Back Again

So it's about time I started this thing up again, it'll give me an excuse to stop watching everything that HBO produces and give the TV a rest.

So wassup then I suppose. Well I've just booked a holiday for Christmas, and I mean really Christmas as I leave on the 24th December.

It'll be the first time in quite a while that I am not with my folks in the UK, or they have been over here in Oz, and that will be a bit odd. I think the last time was when I was in Broome in '96 when I met some lovely people at the compulsory hotel christmas lunch (which is a bit weird in itself really, a compulsory, christmassy, turkey dinner. Like a punishment for catholics who've slipped in their faith maybe). They were 'city' types who had dropped out of their lifestyle to travel around the world. The sort of people who gave up millions to live out of a suitcase. Of course it's much easier to do the dropping out if you have shedloads of cash in the bank before you set off but it was still interesting to see how they got sick of all the money and power. I was also away from the family a couple of years ago, but I had had a fake christmas before I came back to Oz so that doesn't really count.

This trip is to Vietnam and Cambodia and it should be pretty good, however it's the first time I've ever really done an organised trip. I hope to god it's not too much "be back for the bus at 2 pm, that gives you a full 20 minutes to explore Ho Chi Minh City". I purposely chose a company that gives you a few days in each place, none of that today's Tuesday so it must be Angkor Wat feeling. And hopefully not too much temple fatigue - an almost fatal disease in asia in my experience.

So far it's been a bit different to all the other places in Asia I've been, even in the organising. For example Vietnam requires you to have a visa, and not only that you have to get it before you arrive, and not only that you can only get it by posting your passport to their Embassy in Canberra so they can stick a label in it. Or of course, as their website says, you can just drop it off and pick it up three days later. This may indicate a slight misunderstanding of the size of Australia. Or they think we all live in Canberra, which is something even the Canberra residents wont admit to. I have to admit it is a bit nerve wracking sending my only proof of citizenship to a foreign embassy, especially one that is communist and proud of it. I wonder how many copies they made of it? It did come back pretty quickly though which is quite impressive. The Cambodian visa you can get online, they email you a label to staple (!) into your passport. I am not expecting this to go without a hitch as it looks so home made it's just laughable. The passport photo I sent them has got a bit squished in the process and I look like I weigh 150kgs. At least I should get some compliments from the border guards on my biggest looser participation.

So all the paperwork is sorted and I've got some money too. For the first time the exchange rate is working in my favour as the Australian peso finally has the power to buy a decent amount of US dollars. Not that I'm planning on spending too many as I am a wicked haggler when in a poor country. I love to wring the last cent out of the impoverished locals. This is not true obviously. When I get to a haggling country I come over all British and just pay what they ask. It's just all too much like hard work otherwise and it's still pretty cheap even if you pay the full price. I am fully aware that this is considered very bad form among the 'traveller' fraternity but to be honest I dont give a toss. At least when I travel I put some money into the local economy, unlike those smug bastards who take great pleasure in the fact that they have travelled all the way from London to Karachi on $4 a day and the smell of an empty Mars bar wrapper. I don't care, holidays are meant to be pleasurable not like being sent to the gulag. This is how all Backpacker Lodges are in my mind. Like One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich.

End on a literary reference, that's class that is.