Seasons greetings to all of you merry ladies and gents back home....

It doesn't feel much like christmas here, sat on an island in the baking heat, but be assured I'm thinking of you all.

Its been a while since the last blog, so I'm going to have to pick and choose again - have been extremely busy and only
felt like I stopped to chill when I got to Koh Phi Phi yesterday.

SAIGON - 22nd Nov to 23rd Nov
1st stop after Eddie released me from his adventure was to Saigon on a horrible overnight bus - I hardly slept at all.
I got off the bus in the suburbs with Eddie's friend who took me and his friends to an old, run-down, if not derelict in
my eyes, apartment block with 10 bamboo beds in one room! We slept an hour on the rock hard beds and had a pig trotter
breakfast before heading to the Kung Fu stadium for a competition. Good start! It was cool to see masters performing with me as
the only foreign spectator. However, it's strangely hypnotic and when my eyes started to close and my head bobbed I thought
I would get Kung Fu chopped out of the place!

I toured the city with some friends for the rest of the day seeing the War
Remnants museum, which was pretty grim viewing with all the Agent Orange Stories from the war followed by a Water Puppet Show
to balance my emotions. The Cu Chi Tunnels were the highlight of Saigon, 250km of interconnecting tunnels for the
guerilla fighters in the war - I have no idea how they coped living under here in such small spaces - I could just about fit
inside! Its the size of an A4 piece of paper! I also had the chance to fire some guns so I didnt refuse and smashed a target
to pieces with an M16 - LOVE IT!!

CAMBODIA - PHNOM PENH TO SIEM REAP - 24th Nov to 28th Nov
My time in Phnom Penh was pretty much more shock and horror when I visited S-21 prison and the Killing Fields of Cheung Ek.
The Khmer Rouge regime topped by Pol Pot between 1975 and 1979 meant that thousands of Cambodians were imprisoned, tortured and killed in horrific
ways. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw some of the remains at the Killing Fields, stored in a memorial stupa and my ears when I heard
the stories.

Ok...enough sadness Will!!

I have never seen anything like it...Angkor Wat in Siem Reap was unreal, topping even the Taj Mahal in my opinion - massive and casting a huge silouhette as the sun rose. The
surrounding temples were just as impressive, some over a 1000 yars old. There is one where the trees are younger, so they have grown on top of the temple walls wrapping there roots around it.
On both of my evenings in Siem Reap the buckets were calling and I hit Angkor What? Bar - twice.

FULL MOON PARTY BABY!!! KOH PHANGAN - 29th Nov to 4 Dec
PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!
Body paint, buckets, fire dancing, fire limbo, a beach and about 15,000 partygoers - bring on the rave!
I stayed in a wicked hostel called the Dancing Elephant with a party oriented owner and 25 party oriented travellers. We slept on bamboo beds side by side and spent the days chilling out
watching DVDs and the night...well partying until dawn 5 days in a row!! I loved that place and I'm thinking about going back for Xmas. Watch this
space...

KOH TAO - 4 Dec to 7 Dec
Time to put my brain into gear for the 1st time in 4mths and do some learning. 3 of us from Koh Phangan went together to do our PADI Open Water scuba
diving. It was weird having to learn again and sitting in the classroom instead of on a beach or in a bar didn't quite seem right! Our French
scuba teacher, Julian, put us in at the deep end and after about 1hr of theory we were out on the boat and in the sea. After a few lessons we we were
floating around under 18metres of water with some incredible sights - a blue-spotted ray, trigger fish, clown fish, angel fish and some very colourful
coral amongst others. It's yet another activity I think I'm going to be addicted to! Love it!

KOH SAMUI AND PHUKET - 8 Dec to 12 Dec
Another beautiful island where I met Neil in his swish hotel ready for a few more days partying in Thailand. I checked in to a very different place called
the Chavin Condotel. In hindsight I should have taken more warning when I saw the word Chav in the name!! We headed to the beach for a quick beer and then dinner,
but in the end we didnt leave after smoking a lot of shisha on the beach with some Ozzie's!! They love a party!

Phuket is swarming with ladyboys, guys walking around with 5ft lizards and some crazy parents who decide its a good idea to let there toddler children see it. WTF?!
You couldn't walk more than 5yards with out someone/thing grabbing your arm and dragging you into a bar!! We ended up playing gmaes with the Thai's and heading for some delicious Thai food at 4am.
The beach was fantastic though - blue as far as you can see and sand so fine you could use it as flour. Some weirdo's down there too - like an old man wearing a thong for example. ??

Enough is enough - time for a chill, and thats what I'm doing now - in Phi Phi, so Adios - I'm off for some seafood.

Greek.

PS. I'm really sorry there are no photos of Cambodia and the Full Moon party - unfortunately I went swimming with my camera so I lost them all! You can check out a few on Facebook that I have been tagged in though if you are interested.