LAOSWe were introduced to rural Laos on our way to the capital, Vientiane, passing small villages down dusty roads as we weaved our way through the mountains, making slow, but pleasant, progress. At a stop off along the way, I decided to stroll down to the riverside, where Ben pointed out to me that the boats that littered the river were formed of huge hollowed-out bombs. I found it somewhat poetic that the people of Laos, having had more bombs dropped on them du...

VIETNAM After crossing the border (quite a feat, it turns out), we made our way to Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as it is popularly known, a labyrinth of bicycles and mopeds, an urban sprawl that broke up Vietnam's seemingly endless rows of paddy fields. On the way, we were introduced to the country's rural landscape, not too dissimilar to that of Cambodia's, although we noted the sudden emergence of the infamous conical hat, donned by labouring farmers and city d...

CAMBODIA So here we go. I'll start again where I left off - Cambodia. Prior to my travels, I knew relatively little about the country besides its dark recent past blighted by the war in Vietnam and the subsequent horrors of the Pol Pot regime, a period in which around 2 million people, a quarter of the population, perished.The ramifications of these tragedies are still evident today and our experience of the country were obviously influenced by them , although w...

So here I find myself, spread out on one of southern Thailand's many beautiful beaches, basking in the tranquility of the sun and sea, the calm after the storm that was the full moon party, enjoying the last couple of weeks I have away before returning home - the final segment of my journey. My diary, as many have no doubt noticed, has experienced a substantial elipsis - a gap in time which I will try to fill in in the next few entries. Finally reaching the beach...

DAY 62 - BANGKOK/BORDER/SIEM REAP And so the tour began. We departed on a mini-bus at around 7am and arrived at the border after a couple of hours or so, briskly purchasing our visas and making our way through to Cambodia, the fourth country of our trip. From there, we got back on the bus and made our way to Siem Reap, our first destination. It was clear, as we journeyed along Cambodia's surprisingly well maintained and clean roads, that the group were going to ...