From the fun of Ha Long we have done a 180, but more about that later..... We woke up after our first night in a dorm to mixed reviews. Lou struggled, it could be the fact she is getting a cold and therefore kept waking in the night cos of her stuffy nose. (We may have left the country for warmer climes, but the Autumn cold has still found us.) Gregg on the other hand was quite happy. A brief awakening early in the morning as somebody got up to leave for an early bus about 7 ish but otherwise a very peaceful night compared with most he has experienced in hostel in Australia a decade ago, when the only way to sleep was to be so drunk nothing would wake you. (For the record we ... read more

When we left you we were at the border crossing between China and Vietnam..... The rickety walkway continued round a corner and in front of us was a deserted wide road, with a downhill slope. I wasn't expecting a trek between countries merely a short hop, but it seems that you have to walk down about 200m of road through a barrier across the road (at which was a guard totally disinterested in everything, but wearing Vietnam Army uniform nonetheless) and vere off to the right to a customs and immigration building. That was the last sensible thing for a while...Having been the last to get to the China crossing we were also the last to get ot the Vietnam entry and when we entered the building we were greated by a cacophony of noise and ... read more

It has been quite a busy few days and, as I write this, we are struggling to stay awake at the end of our second day of overland travel but we have reached Hanoi. Some might say that our arrival was more a matter of blind luck than good judgment but we made it nonetheless. So, we left you in Hong Kong having spent two hours sitting in the Chinese Embassy waiting to apply for our visas. That night was a long one and for all the wrong reasons. After Gregg posted our last blog entry the jet lag kicked in big style and we found ourselves wide awake and the wrong side of midnight. In our infinite wisdom, we decided that we had to get the better of this jet-lag thing and so set our ... read more

19 August 2010 The packing has now really begun in earnest and Mum is even here to help! The place looks like a complete tip but it is true to say that the kitchen is the only room that hasn't yet been touched. Tomorrow we tackle that and probably make several trips to the tip. I am hopeful that we will be able to go to bed tomorrow having completed phase 1 of moving out of our home (still not sure I really like that idea) and ready for the removal trailer to arrive on Monday morning. If we achieve this, we can spend a good proportion of the weekend saying our goodbyes in Treyarnon and saying one very special hello to little Miss Rosie Brader. 20 August 2010 Well, yesterday's optimism wasn't totally misplaced. We ... read more

Today the sun was shining and we decided that we would take the opportunity to get out of Plymouth and investigate the surrounding area which is something that we don't do enough. We first headed out to Kingsbridge but that was pretty shut. After picking up newspapers in a "boutique" Morrisons we jumped back in the car and followed our noses. Twenty minutes later we found ourselves the delightful hamlet of Beesands. It is really just a row of houses, all of which look like they were probably once fisherman's cottages, a gastro pub called The Cricketers and a little shack that serves as the fish market and cafe. We sat outside and lazily munched a pannini each before wondering over to lean on the sea wall. This provided me with the perfect opportunity to test ... read more