Slack me

Hi all, I've been very slack and haven't emailed much. I'm sorry. It's just that when it comes down to it I'd much rather be outside traveling than in an internet cafe. I'll have to fill you all in when I get home.

In the interim, Anne and I have made our way from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, where we hung out for 5 days cos I like the City of Angels etc so much (the 'etc' in the name is because the Thai name for Bangkok is actually the longest city name in the world, in Thai it's normally shortened to "City of Angels Etc Etc"). Then we hopped an overnight train to Malaysia and here we've been in Penang (great Chinatown, English-esque hill tops), Palua Pangkor - cos Anne was missing the beach, and now the Cameron Highlands, which is famous for it's cool weather - it's only 20 degrees today, and tea plantations. We're staying in very colonial style accomodation, in a guesthouse that includes an old english style house - too expensive for us, and some "Nissan-style huts" that were built for British troops in the fifties. They look weird but are quite comfortable inside. We went on a great tour today, tasted lots of tea, walked in the cloud forest and did heaps more. It was very fun.

We only have a few more days to go, time enough for another National Park - Taman Nagara, and a couple of days in Kuala Lumpur. We are back on the evening of the first of Feb.

Out of Laos.

Well we've finally made it out of Laos. Loved the country but we really pushed it fine with our visas and it was touch and go whether we'd be able to get out without a fine. In the end we hopped on a short - and apparently scenic - fight from LP to Chiang Mai in Thailand. I can't report much on the scenery, the flight was in an old propeller driven plane, so I wan't looking out the window much. Instead I took hald a valium tablet bought in Laos for 5 tablets for 10 cents and tried to think happy thoughts.

We spent the last few days of our time in Laos going on a bit of a jaunt up north. It was lovely up in the mountains but very cold and our guesthouses both had rats. Anne has lots of food in her bag all the time so she fared the worst with them - they ate holes through her pack and the pocket of her shorts. We got wise after the second night in ratville and kidnapped one of the guesthouse cats to sleep with us. Kitty - renamed fleaball - was very happy to have a warm bed, and we preferred the risk of fleas to tapdancing rats. And it was nice to have a cat to play with again.

Had fun with the travel agent trying to book the flight to Chiang Mai. Everything happens in the Lao way, it's best not to try to fight it but just to go along with it, we spent a few evenings camped out at the travel agensts playing cards and smiling and waiting impassively for our tickets. We weren't sure we were even on the flight until the morning of the flight, but in the end all it well.

Now back in Thailand whihc is lovely, cos it's Thailand, but it feels like New York compared with Laos. So noisy and busy and polluted. I find it difficult to like Chiang Mai - too many tourists and too many cars, but I'm loving the bookshops and good food.

There are signs up everywhere about the urgent need for blood doners cos of the disaster down south, but I suppose its a good sign when I tried to go and donate yesterday and was turned away because they have enough of all kinds of blood. It's a sad time to be in Asia.

Hope all is well at home and you're all having lots of summer fun.