January | 2013 | A Tramp In Asia

After booking my flight to Bangkok, I realised that your supposed to have a ticket booked out of Thailand to get a visa, so that they know you will be leaving within 30 days. This sent me into a panic but I decided to just risk it anyway. Luckily it paid off and no ticket was asked for.

I arrived on Khaosan road in the evening. The temperature in Thailand was a shock. It had been around 22 degrees Celsius in Nepal and not humid. In Bangkok it was about 35 and very humid. I walked down Khaosan road with all its neon signs trying to find a cheap looking guesthouse. I thought Lakeside had been pretty touristy but here was another level, the street was streaming with tourists and Hawkers selling all kinds of things from fake driving license to strange instruments that from what i can tell sound like a frogs mating call. The area has all the western fast food restaurants, KFC, Mcdonalds, Burger king. I decided not to stay long.

The next day I got up early, intent on finding the train station to book my ticket North to Nong Khai. Most of the tourists were still probably in bed nursing hangovers. A few however were just lying passed out on the street. It didn’t fill me with pride.

I ended up spending a couple of enjoyable hours wondering around real Bangkok looking for the railway station. Everyone had no idea what I was saying when I asked where Hua Lamphong station was. I ended up booking it in a travel agent.

The night train to the Laos border was great. It was like luxury class compared to the sleeper trains in India and it was only 2nd class.

Once i arrived in Laos i took a tuk tuk to Vientiane. The tuk tuk helpfully dropped me off at some random bus park no where near the area with the hotels. I guess thats what you get for bargaining on a price.

The next day I took a minibus up to Vang Vieng. Made famous by tubing. For anyone who doesn’t know what that is, the people set up a load of bars along the Namsong river and tourists used to float down in large inner tubes while drinking excessive amounts at the bars but a couple of months ago the government came and tore all the bars down as too many tourists were drowning (i think around 22 last year)

I found a guest house just outside of the main part of town and checked in. Laoy who ran the guest house was so friendly, he told me all the rooms were now full so he didnt have to work, we took his motorbike on a tour of some of Vang Viengs sights.

I spent a few relaxing days with Laoy and his family but decided to head for Hanoi for Christmas as my Visa for Vietnam had already started at the beginning of December. The journey took 31 hours in total. My bed on the sleeper bus was right at the back with 2 other people with 3 beds above us, it was nicknamed “the cave”. on the ceiling were written things like ‘ driver=heartattack’ and ‘road to hell’.

I spent 11 days in Hanoi including Christmas and New Years. It was a drunken blur of an 11 days, always trying to stay a step ahead of the inevitable hangover that was chasing me. I had my phone stolen on Christmas Eve. Despite this I managed to buy an old Russian 125cc 2 stroke Minsk motorbike for $350. On boxing day I was chatting to a group of guys from Chelmsford about my friend Sean who is in a coma, it turns out they know him and a bunch of my other friends back in London. They too were planning on driving down south on bikes so we decided to travel down together. The entire time we had been in Hanoi we haden’t seen the sun and it was cold. So as soon as the others found bikes we would head south in search of the sun.