A brief and jumbled synopsis of my time since those heady American days.

This has been infinitely too long in it’s arrival … and I must, first and foremost, apologise for that. It has now been four months since I flew out of San Francisco airport with adventure surrounding me, but three unbelievable friends behind me, and I find myself sitting in a flat overlooking Lothian street, Edinburgh, at 2.36am, drunk as can be on nostalgia for those times. But it is not where I am, it is where I have been, and what my views on our adventures have become, that is important.

So where have I been? Well I’ve been to Asia. The expanse and the freedom of America was stripped of me the day I set foot in Asia … I had been spoilt by the lethargic ease with which we had existed then. But Asia was different, and it wasn’t necessarily worse. I was surrounded by good friends, and the character of some of them there cities was just infinite and baffling, it was sublime. The thing I found with Asia, is that wherever I looked, my eyes tended to just fall, all unsuspecting and naïve, on something absolutely and endlessly charming. Unfortunately this can not be the case in places like the UK and America at times, although at the same time I do believe that literally anything in life may be viewed with fascination and meaning if time and place and the viewers brain do just consider for a while.

But one of the most important things I preferred about America was the fact that I met so many incredible local people, who I could befriend and spend time with, and who could show me their local area … my fellow Hammock Bros being the finest example of this! In Thailand though, although I met some incredible local people who really inspired me … my path was generally a tourist trail. This is not to say thought that there weren’t some incredible times.

My time there was too long to properly summarise in an article, or at least a succinct article, but I have included a map that shows my path, and how long I spent in each place. But there is time and space for a few anecdotes and highlights.

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Local river boats in Vang Vieng

Me at the Sonkarn Festival.

My first two weeks in Asia were spent with my family, and as well as Bangkok and Kohn Kaen (where we experienced the incredible Songkarn witgh the locals covering us in powder and water), we spent around five days in Vang Vieng, Laos … an incredible place.  It’s a small town right on a meandering, mystical river that winds its way between sheer misty green cliffs and hills, and small jungle huts adjourn the banks. Watching the locals go about their day to day lives, with children swimming and laughing in the river together, and fathers herding their cattle into the river to cool off, local fishermen humming small boats to and fro, and mothers washing their children’s clothes near the reeds, is a wonderful way to spend time. The town is also a backpackers town though, and my brothers and I spent a lot of time on the river rope swings nearby, and spent time rock climbing in the shady caves set back from the bank. It was a magical time pondering life on the banks of that river … and has planted in me a desire to spend time on a river (Jon, I know Louisiana has some lovely melancholy rivers because I‘ve read Huckleberry Finn).

I spent two different spans of time on the southern islands of Thailand … one with some friends in late April, and once again with my beautiful girlfriend and some other friends in June. Now the islands are of course beautiful, but they are simultaneously a pit of booze ridden tourist destruction, and although there were many great drunken nights, and one where my friend and I found ourselves slugging at one another in a Thai boxing ring at 2am, the crowd going wild (I won with two knockdowns thanks to my quite brutal strength and punching prowess), I found that the most brilliant way to explore and experience the islands was to leave the commotion behind. My girlfriend and I got a number of mopeds out on Ko Phangang, Ko Samui and Ko Tao, me driving with her perched behind me, and we zoomed and travelled to the remotest regions of them, to hidden coves and through Thai villages and forests, and beautiful empty coast lines under the falling sun, and it was completely serene and beautiful. Those days, more so than the famous full moon party and the time spent in the ocean and in bars, were comfortably the most perfect I spent on those islands … they were peaceful and liberating.

Me at rural jungle hut, Railay. We had
monkeys bombing onto our roof during

a storm!

Similarly, the day that a friend and I took mopeds up the coast in Vietnam between Hoi An (a wonderfully quaint town renowned for its tailored clothing) to Hue. Not another Westerner in sight, we raced along the coast amidst the hectic traffic of Denang, wound our way over glorious coastline twists and turns, overlooking the most idyllic coves I have hitherto set my eyes upon. The beauty of that journey could be wonderfully recounted if I had more time and talent, but it would be the sort of writing that would be enjoyed only by artists and romantics, such was the beauty of the moment we chased that steam train through the rich country of middle Vietnam, chased ourselves, as I like to be, by the sinking sun. The character of the Vietnamese cities is endless and mesmerising, with two wheeled vehicles reigning supreme, filling the cities with such a hustle you couldn’t help but get excitable. I have to say I regret not taking more walks around those cities, in a similar way that I would have regretted not exploring those southern islands had I not actually explored them. That is to say that like the islands, they had more infinitely more to offer than I realised. The cherry on the cake of my Vietnamese venture, was the night I spent on a boat in Halong bay getting drunk with a group of splendid strangers. There was a middle aged Parisian woman who told me of France, two wonderfully upbeat Italian twins, and a bear like Canadian brute with a heart of gold. As I stumbled to bed on that boat, it being my penultimate night in Vietnam, I almost wept in awe of where I was, drunk and tiny in a big world. Vietnam is the country I envisage myself returning to most soonly (I believe in made up words if the reader understands them) from the three I went to, Thailand, Vetnam and Cambodia.

Me on moped during the beautiful Vietnam drive.

The outstanding days of Cambodia were spent at the Anchor Watt temples there, a small land of golden mystique, silent temples crouching in the sporadic jungles and plains under the Cambodian sun. It was fantastic perched on those temples, trying to picture life in the 12th century as the native royals and slaves pottered about there. We also visited a small landmine museum there, which was insightful and interesting.

Monks at one of the Ankor Watt temples.

I could write a novel of anecdotes and experiences in Asia … it was a wonderful experience and one which I endeavour to repeat in the future. But most interesting to me is how my travels have influenced my beliefs, just as they did in America. Asia has heightened my respect for local people (although I would like to think that this was very much instilled in me beforehand), and when I heard tourists complaining and abusing local people, local people who’s home these tourists had essentially come to ‘vomit all over’ (in the words of comedy group Unexpected Items who created a satirical sketch on the matter), I began to feel angered and sad about it. I felt like everybody on the islands were too similar, and that many people came for the wrong reasons, me included at times. Asia was wonderful, but I saw it more as a holiday than an adventure at times like these. Asia certainly lowered my desire for a commercial lifestyle even further, and I always ate local cuisine.

The tree in the field behind my garden ...
where my adventure began and ended,
and where I like to hang the hammock and chill.

But the time came for me to return to England, and after a two hour stop in Hong Kong I was once more in the realm of my wonderful home and with my beautiful family, hitting golf balls into the field behind my house, pondering my travels and how I had changed. More words to come soon about how I feel my beliefs have changed, and maybe some ‘Top 5’ lists from in America! I’ve always find it hard to merely document what I have done in writing as opposed to giving it a creative edge … but I hope this gives you guys at least a small insight into where I’ve been etc … hopefully I can tell you all in more detail when plans of further adventures come to life.

Now? Well I’m in Edinburgh finding what work I can grab to have a whale of a time at this Fringe Festival … it’s a magical place and a new adventure, living in another city of outrageous and breathtaking beauty, meeting new people and experiencing new things, learning new beliefs and the like. But that may well just be for another blog.

Peace for now!