Et Tu Tuoy! Loung Prabang continued….. The flight ticket situation grew rapidly more absurd as the day progressed……Touy telling us that now we couldn’t fly until 3pm (losing several hours of our Vientianne agenda). Meanwhile Tuoy took us to visit a weaving village, which was a forlorn barn at the end of a long, dusty road. Some of the samples on display were exquisite and we were happy to buy a silk table runner and set of matching placemats. The cost was ridiculously low and we felt pangs of guilt when we left. Tuoy then attempted to fill in time by [View Full Entry]

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SOMBOOM DEE SEAFOOD Pride comes before a fall. It doesn’t pay to be smug. We have been congratulating ourselves on out-foxing the scamsters … then got badly caught on the last evening of our last night in Bangkok: Jan and I had been saying that our stay here in Bangkok had been absolutely perfect. We have loved every moment and met hordes of wonderful people. It really couldn’t have been any better…. For our last evening Jan wanted to have a look at Patpong Bazaar. I have always tried to talk people out of going there - too many tales of [View Full Entry]

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Dry Rot We were sitting at a pavement table outside The Bakery in Luang Prabang.. A Screen of planted shrubs separated us from the tables in the main restaurant, which were packed with a United Nations of Backpackers. Snatches of conversation drifted down … derisive comments about Saga Louts, breaking free and getting out of the tourist rut, Ecotourism, Green Tourism …. Ah the conviction and absolute certainty that we all have when we are young and free :o) And so it set this old Saga Lout thinking of days gone by, of adventures where Jan and I had broken free [View Full Entry]

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Our dear little ones at home will never appreciate the trials we go through to bring them a daily blog. When we got back from our bum-numbing bike ride Jan went for a cooling shower. Muggins hit the laptop and started bashing out the blog and Photoshopping the piccies. Then, having transferred them to the Memory stick, we shot off by taxi to the internet café in Khao San Road. All the while my dearly beloved was complaining of hunger pangs…. Having rushed to the café and paid my fees I plugged in the memory stick to find ….. nothing! AAAAAAggggghhhhh! [View Full Entry]

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A thick-head from yesterday’s travel exertions didn’t stop us from rising early. Breakfast on the 2nd floor of the Grande Ville was more than 22 floors below the excellent fare we enjoyed on the roof last night - but what the heck …. who ever had a decent hotel breakfast? With a dubious load of interesting morsels slopping about in our bellies we set off on foot in search of Wat Po and the Grand Palace. It was a beautiful morning and, with most shops yet to open, the pavements were uncluttered and the roads relatively safe to cross. Along the [View Full Entry]

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It’s been a strange sort of day. Everything went as planned. Every part of the day was very, very enjoyable. Yet it could have been better…… On previous visits to Thailand we haven’t bothered with the Damnoen Saduak floating market. (Too far to travel for something that has lost much of its original charm, selling its soul to become a Tourist attraction). But while we were researching Cycle Tours we came across a day-long trip that combined the floating market with a long-tail boat ride and a 32km bike ride. Perfect! We contacted Spice Road and made the booki [View Full Entry]

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After a marathon 24 hours without (much) sleep we’re back in Bangkok and off to a memorable start :o) We booked in to the Grande Ville Hotel in Chinatown, solely because of it’s rooftop terrace. We just had time to scuttle up there when we arrived …. And it was magical :o) Sitting on the rooftop under a full moon, sipping cocktails with a panoramic view of Bangkok as a backdrop is hard to beat. We had spectacular views of the Grand Palace, Wat Arun, The Golden Mount and so much more, all illuminated by floodlight. Our simple meal of Thai [View Full Entry]

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“Just a bit further….” “We’ll go back when it gets to be too much….” “We’ll kick ourselves if we turn back now….” That’s how our accidental ascent of Snowdon came about :o) We’ve climbed Snowdon before, using the Miners and Pyg tracks, which start from a conveniently high point in the Llanberis pass. And we’ve walked along the bottom of the Watkin Path (generally accepted to be the most strenuous route up) but balked at the final stiff ascent via a scree slope. The Watkin is a stiff test because it [View Full Entry]

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We left Kathmandu eagerly anticipating our stay in Pokhara, blissfully unaware of how our agenda would be transformed by someone else's political agenda.... The first hint that things were not running exactly as planned came when we left the hotel and walked to our coach. The driver was busily stripping "Kuoni" logos from the side of the bus before hanging a large green banner on the front saying "Tourist Only". We were told there had been attacks on Nepalese army vehicles along the road to Pokhara "But don't worry, they will not harm foreign tourists...." It added a frisson o [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Nepal after a week or so in Rajasthan. Although we had enjoyed our exploits in Sariska, it was a breath of fresh air (literally!) to arrive in vibrant Kathmandu. Physically and spiritually Rajasthan and Nepal seem close but Kathmandu's clean streets, smiling faces and bustling activity were actually poles apart from the squalid gutters and sullen resignation we'd seen in India. The flight from Delhi had been memorable, with fabulous views of the Himalayas from our window seats before dropping steeply over the sprawling mass that is Kathmandhu. We were transferred efficiently t [View Full Entry]

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