After almost a straight day of travelling, we arrived in Palenque. The bus ride there was pretty torturous though, as we spent the night on the night bus, which, in typical latin american form, blasted the air con all night. Since I had accidentally forgotten my sweater in the bus station, I was pretty frigid all night. Luckily, we arrived in San Cristobal a lot earlier than we were supposed to, so we were able to jump on the first bus to Palenque. Unfortunately, the bus to Palenque had no air con and the road was pretty curvy, so the trip went from freezing to boiling and vertigo-inducing.

Anyways, it was definitely worth it to get to Palenque. We took a colectivo (basically a mini-van that people use take them places) to El Panchan, an area in the jungle near the ruins where people stay. It was gorgeous - we had a nice cabin in the middle of the jungle and there was a great restaurant / bar with a cool live band, hippie bead stands, and jungle all around it. We ran into a bunch of people we had met in either Puerto Escondido or Oaxaca and ended up having a blast with them all night.

The next day, we went to the ruins and they were, simply put, spectacular. Probably one of the most spectacular sights I've seen so far, and not just in Mexico. The ruins are Mayan and in the middle of the jungle, so they are layed out on different terraces with jungle, waterfalls, and flat green area in between them. We spent all day climbing around the ruins, then checked out the museum and headed back to El Panchan. On the way back to El Panchan, there were Mexican guys who kept jumping out of the bushes offering to sell Magic Mushrooms, which was pretty funny as well.

Unfortunately, since we all have to fly out of Cancun on the 19th, the next day we all jumped on the bus to Tulum, so we weren´t able to stay in Palenque as long as I would have liked, but it was definitely a worthwhile stop. I've now arrived in Tulum, and I'll be staying here for a few days or so.

Adios!

Palenque remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I have to say, Puerto Escondido is pretty cool. Playa Zicatela is gorgeous, there are waves (although the surf hasn´t been that great since I´ve been here) and the party scene here is better than most places in Mexico. After arriving last Thursday, we went out and had a big night, then switched over to a 3 bedroom apartment that was pretty sweet for the rest of the week. It was called the "Hippy Room" as there were funky paintings all over the room.

To be honest, I don't have much to write because the last week has basically been spent just partying, chilling out in a hammock or on the beach, bodyboarding (because the surf wasn´t that great and I´m pretty out of shape, I didn´t end up getting a surfboard and got a bodyboard instead - still massive fun) and recovering from my drunken sojourns, so there´s not too much else to tell. The first few nights here were pretty mad, but after the weekend most of the tourists took off so it´s been a bit quiet since then. We also had our first incident of "Dangerous Mexico" when my Aussie mate got mugged by a Mexican with a tiny knife who grabbed a dollar out of his hand and ran away, which was a bit random.

Anyways, tonight we´re taking a 12 hour overnight bus to San Cristobal de Las Casas, then jumping on another 5 hour bus to Palenque to see the Mayan ruins and hike through jungles to get to waterfalls.

Hasta Luego

Una Semana en Puerto Escondido (A Week in Puerto Escondido) remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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When I woke up the next day, there was once again no power, which signalled to me that it was time to leave Mexico City to Oaxaca. Unfortunately, quite a few people wanted to go to Oaxaca as well, so I ended up having to wait at the bus station for four and a half hours. I met a couple cool aussies there, and when we arrived in Oaxaca (a few hours late) we ended up having a pretty big night.

Oaxaca is ... ok. The central zocalo is nice, but it really doesn't have anything to distinguish it from any other Mexican town (except the food). We spend a few days there, but there was nothing really exciting to report. On New Years, we went out for a fancy meal which involved fried, spicy grasshoppers and got tanked on tequila, but after midnight, most of the Mexicans went home with their families so the party scene was surprisingly boring.

After a day recovering from all the tequila we drank, the day after we climbed up to the Mixteca ruins of Monte Alban. The ruins were up on a mountain and pretty cool, so we spent a few hours exploring them, but after that, we were all pretty much finished with Oaxaca, so we booked a minibus to Puerto Escondido. The ride to Puerto Escondido was ... torture. It was pretty much the worst ride I've ever had in my life. The minibus was fine, but there are so many curves (that the driver chose to hit at a high speed) that it was basically 6 hours of me wanting to vomit. I've never had motion sickness that bad before - if you want to experience it, I recommend spinning in a circle for 6 hours.

Anyways, we are in Puerto Escondido now and, even though we only arrived a few hours ago, it seems really cool. The beach is gorgeous and there are loads of people around. If the waves look good tomorrow, I'm gonna rent a board and get my surf on.

Regreso en Mexico para Ano Nuevo remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The best way I could describe Mexico City is as a full-on acid trip. It´s been that amazing and bizarre at the same time. My first day in Mexico City, my mate Sam and I started out by checking out the Zocalo, or city square. It´s a massive square in the center of town surrounded by historical buildings, but unfortunately at the moment, you can´t see the main square itself because there is a massive outdoor ice-skating rink in it. For some reason, I´d never put ice-skating and Mexico together, but there it was. From there, we checked out the Government Palace, which in itself was a bit boring, but the murals painted on the stairwell and second floor by Diego Rivera were amazing.

Also in the Zocalo are the first major cathedral in Mexico (built right over the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan by Cortez), an old Aztec temple they found ten years ago under a church, a bunch of shops and organ grinders everywhere. From there, we walked around the city some more, just checking out the buildings and neighbourhoods. That night, we ended up having tequila poured down our throats by the hostel staff and getting completely annihilated, before I headed out on the town with my mexican amigo and some other people. First, we went to the Spanish Cultural Center, which had a decent DJ but started to close right after we each bought a drink. Then, we went to a club on top of a building near the Zocalo, which had an amazing view, but not many people.

The day after, we got a bunch of people together and headed to Xochimilco, a series of rivers and floating gardens that has been around in some way or another since the Aztecs. We rented a boat for a few hours and went sailing around the rivers, and I have to say, it was one of the maddest things I´ve ever seen. Trippy, fluorescent colored boats sailing down the rivers, with Mexican families dancing on the boats, boats full of mariachis that sail up to your boat to play songs, floating street food stalls, and all other kinds of mayhem. We even went to a tree that had a bunch of mutilated dolls and stuffed toys hanging from it, as an old Mexican fished them out of the water after a local girl drowned to appease the "river gods".

After that, we went to the Dolores Olmeda Museum, and it honestly has to be the trippiest museum I´ve ever seen. The museum is a walled complex, with huge gardens and the buildings themselves looking like an old castle/ mansion. The gardens have sculptures all over the place, with peacocks and small, black hairless dogs running around everywhere. I walked out of one of the exhibits and there was a peacock standing right in front of me! The museum itself is separated into a bunch of different galleries with a lot of work by Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and one of the exhibits in a building that looks like a castle is full of man-sized skeletons surrounded by bright, fluorescent artwork. There was also another building in which you could only walk a certain way through the exhibit and you had the staff there telling you exactly where to go.

The next day, we went to Teotihuacan, the ancient Toltec site about 45 minutes outside of Mexico City. Teotihuacan is comprised of two giant pyramids, the pyramid of the moon and the pyramid of the sun (which is the third largest pyramid in the world), a long avenue called the "Avenue of the Dead" and a large temple complex on the south end. The view from the temple of the moon was amazing, and we spent the day wandering around the ruins and climbing the pyramids.

On Tuesday, Sam, Ying and I went to the National Museum of Anthropology, which is supposed to be the biggest and best museum of its kind in all of the Americas. On the way there, we walked through a giant park and Sam and I decided to buy "Lucha Libre" wrestling masks and started to pretend to wrestle in the park. The Mexicans around us looked at us like we were completely mad. We then went to the Museum, and we posed in various places in the exhibits with our masks. The museum itself was pretty cool, but it´s kind of hard to keep your excitement after you´ve looked at the thousandth piece of pottery or figurine. The replicas that they´d made of some of the ruined temples and statues (like the Aztec sun stone) were extremely impressive. That night, Sam and I went to the Mexico Arena and caught a live "Lucha Libre" match. It was insane. The acting was about as bad as in the WWE, but it was way more entertaining and the crowd was really into it. After that, we went back to the hostel and joined in the party there with our masks - the whole night was pretty mad.

Now, I´m off back to Canada for a week for the holidays, so I´ll start blogging again when I´m back on the road.

Mexico City...Surrealism at it´s Finest remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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After arriving in Guanajuato on the overnight bus, the first thing I did was crash out. The second thing I did was to walk around. Put simply, Guanajuato is gorgeous. It's basically a small city, but it's one of the more important cities in Mexican history. For one, it was the site of a lot of activity during the Mexican revolution. For another, it was the home of some of Mexico's greatest artists, like Diego Rivera, which has resulted in a lot of museums and art exhibits. Third, it had one of the world's richest mining veins, so it became one of the wealthier cities in Mexico with loads of European style outdoor cafes. Finally, it's home to one of the best art universities in Mexico, resulting in a large student population with a decent nightlife. If you put those things together, the end result is Guanajuato today.

I spend the first day wandering around the streets of Guanajuato and taking in the architecture. Lots of color, lots of interesting buildings, lots of ... churches (this is Mexico). Way too many Mexicans snogging around the clock though. After a few hours of walking around, I ended up meeting up with an English guy I'd met in Zacatecas, Sam, and a Chinese girl I'd also met in Zacatecas, Ying. The next few days were spent exploring the city, climbing a hill to check out a statue of a Mexican revolutionary, checking out art museums, the nightlife, and a Mummy museum (which was really cool). Also, on Wednesday it was the Virgin of Guadalupe day, one of the biggest days of the year in Mexico. People were lining up (over a kilometer long) to try to get into a church at the top of the hill. There were tons of food stands, people selling stuff, makeshift food courts, and little kids running around dressed up in their little costumes. Overall, it was a pretty interesting experience.

Our last night in Guanajuato, Sam and I had the brilliant idea to drink a whole bottle of kahlua (because it's so cheap in Mexico). The night started off fine, as we met a Canadian guy and a few European girls who were studying in Guadalajara, but apparently drinking a whole bottle of liqueur is not a good idea as we both ended up feeling really sick and messed up that night. Like, in a constant state of having to vomit. Even though we were messed up (or maybe because of it) though, we both ended up being really ...strange... with Sam giggling like a school girl and feeling like he was on mushrooms, and myself offering up gifts to the Virgin of Guadalupe draped in a towel... and things that were even stranger. Everybody on the roof ended up laughing half the night, but when I went back down to go to the bathroom, I ended up feeling really messed up so I went to bed. The only problem was that I was so sick that I had to curl up into the fetal position because if I unfolded myself, I felt like I was going to die. After a few hours of constantly trying to get to sleep, I finally managed to pass out, but unfortunately, we both missed out bus to Mexico City the next day.

We did manage to get the next bus, but we were both in such rough shape that the bus ride was a total ordeal. By the time we arrived in Mexico City, we were tired, hungry, hungover, and generally not in a fantastic state. Plus, the Mexican couple in the seats in front of us kept making out and giggling and acting like 12 year old school children. We both felt like taking a baseball to them. Eventually, safe and sound, we arrived at our hostel, but neither of us was really in top shape so we just ended up crashing out.

Next blog...Mexico City!

5 Days In Guanajuato remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The bus took a bit longer than I expected, so I didn´t get into Guadalajara until about 9 pm. After heading downtown, I got a bit lost and realized that walking down dark, vacant streets in a big Mexican city with all of my bags is probably not a good idea. Luckily, after stopping a few times at hotels to ask where I was, I finally ended up where I wanted to go safe and sound. It was a bit wierd to get back into the staying at hostels thing, but you know you´re staying at a good place when you check in and they give you a shot of Tequila. After heading out for some tacos, I met some guys and ended up getting a bit pissed on Mezcale, a drink that´s like Tequila, just nowhere near as pure.

The next day, I ended up going to Tequila with the guys I had met the night before. We went on a tour of the Jose Cuervo factory, which, to be honest, was a massive ripoff. Ten bucks for a tour, where all you get is a tiny little margarita at the end. At least we made up for it by stealing a few more from the bar before we left. After that, we went to a little tequila shop for "tequila tasting". Considering the fact that we basically were just drinking their tequila and not paying for it, the staff was pretty nice. We ended up buying a bottle of Don Julio Anejo, a pretty premium bottle of tequila and heading back to Guadalajara. After dinner (and getting lost again on the way back from the bus station), we drank the whole bottle between the three of us and went out clubbing with another guy from America. The place we went to wasn´t that great, but we still had a blast.

Because there was a massive electronic concert near Guadalajara, there were prettty much no beds in town for the Saturday night so I decided to head off to Zacatecas, a mining town about 5 hours from Guadalajara. It would have been cool to go to the festie, but paying 120 bucks to go by myself to an outdoor concert in the middle of winter didn´t seem like a great idea. Plus, how good of a festie could it have been if the headliner is Bjork??? Zacatecas is a historic mining town with a lot of churches, cathedrals (standard Latin American fare), but the main draw is that there is a 1000 m deep mine shaft with a night club in it . Also, because the rock in the area is pink limestone, the whole city is pink, which is a bit strange. After arriving in Zacatecas, I met a few Scandinavian guys and we had a few drinks before heading to the mine shaft. I kind of feel like I´m repeating myself every time I say this, but once again, the party wasn´t that great. It seems like pretty much every time I´ve gone out so far in Mexico, I´ve been a bit disappointed. The layout of the club itself was pretty cool, being in a mine shaft and all, and it was pretty funny to see the waiters all wearing hardhats, but the guy to girl ratio there was about 20 to 1 and there were only rich mexicans who were basically there to sit in their groups and show off. Not my ideal scenario. On the plus side, the drinks were surprisingly cheap and the 3 of us ended up downing a bottle of vodka.

Apparently in Zacatecas, every Sunday there is no power from the morning until 3 in the afternoon, and the whole city was basically closed (Sunday + Latin Country + small town = nothing open) so I decided to walk around town. It was actually a pretty picturesque town - cobblestone streets that head off in every direction, lots of little walkways, lots of churches, and lots of... pink. However, since my plans changed again and I´m now going to be flying home for Christmas on the 19th, instead of spending a few more days there to see how the city is during the day when places are actually open, I ended up taking a 3 am bus to Guanajuato, which is where I´ll be staying until Thursday or Friday.

Hasta Luego

Tequila in Tequila and a Party in a Mine Shaft remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The original plan was to paint the boat and have it in the water by the beginning of December to sail down the coast of Mexico and Central America.

It turns out that didn't work.

We managed to get the boat painted and put in the water, but after a night of drinking, we woke up to find the bottom of the boat flooded - turns out there was an engine leak. After spending almost the last week getting everything fixed, it turns out the engine has crapped out. Based on my luck so far, I'm starting to think that Mexico is some kind of magical place where everything ceases to work.

Anyways, after spending the last month doing almost nothing but working on the boat (with a few fun nights out), I have to say I'm pretty sick of both Puerto Vallarta and boats. Puerto Vallarta is basically pure tourist cheese. Insanely expensive massive resorts with crappy little beaches in front of them, a pretty cool boardwalk, and massively overpriced clubs full of aging tourists...definitely not my definition of heaven. Although, granted, my current frame of mind probably isn't helping things.

Because of this, I've decided to head off to southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize and then Central Mexico. If the boat is fixed by then, maybe I'll still do the yacht trip, if not, it's down to the rest of Central America. My first stop... Puerto Escondido, a surfing town just off the bay of Tehuantepec, to get my surfing groove on.

Change of Plans... remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Luckily, Chris is pretty good with cars, so after fooling around with the car, he got it started and we made it to Nogales, where we crashed in the camper. You wouldn't think Arizona would be cold, but at night in November it's FREEZING! I was so cold I could hardly move, so we decided to make an early start. We crossed the border with no problems (we got the green light), but once we got to the Mexican side of Nogales, blue smoke started to come out of the hood and the brakes on the RV seized up. Here we were, in the middle of a crappy Mexican border city, tired, still frozen from the night before and then the brakes gave out, so I wasn't exactly the happiest person. Luckily, Mexican mechanics are a dime a dozen and pretty Macgyver-like in their abilities to fix up cars, so we were on the road again a few hours later.

We got as far as San Carlos, a small beach town in Northwest Mexico. We pulled into an RV park and camped out there. We were both pretty exhausted from the 3 days of driving and the running around in Denver before that, so we decided to chill out on the beach the next day. The beach was ok - pretty rocky and the beach town was pretty small and not happening, but when we tried to leave the next day, the RV wouldn't start AGAIN. We had to have a mechanic replace the starter, which ended up with us spending another day in San Carlos.

On Thursday, once again we decided to get up early and try to make it to Mazatlan, but unfortunately the brakes seized up AGAIN. It turns out the caliper on the front tires wasn't that great, so we had to spend the morning in Guaymas getting it replaced and repaired. That was a bit of an experience in itself, as we had to take the RV to the mechanic's place in his neighborhood, so it was kind of neat to see how northern mexicans live. We had a drunk Mexican guy trying to feed us tequila at about 10 in the morning! Since we had a long drive ahead of us, we didn't end up drinking any though. We spent the whole day driving to Mazatlan and planned to go out partying that night, but we both ended up crashing out after the long drive, so I didn't get any partying done .

Today, after finally having some good luck with the RV, we were able to make it to Sayulita, a small beach / surfing town about a half hour north of Puerto Vallarta. We are going to chill out and (hopefully) party it up for the next few days - and maybe buy a surfboard - before heading to PV to start working on the boat. After the way this week has gone, I'll be looking forward to it!

The Motorhome Diaries (Los diarios del Motorhome) remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I met Dan at the hotel, we dropped off our gear and headed out on the town. Since he lives nearby in Guangzhou, he was able to show me around and we started off at a swank Japanese restaurant getting blasted on sake (I know, it's a bit lame to be going for Japanese in China, but whatever, it was good). After that, we jumped on the metro to Hong Kong island and went partying in the main party area. It was pretty cool, old cobblestone streets, lots of different themed bars and we ended up going to an "ice vodka bar" which is basically just a bar with a room that has the air-con on high and fake plastic ice blocks. After that, the night just got progressively drunker and crazier and ended up with us getting kicked out of a lot of places.

The next day, we went for a walk around Kowloon and took the Star Ferry over to Hong Kong Island for a bit. Unfortunately, I had to fly out in the afternoon and Dan had to catch a train back to China, but Hong Kong is a place I would definitely go back to.

One Night in Hong Kong remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Since I only had 9 days and Sam only had 5, we really had to rush Cambodia, but I am so glad I went. When we arrived at the airport, it was pouring down rain and we decided to take a tuk tuk to a guesthouse we read about on wikitravel near the riverside, since we didn't want to stay in one of the guesthouses near the lake while it was raining - neither of us was rating cold showers and loads of mosquitos when the weather was crap already. Apparently, we picked the slowest tuk tuk in the whole of Cambodia as well, as it took us about an hour to get to the riverside and even then, he got lost a few times so the whole ride took us almost 2 hours (by contrast, the motorbike taxi from the riverside that took me to the airport when I left took 20 minutes). When we were looking for a hostel on my printouts, we found a hostel that said it had a bar and some pool tables, so we thought it would be cool. Well, it turned out to be in a "hostess bar"! Since both of us were tired and didn't fancy looking around, we decided to stay the night there. We ended up going out in Phnom Penh partying it up all night, and it was pretty crazy.

After only getting about 2 hours of sleep each, we woke up and took motorbikes to the bus station to jump on a bus to Siem Reap. We were pretty lucky, as the bus was empty so we both got to stretch out, but the loud, insane Cambodian karaoke music that was going on on the bus made it a bit difficult. I remember having a dream that everybody I was talking to was just saying "yep, yep, yep" and it got me so angry that I woke up - to hear a Cambodian song going "yep, yep, yep, yep".

After pulling up in Siem Reap, dazed and confused, we jumped in a tuk tuk and stayed at a place called Golden Village or something like that. Not bad value, and cheap as well. Since both of us were knackered, we just chilled out in the bamboo lounge upstairs drinking beer and then went for a walk around town. At night, we went to "Bar Street", which had a couple nice places, but nothing was groundbreaking.

The next day, we went to Angkor Wat, and wow, was it amazing! We picked the right time of the year to go, since it's the end of the rainy season and everything is green and lush. I really can't describe how amazing the temples were. We went to Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and Ta Prohm (what they call the "Small Circuit") and spent all day looking at the temples. We even snuck into the restricted areas of Ta Prohm to take some cool pictures. We were lucky too as the weather was quite nice all day. After a day of temples, we decided that what better way would there be to celebrate than with a "Happy Pizza"! Well, the pizza was pretty happy and so was I for the rest of that night - except for the whole bouts of paranoia.

For the 4th day in a row, Sam and I woke up after only a few hours of sleep to jump on our bus back to Phnom Penh. When we arrived, I decided not to stay at the same guesthouse as before (although Sam was pretty keen) and stayed at another place near the riverside that was cheaper, just as nice and, oh yeah, wasn't full of hookers... We had a few drinks at our hotel, which included a drink called the "Roaring Temple" - involving vodka, red bull, fruit punch, and... VIAGRA! Man, that drink really messes up your head.

We ended up having one last crazy night in Phnom Penh before we decided to go to the firing ranges, the Killing Fields and S-21. I ended up firing the AK-47 - it was really cool at the time, but if I would have went to the other places first, I probably wouldn't have. Put simply, the Killing Fields and S-21 are too of the most horrible things I've ever seen. I can't even imagine the horrors that went on there, and I'm glad that i can't. All of the pictures of the people who knew they were about to die and were treated so savagely and horribly - S-21 is a place that I'm glad that I went to, but I would never go back to again. It was pretty disturbing.

After that, Sam headed back to Bangkok and I jumped on a bus to Sihanoukville, a beach town in the south of Cambodia. On the way down, I met a cool South African guy named Chris and we decided to go to a place called "Monkey Republic". It was a cool place, but it was full, so we stayed a few doors down at a place called "Nick & Craig's". Sihanoukville was amazing. I met some cool people there and we just hung out, lazed around and checked out the beaches, which were amazing as well. Otres Beach kind of reminds me of how Thailand was a long time ago. I stayed there for 4 days, then it was back to Phnom Penh, back to Bangkok, and off to Hong Kong

Temples, Trippin and Beaches in Cambodia remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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That being said, I didn't spend a lot of time in Bangkok the last month or so I was there, except when I was working. I took a few trips to Pattaya with some of my mates from both Bangkok and abroad, as well as a trip to Hua Hin with my Thai bird. To be honest, I'd heard a lot of bad press about Pattaya while travelling, and I'll have to say, it was nowhere near as bad as I expected it to be. Yes, it is a den of sleaze and filth, but if you can suspend your views on what is right or wrong, it can be a pretty big blast as it reminds me of a cheesy, sleazy version of Vegas and Miami mixed into one. The beaches aren't the greatest, but when you're chilling on a beach on a hot day with your friends and loads of cheap, cold beer, you really can't complain.

Hua Hin on the other hand, I wasn't a big fan of. The beaches were nice, but because the place is popular with upmarket Thais, it's expensive. The ladies on the beach were trying to charge about 50 baht for the same pineapple I could get in Bangkok for 10, the guesthouses were way too expensive and the town itself looks like any other small town in Thailand. Good thing I had company to pass the time

In the middle of September, it was my mate Dan's 30th birthday, so he brought 15 of his friends from Australia and we partied it up for one night in Bangkok, one night in Pattaya where we rented out the presidential suites and the front half of the hotel and had a crazy party - which unfortunately involved fines and the police. Something about lawn chairs being thrown off the balconies and too many other guest complaints, but it had nothing to do with me.... really. The next day we caught mini-buses to the airport and flew to Krabi to get to Ko Phi Phi. It's a good thing we chose Krabi instead of Phuket, as the flight to Phuket was the one that crashed - we were in the air at the same time, how freaky is that. After landing in Krabi, we took a speed boat to Ko Phi Phi, but since there was a massive storm we ended up jumping the boat over 3 metre swells the entire way - it was loads of fun, but man were my back and arse sore.

On Ko Phi Phi, we did loads of fun things - chilling on the beach, partying at night, drinking whiskey buckets the size of garbage cans, and we rented a speed boat for a whole day. We went cliff jumping, went to loads of different islands, played football on beaches, fed bananas to monkeys, and in the end, we ended up wakeboarding in the ocean while the sun was setting. It was good fun the whole trip.

From Phuket, we took boats to Phuket, but by then, everybody was pretty knackered from the trip, so we just ended up having a big seafood dinner and crashing out, the next day Dan and his girlfriend went to China, Dan's friends went back to Perth, and I went back to Bangkok for my last week of work.

My last week of work was nothing special - my body was pretty destroyed from the non-stop drinking of the 10 ten days before that, plus the fact that I had a lot of packing to do and errands to run. I went out on my last night with some friends, but ended up getting way too wasted and had to be sent home at about 1. The next day, my friend Sam and I flew to Phnom Penh.

Last month in Bangkok remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Finally did the work search thing on Monday, and out of the 500 or so jobs on Ajarn.com, I applied for 8 of them. Let's just say that a lot of Thai employers are completely taking the piss in what they're asking for and what they're willing to do for it. However, I ended up getting interviews and being offered jobs by all of my applications and I ended up getting lucky. Why? Because the job I've taken involves me teaching hot, rich thai girls english for a pretty good salary (in Thailand, at least) and never having to work in the morning, so other than my next visa run, it's looking like I'm going to be here for a while.

If anybody is coming to Bangkok, give me a shout!

Bangkok...for the third time... remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I'm now back in Chiang Mai and I'm heading to Myanmar tomorrow for just one day to do a visa run. After that, it's back to Bangkok to look for work. I'm soo overjoyed at the thought of that...

Back to Chiang Mai remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Anyways, after spending a couple days here just chilling out, I went for an elephant ride. The first bit was hard, getting used to the elephant and the massive toll it was taking on my thighs, but overall I really enjoyed it. Our elephant was a bit naughty and I don't think it liked us that much because it kept blowing snot all over us. Also, the guy I was riding with was a bit of a bigger lad and after it tossed us in the river, it wouldn't let him get back on.

I'm going to spend another day or two in Pai chilling out before heading to Mae Hong Son to do some trekking.

Riding Elephants in Pai remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Songkran is Crazy!!! remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Anyways, I'm going to stay in Chiang Mai until after Songkran, the Thai New Years festival which is basically just a massive drunken waterfight, then I'm probably going to head up to Pai and Mae Hong Son for some fun and trekking.

Finished My CELTA remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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My 2 days in Chang Mai were great. After my week of dryness, I met up with a dutch guy I'd met in Vang Vieng and a Swedish guy I'd come to Chang Mai with and we went partying late.

The next day I met up with my mate Dan and realized that I'd forgotten how mad/fun he is. We ended up getting chased by a ladyboy with a razor (because Dan threw a bottle of water at him/her and kept yelling "witch!witch!") and later on, Dan decided to steal a tuk tuk so it ended up with Dan driving the tuk tuk around with me in the back. Everything ended up all right though.

Yesterday, I moved into my CELTA pad and it's pretty nice. Actually, it's nicer than any place I've lived or stayed at...since I left Canada, maybe... It is pretty remote though, so although it will be good for studying, it does feel a bit like a rehab clinic.

Probably won't have anything to write until the weekend, as I'll be studying and prepping most of the time.

2 Days in Chang Mai...Now It's Time to Study remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Tonight I'm going to head out on the town and tomorrow I'm going to meet up with my mate Dan from Australia. On Sunday, I have to move into my place to start my CELTA. It's going to be a month of hell, so if I don't update my blog for a while, that's the reason.

Take it easy everyone!

Arrived in Chang Mai remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Champusak is the old capital of Laos, and it has the Lao version of Angkor wat (although even though I haven't yet been to Angkor, I'm guessing the Lao version is a lot more dilapidated). I hitched a ride with a farmer to the temple and spent the day checking out the ruins.

After that, I went back to the guesthouse, which had a restaurant on a balcony hanging over the Mekong - it was an amazing view. Not too much to do at night, so I just chilled out and went to bed.

The next day, I hopped on a bus to Don Det (Det Island) in Si Phan Don (4000 Islands). I met an American guy and a Dutch girl and we rode a pretty crappy public bus, which ended up blowing a tire and breaking down for 2 hours in a tiny Lao village. It was actually an interesting experience though, and I didn't mind it.

Si Phan Don was amazing - one of the most beautiful places I've seen so far. The Mekong river fans out and forms a bunch of little islands that you can swim between. On Don Det there is even a nice (although small) beach. Don Det was pretty chill, there isn't electricity on the island so most guesthouses run the generator until 8 pm, after that there's no electricity except at the Reggae Bar, a bar where you can get all kinds of "happy" meals and there's even a trampoline from the bar into the river.

I'm probably going to be in Bangkok for 3 days or so, after that I'm going to start heading north to Chang Mai as my course starts next week. Can't believe I'm going to have to study after a month of doing nothing at all....

Southern Laos is Amazing remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I am now back in Vientiane. After my day of recovery on Wednesday, I pulled another day of tubing...Had a blast again, although I couldn't do as many swings because my arms were killing me from doing so many on Tuesday. The only problem was that on Friday morning, I realized that I had only 6 dollars to my name and I couldn't get any money out of the ATM so I had to go back to Vientiane. Also, if I didn't get to the Thai Embassy before 3 pm, I would have had to wait in Vientiane until Monday, so I busted out of there on a minibus as early as possible in the morning.

Made it to Vientiane and the Thai Embassy, got my passport and walked around a bit...Aside from Pha Tat Luang, there's not a lot to see (although it's pretty cool). Met up with my friend Thierry, who I'd met in the Phillippines and he took me out with his friends in Vientiane - it ended up being a really crazy night, partying on the veranda of a club in a massive hotel overlooking the Mekong. Really crazy night.

In a few hours, I'm jumping on an overnight bus to Pakse (Pakxe?) to get to Champusak and Si Phan Don (4000 islands) to do some trekking and communing with nature.

Headin' South remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The last few days have been a whirlwind. After spending all night on the overnight bus, I arrived in Vientiane. Apparently, Laotians don't like Canadians, because visas for canadians are $42, as opposed to everyone else, who only pay $30-35. Add to that fact that I needed pictures and didn't have them, so they charged me an extra $2, plus I paid in thai baht (they murdered me on the exchange) so altogether it ended up costing me around 50 bucks. Wonderful.

Anyways, I arrived in Vientiane...not exactly paradise. I spent a few hours at the thai embassy getting my next tourist visa sorted, went for lunch, walked around and decided that I was leaving that afternoon to Vang Vieng.

The bus took a long time (welcome to Laos) but I finally arrived in Vang Vieng at around 6 pm. Went for some beers with an Irish guy I met on the bus, only to find out that the bars all close at 12 pm and if you're out past 12:30, the Laos police can arrest you.

Yesterday, I walked around Vang Vieng, and it's absolutely gorgeous. Not the town itself of course, but there are massive hills, jungle, it's amazing. I went tubing down the Namsong river all afternoon - got absolutely wasted and met a ton of people. It was soooo much fun.

Then, after that, last night was an interesting experience that I don't want to write about on a public blog, so I'll leave that until later...

Tubing in Vang Vieng remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Tonight I'll be taking the overnight bus to Laos and arriving in Vientiane sometime tomorrow morning.

Hope everyone is well!

Heading to Laos remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Yesterday I was pretty hungover, so after taking care of some errands (putting my pack into storage, checking out transportation costs, ie...) I just chilled out. Last night I just had a few beers and watched the football on the backstreet parallel to Khao San.

Anyways, today I have to go blow a lot of money on my CELTA course, and maybe I'll go see a Muay Thai match.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Dazed and Debauched in Bangkok remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Finally...in...Bangkok remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Great airline.

So anyways, after showing up in Shanghai and finally finding my way to the hostel (which was also lots of fun), I arrived here at around 12:30. I met with my friend Pedro and we had some Tsingtaos, but by the time we tried to go out, most of the clubs we went to were closing, so we ended up getting drunk at the hostel and catching up - which was actually pretty fun.

Today, after having brunch (massive meal for 1$ - and Shanghai is supposed to be the most expensive city in China) I checked out the Bund and the view I have to say is one of the best in Asia. Unfortunately it was foggy/smoggy so I didn't take any pictures, but it was still amazing. Old-style French colonial buildings on the left, the Huangpu river on the right (with boats with 50 foot wide TVs on them blasting Yao Ming commercials) and a futuristic Jetson's style area across the river. It's gorgeous.

After that, I checked out Nanjing Road, People's Square and the Yu Yuan Temple Markets - all pretty interesting. After being in Korea, it's wierd having the feeling of space again...

Tonight, I fly out to Bangkok.

48...36...24 hours in Shanghai remains copyright of the author chrisnomad, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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