Rob writes: We were now leaving Laos. My experience of Laos was somewhat similar to that of Tina’s, although I feel her words float around the periphery of absolute bluntness, and offensiveness if I’m being honest. I’m offended by them anyway, but sometimes I’m offended just by looking at her. I cannot think of any particular thing about Laos which captured my interest. I can see why people would like it though, the magnificent countryside views and the general pace of life there seems quite slow, which appeared to be reflected in its capital, Vientiane. If that’s your thing, this is the country to visit. Prior to arriving at Vientiane I felt each place we had visited was a little too similar to the last, so I was a little disappointed when I didn’t see the ... read more

Rob Writes: I’m still in a state of shock. I had eaten nearly three large portions of that fried pork. On the bright side though, I’m sure I’ve unknowingly eaten worse when I’ve ordered the ‘Fried Rice & Meat’ dishes that are all too common round these parts. It ruined the following days breakfast though so I cheered myself up with French toast, bacon and maple syrup, no beetle. Where were we? Next up was our journey into Laos. I’d read a lot about this and felt that I knew enough and it was time to just go for it. We had played with the idea of booking a tour, arranging the entire thing through a tour agency to take the way to Luang Prabang but decided against it for a number of reasons. How hard ... read more

Rob Writes As Take That were descending on Bangkok it was time to get out of there pronto. Truth be told though, as Tina mentioned, no hotel would have us. As we had hoped on staying a further night in Bangkok I hadn’t done much research on the best method to get out and onto our destination. We knew we wanted to go to Ayutthaya and I had briefly read about a bus which goes from the Victory Tower monument, but that was it really, that was all I knew. Fortunately Victory Tower had a BST station right next to it so we jumped on the train outside of our hotel and got off there. On exiting the Victory Monument station we were presented with minibuses alright... loads of them, everywhere. We had no idea which ... read more

So, what happened next... We’re getting a little behind now. As I write this we are in the north of Thailand (Chiang Mai), that’s four blogs! As the flight to Hanoi wasn’t until late afternoon we didn’t get there until about seven or eight in the evening. The airport transfer was easy for this one though. We had booked a Halong Bay cruise for the following morning, which included an airport pick-up and transfer to your hotel by a private car. What a relief. I’m always jealous when I leave an airport and walk past all the people at departures holding up the names of people they are there to collect. Why is my name never there? Why do I keep leaving the airport armed with nothing but a bus number which I read on Trip ... read more

By the way, if you are viewing on a phone you may not realise all the photos are way at the bottom of the page. Rob Writes So, time to leave Ho Chi Mihn City. Up early again (this isn’t easy) in order to risk everything on the public bus to HCMC’s international airport. This was the same bus as we got from the airport, so we weren’t really stepping into the unknown here, which is always a relief. I can’t remember if I mentioned it before but its bus 152 which frequently goes between District 1 and the airport. We arrived at the airport without issue and checked into our flight to Da Nang. We were on our way to Hoi An, but Hoi An doesn’t have an airport, so you fly into the nearby ... read more