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 In 1996 I travelled around Southeat Asia for 3 weeks, eventually visiting seven countries!
I started the trip from China where I was working at the time. I flew to Singapore which, aftr my years in China seeme like a haven of luxury. I visited some of  the tourist attractions there before taking a boat trip, via a Singaporean island, to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. I travelled overland to the amazing hill-town of Bukkittingi. The people were very friendly and I was able  to see something of the unique culture they have there, such as the family long-houses, the ceremonial bull-horn houses, ancient ruins and sticky rice. After a few days relaxation at Lake Toba, I took a short boat trip from Indonesia to Malaysia, and on to the old colonial outpost of  Georgetown with its intriguing mixture of colonial and ethnic buildings. Next, an overnight train to Thailand. The city o f Bangkok, and the rest of the country too, seemed to teem with amazing temples, palaces and ancient ruins. It was also interesting to see the Bridge on the  River Kwai and stay on a hotel boat. A short flight from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The people there were so friendly, despite the attrocities that country has suffered over many years. I went to see the Killing Fields, but unfortunately didn’t have enough time for the temples complexes of Ankor Wat - that’s for another day! Then by bus into Vietnam. The “Museum of American Hostility” was a sobering reminder of recent  history. I then took a train from Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) in the South to Hanoi in the North. A couple of days there and it was time to take the train back over the border into China. An exhausting but thoroughly rewarding trip.
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