Hawkes Bay - Napier As we went to bed we realised that the tent was a bit lose inside, but it needed to be taken apart and put back together, so we just left it. I said to Zo, ‘A long as it doesn’t rain, we should be fine.’ We had planed to get up a bit later, 9am, because we had had two early starts, have a nice shower and get on the road. The heavens opened in the night and it didn’t stop raining all night. I woke up after an awful night sleep to go to the toilet [View Full Entry]

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Hamilton We set off on our road trip from Auckland to Hamilton and hit our first bit of traffic. We were probably stuck in slow moving traffic for about 15 mins -awful!! Stopped in a service station to get some petrol and send some postcards - which ones of you will be the lucky ones. We got to Hamilton City Holiday Park at about 1ish and set up our tent. The camp is pretty empty but at least the weather was good. Got back in the ‘bullet’ and drove to the Hamilton Gardens. They have been really well done and had [View Full Entry]

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Auckland We arrived in Auckland airport at about 7.30am, after what was supposed to have been a comfortable night on a plane. The seats were great, with 4 bulk head seats for the 2 of us. Unfortunately people thought that this was a walkway for them to get from either side of the plane - muppets! Not only that, in the compartment in front of us there was a Chinese guy with tourettes. His tourettes was both in English and Chinese and very loud. He was swearing and shouting out terrorist, which doesn’t go down too well on a plane! This [View Full Entry]

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Hong Kong We got a cab to HCMC airport and had some breakfast. I decided to go for beef noodle soup to try and overcome my last night in Vietnam hangover and Zo had a ham and cheese sandwich for a change! We got on our flight and it was an easy flight to Hong Kong where we landed at about 3.30pm. Collected our massive amounts of luggage and set off to get the Airport Express to central. We arrived outside and it was freezing, from what we were used to, about 19 or 20 degrees! We even had to pull [View Full Entry]

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Saigon -HCMC We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) or Saigon at around 2pm after a pretty reasonable bus journey. The locals still like to call it Saigon because the Southern Vietnamese are not as communist as the northern and prefer not to call it HCMC, which is what is was named after the fall of Saigon over 30 years ago. It is a massive city and the centre of all the commerce and finance in the country, it sprawls over 12 districts and is the biggest city in Vietnam. A lot bigger than Hanoi but Hanoi is still the [View Full Entry]

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Nha Trang Off we went to get the dreaded sleeper bus again!! This time we had got a right result and were seated at the front on a newer version of the bus. This meant we had a lot more leg room and we were very happy about the 12 hour journey ahead. Unfortunately, with this added room came a lot more space to move, and the bus drivers out here take corners at stupid speeds which meant we were being thrown around all over the place. Luckily due to the inability to sleep we got to see the most beautiful [View Full Entry]

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Chris came back from work early to say goodbye and off we went in a cab to where we get our sleeper bus from. After a small worry that the first bus we got on was the sleeper bus we ended up getting on the correct bus. We were stuck at the back and on the top bunk. We were told it was about 2.5m beds to sleep, more like 2.5 feet. The Pygmy Vietnamese had the best beds on the bottom bunk whereas Zo and I couldnt move! Probably the most uncomfortable night of our lives, it was so bumpy [View Full Entry]

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Sapa After a hearty western dinner at Jaspers and some ritz and oreo biscuits bought, we were ready for our sleeper train to Sapa. Sapa is a town in the hills which stands in the shadow of Fan Si Pan mountain - the highest in Vietnam at 3143m. We got on our train for the 9.15pm departure and in our 4 berth cabin we were sharing with 2 Vietnamese people. A weird man who was opposite me on the bottom bunk, he was up and down all night and on his phone most of the night and a young girl who [View Full Entry]

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5/1/09 Ha Long Bay The bus turned up at 8am to take us on our 4 hour bus trip to Ha Long City. Our guide Duc picked us up and luckily Zo and I had 3 seat for the 2 of us because of my need for leg room. The journey was very interesting crossing the Red River and headed across the beautiful Vietnamese countryside, via rice fields and mountains. We arrive at midday, and had to wait for half hour for our captain to get his boat sorted. We got a nice rocky boat trip to our 3 storey boat. [View Full Entry]

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So the fun has begun. After and 11 and a half hour flight we landed in Hong Kong at 6.45am! Lovely airport, although landing was a bit worrying as you fly so low to the water, followed by an easy transfer to Hanoi. Hanoi We landed early morning in Hanoi and took a cab to meet Chris at his office. Saying there is no road laws is a bit of an understatement! There is nothing quite like overtaking and seeing a massive lorry about 50 feet away! Anyway, we arrived in Hanoi safely and had to wait for Chris to finish [View Full Entry]

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