Yeah, Lao is a very quiet place compared to the rest of SE Asia, and most people seem to love the place because of that. It didn’t really do much for me though; maybe I’ll take another look there when I’m older and want to relax.

I only spent time in Vientiane and apparently there are a few backpacker party towns in Laos. Thing is I’m not really into the backpacker scene; yeah I know that I travel with my backpack, but I’m not really into hanging out with 18 year gap year kids (friendly as they may be, and good luck to them on their travels). I tend to do my own thing and quite often stay in less visited places that seem to have a nice feel for them.

Anyway I’m getting off topic here, Vientiane is a pretty enough place, it has a large French colonial influence with lots of pretty buildings and good food; like in Vietnam Baguettes are very popular here. Vientiane even has its own arc d’triumph! When I was there they were re-developing the Mekong river front, making it difficult to get near; my guess is that when there are cafes and a promenade  by the river the place will have a very nice feel to it. Though they do need to keep those pubs open longer!

Here are a few pictures.

Lao Pagoda

Lao street stall

The Lao version of the Arc de triomphe

Monking around in Lao

Deano

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The Isaan region of Thailand is quite different from the Chiang mai region where I spent the last 5 months or so. The people look different (they are of Khmer and Laos ancestry), they have a lot of food specialties, the area is more agricultural, is much poorer, and there are not as many tourists to be seen; this usually means that as a westerner that I got greeted by massive smiles everywhere I went.

Here are a few pictures from the Isaan region of Thailand. Note, for some reason the pictures are not being displayed correctly, hover your mouse over the picture to read the captions and to see where the pictures were taken in Isaan, Thailand.

1. Khorat (Nahkon Ratchasima)

2. Khon Kaen

Many old VW vans are to be sen in this region, probably travelled overland down the old hippy trail, and still going strong.

3. Nong Khai

4. Phimai.

The Khmer temple at Phimai, close to Khorat, predates the ones at Angkor (post to come) by a hundred years.

Thailands largest banyan tree (Sai Ngan) is also located  in Phimai.

Deano

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Macau, a former Portuguese colony is now part of China, but like Hong Kong remains an autonomous region for another 50 years or so. It takes about an hour to get to Macau by ferry from Hong Kong.

Some of the major attractions of Macau are the colonial buildings and the Portuguese influenced food. But the major attraction for most visitors to Macau is Gambling. Macau has 27 casinos, including the world’s largest, the Venetian. This is three times larger than the casino of the same name in Vegas. I wandered around some of the casinos at around noon, it was amazing how many people were dressed up to the nines at this time, and the amount of money being gambled. The minimum bet at most places was about £10 (compare this to one dollar in Vegas), I watched a girl lose about £10,000 in 10 minutes at Baccarat, she didn’t seem overly concerned. Judging by some of the shops at the Casinos, and the amount of money being gambled, it seems that there is a lot of money floating around in Macau.

After a few hours wandering around the casinos, I went to the old part of town to do some sightseeing.

If you are in the Hong Kong area, and have a day to spare then I recommend going to Macau on a daytrip. If you like to shop and gamble, and have serious money to play with then you will probably enjoy more than a few days in Macau.

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As many of you know Malaria is a hugely overlooked disease given the scale of it’s destruction. It is estimated that every year that there are up to 500 million reported cases of malaria. Of even greater concern, Malaria is thought to cause between two and three million deaths every year; these are mainly young children in Africa.

Although a lot of research has been carried out into combating malaria through mosquito control, stopping the plasmodium parasite, and through education, I feel that much more money should be spent on the fight against malaria given the deadly consequences of the disease.

For more information on Glaxo’s release of the 13,500 chemicals to the public domain, I recommend that you read this report in the guardian.

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There are cut and censored versions of smack my bitch up on you tube, but here is the proper version: all I’m saying is look at the hands, and it will all become clear.

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They are:

1. Uruguay - France, both these teams struggled to qualify for the world cup and required play off wins to get there. France do have some very good players and if they hit form could go a long way in this competition. Uruguay, as a South American team can probably beat most teams on the right day, but I can’t see them stringing a run of results t0gether to progress far overall.

2. Italy - Paraguay. Both world champions Italy and the Paraguayans qualified for the competition with ease. I expect this to be a very tough match for both sides, though the Italians must be the favourites.

3. England - Algeria. Stoked, I got an England match England had their best qualifying rounds ever, and have a great manager in Fabio Capello; the main weakness is the goalkeeper and the fact that we are dreadful at penalty shoot outs. Algeria reached the world cup by beating Egypt in a play off. As Egypt always seem to do well in the African nations cup, and next years tournament is in South Africa, then maybe Algeria can put up a bit if a fight. I’d expect England to win this though.

Overall I’m pretty happy with the tickets I get to see two of continental Europe’s  best teams (France and Italy were both in the last final);  My home country (England); two South American teams; and an African team. I’m really looking forward to the competition, not quite worked out how I am getting there yet, I may travel via India on Kenyan airlines, or go from the UK.

Deano

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Recently on my way back from Burma to Chiang mai I listened to The Jam and Pink Floyd for the first time in a long while.

I could never do a personal top ten of my favourite songs as a lot depends on my mood and who I remember at the time. But I thought I’d try to do a top ten for Pink Floyd; even this was difficult, anyway in reverse order we have:

10 Comfortably numb

9  Eclipse

8. Pigs

7. Hey you

6. Sheep

5. Money

4. Time

3. Echoes

2. Shine on you crazy diamond

1. Wish you were here

Yeah I’ve left tonnes of songs out, I think outside the top two that my favorite 10 pink floyd songs could change very often;  but I’m going for these today.

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These are Macau, Laos and Burma; I have also spent some time up in the North East of Thailand (an area known as Issan (also spelt as Isan, Isaan, Isarn, and Esarn  (now you know)).

Anyway I have a little bit of free time at the moment so am hopefully going to write about these places very soon. In the meantime here is a pictorial taste of things to come.

A Taste of Macau

Old Town Macau

A Taste of Laos

Monks in Laos

A Taste of Burma

Queuing in Burma

A Taste of Issan

A stormy night in Issan - Sunset over the Mekong river

Deano

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Tonight: to the river for Loi krathong; I will post pictures soon(ish).

Tomorrow: Burmese day.

Then, I will be in the Chiang mai area until mid-January.

Then, I’m heading overland to Ho chi minh city via Siam reap.

Next, I have a flight booked to KL for a couple of days (early-mid February).

From there, I’m going to Chengdu, China for a week to visit a friend.

Then back to KL (mid-late February).

Then I’m not sure, either going to go to Borneo (sabah) and the Philippines, then head to the UK and Turkey. Or maybe save Borneo and the Philippines for another trip and head back to Turkey for a few months.

June I’ll be in South Africa for the world cup.

So that is the general plan, as normal with my plans nothing is set in stone, so if anyone fancies a visit I can be pretty flexible about where I’ll be.

Deano

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Now it’s nice to look out of your window and view a temple.

Wat Lam Chang Chiang mai, Thailand

However after a night out drinking the Chang and watching the football - which finishes quite late due to time differences - there are a few little drawbacks. Such as getting an early morning wake up call:

Wake up bell at Wat Lam Chang, Chiang mai

And on special occasions, which nearly always correspond to me having a late night out I get woken up by some Wat music. Which is pretty cool, but not to great after about two hours sleep.

Chang Temple Drum

Wat Lam Chang music group.

Deano

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