( Read more... )

I went to register with an agency last week, and while I had most of the information and documentation they wanted, I had to come back again today to give a bit more information and bring some proof of address. Now the rub here is that apparently only one of the documents I had - a statement for my savings account - was valid. I'll spare you the ( Read more... )

( Of markets and monsoons )

( We're all as mad as hatters here )

No they're not, I'm just getting paranoid. I've had enough of living in my mother's caravan now. It's too small and there's not much to do other than watch TV, and I'm utterly sick of 'Strictly', which has finished now, small mercies. I haven't had too much joy with creative endeavours, but I've been playing my keyboard and I liberated my DS from ( Read more... )

The bus out of Saigon took forever. It’s not easy to weave through all those motorbikes, apparently, even with a loud and annoying horn to beep at them every few seconds. Once we got out into the countryside it was a lot smoother going though. It took about an hour and a half to get out of Saigon, and then another hour and a half to the border. ( Read more... )

( After the money's gone... )

Saigon!! Saigon! Saigon. The hell with that Ho Chi Minh City shit. I blame Lenin, and that biter Stalin for that matter, but there you go. The locals know the score and good on them. Anyway, stepping out of the airport I was immediately struck by the heat, and it was perhaps fortunate that Mo had the foresight to book a hotel in advance, because ( Read more... )

At last! Japan! I touched down at Narita, glided through customs and as I now rumbled down the escalator to the Metro I had that funny feeling that I’d finally made it. It used to be the feeling of anticipation of all my expectations coming through, but nowadays it more resembles anticipation of just how my expectations will be turned on their ( Read more... )

Just a bit of a placeholder post here. I haven't really had time to update as I've been going along, and I'm sitting here in an internet cafe in Cambodia right now and don't really feel like writing much. Unless I get some time and a free internet connection at some point, I'm just going to write the whole trip up when I get back. Or what I might ( Read more... )