Blog Fans this is it, after 11 months we are heading home so this is our last blog entry. After Cambodia we flew to the island of Phuket in Thailand for a week of relaxation and healing. Phuket has some lovely natural scenery but the human additions are not quite so pretty and it felt quite odd to us to be in a purely holiday destination. We didn't replace our camera until we got to Singapore so we don't have any photos of Phuket, but that's not really a bad thing unless you are particularly into Beryl Cook like scenes of [View Full Entry]

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We only spent one week in Cambodia but we packed a lot in, dividing our time between the capital, Phnom Penh, and the Temples of Angkor outside Siem Reap. I (Neil) even managed to break my arm in the process, but more of that later! For a moment we thought we wouldn't get into the country at all because they took a dislike to a small tear on one page in Jason's passport and refused to issue him with a visa, but thankfully after some deliberation they let us in, and we didn't even need to resort to bribery. Thailand is [View Full Entry]

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From Hue we got the bus to Hoi An where we found a cheap hotel with a small pool which was much appreciated in this incredible heat. Hoi An is a georgous town on the Tru Bon River, full of perfectly preserved streets of shops, assembly halls and traders houses from the days when it was Vietnam's most important trading port. It has French, Chinese and Japanese influences and the town is now a UNESCO world heritage site; a sort of living museum. Neither of us were very familar with the cuisine so Vietnamese food has been something of a revelation [View Full Entry]

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At first glance the guidebook seemed to have oversold the French Colonial charm of Hanoi's old town, but looking beyond some of the horrible modern additions there are crumbling colonial buildings hiding some lovely old interiors strung out along the maze of medieval streets. One thing there is no denying is the energy and pace of Vietnam. First impressions are that it's totally different from Laos; it's not laid back - it's buzzing, energetic and constantly on the move. It seems more like China (on speed) than SE Asia. Motorcycles and cyclos are everywhere and the best way to get around [View Full Entry]

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Our route into Laos was a potential recipe for disaster. We took an early afternoon flight from Chiang Mai to Udon Thani in Thailand, then a bus to Nong Khai on the Thai/Laos border, then another bus across the Friendship Bridge to the Laos border, and then a third bus to Vientiane. But all went surprisingly smoothly and we had checked into our guesthouse and were drinking our first Beerlao beside the Mekong River in time to watch the sunset, accompanied by a very dramatic lightening show in the distant mountains (virtually a nightly event here as it's rainy season). Vientaine [View Full Entry]

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Some people reading this will have already heard accounts of our previous trip to Thailand so we will keep this blog short and sweet. Needless to say the food in Thailand is still good, the people are still friendly and Bangkok is still an exciting place to visit. We spent most of our short time in Thailand visiting our friends Ian and Pop at their gorgeous home in north Thailand where they are well on their way to creating a luxury rural resort (www.maenaigardens.com). We spent a relaxing 6 days with them seeing the local countryside, eating some fantastic food and [View Full Entry]

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We like Japan. What's not to like? In two weeks here everything has gone exactly to plan and every human encounter has left us with a smile on our faces - how often can you say that? After Tokyo the pace of life in Kyoto was more relaxed. The centre of Kyoto is laid out in a grid pattern and reminded us strangely of Adelaide, but otherwise the centre is much like many other modern city. However, it's away from the centre that Kyoto comes into its own with beautifully preserved old streets of traditonal wooden houses and all sorts of [View Full Entry]

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Big lights, big city. Hello Tokyo! Tokyo is huge and seems to have lots of different centres but getting around on the extensive rail and subway system is easy. Finding a specific place, however, can be a bit of a nightmare because lots of the streets don't seem to have names - we found it better to just turn up in an area and wander around taking it all in. We stayed in the Shinjuku area, close to the busiest railway station in the world and around the corner from the Park Hyatt Hotel which featured in Lost in Translation, which [View Full Entry]

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Our guide book describes Hong Kong as like a "difficult person to understand" and we know what they mean. Hong Kong is difficult to fathom and even more difficult to describe. It's probably fine if you just come here for a night or two as part of a stop-over as many people do - you would be dazzled by the high-rise skyline from the Star Ferry or the Peak Tram and leave happy and impressed. The problem for us was that we were there for a week and wanted to understand the city in a bit more depth. Sometimes it felt [View Full Entry]

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Leaving Beijing we caught the night train to Xi'an which was clean and punctual but the beds were very hard and being next the toilets we were awoken by the Chinese morning chorus of throat clearing - lovely! Xi'an is a busy modern city but it has the best preserved city walls in China which we were able to cycle around on a tandem - definitely a once in a lifetime experience and not to be repeated (you don't steer a tandem from the rear Jason). In the morning people can be seen all over the city practicing Tai Chi or [View Full Entry]

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