So we landed in Brisbane on time and we had 90 minutes to catch our connecting flight to Melbourne, as this wasn’t Schiphol airport we assumed we were ok for time. As this was our first entry into Australia we had to claim our baggage, clear quarantine and customs, catch a bus to the domestic terminal and check in before we could be on our merry way to Melbourne. The customs weren’t concerned with the copious amount of spirits we had bagged in Singapore, oh no they wanted to inspect the tent because we had used it in Malaysia once and it may have a money spider in there. The cheek.......the country with the most deadly animals in the world is paranoid about stuff coming in!! So out came the tent and off went the plane. ... read more

You will definitely need a brew for this one and maybe a bite to eat.....it’s the biggest blog yet! There is nothing quite like the feeling you get when you arrive in a deserted city late at night, restless from the bus ride, you then have to find somewhere to stay....it’s a city, how hard can it be? Well, first you need to establish where you are on the tiny map in our BIBLE (Lonely Planet; South East Asia on a shoestring) when all the streets have numbers assigned instead of names. Odd numbers go north to south, even number go east to west. This seems easy enough until you realise that half the streets listed in the map are missing and some other random number, totally out of sequence is in its place (if you ... read more

Confident that we would not be sleeping in a real bed for two days we decided on some luxury for the second leg of the journey from Hanoi to Hue. We booked a train that consisted of a soft bed sleeper train with 4 births per room as opposed to the 6 birth hard sleeper we previously had. We arrived back in Hanoi after our first leg at 05:00 on a sleeper bus from Sapa, we headed straight for the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel (where we had booked the Jolly Roger Boat Trip from). Playing it cool we took advantage of their generosity, helping ourselves to some free breakfast, tea (trying to convince everyone we were residents) and stashed our bags then off we went into Hanoi to see some sights! Our train wasn’t until 7pm that ... read more

As I write this blog we’re in Hue, 1/3 of the way down the East coast of Vietnam. It’s the 1st November and we’re waiting to check into a backpacker’s hostel. There was a Halloween party last night and it seems people are reluctant to get up and check out. It has been a fairly busy 10 days so here goes.......! The 50 minute flight from Laos to Hanoi was fairly painless on the evening of the 20th October, compared with the thought of a 24 hour bus ride over the mountains and a border crossing point that would make the North Pole look busy. ‘Apparently’ the bus drivers have a habit of refusing to cross the border unless you pay them a huge wad of cash, if they haven't robbed you first, then ‘apparently’ the ... read more

We headed north out of the Bangkok to meet Deon and Chris, narrowly escaping the floods. The rain was UN-believable and this was before our bus journey to Chiang Mai began. Stepping off a bus that was delayed due to the rain, into warm water over our ankles, we walked over the road for a taxi. It was like getting in to a shower with our clothes on (nothing like the ‘fine stuff’ we have in the UK!). The rain didn't stop for 8 hours of the 10 hour journey and was leaking into the 'VIP' bus at one point. The motorway was flooded half way, but we finally arrived safely to Daret Guesthouse in Chiang Mai at 08:00 the next day. The 4 of us booked on to a trek and downhill mountain biking day, ... read more