wasn't that bothered going to museums which I realise was a mistake. Oh well. There would be alot more culture to be had later in the trip.

We ended up sitting near the lake and having some drinks at mid-day! Great thing about travelling is you can do whatever you want really. After a while the girls wanted to go catch some shut eye so I wandered back to Finnegans, inevitably. There I met three Cork guys travelling. Great banter out of these lads and we hung out for the rest of the day. Unknown to me at the time, I would roll with these guys for the next two weeks.

Ha Noi is not a city with an unbelievable amount of sight seeing to do, as previously mentioned. I had intended to leave the city on Tuesday 17th February but ended up staying on with the guys as the banter was mighty. Most evening we would vendez-vous at Finnegans and stay there until the police kicked everyone out at midnight. Then we would hop on scooters to one of the underground bars. A favourite was a bar called Wanted. It was so funny at times. The bar staff kept scouts for any police activity. When this happened the music got turned down and we all had to keep hush hush.

When we got the all clear we all cheered and the tunes were blasted out once more. I met so many people over these few days of beer and banter. One night I was chatting to two German guys living in Singapore working as engineers. So now I have a contact there for when I arrive! Nice..The Cork lads and myself agreed we would get the open bus ticket which allows you to travel around Viet Nam after you have choosen where you want to go. We decided on Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang and Ho Chi Mhin.

One night we went to a bar called Seventeen Saloon. Girls dancing on stage - with clothes on might I add - busy and great fun. We were there about half an hour and enjoying the atmosphere when some dumbass let off pepper spray. We all had to leave the premises immediately. This pepper spray was tearing on your eyes. Not pleasant at all and we ended up back at Finnegans, our little haven.

I feel I must mentioned that the best Sheppards pie I've ever eaten was at Finnegans. A little bit more pricey compared to the local food at 105,000 VND but worth it. Was brilliantly tasty, especially when you add HP brown sauce :) Of course, being an Irish bar, everything is a little more expensive: during the day a pint was 30,000 VND and the evening price was 35,000 VND. When you convert back to Euro or USD you are thinking that isn't all that bad. However, you need to shrug off conversion here and try to think more about the local prices. Basically, you can find cheaper locally.

One day seemed to blur into the next thereafter so at this point I'm not aiming to recollect all here. Simply put I had a fantastic time in Ha Noi because of the people I met. I even created what I called a "Banter book". I bought a journal while in Taipei to write stories when I was on long buses/trains. However, when I got to Ha Noi the book transformed into a banter book. In essence the book became a nonsensical book for jokes and peoples thoughts. If you wanted to put anything into the book you were free to do so. I have English, Swedish, Norweign, Japanese and Vietnamese in my book! Plenty of great jokes and drawings too!! BANTER

I could write so very much about my time in Ha Noi but time is not on my side and the beach here in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, are calling me. The final day we had our last drinks in Finnegans for the memories et cetera. We even bought the tee shirt: green like an Irish rugby jersey and says on the back: "We got shitfaced at Finnegans". We then went to the Cork lads hotel to wait for our mini bus to take us to the main coach going to Hue - a 12 hour overnight bus ride. Danny came up with the idea to buy some Vodka for the bus so we got two bottles, some coke and some oreos! Ever had woreos before?? One screw off the top of an oreo, deposit some weed, reattach said top and consume! Serious banter on the bus, a little wrecked when we got to Hue though..hehe

Hue posting to follow people...PEACE

Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit

Nanning/Pingxiang 10 - 15 Feb

****PICS TO FOLLOW***

Country - China
City - Nanning (capital of Guangxi autonomous region in southern China)
Est. Population (Nanning) - 6,480,000 (2006)
Currency - please refer to Beijing post here

After wild partying in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei this stop over was much more relaxed. What was required really. Therefore this will be a brief post as nothing out of the ordinary happened.

After flying back to Hong Kong from Taipei got an overnight bus to Nanning with Brenley who teaches English there. She kindly let me stay with her for the few days I was planning to stay in Nanning. HKD 350 for the bus which was reasonable enough. We arrived in Nanning at about 08h00 in the morning and we were so wrecked (can't really sleep on a sleeper bus, too noisy and beds aint that comfortable). Therefore the first day we just chilled out and watched a few movies and had a few quiet beers.

The next day we did a tour of the city on Brenley's e-bike around the city which was great but scary. It was my first time on a scooter in Asia. They drive so crazy. People use their bike horns alot to signal to other drivers of their presence. There seems like there is very little structure to it but somehow it works! Similarly to Ningbo there are very few westerners in Nanning so got plenty of stares again. Was fine, have gotten use to that. Nanning itself is quite beautiful and is known as the green city due to the tropical foliage all around the city.

The food was fantastic! And very reasonable as well - one of the best noodle soups I've ever had costs about only 4.5 RMB. So much good food and after spending time in HK and Taipei it was good to get back to cheaper food. The rest of the time in Nanning was really chillled out. Read some book on the university campus gardens where Brenley works and got some sun. It was really warm, maybe about 32C. We organised my bus from Nanning into Ha noi to leave on Saturday morning (14th) for 150 RMB which wasn't too bad. Left Nanning for Ha noi at 07h30 with an estimated arrival time of 15h30 (takes time to go through border control et cetera).

City - Pingxiang (capital of Guangxi autonomous region in southern China)
Est. Population (Pingxiang) - 100,000 (2005)
Currency - please refer to Beijing post here

The stopover at Pingxiang was not a planned one. When I got the border on my bus described above I never reviewed my Viet namese visa to ensure the visa was effective. So arrived at the Chinese immigration to exit the country. They explained that with my visa only commencing on 15th February I would have to come back the following day. It cost me 30 RMB to get into the city and 128 RMB to stay in a hotel for one night. That left me with only 12 RMB for the day!! Had to put aside another 30 RMB for the following day taxi back to the border.

Despite being low in funds - not wanted to take more RMB out - I managed to relax and even go for a long walk. There were amazing mountains just outside the city so took a walk in the intense sun to take some photos. The next morning I didn't have too many issue getting into Viet Nam and made it to Ha noi by about 15h00 wherein I got a taxi to the hotel I had arranged. No worries. Well post up the Ha noi shortly. Crazy place! Peace.

Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit

Taipei 4 - 9 Feburary

Liam in drunken awe at the 1Ltr Kirin beer (Japanese)

Dutch girl, Sam

Alex aka Spider Cockroach

Drunken nonsense

A gay Alex not impressing anyone :)

The serious portrait

Wiki Tapei 101 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_101

***FOLKS - I'VE HAD SOME ISSUES WITH THIS POST: THE STORY I WROTE UP GOT DELETED. IN FACT EVERYTHING GOT DELETED. ABOVE ARE SOME OF THE PICS BUT YOU WILL HAVE TO WAIT A FEW MORE DAYS FOR THE TALE..APOLOGIES! :) PEACE***

Hong Kong 31 January - 3 February

Interesting dude at the bar

Sara and me

Sara and Aaron with drunken faces

Outside Po Lin monastic temple (no disrespect pic taking outside a temple, just inside)

Cable cars near Tian Tan

View from Tian Tan Buddha (1)

The wrecked trainers

View from Tian Tan Buddha (2)

Incense burning

Central Island shot from Ferry

Steps up to Big Buddha (Unfortunately the sun ruined it)

Tian Tan Buddha

Buddha and me

Thomas

Central Island at night (fuzzy pic)

Awaiting for a Ferry

Country - Hong Kong (Special Administrative region)

Est. Population - 6,985,200 (2008)

Currency - Hong Kong Dollar

1 HKD = circa 0.10 EUR

1 EUR = circa 10 HKD (both at the time of writing)

Arrived into Kowloon, HK, at about 13h30 and one subway station later I was at the hostel. The dorm was far from great (no windows and air con was lousy) but it was cheap and it was HK after all. Met an interesting guy from the UK at the room, George. He works as an intern for an ex-pat magazine based in Shanghai. No salary but he does get an apartment paid for. Took a walk through Kowloon park and meet some guys playing football on an all weather pitch. Asked could I play and they did not have any issues with that. Actually played quite well during the game we had - sort of an odd bunch of ex-pats versus a team of HK friends you have played together for years.

After the football I went back to the hostel and chatted to George. Invited him to join me for some street food. I got two meat sticks; one with beef and the other with chicken. Seriously pricey compared to mainland China. 26 HKD! Nothing in Europe but in Asia that's expensive. Suppose it was HK after all and I knew it would be more expensive - that's why I was eating on the streets in the first place! George said he was interested in catching some of the weekend football from back home and was considering hitting a bar. I explained one could watch the games on the Internet at no cost. George had a laptop with him. Decided to collect a few beers and kick back at the hostel, chilling and watching some late night football.

However, the router was really far from our room (we surmised) as the signal was very weak. I suggested testing other parts of our floor to see if the signal got stronger. We went near the hostel floor main entrance. Dramatic improvement in signal. Clearly the router was located there, our room was at the far end of the floor. George went to collect beers while I set up the action. I was watching some of Stoke v Man City when a dude came in the entrance door. I explained about watching the footie online. Thomas, from Bern in Switzerland, asked could he join us. Of course.

We watched some of the football for a while and then Thomas went to his room which was right beside where we were at. I suggested we relocate to his room in case anyone complained. Motion passed. We watched West Ham v Arsenal (boring) and Everton v Man U (equally dull) and had a laugh. Got to my bed at about 04h30!

On Sunday Thomas and myself went for a late breakfast, well brunch really, at about noon. Salad and OJ; got to reward the body for the punishment of the night prior. George had a few things to do but I told him all about the football I played yesterday. I had arranged to meet the guys again at 16h00. George and Thomas were up for it. Firstly, Thomas and myself went to go see a Kung Fu exhibition in Kowloon park, free admission. Mostly kids aged between 4-14 years but wow they were amazing and some were so fluid in their movements.

We went back to the football court area and jammed with a ball for a while, waiting for the others to arrive. Didn't look like we were going to get a game, the court was booked. Then some guy landed badly after pretty much the only tackle of their non-contact game and severely damaged his elbow. Ambulance, the works.

Back on court so. However, my trainers were a mess. Ken - an Afghan guy I played with the day before - told me where I could buy cheap tennis shoes great for football. 22 HKD! Yeah! We played against a team who looked like teenagers. Decent players but they lacked any edge; not clinical enough in the final third. Unfortunately my game ended early, which now I'm glad of. Was on the verge of a hamstring strain.

Afterwards we went for some cheap Indian food at Chunking Mansions, where we were staying at. Was delicious, Indian is one of my favourite foods (1. Sushi; 2. Mexican; 3. Thai; 4. Indian..). The Australian open tennis final was on. Federer v Nadal. Thomas didn't want to miss this, he quickly showered and went to the nearby Irish bar for the coverage. George and myself only made it for the final set. Epic tennis. Federer is from Thomas' home town, he was devastated. We had fun winding him up :)

Being at the bar was a great relieve from sitting in Thomas' room though that was clearly the cheaper option. The Irish bar was so incredibly expensive. We voted to go back to the hostel for a few cheeky (cheap) drinks (Thomas had a Kilkenny at the bar for 65 HKD! Was funny seeing him stare at the bill when he got it, what a novice!). Went back to the bar for the Liverpool v Chelsea game for the midnight kickoff. One night of expensive drinks was worth it for the air con! We watched the game with two English guys and had some great banter. They suggested we go visit the big Buddha statue (Tian Tan Buddha), the largest in the world.

The plan for Monday was to do exactly that. George left at this point so it was just Thomas and myself. We got some breakfast and got a ferry over to Central island (ferry costs 1.7 HKD; subway costs 9 HKD! Nuts - probably trying to recoup the cost of the investment). A further hour ferry ride and an hour bus ride and we made it to the small village of Ngong Ping, deep within the mountains on Lantau Island. The Po Lin monastery is nearby and is exquisitely serene. Surrounding the temple within the monastic area are plenty of food vendors but they do not serve any meat; obviously the monks are vegetarians and want the food served to respect their own environment.

The lead up to Tian Tan was magnificent. Circa 250 steps at a steep incline lead up to this enormous statue, the symbol of the greatest religion on this planet. The view from the vantage point is truly breathtaking. You can see other islands in the distance and there is a cable car you can take to less populated and even more peaceful views (human traffic was a little too much but understandably so; a place everyone should visit whilst at HK). After the brilliance of the Buddha statue, Thomas and myself - hobbling (in pain from my sore hamstring) - walked to the Buddhist monastery. Such a tranquil mood. Plenty of incense burning throughout.

To witness the monks at prayer through singing was an experience, I tell you. Unfortunately no pictures/video out of respect for their ritual, just as Erik explained to me in Ningbo. After a wander around we made our way back to Kowloon via Central Island, even had a nap out of exhaustion! Went for some wonderful cheap Sushi (California rolls for 19 HKD) before we went to the fake brand markets.

Thomas was set to fly to Sydney the following day and wanted to get as much cheap clothes as possible. Before we went there we stopped off at a bar as it was still happy hour: pint of San Miguel, normal price = 36 HKD; happy hour price = 22 HKD! Went to the market and I even bought a lovely pair of shorts (25 HKD) and a summery jacket (65 HKD).

After the market we went back to that bar again and played a game I played when I was younger, think it's called something like coin football, serious banter and beer combo :) We ended up joining up with a few girls from HK after playing some darts and we tagged along with them in a game of Chinese dice. Afterwards we went to another bar and did some karaoke for kicks. At this point it's 05h30 and we're kind of smashed so we make our way back to the hostel. At Chunking Mansions (where the hostel is based) we very randomly bumped into a crazy Welsh guy. Seriously crazy. Hadn't slept in three days and it showed. He had some green so we went off for a few smokes. Man, I got to bed at about 08h00 and was annihilated. Good times :)

Tuesday, last day in HK. Only got up at noon, Thomas had already checked out but he left a note on my door. Actually he left it on the wrong door but I knew it was for me. Was really wrecked. Went for more Sushi and chilled out by a pond. Didn't get up to much for a while, was working on an earlier blog post and chilling at the hostel Internet. Then met a cool Australian guy (Aaron) and we had some good banter. Took a walk down by the river with Thomas but asked Aaron did he wanted to vendez-vous for a drink at about 17h00 with Thomas before he left .

Just got some beers at 7/11 and had them at the Internet area (it is a room with a door so no issue). There was a dutch girl - Sara - who was also there and joined us for a drink. Aaron, Sara and myself decided to go out for a few and we said good luck to Thomas as he went to catch a bus to HK International.

We had a great laugh out during happy hour at the same bar as Thomas and myself (I know, kind of lazy but I knew when happy hour began and finished) went to. So happy hour finishes at 21h00 but the great thing is that they ask you would you like to get last orders. Once your order is in before 21h00 you can continue to drink post deadline for the happy hour price! We order six beers and that kept us going for a while! Sara couldn't drink any more, she was smashed (sorry Sara, but it's true and you know it). Didn't stay up late, around 00h45 and then crashed.

Got up at 07h45 to pack et cetera with my flight to Taipei at 12h05. At the time of posting this entry I'm in Nanning in the capital of the Guangxi autonomous region in southern China. Trying to cathc up on my posts so don't be surprised to see another post within the next day or so.

All the best,

Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit

Ningbo 26th - 30th January

View of Ningbo from a suspension bridge

DongQing Lake banner (from the side)

Olivia, the non-English speaking dude and me

The steps that lead to the stone boat, into the underworld

Erik and me near the waterfall (See background)

Walking over a bridge with boat shed over shoulder

The boat shed

The stone ship that sails into the west

The turtles: signifies a slow, long life

Statue of Kwan Yi (1)

Statue of Kwan Yi (2)

DongQing Lake, view of the foggy lake

Tian Yi Square water springs at night

Two kids on a crocodile!

Chinese firework shop!

Moon Lake (1)

Tian Yi Square

Moon Lake (2)

Moon Lake (3)

City - Ningbo (North eastern Zhejiang province)
Country - China
Est Population (Ningbo) - 5,681,000 (2008)
Currency - please refer to Beijing post here

As you have probably read from Shanghai post I missed my original train to Ningbo, should have arrived at about 14h30 but instead got there around 18h20. Didn't make things easy on myself further still when I just wrote down the hostel name. There is next to no English in Ningbo. Took me about 2 hours to find the hostel and in actuality it was only about 7mins walk from the train station!! C'est la vie. Didn't do very much when I eventually got to the hostel as it was after 21h00 so I just got some food and hit the hay..

Tuesday I got some Chinese dumplings at the hostel and went out to explore the city more. It was bizarre. There are so many people in this "medium" size city, most were still on holidays for the new year. Everybody was staring at me! Ningbo is not a tourist city at all, in fact during my entire stay here I only saw about four caucasian people, some of which were staying at the hostel. This day was going to be low key, I partied so hard in Shanghai my body needed a rest. Took some lovely walks over bridges and just thought about travelling, how much I love it, where I want to go - that sort of thing. Funny to walk around for five hours, singing and whistling songs, saying Nihao (hello in Chinese, phonetically: Nee-how) when I got the accustomed stare.

Went to find some street food after so I walked around near Tian Yi, the main square. Ended up not having street food, found a wonderful place to eat instead. Had a big bowl of rice with a dish of pork and vegetables. Green tea as well, good for the body. It was unbelievably. The waiters/waitresses kept sneaking a peak at me because I refused a knife and fork and wanted to brush up on my chopstick skills. Was so funny, I was eating and playing Su Doku. Two Chinese guys came over as they wanted to speak some English. They hadn't played the game before (Su Doku) so I coached them how to play and they learned incredibly fast. The meal should have cost me 30 RMB but one of the two guys worked at the restaurant and would only take 20 RMB off me!

Wednesday was a slow day for me. The CFA results were coming out so I was anxious with anticipation and nervous to know how I did. The results were to be posted to the web at 09h00 EST (Eastern Standard Time, essentially Washington DC time) which in Ningbo was 22h00 and therefore overshadowed my day to a degree. So I mostly walked around during the day, smoked a few cigarettes to chill me out and read a book almost cover to cover. I went back to the hostel at about 18h30 where I met a Swiss girl (Olivia; Chinese name: Hu Aiwen, silent 'a') and a Chinese guy (Erik; Chinese name: Ye Zhe (pronounced Ger) Ren) on holidays and had a few beers at the hostel with them.

We hung out at the hostel common area til after 22h00, waiting for my results. We had decided to go to a bar that served Paulaner - before 20h00, buy one get one free. After 20h00 buy two get one free. I can get behind that Paulaner offer! Couldn't initially get the results, too many people across the globe doing likewise and the connection at the hostel was less than ideal. So Olivia and myself decided to head on out. The beers were great and we got back to the hostel at 02h30 after getting to the bar circa 23h30. Can't use the Internet terminal at the common area after 00h00 so Olivia got her great Apple laptop out and we were trying to find the wireless without going into the common area! The staff member was asleep in there and wouldn't have been impressed.

Eventually got the connection and the result of pass! Only 38% globally got the green light to move onwards to Level II. Went to bed happy, despite the bedlam of fireworks near the Moon lake, with it still being the spring festival and the 15 days celebrations. Acted as an alarm clock as well because fireworks woke me up at 08h30, crazy stuff.

Thursday I met Erik downstairs at the common area, he was too tired to go out for drinks with Olivia and myself the night prior. Erik told me of this lake he was going to visit and asked to join him, which I happily did. Great call on his part. Even though it took 20mins in a taxi to Ningbo south east bus station and an hour on a bus it was worth it. The bus only cost 2 RMB each way, next to nothing really. DongQian lake was spectacular, a truly surreal paradise in my eyes. Words can never express what my heart felt being in this undeniably beautiful haven. The pictures will tell the tale better than these weak words can.

The lake was huge, we only tipped the top of the iceberg. There was a wondrous statue of Kwan Yin, the mother of the west. In Buddhism they believe you cross over a bridge - which represents you passing out of this world into the underworld - after which you climb up steps and board a stone ship. The ship sails into the west, the phrase used for passing into the Buddhist afterlife. It was so great that Erik could explain this to me as there wasn't really any English to explain the significance of the layout, the mystery of which would have been lost on me without Eriks instruction.

We went to a few temples nearby and, due to Erik explaining, there are no pictures of this. Out of respect for the monks Chinese people do not take pictures at temples. A place of prayer and meditation. Therefore, I followed suit and did likewise. I cannot utter the emotions I felt as I walked candidly around in wonder. This is a truly special place and will not be forgotten by me.

After spending much time wandering we took some pictures that flowed into the lake and then had to make our way back. It was almost 16h00 and Erik was leaving at 18h30 from the hostel. We got back to the city centre and went to a famous food market that had all sorts of Chinese delicacies, my tastebuds were thanking me!

We went back to the hostel thereafter and had a drink before Erik had to depart. After that I just sort of hung out at the hostel with Olivia and a Chinese dude who couldn't speak any English. He appreciated it when I bought him three beers at the supermarket and in return, back at the hostel, he gave me a large glass of cognac! Was happy about that and sipped on it for quite a while! As the evening wore on a few Chinese guys arrived, I was sitting on my own and they came over and asked me a chess question: "Which has all the power, the King or the Queen". An obvious answer for anyone who knows chess. After that I watched a bit and then played the next game. Four Chinese guys against me! I ended up losing but it was pretty funny. Went to bed at about 00h30, had to get up at 08h00 to prepare for the two trains the next day.

Not much to report on Friday. Left Ningbo by train back to Shanghai at 09h50 for a connecting train to Kowloon in Hong Kong. Luckily with the backpack and the mini-bp on the front of my body the train station was within easy reach. Arrived in Shanghai at about 13h30 with my next train onwards to Kowloon at 17h09. Leaving mainland China to enter HK requires immigration control. Haven't had to do that in quite a while (not since going through Slovenia to Zagreb, Croatia, August 2003).

The 20 hour train ride was mostly uneventful, just read a book and kept to myself. Not speaking Chinese makes that rather easy! The only thing worth mentioning was that I didn't manage to sleep in the soft sleeper beds (2 beds on either side of the cabin, softer beds obviously), when I made my train ticket bookings they were already sold out. Instead I had to sleep within a hard sleeper cabin (sounds worse than it actually was). There are three beds either side and less space. Unfortunately for me I had to sleep on the very top bed. Was annoying trying to get up and down!

Train arrived at HK circa 13h05 and luckily didn't take much time to locate the hostel. HK post will be hopefully jotted up within the next couple of days. Peace out.

All the best,

Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit