Our flight from Cambodia arrived at Bangkok airport at 2pm on the 5th May, and our flight home was at 00.45am on the 6th May, so we knew that we were going to be in Bangkok airport for some hours, however it turned out to be much longer than we thought. We got to the gate about 11.30pm having spent many hours in a restaurant, to be told that the pilot was sick and that they were trying to find a replacement pilot and to come back to the gate at 2.00 am. We were given food vouchers so we could [View Full Entry]

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So we spent sunset at Phnom Bakheng, catching our first sight of Angkor Wat. After a short time we went back to the hotel to change before going into town, and watching Fulham win again. Amazing - we are now out of the bottom three and it all comes down to the last game. After a few hours sleep we were up at 4.30 am to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Sat by a lake and saw the reflection of the temple while the sun rose - beautiful. We then walked around the temple with virtually no one else there. [View Full Entry]

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The journey to Cambodia was straightforward although we did spend ages at the Vietnam side of the border. The countryside was spectacular with lots of buddist temples (unlike Vietnam which had none), with water buffalo and cows alongside the road. The bus dropped us off nowhere near the hotel so we had to get a tuk-tuk. The hotel (Manor House) was lovely with a pool, free breakfast and a big room. The manager explained to us that the main currency was the US dollar even though they have their own currency. Even the restaurant's and bar's quote prices in US dollars. [View Full Entry]

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Our night bus arrived nearly on time, and we were shown to the last two bunks on board. It was very different to the other night buses that we have got, as they were chairs that reclined, but this had beds. It was like three rows of bunk beds, one row down each side of the bus and one down the middle. The downside on this bus was that I was by the toilet which stank, but I put a tissue over my nose and mouth which seemed to work OK. We had to change buses at Hue, and arrived in [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Ninh Binh at 10pm expecting to be met by someone from the hotel, but the street was deserted. Luckily there was a shop open and the owner kindly rang the hotel and got someone to meet us. After a few minutes a guy on a moped turned up, and realising there were 2 of us hailed another moped and told us to get on. We had been offered moped taxi rides in Hanoi and always said no, but this time we didn't have a choice, so with our heavy packs on we each got on the back of [View Full Entry]

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At last we are in Vietnam, and what a place, it is fantastic. After changing up our remaining Thai money and getting back over a million Dong (the Vietnamese currency) we got a minibus into Hanoi. We had our first taste of being ripped off as the driver initially wanted to charge us 250,000, but having read the airport website beforehand I knew this was too much and after a few heated words we paid the same amount as everyone else which was 60,000. However we were ripped off by the taxi driver who took us to the hotel as his [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Bangkok thinking that we would be here for a couple of days whilst we sorted out our Vietnam visa, but we didn't realize that it was New Year, so the Vietnam embassy was shut for 2 days. We did have it confirmed that we could get the visa on the same day that we applied for it. With a few days on our hands we went shopping for Chris' 11th pair of sunglasses on this trip. The others have either broken or been lost. We managed to get cabs to and from the shopping centre as the custom [View Full Entry]

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So we continued our trip in Australia with a long day driving up the east coast. We eventually arrived in a place called Mackay, to find that most of the motels were full and those that weren't were too expensive for us. We found a pub that had rooms but all they had was a dorm for 10 people. Luckily there weren't any other people in the dorm - just us 4. We were up early (mainly due to the fact that someone was cleaning the outside seating area from about 4am) and drove to Airlie Beach. We went straight to [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from Queensland and the Sunshine Coast - although I'm doing my blog because it's raining here at the moment! It is still warm though, hopefully it will clear up so I can go for a dip in the sea later. So we have been travelling in the car for about 10 days now, and still have a lot of driving to do before we get to Cairns. It doesn't look that far on a map! We started off driving to Bondi Beach, and it looks just like it does in the photographs. Glorious white sandy beach, with a great sea [View Full Entry]

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On our last day in New Zealand I managed to catch a cold, what a great souvenir! We have been in Australia over a week and I still have it - can't believe Chris didn't get it. Melbourne was our first stop and what a great place. Our hostel was very central to the town, and with the free tram that circled the town we managed to see most things. We went to Queen Victoria Market, a massive market with everything on sale, including kangaroo meat, veg, clothes, wine. It was just before Easter so the market was packed. We also [View Full Entry]

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