.... the only thing I'm hunting for, is an outfit that looks good... See my vest, see my vest, made from real gorilla chest. Feel this sweater, there's no better, than authentic Irish setter.... The passionate lyrics of the Simpsons' Monty Burns when he tells us of his joy of having a full wardrobe, we too wanted to feel this joy so off we popped to Hoi An (not Ha Noi) a small town of 75,000 people and everyone of them is in the business, no, not show business, the business that is tailoring, the art of cutting and sewing the [View Full Entry]

---

---

After an excellent and very busy/drunken adventure in the Northern Islands of Vietnam we boarded the night train to Hue in Ha Noi. The train was good, 14 hours in a sleeper cabin with these 2 Vietnamese dudes, one of whom was afraid of the dark as he never put his light off all night, Fiona took the top bunk as I couldn't climb due to the injury I had sustained on the bus back to Ha Noi from Halong Bay. I was sitting in the seat minding my own with my foot in the isle when we turned a sharp [View Full Entry]

---

---

After a short flight from Vientiane we were in Hanoi. We had chosen a hostel to stay at and they offered free airport pickup so we thought that was pretty decent, especially because we were arriving at night. Sure enough there was a young guy waiting for us with a big sign saying Miss Fiona. When I say young, this guy looked about 14 and drove like he had never driven a car in his life. It was a 45 minute white knuckle ride with this guy dodging in and out of cars beeping his horn constantly and at one point [View Full Entry]

---

---

We were soooo glad to finally arrive in Luang Prabang after the worst ten hours of our lives. The bus journey was pretty bumpy and I spent 9 of the ten hours with my head stuck in a bag, and Andrew, unusually, was quite ill as well. So with that experience behind us we decided to spend a couple of days lazing around in Luang Prabang before starting to see the sights. We had also decided to fly back to Vientiane before flying to Hanoi instead of the bus again, phew! This small town has become quite touristy, although still has [View Full Entry]

---

---

So we're one hour from China, a short flight from Kunming yet it feels like we've travelled a million miles from our last stop. Although we've only been here for two days I can honestly say that I've never met nicer people in a more tranquil and beautiful setting, and we're in the capital city - this is meant to be the worst part of the country! Laos is known as the country of a million elephants and has the unfortunate tag of being the most bombed country is the history of warfare. It is part of the Ho Chi Minh [View Full Entry]

---

---

Kunming was our last stop in China and it was a great place to end the journey. Although it is still fairly busy and polluted here it is a little more relaxed than the rest of the places we have visited, the people are the friendliest we have met in China and they don't stare at you quite as much, probably because there are quite a few foreigners here. We were staying in a really nice hostel here that served great, and very cheap, food and drink, we've cetainly filled up for our trip to South East Asia, Andrew has inherited [View Full Entry]

---

---

After an uneventful time in Xian we were looking forward to moving on to Chengdu and we were not disappointed. We arrived at night and began our journey on foot to our hostel. We got pretty lost but 4 different locals along our way approached us to offer help and were very friendly, instantly we knew this was a great place. Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan province located in southwest China, and bordering Tibet. There are two main attractions that the tourists flock to: the Giant Panda Breeding Centre and the Biggest Buddha in the World. So off we went [View Full Entry]

---

---

After a fantastic week in Beijing we reluctantly got on our flight to Xian. We were quite sad to leave the capital as it had become one of our favorite cities this year, but onward we must travel. Xian only has one major attraction, which is the 'Terracotta Warriors' and otherwise it is not a particularly attractive place. The people here were very friendly as we found out when we were stuck in the middle of the road with our backpacks in the middle of rush hour with no taxi's wanting to take us to our hostel. A Chinese girl approached [View Full Entry]

---

---

We couldn't wait to get to Beijing and escape Seoul after hearing and reading some great things about the future Olympic host city. It's Fiona here giving you the rundown on our first week in China. What a place Beijing is, quite simply the best place we have ever been to (yet), maybe that anyone has ever been to? It was a pleasent flight from South Korea to Beijing despite a rather strange experience in the plane toilet. You know what plane toilets are like, when you really need there are always loads of other people queing before you, typical. Anyway, [View Full Entry]

---

---

Sick of Seoul we took a trip down south to the ancient city of Gyeongju, it was Korea's first capital under the old Silla empire and a welcome change from the hustle of the modern day capital. I'm glad we did as we have now seen the other side of South Korea, and it's beautiful. We also used the bus for the first time on our trip this year, well versed in flying and jaunting about on a train this was a little bit different. The buses were total luxury, there were only 3 seats in each row, a 2 and [View Full Entry]

---

---