Darwin June 10-16, 2006 Saturday, June 10 We arrived in Darwin at 4:30 in the morning. It was pitch black outside and we were practically out on our feet as we passed through a vigorous and detailed customs and immigration check. The passage through customs became more complicated when they found out we were carrying candy. Any food, and they mean chocolate or “lollies” as the lady put it, demands a more thorough search. Our cab driver into town was a chatty, amiable guy who had the whole world figured out. His years in food service and his nights as a [View Full Entry]

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It’s a Singapore Airlines flight. The rankings do not lie and this is definitely one of the best airlines in the world and better than our few experiences in first class. There is no need to buy a first class ticket on Singapore Airlines because, with the exception of a little leg room, you have everything you need back in coach. That said, factoring in the amenities the leg room was ample (far more civilized a space than any United Airlines flight we’ve ever been on). To say we were dreading our flights from Christchurch to Singapore and then from Singapore [View Full Entry]

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We have alluded in past blog entries to our frustration with Capital One. We obtained a Capital One credit card before leaving for our trip because it is the only credit card company in America that does not currently charge a fee for international transactions. The other credit card we travel with charges a 3% fee but we still periodically wrestle with cutting up Capital One. It is that bad. Our other credit card companies allowed us to give them a list of countries that we would be visiting before we left the United States. We can also communicate with them [View Full Entry]

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We’re spending two weeks in the South Island of New Zealand before flying to Beijing, China. We’re currently in Queenstown which is known in the backpacker circles as the adventure sports capital of the world. While we don’t want to reveal any of our adventures out of order (you still have Australia to read about), here’s a teaser about what we were up to today.... [View Full Entry]

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Our time in Singapore was short and unfortunately not so sweet. Three months in Asia finally caught up with us and we both had stomach issues for most of our time in Singapore. We arrived at the airport in Singapore around 11 pm on Wednesday night. It was a shock to the system because the airport was so clean and orderly and had vending machines, which is a weird thing to be excited about but was just one of things we hadn’t realized that we missed. We took a cab to 1 B&B Singapore where we had a beautiful room and [View Full Entry]

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It is hard to pass through Hanoi’s old quarter without seeing a hotelier or travel agent hawking some kind of package deal for tours in the region. The two most popular destinations are Sapa, a northern mountain town not far from the Chinese border, and Halong Bay, a vast waterway dotted with some 3,000 limestone islands. Our first trip was Halong Bay and we poured a good amount of research into which cruise company to take. Every vendor sells a better package than the last and there is a wide variety of prices. We ended up buying our tickets for a [View Full Entry]

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Sapa is between Hanoi and the Chinese border. It is a popular tourist destination because of its mountain location, cool climate and hill tribes. Many people buy packages (which usually include hill tribe treks of varying lengths) to Sapa from Hanoi. Because we had plenty of time, we decided not to book an organized tour to Sapa and instead to head there on our own and book any packages from there if we found something we liked. Night trains appear to be the only real option to Sapa (there may be day trains and buses but no one talks about them [View Full Entry]

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May 23 - 25, May 28 - 30, and June 5-7, 2006 After a slow and methodical touring of Vietnam from its southern tip of Ha Tien to the central ancient town of Hue we leapt north to Hanoi on Vietnam Airlines, skipping the grueling 12-16 hours of bus travel between Hue and Hanoi. The bus from Hue departs daily at 6pm and the thought of the crazed drivers, roadside livestock, and pitch black night of hilly, rural Vietnam was not appealing in the least. With airline tickets around $50 USD per person we decided to make the leap and spare [View Full Entry]

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May 18 - 23, 2006 Of course, the title is only funny if you know (and we did not prior to coming to Vietnam) that Hue is pronounced “whey” not “hugh” or even “hughie” as we heard some people call it during our stay. We did not like Hue very much. One of the problems may have been elevated expectations. Our guidebook really talked up Hue, particularly the food, even going so far as calling its food the best in Vietnam. That kind of hyperbole gets our attention but it set us up for disappointment because we thought the food was [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Hoi An with the Easy Riders around 4 pm. We had a hotel in mind that we found in our guidebook but agreed that they could take us to Thuy Duong 3 Hotel, a hotel that their customers often stay at, for a look. The hotel was very nice with a courtyard pool and rooms ranging from $20-40. We decided to splurge because we had been “roughing it” and were a little saddle sore so we stayed in the $40 room (with the balcony overlooking the pool) the first night and then moved to a $25 room (with [View Full Entry]

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