2002-2005 (c) GetJealous.com, All rights reserved. http://www.getjealous.com/mikem/rss.xml Mike is back on the road and doing great! http://www.getjealous.com/mikem http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=567872&go=mikem Arriving to Bangkok only to find out that the earliest I can fly to India is on February 26, so I'll have 11 days in Thailand! Well, to make the best out of it I went to Koh Tao and did amazing 5 dives that made me an ADVANCED diver (!!!, not I have one more diving certificate and 12 dives altogether in my logbook - not too many but still nice...... http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=567872&go=mikem Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=564431&go=mikem Laos, the country of my dreams for many years, began from crossing the border from China - actually nowadays they have an excellent direct bus from Jinhong in China to Luang Nam Tha in Northern Laos. I took it with a few people I met while trekking and a friend of one of them. Together we took motorcycles on the next day and did a long day ride, which was planned to be North towards Muang Sing, bu... http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=564431&go=mikem Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=564430&go=mikem This South East Asian style region in Yunnan province of China looks more like Thailand or Laos than China, with the culture, the architecture, the language and even the prostitution in some places are quite similar. It's mostly populated by the Dai minority, who are ethnically related to the Thai people.... http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=564430&go=mikem Wed, 7 Jan 2009 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=564428&go=mikem The flight from Shanghai to Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang "Autonomous" region (Uighurs' country occupied by China), was ridiculously cheap (a bit over $100), the trick was to order it a month ahead. The temperatures gap was ridiculous as well - from chilly early-fall style Shanghai I landed straight into the snowy streets of Urumqi, brought me some childhood memories from Russia.... It... http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=564428&go=mikem Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=548221&go=mikem OK, so that's it. It started. After one year of teaching English to all ages (1.5 to 30 years old) of Chinese people I'm finally back on the road, making myself an easy start with the rich Eastern coast of China.Arriving to Hangzhou on train from Guangzhou, December 10 in the morning and going strait to my amazing CouchSurfing host named Tomek. If you haven't heard of CouchSurfing yet it's huge la... http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=548221&go=mikem Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=500615&go=mikem After one day break in Guangzhou, I took a flight to Kunming - the capital city of the amazing Yunnan province. The flight was from Shenzhen (1 hour by train from home + 40 minutes by bus to the airport), the train was late, the bus was stuck in the traffic jam, I was terribly late to the flight (for the first time in my life!), but the flight was delayed (for the first time in my life!), there is... http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=500615&go=mikem Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=495227&go=mikem Cambodia Cambodia. good evening!To Phnom Penh me and Serge arrived in the early evening after a definitely amazing journey on the Mekong. Found a bizzare guesthouse on the lakeside, and got all services at once from them - some more legal some less, some we didn't want ;)On the next day heading on two motorbikes driven by our hosts we headed to the Khmer Rouge prison-museum. One of the heaviest th... http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=495227&go=mikem Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=492770&go=mikem Arriving to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh city in the communist dialect) with a crazy Russian motherfucker named Serge I met on the way, we had just a single day to explore the city, which we did quite well. The difference from Hanoi is huge - much more high buildings, cars, trucks, industry, in general - development. Much richer than Hanoi it's not much more expensive though, if you eat in food stalls and ... http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=492770&go=mikem Mon, 9 Jun 2008 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=491479&go=mikem Arriving to Hue early in the morning proved to be the right thing to do, since if you're time-limited, there's not much to do there for more than one day. However, this one day was quite intensive. The two main attractions in the city are the emperors' tombs and the Citadel, with the local version of the Forbidden City. For people crazy for ruins and old castles, like myself, this place is really ... http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=491479&go=mikem Fri, 30 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=489108&go=mikem Hanoi, of course, appeared to be a cheaters' city, but somehow I managed to book a Halong Bay tour for cheap (45$ for 3 days, it's considered cheap these days), the first day was really nice, lots of tiny islands, seeing everything from a funny looking boat. Second day was on Cat Ba island, they have a national park there, which I was told was just "an hour of easy walk in the jungle". T... http://www.getjealous.com/getjealous.php?action=showdiaryentry&diary_id=489108&go=mikem Wed, 21 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT