Panic not, Mother
 

Americans who worry about they 30 year old kiddiwinks going to darkest Europe might be interested in this
http://tinyurl.com/ybblgk
It's "reassuring" e-mails home from British teenagers on their gap year.

Great fun, J.

>I have been scared of heights all my life. So imagine my delight, as we came over the brow of the hill, just over the [Vietnam/Laos] border, to see not merely sheer vertical drops falling away from us into mist-covered oblivion, not just a winding mountain pass consisting entirely of hairpin bends snaking blindly into thick fog, but no barrier, no markings, no edge to the road. But thick slippery mud, more than a foot deep, and piles of rock and rubble all covering the road, if you can call it a road. And the moisture from the freezing fog had turned its surface into slippery, trickling slop that fell away from the cliff edge into nothingness.<

That's pretty good writing.

((I))

Hilarious, love this one, mainly because I know Stoke:

"The accommodation is OK. Well, it's interesting, a bit sticky on the floor and a few cockroaches but it's OK. I'm staying in a little place about 40 minutes from Sydney on the train. It's a small town, loads of crime, drugs etc, etc, a bit like Stoke - only less pottery."

I love the girl who invited a group pf ace Aussies to stay with her parents.

I think even many seasoned travellers are to some extent "innocents abroad". I can look back on incidents over the years when things could have gone bad. The one time it did was when I was stabbed by a little old lady in Mexico City. I pushed her, she fell over, and next moment a mob attacked me.


I only speak some holiday Spanish and got the impression that this ragged old lady accused me of taking her money. As a tourist, I would normally have a fair bit of money but like so many before me, I had an hour ago been robbed on the Mexico City subway so had about 20 pesos on me at that time. The cowards quickly faded away when the truth was realised, leaving me with just a bleeding mouth.