FarahAndJohn

Caught the bus out of the gorge up to Zhongdian - the inspiration for Shangri-la and now apparenty renamed that in order to attract more tourists. We cruised up through the hills and emerged on a comparatively flat brown plateau, and noticed a change in building style along the roadside - boxier, trapezoidal and wooden rather than tile shingles. Some have an 'upside down roof', draining towards the center into a single eavestrough that emerges as a spout through each end of the building. This is the taste of Tibet for those of us not actually going. The town is over 3000 meters, so it was noticably cold - especially since we're really carrying gear for hot weather; sandals(!) with windbreaker and fleece only, and the indoors are essentially unheated. Our room's electric blanket was ... read more

Back onto the bus, more awesome scenery - tunnels, valleys, hills - and into the smaller town of Lijiang. Nice just to wander the maze-like streets and alleys - cobblestone streets, beautiful old buildings (or new ones in the same style) with red lanterns, flowering rees, huge rose bushes and small canals running through filled with fish! Very popular with tourists but has the sort of charm that still overpowers the tourist plague. We found a nice little hotel on a side alley with people who spoke nearly no English - but with phrasebook and gestures we managed. They made us some pu'er tea in the courtyard under the very old but small Hitong tree that the hotel was named for. We cycled out to Baisha, a small villiage nearby populated by the Naxi minority ... read more

As we researched tours to Halong Bay, it became clear that we would have to be extra cautious when signing up for one, since there are so many frauds and scams out there! So we opted for the pricier, but well reviewed, Handspan tour company, which was just up the street from our hotel on Ma May. We walked in hoping to sign up for the 2 day, 1 night trip, but it was fully booked for the next couple of weeks, so we signed up for the 3 day trip with a day set aside for kayaking. I had some reservations - I'm still a bit shaky on my feet, and it is cold and rainy in Hanoi (my new definition of cold is 20 degrees though!) so I wasn't sure about being on ... read more

Took the overnight train up to Danang for Hoi An. The trains are narrow gauge and noticably skinnier and bouncier than the broad gauge cars in India. The sleeper design is similar though, 4 person cabins with upper and lower bunks. Similar to India, you have a neatly folded bundle of bed linen waiting on your bunk, however we found out later to our dismay that in Vietnam this seems to be just a re-fold from the previous person. Overall our impressions is that the train is a bit grubby, with sub-airline grade lukewarm boxed meals. The main attraction is of course the scenery, and it was great to wake up to misty hills and spend the morning passing rice paddies, houses and jungle. Pretty flat on this leg however. In Danang we piled out ... read more

Milestone! We've just finshed seeing the temples and are moving on to Phnom Penh in the morning. We flew out of Luang Prabang on Siem Reap air (subsidiary of Bangkok air - $195) direct to Siem Reap. Nice experience and quite a nice new airport at Siem Reap. Man it is hot here - it's going to hit 40C which is difficult to cope with. And its not a dry heat. The taxis here are an excellent sort of motocycle-drawn chariot! Our hotel helped arrange Mr Bun Cheyrith as our charioteer for the temples. We got up early to beat the heat and set out, anxious for our first glimpse as we tooled down the tree-lined avenue. Wow, It's really good. I took so many pictures that I amazed myself, I just burned another set of ... read more