Yup. Bali. Beach haven. We are lucky with the weather and just got in ahead of a 10,000 delegate Globel Warming Conferance that starts on December 3rd. We will miss most of the security that will be in place, with such measures as barbed wire across the roads etc. We still feel safe because whenever our vehicle goes into a parking lot security men scan the underneath for bombs. Ya never know if you are next. lol First day on the the beach was R&R. Second day was an excursion to some shops and temples in the Eastern part of Bali. [View Full Entry]

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Yep we made it to Cambodia. The procedures to get into the country were the worst we ever had to endure. We had to bring a passport pic with us, fill in a customs sheet, fill in an arrival and departure form, fill in a Visa request form. Then they had to process the Visa and take 40 USD from us. 1.5 hours later we then had to go through passport control. We met our guide around 2:30 and he first took us to the wrong hotel to check in. Once we cleared that up we asked him what was on [View Full Entry]

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Traffic chaos again. We started out the day 3 hours in the van towards the Mekong Delta where we had a Vietnemise cooking class. I did the learning and the cooking and Siuyee did the eating because I had my first bout of the runs. First off before we started eating the old man there toasted something which I am not sure what he said , but it was a rice wine and a licorice liquor combination. My stomach was hurting so I will spare you those details. Hrmph.... Next we went to a family run food factory where they made [View Full Entry]

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Vietnam is a country of contrasts. Today we saw the evidence of the flooding from a few days and weeks ago everywhere. The watermarks were above our heads in some places. The people go about there business as usual, accepting the inevitable flooding in stride. This was the 5th time this year they had floods in this region. I must say that it effected me in that they considered the flooding as part of their life. We watched them getting back to normal. The army was helping out in some cases where the elderly cannot cope. It sounds like I am [View Full Entry]

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Today we set off as our final destination for the day to HaLong Bay. This is the Beautiful Bay that is so picturesque you ask your self how can this exist so close to the Ugly! Let me back up a bit. On our way to Halong bay we were introduced to the Ugly. The Ugly being small cities that produce coal for usage. Black is everywhere! It looked like a scene from the darkside or a black and white movie. Colorless, and dirty. It was so bad water trucks were hosing down the roads every hour to keep the coal [View Full Entry]

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The day started out tame enough. We got our first taste of traffic at 8AM in the morning. Well, no traffic rules what so ever. Very few lights. Lets me describe it a little: City of 8 million, 2 million + motorcycles, 1 million + cars and trucks, 1000's of Bicycles all on the road at the same time it seems. On the motorbikes, you cannot imagine it.... 4 people to a motorbike, babies 1 year old balancing in the front of the driver. women sitting side saddle, no helmets, horns beeping incessantly non stop, mix the peddle bikes, the smog, [View Full Entry]

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We decided to take an excursion to the highest point in Thailand. Of course, we happen to meet these two characters from the UK who reminded me of the muppet show. Remember those 2 very old muppets on the balcony throwing insults and just all around critical and funny, well we had these 2 guys and there wives to babysit for 8 hours while on this excursion. They were making us laugh by saying things like there wives are lucky to have big butts because when the bus goes over bumps they are padded. Not like us guys. These type of [View Full Entry]

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We landed at Bangkoks new airport. All I can say is wow!!!!!1 This has got to be bigger than HongKong Airport. The landing ramps are quite unique in that the docks for the planes are designed to look like spaghetti in a bowl. It reminds me of the birds nest olympic stadium design in Beijing. We walked from our plane to I think the other side of the airport on conveyors. We must have taken at least 8-10 of these. Our first day in Chiang Mai was quite busy. We had a private guide and driver who took us to an [View Full Entry]

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Tours,tours,tours... Enough already!!!!!!! We took yet another tour of another city. I swear they all seem the same. This one is famous for the surrounding dormant volcanoes, and Auckland is called the city of sails. We also took a tour of the port and were astonished at the amount of sailboats, (Hence the name) lol. Wine is more reasonable hear than in the South Island and so are the prices in general. After 2 days though we quite had enough and we returned to Hong Kong. Flight to Hong Kong was 11 Hours. The plane first had a delay because a [View Full Entry]

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Leaving Ayers Rock Airport we met Mike and Karen who promptly introduced themselves by asking me if my wife was Korean. Of course we responded as such and left it at that. His wife is Japanese. Next time we saw them was on the same same tour with us in Melbourne. They were on another bus but we met them at a farm. We did the Penguin Parade and guess what they were there again. This was getting weird because we were on separate itineraries. Were they following us.......???????? Well, we figured that was it and we would never see them [View Full Entry]

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