OK next entry, hey we are only 2 months and 2 weeks behind now.....maybe we will catch up at some point!!! 11th November Another long bus journey, this time to Ho Chi Minh city (formerly known as Saigon), which is the capital. As we arrived closer to hcmc the rain started to come down and it looked as though it had been raining there all day. On the way our journey was hampered by a river running through the road. We looked out to see locals on scooters and motorbikes still trying to ride through the water which was coming up to the tops of their legs! We saw one woman clinging onto her child trying to ride her motorbike (which of course was laden with boxes) through the water. To be honest she wasn't doing ... read more

Michael: 29th Oct 2011 Hue (Hway) after getting off a very bumpy train ride we walked 30mins in the rain to our hotel. we had breakfast and checked in. on the way we were stopped by a seller shouting "BUY SOMETING" (he was only selling lighters) when we said no thank you he shouted WHY NOT!!! to which i replied i dont smoke then he sapped me on my back and shouted GOOD FOR YOU! BAD FOR ME and walked off laughing. After a relax in our room we booked a tour to visit the royal tombs (which are only accesable by boat) for the following day. today we decided to head out to the imperial palace which was heavily destroyed by the USA . The palace that was left was nice and looked a little ... read more

Wow, we've been a bit behind with our entries whilst we've been in Vietnam, we will try and catch up at some point! 21st October: Time to leave china and catch our 0730 bus to Hanoi. we woke nice and early and headed downstairs to leave but we were approached by Jody who told us that the key had snapped off in the lock and that was the only exit!!!! we enquired about the fire exit but soon discovered it only went up to the roof, v.v handy! it was 0700 and it was a 15min walk to the bus station so we were all worried about missing our bus but our hostel lady assured us that it would be fine and we could catch the 8am bus but when we asked her would we get ... read more

forgot to mention that Katie had her ears cleaned in a tea house in chengdu. Which was minging esp when the man insisted on showing me her earwax every time. love of my life??? (katie: actually it felt really nice when he was doing it, I didn't enjoy the bit when he took great pleasure in showing both me and Michael my ear wax though!) 4th oct arrived in lijang 5th oct explored the old town of lijang but had to put up with every 3rd shop playing the same beeping song, NA DE DA DE DA DE DA. go on sing it, get it stuck in your head, feel our pain!!! my favorite part of lijang at this point is when we stopped to look at a map on the wall and i asked ... read more

21st september Last night in Pingyao we decided to hit the "Sakura" bar and watched some singing (karoke?) by a couple of chinese girls who were pretty good and were grabbing the attention of some older men wandering by. After a few too many beers we decided to head back but then we dumped into Kristen, James and a german guy and ended up going back to the bar. When we finally left the bar around 1:45 everywhere was bordered and locked up, it was pitch black. while katie was a little (lot) drunk she was wandering down the street singing "harmony, harmony, where are you" we eventually found our guesthouse and banged on the door and mr deng the owner answered in his string vest and told us to "hush hush" which forced katie into ... read more