Pleased to be back.

I'm in a good mood today because I'm still on holiday whilst everyone in Japan has to go to work. I just confused a Japanese guy next to me as he bumped into me on his way out and went "I ma sorry" and I replied with "Nae bother pal" in the old Nihongo. I love doing that. I think I'll keep it up for my whole life traveling because Japanese tourists are everywhere. Just that look of slight confusion is worth the possibility of a long conversation I don't really want.

Joey and I were going to go to a Thai cooking course today but we're both too lazy. Instead I'm going to get some jeans fitted or whatever but I hate the shops here.

Buy this what you want how big 100 baht for you friend only today want a tuk tuk only 5000 baht just for you.

My favourite are the suit guys who apparently learned English from some cockney. auuuroight mate wanna suit guvnor? I wish I was important enough to get a cheap suit. I think I need to shave today.... alright I'm off now.

Blah blah blah. Hello. I'm now in Vientiane which is the 'capital' of Laos. To give an idea of how small and crap it is... imagine a more run down version of East Kilbride being the capital of Scotland (the population is 5 million here).

Yesterday was rubbish if I were to be brutally honest. We got up at 6:30am to catch our bus which was then delayed. Then we spent a solid 11 hours on this old piece of Korean crap that bounced its way down the dodgy mountain road. It wasn't bad but we were both knackered by 10pm and waiting for midnight seemed like work. The town was empty anyway and we attended some thing sponsored by Tiger beer. Joey is passed out in the room whilst I failed at buying a book and getting a tea since everywhere is closed. We leave for Bangkok at 3pm tomorrow on a proper sleeper train rather than the same brutal experience as last time. Cool... we'll probably just eat for 3 days and I might get some cheapy cheapy dental work done since I can't be arsed in Japan. Cheerio

Hello. My health has returned and Joey and I have been doing loads of stuff here. Yesterday we went on elephants, checked out some Buddha caves and drank some local whisky (Lao Lao) at a villiage. Today we got up and chilled by a river before visiting/swimming in a waterfall and kayaking a few miles down the river. Just between us... I had to do all the rowing. We're heading down to the capital tomorrow for New Year's Eve. Now we're off to this great restaurant to have Beerlao and dinner.

We arrived in a really nice town yesterday evening in northern Laos. It's a World Heritage site or something and looks very French whilst having Buddhist temples scattered about. It was a 6 hour drive through the mountains which were really beautiful during the day. Some parts looked like Scotland but others were just a lot more.... extreme. I liked the drive but the endless days of dying in Vang Vieng meant I was up last night being sick again. I started to get a bit down about it because the last 4 days have been miserable and I don't have the energy or motivation to do all the stuff here. Joey has been alright with it but I'm constantly feeling guilty that I'm buggering up the plans. That said... I don't think we're sure what kind of holiday we actually want. We keep alternating between backpacking and throwing away money whilst I've been pretty much sober and was disgusted with 18-30 English moron crowd that I saw in Vang Vieng. Yesterday we had a new plan to carry on north to China and make our way down to Hong Kong to catch the second part of our flight but the Visa looks impossible. Who knows what we'll do. It's still going well and I've tried to be positive but maybe I've been feeling a lot more sick than I've been letting on... which is saying something since I complain a lot. I'm going to go buy a new tshirt and a razor and then I'll probably pass out. Ill ill ill. Bye

Hello. I had brutal food poisioning last night and feel a little fragile. This is the day after I got sun stroke and passed out at like 7pm. I'm always sick on Christmas boo woo woo. I think Joey is starting to resent me a little bit... he's going to attack me soon. Still, here's the view from our window the other day.

Hello. I've been in Thailand for 1-2 days now. Bangkok is interesting but it's nothing I haven't seen before in other countries to be honest. It is quite unusual/disgusting to see 50 year old fat men walking about with young Thai women though. I've been enjoying the amazing food that seems to be available on every street. That has been the highlight so far along with the nice, comfortable weather and variety of food/drink that a holiday offers. Bloody Japan and their dull and monotonous bloody crap.

Anyway, my mate Joey is in the room probably having a bit of an adverse reaction to all the food he's stuffed in his face today. We just met up with some girls from Kochi for dinner and we're off to Laos tomorrow afternoon. A 12 hour train ride through the night.... woohoo.

Cheerio

Good evening blog. I'm in an alright mood today and can't be bothered going to bed just yet. I bought £7 worth of beef tonight and ate it all up with a nice Corona. Then I had a nice cup of tea with some Cadbury's chocolate. I'm like a king really. Recessions? Unemployment? Nah... I have steak and beer for my Monday night dinner. Cheers.

I began studying for my Japanese test held yesterday by getting drunk up in Umaji on Friday night. There was this chopstick game where you need to guess how many the other guy is holding... I didn't actually understand it. Anyway, they gave us free beer because we were foreign and then gave us massive bottles of sake to take away. I continued this trend on Saturday by moaning about being ill and watching Father Ted until returning home to study at about 9pm. I then woke up at 5am to drive Joey, Peter and I to Takamatsu for our tests. Kochi is too crap to get its own test centre so we had the joy of travelling really far just to fail miserably. We had to borrow Noah's car because our own ones might fall apart on the motorways. It was actually a really nice drive there and back. There was loads of snow on the mountains in the middle of Kochi and we saw the sunset on the return leg. I absolutely destroyed the kanji part of the test but stumbled miserably on the grammar (it's worth about half).

I was having lunch today at junior high school today and caught out some students giving me a bit of cheek in Japanese:

The conversation today went as follows:

Girl 1: This chicken is delicious!
Girl 2: I know I know!

Girl 1: Hanta ate all his school lunch for once!
Girl 3: Oh yeah! I think foreigners like chicken.

Me: chuckle chuckle

Girl 2: eeeeeeh did he just understand?
Girl 3: No! Hanta never understands!

Me: chuckle chuckle

Girl 2: He did he did!
Girl 3: Hanta... do you understand?

Me: Uh-uh

All: eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhh

That last bit is the exact sound Japanese people make when they are mildy shocked at something. It's also the same reason I don't really watch the television here.

Anyway.... what else. Yes, my holiday is coming up very fast. I'm feeling a bit unprepared but I think it's going to be really good. I'm not actually that interested in the South Asian countries but I thought I might as well do it since I'm here. I just hope I can avoid middle aged sex tourists, getting shot in a Thai revolution and/or dying of malaria.... in a ditch.... covered in stereotypes and cliches of the country I'm in. Here's a random picture:

Hello. I am studying very hard at work this morning. I should really be planning for school later today but I don't actually care. They've decided that they can't be bothered team teaching anymore so I've got to do all the old stuff I used to. Only now... I don't care and want to study Japanese for my weekend test.

Anyway, I decided to write this blog to complain about my 'supervisor' again. He isn't playing with his spinning tops at work today but he's still annoying me. He's been standing at the photocopier for about 2 minutes whilst it has been beeping incessantly. He hasn't even tried to push a button... he's just standing there looking like a lost child in the supermarket. He moves with the grace of a sweaty octopus trying to unhook a bra. Alright... I stole that from somewhere but it's so fitting that I can't get it out of my head every time that I look at him.

Supervisor indeed.... I'm pretty sure his mum still lays his clothes out on his bed. His only duties this month are to pass on two sheets of paper to Noah and I. We haven't got either of them yet and even if I asked him now he would pass out with confusion as to what I meant.

In other news... I managed to read this off a blackboard yesterday. 食料品工業. It means the food industry or something. Woohoo. Here's a picture of me at Miyajima to add some colour. It's the famous shinto tori gate out in the water. It was very nice.