Last stop before UK - Hua Hin

So much to do, so little time in which to do it. My last stop is in Hua Hin and I want to try to fit in some spa treatments and have some more massages.

I don't know where the time went! Just a little while ago | was packing my bag, checking my passport, and filling the suitcase with essential reading for the few months ahead, and now here I am doing exactly the same thing but in reverse.

I haven't managed to put up as many articles as I'd planned on my travels but I have my journal to refer to and they will be posted over the coming months. Internet connections were not as good as I'd hoped in east Asia, and it took a great deal of patience to get any articles up at all. Thailand, as always, was absolutely brilliant. It's still my favourite country in the area and although it has its problems, the people still face each day with a smile. Vietnam is very beautiful, but sometimes quite scary as you sense the people's frantic drive to catch up. Poverty in Vietnam is dire. The collapse of the communist states and the resulting tearing of the social fabric has left them without a safety net, and those who have no work, have no means of eating. Figure it out. The lucky ones are those who can eke a living from a plot of land.

Yet the people of these nations have an innate dignity and a delight in welcoming visitors to share what they have that is quite humbling. They help one another, and so they survive. Anyone who hankers after seeing this part of the world should go now, it is changing so fast, it will be unrecognisable in a few years time. And spend your money with the locals, in the small shops, restaurants and bars.

Which brings me back to my farewell to Thailand. For the next week I shall be very Thai, live for the day for "we cannot change what is". I am planning on having some spa treatments in Hua Hin, where every hotel has a wonderful spa, some massages on the beach, and supping every night on that Thai speciality soup, Tom Yam Goong.

See you back in the UK.