Vang Vieng → Vientiane → Bangkok → Kuala Lumpur

It’s so fucking crazy that I spent 6 days in Vang Vieng. I didn’t even realise how much alcohol I drank, but I really miss that place! Anyway, we reached Vientiane after 6 hours of bus, really uncomfy trip, really really shit trip! That’s Laos! What can I say about Vientiane? Expensive, boring, unfriendly and too francaise. A bad combination I say. I spent just one night there and the day after I crossed the border to Thailand, destination: Bangkok.
Like I said before, I actually like Bangkok. Ok, I’m staying close to Khao San Road, not really the real Bangkok, but I had few trips around with buses, visited Chinatown, museum and other stuff, and hell yeah, I like this place. It’s foggy, dirty, crazy, unpredictable and insane, but I like it.
The first day in Bangkok, just after the 12 hours train trip from Vientiane, I was walking around, nothing special. Had some muesli, fruit and yoghurt at my favourite place, enjoying the craziness of the traffic in this city. Just before dinner who did I found in the street? Annelie, a dutch girl that I met in Chiang Mai, so we had few drinks together, was her last night in Bangkok and on her trip, so she was really sad and depressed, but I’m really good to cheer up people, so we had a great last night talking about dreams, travelling experience and so on.
The day after I had a great time with my new friend Bernardo, a photographer from Austria, a real traveller! We spent half day in MBK Shopping Centre and Pantip Plaza, looking for a camera bag for him and a winter jacket, a camera, and a pair of shoes for me. I didn’t found the camera, but I bought a beautiful pair of shoes and a really trendy jacket. The last part of the day was just walking around, chatting, having few beers and dinner! Tried fried crickets and worms too, I say quite delicious!
On the next day we went to the Lumpini park and we climb the tallest tower in Thailand, really impressive! I’m trying to upload all the pictures on Facebook, so keep an eye there!
My last day in Bangkok was dedicated to shopping again! We went to the HUGE MASSIVE weekend market, with 15000 stalls covering an area of 35 acres! Paradise for shopping 🙂 I found a cheap pair of Levis and a awesome Koi Fish T-shirt!
In the evening I took the flight for Kuala Lumpur and at the moment I’m in the airport, its 2.02 am and have to wait some hours for check in in any cheap hostel close to the cbd!

Big big update today, I think the next one will be in the freaking cold UK 😦

Cheers guys

Laos: Luang Namtha, Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng

My first stop in Laos was Luang Namtha, a pleasant place that lies on the bank of Nam Tha river, a popular spot for hill tribes trekking and kayaking. I spent two days in this little town, I had great food and a beautiful 40 kms biking around, visiting villages, exploring wild nature and jungle.
On the road I managed to sneak inside a wedding too! Ahah was brilliant, we got a fabulous Lao meal, beers and whiskey! I would like to thank Mr. Thongsing Oudomsyri from the Science and Technology head office for his kindness and hospitality! You are a good man!
After Luang Namtha I catched a bus for Luang Prabang, a 8 hrs trip of curves and breathtaking landscapes.
Luang Prabang is the former capital of Laos and a UNESCO World Heritage city. There was a lot of stuff to do around this beautiful place: waterfalls, caves, temples, night market and much more, but I met two old friends of mine, Regis and Kevin, and we decided to leave as soon as possible to save time and money to spend in VANG VIENG!!!
To anyone who’s been travelling anywhere in South East Asia, you’ve no doubt heard about “Tubing,” an activity that dominates the town and its visitors. Originally opened up by hedonistic backpackers, the city’s predominant ambiance is one of lethargy by day and debauchery by night: tourists sprawl out in the pillow-filled restaurants, termed “TV Bars”, watching re-runs of US sitcoms, Friends and Family Guy episodes until the sun goes down, and then party heavily until the early hours. Nevertheless, there is a growing number of more sedate foreign sights.
So what you can do in Vang Vieng?? Tubing, Lao style steam sauna, kayaking, hill and cave trek, rock climbing, playing on the very high swing over the river, drink buckets of alcohol and of course partying from the morning till late at night.
I want to be honest and I can say I’m not going to do everything, but of course I will enjoy the party time!

Cya soon 🙂

Bye Bye Thailand! Welcome to Laos!

Finally yesterday I crossed the river and entered in Laos!
What can I say about Thailand? I loved the beach life in Koh Tao and Koh Phangan, really touristic and really not-Thai. Bangkok it’s so messy and smoggy but with some charm! Everywhere in Thai it’s so full of tourists, nothing is original, just few places I reckon. I really enjoyed the temples, the ruins and learning about Buddhism and the history of Thailand.
So now I’m in Laos, a really poor country with beautiful and friendly people (until now). Today I had a mountain bike trip with other 3 guys around Luang Namtha, 35kms of sealed and unsealer road through villages. The nature here is so beautiful and so rich! Thanks to my italian charm 🙂 we managed to get into a typical Laos wedding and was really amazing be part of their tradition and ceremony. We drank so much whiskey and beers and had a traditional Laos meal! Pics on Facebook guys!

Now it’s time to rest. Cya!

The Trip Goes On

And after Bangkok I’m again on the road, just visited Kanchanaburi’s WWII museum, bridge on river Kwai and Erawan National Park with 7 beautiful waterfalls.
After Kanchanaburi I moved to Ayutthaya, second oldest capital of Thailand, really impressive the ruins scattered everywhere in the city.
Now I’m in Chiangmai, up north, I’m gonna spend some days around here, there’s a lot to do: jungle adventure, trekking, rafting, temples, markets, etc etc.
If you want to see all the pics check facebook!

and Bangkok!!

After 12 days spent between Koh Tao and Koh Phangan, I’m finally in Bangkok! The city is just full of life, smoggy like any other metropolis, but with some charm. I’m staying around Khao San, popular tourist place with loads of restaurants, street vendors, markets, flashing lights and massage center.
The next days I’m gonna explore the city and getting lost in the markets, trying all kind of food!

Cyaa

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

A helper monkey made this abstract painting, inspired by your stats.

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 5,800 times in 2010. That’s about 14 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 30 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 602 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 2gb. That’s about 2 pictures per day.

The busiest day of the year was March 10th with 214 views. The most popular post that day was \ Serpentine Falls /.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, tripaustralia.com, gaming.ngi.it, fremen.it, and basket.forumfree.it.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for miciotrip, micio trip, http://www.miciotrip.wordpress.com, dunsborough, and apprendista gelataio.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

\ Serpentine Falls / March 2010

2

\ Perth / February 2010

3

\ Australia Day / February 2010
1 comment

4

Perth part II February 2010

5

\ Dunsborough / February 2010