Just before New Year we took the bus from Hoi An to Hue (still in Central Vietnam), from where we would be able to make our assault on Laos. The bus takes us first to Marble Mountain, it's raining and we haven't had any breakfast so rather than go and look around the wonderful hand-carved marble sculptures on display we headed straight for the coffee and baquettes! The Sculptors work at the foot of the mountain where great slabs of marble lie around. The rest of the journey is through thickly-forested mountain passes, the cloud drifts like smoke from Red Indian [View Full Entry]

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On Boxing Day (26th Dec) we flew from Ho Chi Minh City to Hoi An in Central Vietnam. Hoi An Old Town is a Unesco World Heritage Site, mainly because of its Chinese, Japanese and European influenced architecture. We parked ourselves in a convenient centrally-located guesthouse (Thanh Binh Hotel) and set about exploring the quaint narrow streets and the old temples. This place is also famous for its tailoring and has some 300 shops in its vicinity. Gerry had himself made a silk shirt (being completely fed up wearing the same old t-shirts every day!) and Denise 5 dresses (being completely [View Full Entry]

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We booked into a fancy hotel, the Rex, on the 23rd Dec (which had silk kimono dressing gowns for us in the antique Vietnamese wardrobe!) for a couple of nights to make up for the lack of the presence (and presents!) of family and friends. We thought it was going to be a bit grim being in a country that didn't celebrate Christmas but this city is very festive with fairy lights every where, full scale orchestras playing in the street, and lots of little kids dressed in Santa suits, complete with fur hats, even though it's 90 degrees! They celebrate [View Full Entry]

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When I saw this cap I just had to buy it, it's the coolest thing around! It has a solar panel at the top which powers a small fan on the peak. Doesn't really cool you much but it sure raises smiles from everyone around! I got it from a guy we met in Thailand who was from Laos. [View Full Entry]

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On 20th December we left Phnom Penh in Cambodia and travelled by boat down the mighty Mekong to cross the border into Vietnam. We decided to book a 3 day tour into the Mekong Delta in South Vietnam. The border crossing was a gentle, orderly and attractive introduction to Vietnam, contrary to most overland border crossings which usually stress and confuse. Our first meal was noodles and vegetables in a hut next to the Immigration Office with some overly-excitable children trying to flog us packets of crisps. There was an amazing array of herbs thrown in with the veg. The Mekong [View Full Entry]

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In mid-December we caught an early morning bus from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville on the coast of Southern Cambodia. Gerry decided to buy a baquette filled with cold meat from a street vendor at the bus station - big mistake! 24 hours later, full scale diarrhoea! Fortunately no sickness, and after a day he was eating as well as ever. Sihanoukville is a bit shabby and is spread out across a number of beaches. We stayed in the Mealy Chenda Guesthouse above Victory Beach with a lovely view out to sea, particularly at sunset. They do a wicked barbequeue evening where [View Full Entry]

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We took the bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh (the capital of Cambodia), the guidebook said it would take about 8 or 9 hours. After about 5 hours we came to what we thought was a provincial town. When we asked if we were stopping for a break we were promptly informed that we were in the centre of Phnom Penh! It was not at all what we were expecting, normally in capital cities there are high rise office blocks and millions of people and heavy car traffic, here it was relatively quiet with wide boulevards and old French colonial [View Full Entry]

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We wasted no time in heading for the Temples of Angkor, the day after we flew into Siem Reap. We stayed at Earthwalkers, a cool place run by Norwegians. We bought a 3 day ticket (not cheap at $40 each, but I'm sure the money's needed) and we hired a tuk tuk (a fancy 2-person bogey pulled by a motorbike) and driver for the day. 'Angkor' literally means 'Capital City' or 'Holy City'. 'Khmer' refers to the dominant ethnic group in modern and ancient Cambodia. The term 'Angkor' has come to refer to the capital city of the Khmer Empire that [View Full Entry]

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From the forests and mountains of Chiang Mai we headed for the islands and beaches of the south of Thailand. We took the overnight train back to Bangkok, then another train to Cha am. This is supposed to be where Bangkokians go for the beach. However, it was pretty dead. I took no photos here, which I guess says it all. We stayed a few nights here before catching the train to Hua Hin and a connection to Surat Thani. We had to wait several hours in Hua Hin, which wasn't so bad as it must be the prettiest train station [View Full Entry]

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We flew from Singapore to Bangkok on the 4th of November and a few hours later we picked up the night train to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. We headed up this way as Chiang Mai is becoming known as the cultural/bohemian centre of Thailand and also because we had booked ourselves onto a conference (The Effects of Globalisation on Minority Peoples in South East Asia). We thought it was going to be cooler in the North but it was still about 32 degrees (90) most days. We went on a study field trip for 4 days visiting the [View Full Entry]

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