Back on the beaten track... and it isn't so bad!

Oh hey hi.  Let me start this blog by saying hi to my niece Rosie, Happy Birthday.  18, my lord I can hardly believe it.  I hope you have a great day. I will try and sort phone comms out for the big day but should I fail, as I always seem to on the uncle front, know that I am thinking of you, and if you ever need my camper van it is yours to use, love you X.

OK, so what news?   Well the guys cruised here without capsizing which was good news.   It then absolutely chucked it down on the walk from the boats to our hotel...oh the irony!  Soaked we arrived and bedded down.   Lunag Prabang is pretty cool, stuff to see, history and all the “bits” that make travel fun, namely bars, bakeries and loads of souvie stalls.   I have tucked away bacon eggs, smoothies and a curry so far..thinking steak next.   I know what a cultured bod.  Seems to me that the thing that draws us into cafes now is more the availability of wifi than anything else.

Why is it that we insist on staying in daily contact with home when we travel?   Isn’t the idea to leave home and all that behind, travel, experience other cultures, open our minds and understand the world a little better and then assimilate this info as we grow?  Do we travel to experience places or tell people at home what we are doing? Are we experiencing the places we visit or matching preconceived ideas of what we will experience with what we actually experience?   Have I perhaps had too much real coffee today..mmmm...probably.  For me the joy of a journey such as this is the geography of the whole thing.  When I look at a map of where we have been it suddenly becomes 3D no longer just a coloured sheet of paper.  Heat, terrible roads, mountains, they all jump off the page and remind me what a great thing life is.  There really is a place for everything in the world, save mosquitoes.  I still just cannot fathom what they actually contribute to anything. 

Ok, will leave it at that I think.   Photos of a random fishing expedition by the boys, the river transport and a couple of temple shots.  Should be a few better photos coming now that the pen drive has been found...so will be on the scrounge for any great shots the guys take.

Should the manager of the Singapore Raffles hotel happen to be reading this, fancy giving us a great group rate?  We would love to come stay and sort a few group photos out in front of the hotel as we create our own “1^st Overland” expedition...

Laters, CJ out