Vox Pops

Coming out of Cambodia, I felt a great sense of relief in many ways. In retrospect, I don't think I was ready for the poverty I saw there, as well as the challenges it would present to me personally. I was really looking forward to Vietnam. Firstly, I love Vietnamese food, which is an excellent reason to go to any country in my opinion! Secondly, I'd heard so many fantastic things about Vietnam - that it was like Thailand was before the tourists got to it 15 years ago. But mostly, I was looking forward to seeing Mum, who had booked this trip before I took my redundancy. What better opportunity to travel with your Mum?? Best of all, Mum's friend Jodi is a travel agent who booked the whole trip, posh hotels, transfers and guides included. Bloody brilliant. Better still, she came too! After a few nervous moments with my visa, I managed to get a flight in the night before Mum and Jodi arrived. I'd heard so many things about the taxi drivers in Hanoi - that they'll ri

I was almost drunk on excitement when I landed in Cambodia. It looked so foreign as we descended. There were no homes as such to be seen in Siem Reap (near the airport anyway), just a vast expanse of flooded rice paddies, as far as the eye could see. I'd been nervous about the Cambodian visa - I made an effort to learn some Cambodian phrases before I disembarked to make sure I sweetened up the immigration officers, and it worked. Ah kohn is thank you in Cambodian, by the way. I had also been nervous about coming to Cambodia in the first place. I'd heard varying reports on how safe it was to travel there, with pickpockets, robberies and scams apparently commonplace. Also, I'd never been to a country which had been in a recent civil war before, with such horrific consequences. I wondered how much of this would remain in the Cambodian psyche and way of life? I was picked up by Tom from my hostel - he was riding an open tuk tuk pulled along by his scooter. I was stupidly excit

From the moment I left for The Sanctuary, I can only describe my mood as apprehensive. Apprehensive that I wouldn't know how to get there from Koh Samui airport (Which ferry? Which pier??), I didn't know what to expect when I got there, whether or not I would like it, or whether or not I would be able to go through with it. From the outset, I had committed myself to do a 14 day 'raw fast' - nothing but raw fruit and vegetables and no beer or coffee. Beer I can live without (believe it or not) however coffee is something entirely different. All I could think was "shitshitshitshitshit"... Let's just say things got easier when I got to Big Buddha Pier: And caught a long tail boat to Koh Pha-ngan (after some wrangling over the price, of course). I have to admit, when I first got off the boat, I thought "uh oh, this is a mistake". There were some seriously cool and beautiful people sunning themselves on the beach, looking at me over their hipster Ray