Team A and J

"With every generation, there's more to be grateful for..." Singapore is gearing itself up for its National Day Parade on August 9th... the flags are a-flying and we just can't get that (obviously not at all government propaganda) song out of our heads. We have just spent 4 days in Singapore to finish off our South East Asia trip - a good place to end as it's so easy. You could spend whole days here without going outside (we haven't done this, honest). There's a great metro system and almost every single station emerges into a giant shopping centre or some other gleaming, air-conditioned building. Steering clear of the malls to save our few remaining pennies, we have been pounding the streets of Chinatown, Little India and the Colonial District instead, enjoying custard tarts and other ... read more

Georgetown, Penang Georgetown is a world heritage town full of little streets with Indian, Chinese, Malay and British architecture. Not quite as picturesque as we'd expected, but interesting. It's renowned for its street food and has lots of hawker cafes, but we found it quite difficult to figure out what things were or to find any vegetarian versions of things. Everyone will do veggie food if you ask, but it tends to be either plain veggie fried rice or veggie fried noodles, which is a bit dull after two months in Asia. We stayed in a cheapish heritage hotel which was in a beautiful building but a bit impractical. Our room had a wooden floor with big cracks between the beams, and no real window, just shutters. Atmospheric, but very noisy and hot. As Julia wasn't ... read more

Sabaidee from Laos! Even though we enjoyed Vietnam, after nearly a month there we were excited to move on to Laos. We flew into Luang Prabang a little bit under-prepared. Alice had been ill and we kind of forgot that we were entering a new country. We were a bit worried when we realised we were on the plane with no cash in any currency, no passport photos, and no idea whether the airport would have an ATM so we could pay for our visas. We had planned to get some dollars at the airport in Hanoi, but apparently there is no bureau de change there.... madness. As it turned out, Luang Prabang airport is tiny, but the friendly customs officials waved us through so that we could get cash out, before coming back to pay ... read more

Arrived in Hue on June 7th after a 3 hour bus journey on an open tour bus. These are buses that run up and down the length of the country, and they have beds on because most of the journeys are very long. We weren't sure at first but once we settled down they were surprisingly comfortable. Once again Hue feels different then the other places we have visted in Vietnam. We have had 5 days here but I (Alice) have not found it as exciting as the other places we have been. However as we said in our last blog we accidentally landed here during a festival which is great. There's loads of public artworks in the streets and at night there are stages set up in the old Citadel , so we can pay ... read more

Finally made it to Da Nang after four days on the beach further down the coast in Nha Trang. Nha Trang had a great beach, but there wasn't much else to do. But we didn't mind at all - after being in cities for a couple of weeks it was nice to spend some time relaxing. The beach was quite busy - touristy during the day, and in the evening as the sun went down all the locals came down to swim while it was cool. We often found that we were out when the Vietnemes were out as it is too hot for us in the day. One night we walked a mile or so along the beach and then went for a swim. The beach was packed and we were the only non-Vietnamese people, ... read more

We have spent the last three days in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) and really enjoyed it. Yesterday we got up early to avoid the heat, although actually it's significantly cooler than Cambodia. We walked across town and through a park to get to the Reunification Palace. The traffic is absolutely mental on the bigger roads and junctions - we have been using taxis a lot to avoid crossing too many roads! The motorbikes are good at swerving around pedestrians but they expect you to keep moving rather than standing still and squealing which is what we have been doing most of the time. The Reunification Palace was the government headquarters of South Vietnam during the war, and the place where Communist tanks crashed through the gates and raised the North Vietnamese flag over Saigon - ... read more