Hanoi - chopsticks? check. expandable elastic waist pants? check. you're ready to hit the town.we don't quite know how the vietnamese stay so skinny, especially in a city that has such delicious food being cooked on every street corner. perhaps it's the adrenalin rush you experience everytime you try and cross a road....your life flashes before your eyes as you see hundreds of mopeds screaming towards you. but somehow you manage to get across intact. there is also a myserious lack of canines in this town. call us paranoid. but even that wasn't enough to subdue our appetites - the r [View Full Entry]

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Halong Bay - forget the cruise schmooze and junk it asian stylewhich is exactly what the pirates did during the turn of the 18th century. Our magnificent 'red dragon' junk was modelled on the historic boats plus a few minor inclusions to make the trip a little more luxurious....such as sun lounges....and a bar...and 12 well dressed staff. we're sure the pirates travelled in similar style! our overnight cruise was mindblowing - from sailing between some of the 3000 misty islands that make up halong bay, through to visiting ancient caves, witnessing the simple life of vietnamese fish [View Full Entry]

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Bangkok - trannies, tuk tuks and the world's best tom yumswe haggled our way through this city....paul is a master haggler! whereas jean prefers to shrink away and pretend that she doesn't know what's going on. the craziness of bangkok combined with the stifling heat made this a highly amusing visit for us...and it is a place of extremes....never have the homeless looked so...homeless, or the dogs more flea bitten, or the girls more made up, or the boys more feminine. and you can be assured that every designer item is a knock off. the allure of a louis vuitton handbag [View Full Entry]

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Hong Kong - How much bbq duck can you eat in the land of suzie wong??Well, a lot if you're a 6'5" brit who loves his msg. It was our second visit to the steamy city of Hong Kong in 7 months and it was no coincidence that we picked this cramped island for a whirlwind visit. From the weird, wonderful and sometimes downright putrid smells, to the maze of undercover walkways linking all the designer department stores, unbearably humid weather, delicious restaurants with pickled poultry hanging from their windows, dozens of tailors offering you discounts on 'quality made' clothing, the [View Full Entry]

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New York City - the best of the best of the bestEverything claims to be the best in this city...and if you dare to challenge it, it doesn´t matter as they´ll just proclaim they do something else better....at least better than you anyway. We´ve fallen in love with this city over and over and over again. Having received countless recommendations (thank you to everyone for sending them through - you know who you are!) on things to do, sights to see and places to eat, we had to make a tough call based on restricted time as to exactly what we [View Full Entry]

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Miami - big beach, big people, big food, big storms, big bigsWe left La Paz as it started to snow and blew into Miami at the roasting temperature of 38 degrees....with our fingers and toes thawing in the balmy weather, we spent our time acclimatising to the heat, to the healthy food portions, and to the fact that everything suddenly cost 100 times what we were used to paying in bolivia! it was only a short stay, but sweet enough for us to taste a deliciously sickly slice of cheesecake from the reknowned cheesecake factory, pretzels with gooey dipping cheese, and [View Full Entry]

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La Paz - if you can't find it here, it's likely you never wanted it anywaySo if it's preserved llama foetuses you want, you got it! which was quite creepy to see as we walked down the local 'witches market'. la paz has been quite the surprising city. in keeping with our trip to date, we've sourced out all the culturally compelling experiences....whether it be female wrestling to hurtling ourselves on mountain bikes from the world's highest ski resort (5200m). this combined with the dirt dirt cheap prices has made la paz an enjoyable final stop on our south american adventure.[li [View Full Entry]

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Copacabana - the wheezy jewel of boliviaSleeping at almost 4km above sea level is not without its challenges....from the dehydration and breathlessness, to the fact that our digestive tracts have ground to a halt causing heartburn and indigestion, its a testament to the locals that they can reproduce in such an area. But the beauty and ruggedness of copacabana, a lazy village sitting on the shores of titicaca, is enough cause for distraction. The town moves in slow motion and is what we would imagine the greek islands to have been....say 100 years ago. with its main trade being the [View Full Entry]

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Puno - the great lake cityWe travelled in style from Cusco to Puno on a luxury coach, complete with corny tour guide and complimentary fat american tourists. Stopping at ancient Inca ruins along the way, jean managed to keep her blearly eyes open for 40% of the 9 hour journey. Puno looks like a shanty town....most of the buildings haven't been completed due to the exhorbitant tax the govt slaps onto the finished product. the general puno region is also reknowned in peru for being the place that rips off every brand name you can think of (ie Beebok, Abibas, Johnny [View Full Entry]

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Machu Picchu - the lost city of goldHaving finished our incredible but arduous trek, we spent a night in a comfortable B&B in the tourist ridden town of Aguas Calientes, flush with the anticipation of visiting Machu Picchu the next day. Not even a 4:30am wake up call could deter us, and the city proved to be much much more than what we had expected.City highlights: the extremely informative tour around the Inca ruins where Alex, our guide redeemed himself and earned (well nearly earned) his group tip; the exhausting climb up Wanyu Picchu that took 1.5 hours to lead you [View Full Entry]

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