BelleWettenhall

Hello and Merry Christmas from the land of Thai!! And what a beautiful place it is - but oh so much more touristy than anywhere in Vietnam! Currently we are staying in Koh Samui, the largest of the group of islands in the South-west of Thailand. Landing at the Koh Samui airport (having said a sad goodbye to Ali at the Saigon airport), we were greeted by the most awesome airport I have ever seen - picture a cluster of 20 or so open air bungalows with a few check in desks and funny little buses that transport you from tarmac to terminal, and thats what it was! That evening we enjoyed our first Thai meal - a welcome change - with another group of physios who had their clinics in Chang Mai - bringing our ... read more

Well, I'm back, and before you read on, I must explain why you are receiving this now, on January the 24th, over a month after I visited all of these places....basically, the following few blogs have been written in dribs and drabs during our stay in Thailand, and if you chose to read the details of my Thailand blogs, you will understand that our stay in Thailand involved a lot of partying...and sleeping....which left little time to sit and concentrate on writing a blog....So here they are now, pick and chose what you read, and if you cant be bothered reading, then there's plenty of photos to tell the stories!! Having packed away our beach stuff, we departed Mui Ne on our first bus, having managed to avoid bus travel until then. After 4 long, hot, ... read more

After a fairly hectic few days in Hoi An, we arrived late on Saturday night in hot and humid Nha Trang - taking a lucky chance with a hotel that we thought existed....arriving to find it shut up for the night. Fortunately the hotel next door were more than happy to have us - and as soon as we set eyes on the pool near the foyer, we were staying! In its peak season, Nha Trang is well known for its long and beautiful beach and its beach parties, as well as snorkling and scuba diving. Whilst still very hot at this time of year, the beach was pretty rough, as we had predicted and so it was lucky we had decided to spend only a day there. We had a little time in the morning ... read more

What a magical three days! Halong Bay is all that it was made out to be - amazing scenery, awesome seafood and a damn good time! We left Hanoi on Sunday morning and travelled on the bus to Halong City - a group of 16 of us on a bus with very little suspension - not the most comfortable ride! After 3 hours we arrived at Halong City where we had a big seafood lunch before boarding the boat - a three level boat with twin cabins down the bottom, tables/seating in the middle, and then an open deck with deck chairs on top! The first night was to be spent on the boat, anchored in a calm cove somewhere in the middle of the bay. We had a couple of stops in the afternoon - ... read more

Well, I'm back again, after a fairly long break from the blogs...and from the streets of Hanoi....What do you mean(?) you ask....well, aside from a few trips here and there around Hanoi, I have spent 5 out of the last 7 days lying horizontal in bed. When did it start? I warn you now, this is a rather lengthy story - but you do have the option to skip ahead if I manage to bore you (unlike when you just have to smile and nod when I babble on face to face!). When we were in Sapa we met two lovely ladies/girls...Diana - an awesome hip 67 year old lady, and Anna, a 30 year old travelling Asia alone. Diana, having spent much time in Hanoi, invited us to have dinner with her at a well ... read more