Hello Japan, Goodbye Budget

We'd been in Japan for just two minutes before we found our first motorised toilet, and the fun didn't stop there. Japan/Tokyo had always been a place we wanted to go to, but we just weren't sure the budget could stretch for it. In the end, we decided to throw out the budget, and go, and we're glad we did - it really is a country like no other.

erm... yeh...

There are few places as exciting for shopping as Tokyo. Harajuku is home to the kids English hipsters try to imitate. The difference being that the Japanese can actually pull it off. You can buy some truly bizarre items of clothing, oddly for pretty decent prices. The whole area is filled to the brim of youngsters with incredible taste in fashion - something common throughout the whole of Tokyo - even the ugly kids. The whole thing is topped off by cosplayers dressed to the nines, for no other reason than it being a Sunday.

Here's a screenshot from the upcoming Final Fantasy game

The other great shopping area in Tokyo is Akihabara - which we're guessing is the translation for 'nerdtown'. Packed to the brim with computer games, gadgets, and cartoon porn, it was difficult to know when to stop buying things. How many shops in England have 200+ original GameBoy games in stock? Even when you don't need them, and know you won't play them more than once, it's bizarrely tempting to empty your wallet on them. The area was topped off with arcades. You know when you think you're good at computer games? Go to Japan and you won't still think that. We were watching stuff like this.

This is a chair made of NES games - you want?

We did manage to take in some traditional Japanese experiences along the way such as seeing the Imperial Palace, and eating sushi. But the highlight was a visit to a Japanese onsen (hot springs). Never having been to a hot springs before, you don't expect 40°C to be that hot, but after fifteen minutes, you're hopping towards the 20°C pool, this time much colder than you expect. And then you're soon hopping between the two. Despite sitting in a bath with a load of old and naked Japanese men, the whole experience was fantastic.

The billboards are a little different to in England

It's difficult to put our experience in Tokyo into words. It was a shame we didn't get to see more of the country, but at the same time, to spend 8 days in Tokyo was incredible. It really is a country like no other, and definitely one everyone needs to experience for themselves. Following Japan, we had a couple of brief days in Kuala Lumpur (where we hooked up with Jessica Meola), and Singapore, which although expensive, was a pretty cool city. We tried to meander our way up to the top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, though were sadly stopped at the 55th floor. Lovely building though.

£300 per night was sadly just too much for us

And that, is sadly that for Asia. We've had over seven months of awesomeness here, but we've just left for Australia. Let's hope it's as fantastic as Asia was.

Full Moon Party? We don't remember...

A little over two weeks ago, we'd just finished being teachers in Vietnam, and we were back on the road again for the first time in six months. And we had good friend from home Will Thompson join us for a short while.

Angkorrrrr WAT

We rode West for Siem Reap, to see Angkor Wat and the other temples in Cambodia. Upon arriving in Cambodia, one thing was unmistakable. Khmers (locals) are the nicest people in the world. It's strange to make such an instant judgement of such a vast collective of people, but we all agreed. There was just something about them. The visit to the temples of Angkor was nice enough - Angkor Wat looked incredible, though some idiots were doing scaffolding work to it and chucked green sheets all over it. Later, Dave was told he wasn't allowed in the middle of it because he was wearing a vest, and this was a great insult to their non-vest wearing forefathers.

Idiot boy left outside for wearing a vest

After just a few days in Cambodia we left though - it was a nice place, just lacking a little OOOMF! This ooomf would be found in Thailand, and indeed in Bangkok. We'd already been to Bangkok so we knew what to expect, but every night out in Bangkok is always a little different. This time around, at 7am after a night, Myles was robbed by a couple of ladyboys. Then he robbed them of more money than they stole off him. Myles 1, Ladyboys 0.

This was a nice ladyboy who gave Myles a lift home one morning

Our next destination was Koh Phangan, host of the infamous Full Moon Party. Before we went, we really didn't know what to expect. 50% of the reputation seemed to be "best party ever", "amazing" etc., while the other half held views of "full of nobheads", and describing it as the place for Brett Broski.

Worst pyramid shape ever

Now admittedly, the beach was full of jacked-up/roided-up/muscled-up guys (read: jocks) and hot-ass/boobed-up/blonde girls (read: bimbos), and the sheer level in hotness in everyone there was crazy (so why were we there lolzomgrofl!?). But don't judge a book by its cover etc. - everyone there was simply there to have a good time, and there was a great communal party atmosphere. We had a pool party a couple nights before Full Moon night as a warm-up, which was great (save for us forgetting to take our watches off before jumping in the pool), before the night of the Full Moon Party arrived.

MOON

Our memories from that night are few and far between, but it was excellent, simple as - check the pics. It's easy to judge it before you try it, but give it a go one day, you may love it.

Dave STLL has a neon Batman symbol on his back, 8 days later

Following a couple days of R&R in Koh Samui, which included the AWESOME football golf, we were off to Kuala Lumpur, where we learned it's a twenty-four hour bus ride. So we chose to fly. Normally this would be cool, but we were flying with Firefly, the most budget of budget airlines. The plane consisted of a couple of propellers, held together with polystyrene and Pritt Stick (you can see where this is going). Around halfway into the flight was some turbulence. Now we're no strangers to turbulence, we've had our fair share of flights already through this trip. But this was some SERIOUS turbulence. Or perhaps a 1mph wind that just felt horrific because of the cardboard plane we were sitting in. Either way, we're already thinking we're about to die, when the plane NOSE-DIVES 15 miles, before levelling out. This might be slightly embellished, but the point is; that flight was bad.

Not good

Kuala Lumpur was nice enough too, though the adverts that cry "Malaysia, truly Asia", were slightly inaccurate. Obviously KL is one of the larger cities in Asia, but it's still far too Westernised to be considered 'truly Asia'. It's a great city though - the twin towers look incredible, we had to make our own beds at the hostel, and we even found a giant sofa!

AND a monkey stole Dave's water - it was amazing

And that, is pretty much that for the past couple weeks. We've been flying around for the last few days and yesterday was no different. We've just flown into Tokyo for - fingers crossed - one of the best weeks of the trip.