The Return!!!! Or how I have taken so long to post again since the last post

Uhmm it has been a while since I last posted. I think I left you all in Singapore in May!!!!!!

Obviously I am no longer in Singapore. Well I have been back in Europe Since he beginning of May.

What have done since then? Does it matter? Does anybody want to read about it?

Who cares!!! I will be writing - still with a lot of spelling mistakes - about the time from Singapore to now. Obviously I am in Paris enjoying yet again those fine pain aux raisins and great coffee at Le Starbucks. I now job hunting in this fair city of a thousand boulangeries.

What I am planning to bore you with? well WWOOFing in Italy, house sitting in Guildford, a rollerblade marathon in Goodwood. Snow in Edinburgh and cooking and eating in Stockport.

Well those are the promises I will try not break - uhmm, I hear the single reader doubting tone. Deserved I know but second or third or is it fourth chance must be given.

To the lone reader, I shall return...

The 6th October - It was the day it was...

It was the day it was...

It has been a year since I left London with Kia to Delhi. the beginning of my travels. And a lot of travelling - And a lot of non-travelling - has occurred since that day. A lot of photos have been taken - I mean lot. Just over 16 000 photos and that does not include the thousands taken in India/Nepal. A lot has been written - about Asia anyway. Made some new friends and met up with some old.

Then why have I not recently updated the blog? I could come up with all manner of different excuses but I think it comes down to being sooooooooo lazy at the moment. It does not help that in Golden Bay I am on dial up. There would be a lack of photos!!!

So, the blog is going on break - again - for a couple of weeks. it will be back after - hopefully - a spring clean - it is spring in NZ

The blog will be back soon, hope you all will too...

Oh, meet my new friend Cedric...

Life Without a Laptop & Shana Tova from Christchurch

I have yet again been silent on the blog. Especially after I promised much much more... I do have a reason. My laptop charger died 10 days ago! long live my Dell charger. I am just about copping. The grief will pass. And I will get use to the QWERTY keyboard in the library.

The pro;ised longer post and ;ore photos zill hqve to zqit until i get q nez chqrger. Soon I hope!

Today is the Jewish New year, so

Ma&Pa, Aunty B, Niva, Ran&Manuela, Anna, Hagar, Naomi, Daniel, Guy and everybody else

SHANA TOVA

The Franzster!

The Duck has been replaced!!!!

Back on the long and winding road Or how I left those lattes/Flat whites behind

Yes, I managed to drag myself away from discovering the truth about lattes & flat whites in the Perth area - the search however does not end there. more to come - and restart my world tour.

I repacked my backpack and headed to Sydney - Where I am now - My first destination. What is to come? Well 4-5 weeks travelling around eastern Australia & drinking coffee. Then NZ and at last I will make it down to Claire's and finish off with South America. 5 months to go and a lot to see.

I will like to thank the Perth Leicester connection. Pat, John, Paul, Michelle, Claire, Aidan, Claire, Adam, Mel & more... Thanks for everything.

I will come back to my time in Perth over the next week or 2. I should explain some of the names I mentioned and the photos from Images Posts from Western Australia. The backpackers hostel I am at, does not allow uploads of photos so I cannot share yet my time in Sydney.

Then welcome to Part 2 of my travels - and all those spelling mistakes - hope you will join me.

The Truth about Lattés & Flat Whites!

Yes its me! It has been a while since I posted. I am still around Perth, Western Australia. What have I been doing in WA? Well, mainly, I have been investigating the difference between a Café Latté & a Flat White. Why have been doing this? Because it has traumatised me. I have ordered both of these coffees and they seem to be the same. They both have a shot of espresso and hot milk. They tell me that one is coffee with milk and the the other milk with coffee. Uhmmm. Is that not the same? What is the Truth. I will investigate further this morning. The Truth is out there....



What have I really been doing in Western Australia apart from drinking coffee & eating doughnuts - coffee & doughnut for 2€ how could I not - Well the blog will be reopened for full business at the beginning of May and I repack my backpacker and head to eastern Australia. Just a week to go and I will be on the road again...

A word from our sponsor, again Or how much Chocolate can I eat in Hong Kong

Yes,I am still in Hong Kong! I am staying a few days longer than planned. Come on, I have not yet eaten enough chocolate to leave. I am heading to Seoul on Monday and the cold. What I have been doing all this time in Hong Kong? Well All that in a future post - you may say that it is in a distant future as I am still only on the 18th January - there was a lot of photos were taken during those 2 days! Hong Kong has been a good place to take a break from all my travels. I know that I did that in Phnom Penh. Come on I have not eaten chocolate in 4 months - before any of the 3 swiss make a comment, Oreos do not count! - and importantly Korea is cold! However my laptop is now virus free. I received in HK my back up disks and reinstalled the laptop - importantly all the photos have been backed up. So thanks John for sending this with the external hard drive to HK and to Kia for sending the disks to John. Yes a major logistical exercise.

Time for more chocolate....

The ¼ Mark!

Its the 9th January and on the 6th I reached the quarter mark of my round the world trip. I have been travelling for 3 months and gone a quarter of the way around the world. I am in Phnom Penh, the Capital of Cambodia. I have visited 6 countries; India, Nepal, China, Thailand, Laos & Cambodia. What are my thoughts so far?

My favourite countries have been Nepal & Laos, followed by Thailand and a long away India. No opinion yet on Hong Kong - I am returning - and I am still in Cambodia but it certainly will be above India. It is a close thing between Nepal & Laos. Nepal did not disappoint. The wedding of Rosi & Rajesh, travelling with Kia, the people... So many things to list. Laos, was probably the country

I had no pre conception. I vaguely knew about the country sandwiched between Thaland & Vietnam. It was just another country to visit in SE Asia. However, as the day went pass, the country drew me in. The people, the landscape, the coffee & off course the sticky rie. How I miss the sticky ice. Originally I planned a flying visit, a week max, I stayed 3 weeks. i would have stayed the full 4 weeks if I would have better planned the trip through the country. I opened the guide to Laos in Laos and I did not own one until Luang Prabang. Thailand was not far behind, Did not really finish the country. I stayed in Laos instead. I will return. India I least enjoyed. India is a place which split travellers down the middle. You either like it or dislike it - i spoke with Monica who loves India for the same reason as I don't. To be fair, I only stayed 8 days in total. Not enough time to give a serious judgement on a country so vast and varied. However, with so many other countries in the world to visit - or even re-visit - I see no reason to return.

The best times have been when you get off the back packers/tourist trail. Meet local people. Travel on local buses and not on tourist buses. Find guest houses outside of the major tourist zones.

Some highlights - The Wedding, Bardia National Park, The Banana Garden Lodge, Chiang Mai, meeting people other travellers from around the world, the slow boat down the Mekong, Thai Cooking class & Thai Red Curry, Sticky Rice, the coffee plantation, Momos, my first scooter trip and of course the many varieties of Bananas.

Some things best forgotten - the Bambassa to Delhi Bus ride & Banana stealing Monkeys. I still shed a occasional tear from time to time when I remember those lost Bananas.

In the 3 months I have travelled, I have yet not mentioned how may baseball caps or anything else I have misplaced - Ok lost. I left Europe with 4 baseball caps. These 4 are no longer . I did not loose any caps in India/Nepal. I did throw 2 away by choice.

However my luck ran out around week 8. As of today, I have misplaced 3 hats, the last of these 3 days ago. I bought another hat in Savannakhet. I decided it was best to buy sunglasses, I can begin to loose those instead. Its not my fault, blame the monkeys! Anything else? Well 1 shirt. And before anybody makes a smart comment, Yes, the camera(s) is still in my possession.

Where I am at the moment? I am in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. I have been here 4 days. Around the New Year, I felt like I did not have my full strength. Luckily I was never ill. Some people said that i have caught the 3 month travel blues. Maybe.However, I was not in a good place for me to take a break - Si Pha Don was too laid back - so I headed off to Cambodia and the temples, then here. I will spend another 3-4 days - slowly - visiting the sites & sounds of the city. It is the busiest city I have visited since Bangkok. I am loving it. It helps that I found a nice guest house - by accident off course. Some time it worth letting the Tuk Tuk drivers take you to where they want to - With good food and a lively atmosphere. As a bonus, it has a large collection of DVDs I can borrow. I am now back to full strength, ready to face Vietnam - There is a practical reason why I choose Phnom Penh for a longer stay. I am applying for my Vietnamese Visa. its takes a few days to be processed;

I may not be ill, however this cannot be the said for Baby Dell, my Laptop. Baby Dell has caught a Virus from a USB key. At some point I knew this was going to happen. It a irritating virus. it corrupts the system by attacking Windows Explorer and hides folders. Luckily the only things of importance on the lap top are the photos, and those are backed up. The anti-virus does not even detect that there is a virus. The best option is to wipe the Hard Drive and reinstall XP.

After I boasted in the A Word from Our Sponsor post that I have caught up with myself, I then immediately fell behind. So what is to come?

Wat Phu - A Wat to far?
Si Pha Don - New Year among Islands of the Mekong
Si Pha Don to Siem Reap - Another Bardia to Delhi?
Siem Reap & Angkor Wat - The Wat to End all Wats (Great Photos).

However, before all those, I want to start with 7th January & Phnom Penh...

A Word from our Sponsor

Amazingly, for the first time since I left the UK, the blog has caught up with me. Its the 28th December and I am in Paske, the town I travelled to after Savannakhet. I have been here 3 days, Today I went on an organised tour the the Bolaven Plateau - yes that mysterious plateau. I did try the unorganised tour, ie organised it myself and it was a not a success. More in the next post.

I forgot to mention in the Coming soon to a computer screen near you... post that Kia in the coming weeks will post a selection of the Photos from India and Nepal, Kia's Corner. Something to look forward.

For new visitors to the blog:
If anybody wants to post a comment on the blog, you do not need to register for a Google/Blogger username and password. You just need to choose in the Identities section the Name/URL option and just type a name.

Coming soon to a computer screen near you...

In the coming weeks:

I will hopefully finish the story of India with the last part of 'The Road to Delhi - Bardia to Delhi & Away or Kia in a KIA'. I know how many of you have been waiting for the last part. Well none to be precise but that will not stop me anyway writing the post.I just left Vientiane but how did I get there and what about Luang Prabang and beyond.

Those of things I have done but what are my plans?

I am slowly heading down to the South of Laos and Si Phan Don 'The Four Thousands Islands'. The Mekong is my constant companion as the Road from Vientiane to the Si Pha Don follows the course of the river, with Thailand a presence on the other side of the Mekong.

When I left Thailand 8 days ago, I did not realise that I will not be returning. Since I arrived in Laos, I have decided to stay longer than planned and to go directly to Gambodia directly from Si Phan Don. Si Phan Don is close to the Laos/Gambodia border.

Then into Gambodia to Seem Reap - the base town to visit the ruins of the Temples of Angkor - and Phnom Penn the capital. Then head to Vietnam and Ho Chi-Minh City. Here I have made the first alteration to my initial flight itinerary. Originally, I was flying out of Ho Chi-Minh City to Hong Kong. During the travels, i have met other backpackers who have already been in Laos, Gambodia and Vietnam. I was recommended that from Ho Chi-Minh City I should Head north to Hanoi by the coast road. Stopping on the way of course.

To cut the waffle, I am staying a total of 3 weeks in Laos, 2 weeks in Gambodia and 3 weeks in Vietnam. I fly from Hanoi to Hong Kong on the 9th February, then - at the moment anyway - to Seoul on the 12th February, to Tokyo the 5th March and to Perth the 18th March.

Lets move onto the subject of my blog. How are you all liking it? Any changes? What would you like to read or see more of? or less? Love to have your comments. If people do not wish to post a comment then they can email me at dan@thetravellingdan.com . Don't be shy - especially you French. I am also curious to how many different people read the blog. Again you can email me

I have to make a comment about the horrendous spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. I am always in a rush to type the posts. I type fast and have no spell checker installed. I do a quick proof read. Sorry for that. it seems I have chosen quantity over quality.

To finish off - at last I hear you all shout or think - Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Hanukkah