gaspontour

(written 30-05-11 from Myanmar)
Hi fellas!!
Yes I'm hard on the blog actually...I have time but also I think I need to express myself..! I dont write anymore on my own journal, so (fuck this swiss guy in the dormitory here is talking too much "I'm travelling sooo long time you know since december 2009, more than 20 countries, I'm from switzerland, lot of money blabla" JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP STOOPID ASSHOLE!!) hmm hmm, sorry but he annoys me....So the first place I settled down is Can Tho, on the Mekong Delta...The city had nothing special to offer by its own, but I wanted to see the floating market mostly.. So I organised a rowing boat trip for half a day. Honestly I've been a bit disapointed by the floating market: I expected it bigger, more alive...but it was interesting through. I also visited a noodle factory, and something strucked me there: white noodles is made from....rice of course!!! so even when I eat noodle I eat fucking rice! My golly I'm eating rice 3 times a day!!! I then
realized I'm on my own to do a rice overdose!! But then it passed....anyway I have no choice over here...! another interesting experience there was massages..... I tried massage in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia...there are all enjoyable (thai the best..but don't misunderstand me here, no happy ending, no sexual stuffs, only a simple body massage...), so I wanted to try over there also... And that was a failure for both times... Here was what happened: they bring you a hell of a lady, mini-skirt and all...sorry to say but a damn beautiful and well made one!! So she starts
on you, but you can feel after 5 minutes she's not a professional...and at the end she asks you (as far as I could understand) if you want something more......shit, let me out of here! So no more massage in Vietnam.... I also tried the burmese ones, and for sure the best is the Thai one (although in Laos they're pretty good also..). I then went to Tra Vinh where I rented a motorbike and went around.
Next step was Saigon, newly known as Ho Chi Minh City: pretty big and busy city, so many motorbikes, so many pollution etc...And so hot and humid, raining everyday, shortly but quite heavy rain! I stayed a few days there, walking around. I haven't visit the tunnels out of the city, where they used to hide, and even live underground, during the Vietnam war. I also skip the war museum, and this I regrett little bit...Anyway, I had only 1 month visa so if I wanna make it to the north part, I have to hurry a bit. So after Saigon, I headed up to Dalat, in the moutains. What a weather change: it was so cold in the evening compare to Saigon! I even had to buy a jacket there! I enjoyed Dalat, cool weather, nice mountains visited by motorbike, and great delicious vegetarian food! Probably the best and with many choices of soja-made stuffs!
Next step was Hoi An. I passed by Nha Trang but only few hours there and I jumped in an other bus (Nha Trang looked pretty ugly to me, with high buildings all along the coast etc....) to get to Hoi An by the early morning. And this place was much better to stay! Pretty touristic, but lovely ancient city, with narrows streets (so no annoying traffic). I stayed almost a week there, enjoying the surroundings and the calm of this town.
I then went to Ninh Binh, not so far from Hanoi, which is supposed to look like Halong Bay but in "miniature" size. I got caught by the rain while biking to the place, but I coould hire a rowing boat and visit the area when rain stopped. 2 nights there, and I reached Cat Ba Island, with a spanish couple from bask coutry, I met previously in Ninh Binh. Really nice people, so we decide to share a boat for 2 days to visit Halong Bay. And that was lovely!! We got really lucky as this was the bad season to visit the bay, and we were not expecting to have clear sky and nice colors...not the best for the colors but at least we had quite clear sky! And that was really enjoyable!! We've been kayaking around, food was good, and beautiful views (postcard style but still good!!!). The only bad news when we came back to Cat Ba island is for the bask couple: they got some money stolen during the trip... we have no idea when did it happened... And I will experience the same shit (even bit worse) in Hanoi only a few days later!
Hanoi then... Maybe even busier then Saigon..!! Nothing special in that huge city, except my bad pickpocket experience..!!! Yes vietnamese rats stole about 200eur and my credit card!!! I won't go into details here on how it happened, but I've been definitely stupid!!!! Hopefully I had some euros and thai baths hidden somewhere else, and I've been able to make my way back to Koh Tao and receive a new credit card over there!1 quite funny and crazy thing happened there: as I was looking for the bus station to buy my ticket, and couldn't find it, after asking many people showing me totally different directions..I ended up asking a policeman, who hardly understand what I was looking for..I had to call a vietnamese friend speaking good english to help me out....and when the policeman wrote down a paper the adress I was looking for (not even the good one) and give it back to my bask friends, I could see on their face that something was wrong: the policeman wrote : "don't go to Laos"...!!!! I have no ideas why he wrote this, but we've been laughing quite a lot about it!!! So after that bad adventure, I skipped the north moutained part (but I didn't miss that much as the place is fully touristic,and weather was really awful..), and made my way straight to Laos, spending only a night at Dien Bien Phu. And I've been quite satisfied to "at least" spend a night there, as I still keep in memory  that movie called "Dien Bien Phu", which my parents brought me to see at the cinema when I was maybe 8 years old or something:
movie about this battle the french lost in the 50's or something during Indochina time... real boring movie for me at the time:  only figthing on the battle field for maybe 2 hours! Anyway, I woke up in the early morning next day to catch a bus to reach Laos border.
And what a scam at that border: they extra charge you for bullshit (tax, stamp fee etc...!!!), and as a stupid beginner I changed money there and of course got ripped off!!! I got really angry when I realized but it was too late!! And anyway what can you say in front of fucking officials? nothing! If you wanna reach the other side of the border you just have to follow orders!! damn I hate it!!!!
We get to the first village where you can take a boat to go south, but it was too late already, so I stayed 1 night there, and
get a boat the next morning to Muang Ngoi, that lovely village I went already. I spend another few days there, relaxing after all this road travelling, meeting again the bask couple. Then I went down south to Luamg Prabang for a night, then straight to Vientiane if I remember well. I organized my Thai visa there, and as soon as I got it I headed to Bangkok, then Koh Tao...to finally finish my dive master..

Mingalaba!
Hi everyone! Back on the blog....still in english, even if my "gal" won't probably read me no more after what I did to her..but I still have hope! Good to live on hope you might ask? I don't know really...but that's all I have left for now..so I hold on to it. Yes I feel pretty down actually. I did things without realizing it will hurt people around me, people I love..so now it hurts me back..price to pay! I just thought I was gonna live my life, my own way for a while, a way I never stepped into, to get a taste of it probably... But I guess it is not me, this is not my way, I went wrong... But you know, it ain't that easy. All of you might think "ah..easy guy must have great time, living a dream blabla.."  well for sure I won't complain. more than 1 year I'm not working (but hey I've been working hard to save that money to travel, money doesn't grow on trees brothers!!), I'm travelling the world, visiting places, trekking, diving, bungy jumping etc etc... but it's not all easy all the time! You all alone (yes I choosed it, but still...), you have to deal everything by your own, everyday, no one to share your thoughts with. Yes you meet people, but that's not YOUR people, your family, the real ones that have been here for ever, and you know they'll be here for the future! the people you know you can trust... no, it's people you meet one day and you have to gain their trust and it goes in 2 ways, you must feel if you can trust them or not...and sometimes you are mistaken... And you all know I'm kind of naive sometimes, I wish to live in a world where everyone is kind and good, and sometimes I want it so strong that I'm getting blind and be too trustfull to people. And some take advantage of it.. so I got fooled!!! but hey that's the game you'll tell me!
Ok enough sentimental shit, I have some stories to tell since Laos..hell yes! but I'll go pretty fast through this I suppose,
many things I think I might have forget!
So after 1 beautiful month in Laos,  I got back to Laos, because finally the first friend who decide to visit me: Mr Vincent Roche, aka Mino!!! And if I check the pictures it was about end of september, beginning of october...2010. So couple of days in Nong Khai close to the Laos-Thai border. I stayed in a nice and cheap guesthouse (can't remember the name, but really nice one, on the river bank). Beautiful sunset in Nong Khai, then I went to visit a park where the same shaman built many deities, both buddhists and hindus, in Vientiane. Big ones, but with cheap materials so they already are getting damaged by the time. And I remember during this visit, I've been suffering like hell from the heat!! amazing hot, boiling hot...I was pouring sweat, "my blood is too thick for this part of the world"...I really feel with Hunther Thompson when he says this!! my golly, I was desperatly looking for a place in the shade, and still sweating like a horse!!!
After this, I didn't really what to do to wait for Mino...so, as I had people I knew in the north, I went to Chiang Mai and Pai.
I met there with Anisa the american, and with Alister my Irish-French gay beard man, and one of his friend. I went around Chian Mai on the hills by motorbike for a day, then I followed Anisa and a friend for a day in the Jungle doing this "tyrolienne" stuff (from trees to trees sliding on a rope...you know??)...nice but bit expensive..swing and bungy is much better for sure, real adrenaline!! Night life in Chiang Mai is pretty interesting, I guess that's why many expat stay there. I remember one night watching drunk thai young'uns messing around with a police road block, kicking barrage and escaping by motorbike...real fun!! Then I headed back to Bangkok, ready to welcome Mino! and what a first night, and second, and third...and all 3 weeks were prety wild finally!! we started drinking some tequila, a whole bottle actually with a shisha. Then hanging around in bangkok's street, reggae bars and clubs. I remember being softly hit by a stupid thai woman selling booze on the street, for nothing! Then we booked our tickets to Koh Tao to an ugly ladyboy close to our guesthouse, and after a night in the bus and a few hours by boat, here we are in Koh Tao. We took a nice concrete room in a guesthouse run by a belgium guy from Vilvoorde, where I used to work in the sewage station..what  a coincidence, and what a belgium guy!! Hell of a freak, smoking and drinking beer all day long, trying to attract customers
at the pier with a shitty panel and a beer in his hands...ahahah!! Real funny guy, when he told us he and his associate bought about 10 televisions for the rooms, but then realised they is no plugs for tv inthe rooms...so all tvs are stored in his own room...well done!!
We changed place after few nights because of the awfull karaoke right in front of the guesthouse and playing loud shit thai songs all night!! We ended up in probably the cheapest tiny bungalows you can find on the island, in front of a dirty beach, with a shitty matress, run by a cute thai girl..mino almost felt in love! So we had great time there for 3 weeks...I dive maybe a couple of times and the rest we spent in bars and partys....I won't describe here the wilderness of our nights, but Mino "you know we rolled"!! ahahah
After this wild 3 weeks we went back to Bangkok, for mino to take his flight back to France (poor him) and me to head on to Cambodia. I first went to Battambang, on the west part of the country. When I get there it was a spring festival, to celebrate spring and the wishes to have great harvest the the coming year. The city was litterally crowded, day and night (I unfortunately lost a video of the nighlife there..too bad!!). There was boat races all day long on the river, and the banks of it were crowded also! It was amazingly hot at that time and I find it hard to move around in the daytime. I went to a circus show 1 night, and after the show I was talking with the artist who was speaking pretty good frenchm and it appears that it is the company who made a tour with the french from toulouse I met in Laos. I remember they told me the circus company was here in Battambamg but I didn't make the link then. Really nice youth and really talented also! I spend more time than expected in this city, it was nice to hang around with local people, able to communicate quite good. I made the bamboo train ride out of the city, which is quite interesting (see pics)
cause really basic!!
Anisa the american I met in Laos and Chiang Mai joined me and we went together to Siem Rep through a fantastic boat ride, passing  through amazing floating villages! It's crazy to think how this people can live litterally "on the water"...might be really special to live such a life! But as I say, you get use to everything, or almost.... We then reached Siem Rep to visit the popular Angkor Wat temples. We spend a day in the city first, visiting the museum, and that was a good idea as it explains a lot about the story of Angkor Wat, the sculpures and drawings etc... I was also waiting for Mr Calastreing Remi aka Fitchou. And what an introduction!! I just left him a mail saying which guesthouse I was, but I had no idea when he will arrive.. So I was seating at a terrace with travel friends, and suddenly, I got jumped...."hheeeyyyyy, oohhhhhhh, wwaaaaoooooo, hheeeeyyyyyyy, eeehhhheeehhhheeehhhh" that was
all I could hear for a couple of minutes, watching his crazy face hitting mem, and laughing!! ahahah damn good!!! And what a first night...yes they had Pastis at this bar...no need to say more about what happened...buracho com el culo!!!Nice retrouvailles!!
And we started the visit of Angkor Wat, Fitchou, Anisa and I, by tuk tuk. We did a sunrise at the main temple Angkor Wat, and then the most famous one: Angkor Thom, Bayon, Baphuon, Phimeanakas, Terrace of elephants etc etc.... surroundings by the "1 dollawe 1 dollawe" childrens.... The most impressive temples for me were Ta Phrom, with all them roots growing on the ruins, and Beng Mealea, Kbal Spean and Banteay
Srei, far from the main ones so empty with tourists so much more enjoyable!! but what a long tuk tuk ride to get there..about 3 hours if I remember well...and I was starting to get sick already I think because I felt pretty weak!! Anyway, 3 days were enough for us...it was mind blowing for sure, but stones, rocks, stones and stones..after a while you get bored!!
So we went to Phnom Penh, where I just had time to visit the museum of torture, and one of the place where Pol Pot and his fellas use to kill and bury all the poor rebels of this mad regime. And hell that hurts!! It's different to read in your school books (when you read about, because honestly I don't remember spending time to learn about all their atrocity...who cares about Cambodia right? no petrol there, no gold..nothing intersting for our babylonian managers!!!) and when you are right there on the spot where all happened, when you see the rooms where people were tortured, when you read the survivals testimony and all...It really strikes you, you feel dizzy, guilty....you feel damn bad I'm telling you!!! Crazy shit! Dirty human being...that's all we are able to do?? Shit we all deserve to die I'm telling you!! Total
destruction is what we need!!
Anyway right after this, on the evening when I took my shirt off, I realise many kind of spots on my chest...all red..!! What the hell!! I checked my temperature and I had little bit fever..I knew it as I felt weak and dizzy since a few days now.. First I thought about dengue, so i got a bit scared! So first thing next morning I went to the hospital in Phnom Penh...hmmm what a lovely place to be I'm telling ya! To see their face it didn't look so good...they made a blood test and I've waited for the results. When it came they told me they "think" it is "rubeole" (rubella..??)... hell this disease is disapearing from planet earth, why the hell I got his?!!?? only a few thousands cases last year on the whole planet! that's nothing!
So I stayed there...1 day, 2 days, 3 days....aaarrgghhhh And there was no "cantine" in the fucking hospital...fortunately fitchou was there, and he visited me every day as he woke up, with a hangover all the time the bastard!!! so he brought me food fortunately! My room neighbor was a friendly mid-age cambodian, speaking a bit
of english, and he offered me food and we could talked a bit. The poor guy had all his family killed during the Khmer Rouge regime: brothers sisters mom dad uncle.... Damn I felt so bad for him, and it makes me think about my situation:how can I complain about anything in my life...ANYTHING!! That's definitely a thing you learn when you
travel: we western people don't know how to be happy and satisfied with what we have..no we always want more, never content ourselves with what we have!! That's one of the things that really touched me over there in Cambodia: some of the people there, over 50 or 50 years old, they lived in hell for a while, real hell believe me, and still when you smile at them, they smile back to you, a real simple honest smile...they still live in bamboo huts, sometimes with no electricity, real basic life, and still they keep smiles on their faces!! My golly that's something...much respect for those people!! It reminds me Africa and the umility of his people! Kind of similar over there...
So after 3 days in this hospital, with doctors not telling me exactly what was going on with my virus, no way to give a phone call to check with my health insurance and to warn my family, I got really bored and I really felt they wanted to keep me there because obviously I was paying more charges than local people, so it was a good business for them....so I decide to get out of the hospital, I pushed them a bit and say I need to get out from here... So they finally let me out, and we could continue our trip down to Sihanoukville.
And I will have a break now, and continue later on. As I wrote this from my laptop inmy room in Yangon, Myanmar, I will go on the internet now and post it.
Thanx again for those who will read this, big thoughts for ya all, and hope you'll come visit one day, wherever I will be!!
Big up to all, and my real deep apologies for those I hurt...believe me I really didnt mean to! I feel already truely ashame!
peace out!