Hello everyone!

Last time I wrote was after my New Year’s Eve in Tokyo, now I just had a New Year party for the Laos new year. I also had a big party for the Vietnam/China New Year on the 18th of febuary who also happend to be my 30th birthday! Yep, I grew older since the last mail and I’m now officially an old fart! But they say that Travelling makes you young (or something along those lines) so I keep young and fit!

I’m currently in Laos where I sweat my ass off! I was on a nice little island where I didn’t have a fan and where anyway there wasn’t any electricity after 10PM. I stayed 3 night in my little bungalow by the river and every night I woke up in the middle of the nightr covered soaking wet. The good thing is because of this light sleep I manage to see the guy who was trying to break-in my bungalow and scared him away.

I spent another 50 days in China and this time I travelled with my friend JF who now live in Shanghai since 2 years. The first thing he learn on the trip was that is Chinese was not as good as he tought! It was really cool to be with a friend and I also manage to meet up with a few friends from Mongolia who where all in the same area of China. That was pretty nice. I then cross to Vietnam for the New Year and travelled for 1 month with my dad. Vietnam was a bit of a disapointement, there was just too many tourists and almost everybody is stopping at the same place. As the transport is very slow (max 50km/h on the highway!!) crossing the country in 1 month without flying imply following the most travelled route. We rented motorbike a few times and manage to have lots of fun and get away from the more touristy part and I have to admit those were my favorites moments. I then cross to Cambodia where on my first night I met a Chinese girl from Shanghai. The next morning I convinced her to come to the south and the beach with me. We’ve been travelling togeter since and it’s actualy her that scared the guy on the balcony a few nights ago. Of course I had to spend a few days in Angkor with was very amazing. Even if the most famous temple is Angkor Wat I think my favorite was Bayon. This temple have a lot of faces (216) so wherever you are you feel obseve.

There’s another 2 and a half months ahead so I hope all will go smoothly.
For those who wish to read more about my trip I now try to post at least one a week on my web site short stories.

So Happy New Year everybody and take care.

Mat.