Trust a camp tailor!

To be honest, not being a particularly keen shopper and doing no research into what to get and where to go other than taking a business card for the highly entertaining Mr Xe from a drunken Austrian I can't complain at all. Add to that the fact it was quite a laugh and for under 40 pounds I've two perfect pairs of business trousers but I have to say, my jacket has some distinctly effeminate lines to it!

I love Vietnam! It's almost a shame I'm enjoying myself so much here as it makes the fact I've got to stop traveling in a little over seven days and start working all the harder to accept, all I really want to do is stay on the road.

AK-47s aren't that loud, a bullet going off in its chamber while you're holding it however is! Yes within under 24 hours of landing over here I'd found myself flying around Ho Chi Minh City on the back of a moped in a mental trail of Vietnamese sprawled over the streets carrying everything from building supplies to pigs and the extended family to giant blocks of ice on the backs of there little Hondas and taken the slightly dubious step of having a go with the infamous kalashnikov rifle.

So what else have I been up to, well... having visited the Cu Chi tunnels and the War museum at Ho Chi Minh City it's amazing the locals don't appear to hold any resentment for the Americans. (even if the average age over here is only 21 so few survive to remember the war) Both the tunnels and the museum told a horrific tale of the years of conflict and the after effects. Just the 30m or so I crawled down on of the surviving passages told me I wouldn't have lasted long as either the Viet Cong living down there for months on end or the US troops that had to go in effectively blind to try to drive them out.

And now I'm in Hoi An with my suit having taken the train up to Hue (where I met the amazing Thu -crazy women that runs bar and moped tour company-, raced around the countryside on more mopeds and tried and failed to drink the town dry) before taking a bus back down here and in a few hours I'll be moving on again heading for the beach at Nha Trang.

Hope you're all having as much fun as I am,

Jonathan
Internet Cafe
Hoi An
Vietnam

I need a holiday

After a stressful week or so of completing work visa forms, writing references (I mean requesting references) and searching the city for the post office all my education certificates ended up at I felt like I needed a holiday before starting work, so in a little over an hour I 'll be boarding a flight to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) in Vietnam.

I hope all you you in England are keeping well even with the acts of the morons that appear to be intent on ruining the summer in London. Oh and besides the Australian cricket team trying to steel the Ashes yet again I hope the London bombs are't messing up your summer.

In other news I've eventually resigned to the pressure and posted some pictures of my travels (well of me on my travels) on my blog, so herere the links
Africa, Oz and Asia
be aware, I've avoided the 21st century and so don't have a digital camera so these aren't my pictures therefore I'm not responsible for their piss poor quality.

Other than that I've spent the last couple of weeks continuing my exploration of HK and associated islands and their bars, cafes and restaurants. So far my eating adventures haven't gone far, best I can report is fish eyes but can't say I was overly impressed though I'm told they do get better, we'll see.

Here in HK I've managed to get myself invited out drinking and onto more junks to sail round the islands and to house parties to stay at until the MTR (tube system) closes which is always entertaining. I've also taken to playing squash most weeks with Sean and a couple of his work mates in a very half hearted attempt not to be the fat waster you'll see in the photos if you look at them!

In preparation for my job I've now had the fancies haircut of my life (or rather same old cut, fancy barber), on Sean's expensive (for me) advice I went to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for a $250 trim which I have to say was nice. This was mainly because I went on a social with my new job a week or so ago to meet the whole team plus the clients from The Economist. Unfortunately I forgot it was a agent/client thing and went on to win the first game of bowls we then all played, d'oh! Thankfully no one seemed to mind and I sorted it out in the second game claiming beginners luck (without having to be a liar if I'm honest) and finishing nicely mid table.

Only other news is that as Sean and Bev have been in the UK for that last few days I've been dog sitting, fun fun fun. We both survived with only a few fights and minimal injuries but I feel I've earned my keep! And that's me so now to Vietnam.

Until the next time,

Jonathan

Honk Kong Airport
Lantau Island

Acclimatised

Oh yes, you'll be pleased to hear that after 4 weeks that at least to a point I've acclimatized to Hong Kong's 95% humidity. That's not to say I'm not still sweating like Jeremy Beadle in a glove shop still, but I appear to of got over the humidity induced hangovers!

So back to the important stuff, eating! I'm told that over here I really should be able to get hold of snake and turtle, lizards and god knows what else but as yet all I've managed to do is to select my own prey. Yes that's right to ensure freshness in all things many of the local restaurants give you the choice of countless fish, lobsters, shell fish and anything else you could care to find, from buckets outside their kitchens, so I’ve been judge and jury to fish, prawns and squid with the chef being the executioner, boiling, frying and slicing them up to be eaten raw!

I've not seen a great deal of new wild life out here other than lots of bugs including a preying mantis but while exploring the local markets I've found all sorts of stuff including tanks of live frogs, turtles, box loads of chickens more fish and in the bird market thousands and thousands of them of all shapes and sizes, and this appears to be normal out here…

I've actually been at least a little bit active out here in HK, I've tagged onto a few of Sean's mates and have an hour of squash each week, I've also taken his mountain bike out and tried to kill myself around the parks out here and probably most entertaining is the wind surfing.

Now knowing how to surf (ish) and sail (double ish), and obviously being a natural in water, windsurfing should not of been a problem for me, and if is fair to say I was a natural in the water. However, every time I climbed out of it onto the surfboard things changed a little especially when the waves got up! After a couple of sessions of a few hours I was exhausted, sunburnt and blistered but I don't think it would be too much of an exaggeration to say I'd pretty much become "king of the seas" save for tacking which still regularly required falling off (into water resembling a rubbish dump) and turning a bit more manually!

I've also been out and about visiting a few of the monasteries around HK. The most impressive out here seem to be the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery and The Big Buddha at the Po Lin Monastery, yes, they have big things here as well! As the name suggests the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery has thousands of Buddhas, in fact over 13,000 (so the book says, I decided against counting) and unfortunately almost as many steps. The Big Buddha is again at the top of a hill and on Lantau, it's a 22m tall bronze monster and I have to say it puts the banana, merino, rocking horse and even Larry the Big Lobster to shame and there is a superb view from the top.

This e-mails final point has wrong footed me a little, it would appear that always landing on your feet can do that sometimes. I've got myself a job but unfortunately it may actually be too good to leave after just a couple of months to continue my travels so I may be staying here in Hong Kong for a bit longer. The job is as Senior Account Manager for OgilvyOne on the Economist Asia Pacific account so assuming the Chinese authorities grants me a visa and I don't get fired it may be rather fortunate that I've got over the humidity hang over!

And that's me in HK so until the next time....

Jonathan

House of 2 mutts (they got a 2nd - keeps 1st company apparently!)
O Pui Village
Hong Kong