The most common method of getting to Luang Prabang in Laos from Northen Thailand is to have a three day boat trip down the Mekong River starting from Huay Xai. I did not have that much time on my hands and so was delighted to find a one day boat trip advertised by Chiang Mai booking agent. So at 9.30pm on the same day as my cooking course, I left my guest house and was met by a local man who loaded me into the back of a pickup truck and after giving the driver so...

After another gruelling trek through the jungle back to East Railey beach, I boarded another longtail boat back around the coast to where a minibus could reach and take a group of us to the bus. On arrival at the bus station we all stared ominously at a banged up bus in the corner of the yard, all thinking 'surely not'. About ten minutes later the engine of the bus started, on the third or fourth attempt, and we all boarded. My choice of seat could have been bett...

From Bangkok I managed to get a taxi into Khao San Rd, the main backpacker centre in the city, with the aim of finding a particular travel agent in order to get a bus to Surat Thani in the south. This exercise signalled the end of my trust in my guidebook (only published in March 08) as the didn't exist! I eventually decided to instead use the public bus system and got another taxi to the Southern bus terminal and got picked up a nice cheap overnight bus, which a...

Ok, so from Hoi An I left for Hue. On my arrival I did my usual 'grab my bags and run from the touts' thing to avoid all sorts of scams between buses and hotels. I eventually found my bearings and when I was almost at the street I was trying to find for a hotel, I Vietnamese man saw my guitar and struck up a conversation. I was wary at first even as he insisted he was not trying to sell anything. After a while of talking, though he seemed fairly harmless and he a...

So from Phnom Penh I left for the Vietnamese border on a nice air conditioned bus, a little worried about the crossing as I had been told it would be a difficult one. I was then pleasantly surprised to find that we spent no longer than 15 minutes at the border with no hassle whatsoever, and so we continued on to Ho Chi Minh city, which the locals still call Saigon. On the bus I met Mexican guy called Daniel who had studied at the LSE in London and ended up sharin...