After a day just hanging around Ho Chi Minh City I left for the airport at 4.00, changed planes at Singapore and then arrived in Perth at 7.15am. Had the usual trouble sleeping but wasnt helped by being in the worlds coldest plane and being sat next to a bloke with a serious nasal and fidgeting problem. It was brilliant to be in Australia, so clean, no need to worry about food, the signs make sense and people understand you, and me them. My accommodation didn't...

After a long moan at the Plaza Hotel for reasons given in the Bangkok post, I negotiated a Limo to take me to the airport for my flight to the last Asia destination of my trip, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). On arrival it seemed my potential Visa problem wasnt going to cause difficulties (the Cambodian Embassy got the departure date wrong but said "it should be OK" at Ho Chi Minh) so I got a cab to the Chancery Hotel, decent place nicely located opposite a ...

I cant even think of Bangkok without that Murray Head song coming to mind, but instead of one night I had three. Met Andy and Michelle at arrivals and they got dropped off at the lovely 4* Holiday Inn right next to the massive Central Plaza shopping complex. I went to a dodgy district and the Plaza hotel which was OK but just had no water at all one morning, not good toiletwise... I brought a replacement mobile on the first night, after getting a bit fustrated ...

Had to change flights at Bangkok but got to Phuket late afternoon after sitting in front of the man with the worlds worst cough and trying not to scratch my wasp sting from Chiang Mai. Met Andy and Michelle at the Divers Inn, a decent budget place but not up to Andy's (AKA Five-Star-Freddie) standards despite its free brekkie and air con rooms. We spent the first couple of days chilling, well if thats possible in near 100 degrees, on a big pale-sanded Karon Beac...

I got the Cambodian bus from Battambang to Phnom Penh, took about 6 hours and was so much more comfortable on a pukka road than the Seam Riep-Battambang trip. I had one night in transit back at the New York Hotel where I had one more evening drinking one to many at the FCC club on the Riverfront. Then another night in transit in Bangkok, followed finally my flight up to Chiang Mai on 17 Jan. For some reason for these two days I had a very nervy feeling something ...