We arrived in Mui Ne yesterday after what seemed like ages and ages on the bus. We were told the trip would take three hours and left at 8am, but it was about 1pm by the time we turned up. Mui Ne is nice - right on the coast, with the obligatory palm trees and coconuts everywhere. The resort we're staying at is a bit out of the main section of town, so we rented bikes today and have been cycling around everywhere. Why is it that I am embarrassed to ride a bike? Lots of people do it, and I [View Full Entry]

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Well, today was both hilarious and somewhat terrifying as I fainted while getting measured for a silk dress. We'd had a fairly lazy morning (though our much-anticipated cafe breakfast was spoiled due to a power outage - and therefore no food) and spent a few hours wandering around some of the nice clothing and handicraft shops. I bought two gorgeous dresses for less than $80USD that fit perfectly, so I was pleased about that. We then wandered into a posh tailor so that Paul could buy a few ties (some of them are really good quality, and they're much cheaper and [View Full Entry]

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We arrived back in HCMC earlier this morning after an enjoyable few days. HCMC is a really interesting place; I still can't get over how much green space there is in the city, and how well-maintained some of the parks and gardens are. There is a LOT of traffic (I heard there are 4,000,000 motorbikes in the city) so all of the greenery helps to make it look a lot nicer than it would otherwise. Sunday was a very lazy day, and we didn't do much except eat near constantly, and get another round of massages. My massage (that ignored my [View Full Entry]

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We arrived yesterday evening in Vietnam, and have had a generally enjoyable day looking at Ho Chi Minh City. (FYI: I have discovered that while Saigon used to be the name of HCMC, it is now used to denote an area within HCMC, similar to Manhattan in New York City.) I'm actually quite surprised by HCMC - I don't know what I was expecting, but it's relatively clean with a fair few nice shops... and tasty food! Our flight yesterday was fine - Thai Airways is fantastic! The food was excellent, and all the female passengers were given a Thai orchid [View Full Entry]

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We're now back in Bangkok after spending a few days on Koh Samet, which was great. Now Paul (aka Mr SPF50) and I are not particularly inclined toward the beach. I don't care for sand, Paul gets sunburned and then bored, and we're not the sort of people who would go on a two week beach holiday. That said, the island was gorgeous and we had a lovely time. The water is so blue, and swimming in the Gulf of Thailand is amazing - it's like stepping into a warm bath. You don't need to steel yourself and wade in gradually, [View Full Entry]

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So yeah, Thailand is HOT. It's about 36C here today, and Paul and I were saying how unbelievable it is that India gets a full ten degrees hotter in summer. I really cannot understand how people cope. We've spent an enjoyable couple of days at our posh hotel - swimming is sooooooooo nice! (I also bought a cheap bathing suit, which made it extra enjoyable.) We didn't do a lot on Friday, just checked into the hotel, and spent ages lounging around the pool. Yesterday we finally ventured onto Khao San Road, and it wasn't nearly as packed as I'd imagined [View Full Entry]

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We've got an hour to kill before we check into our posh hotel (I can't wait to go swimming, it's so hot!!) and have already had a productive morning. We arrived bright and early at the Vietnamese Embassy, expecting to find chaos, long lines, etc. Instead there were about two people inside, everything was very orderly, and we were able to drop off our passports in about twenty minutes. We were even offered the chance to pay a fee for faster service (as early as Monday), but we don't need the visas quite so quickly so we were happy with the [View Full Entry]

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Here I am again, as due to a fairly significant change in plans it is necessary for us to use the interweb again today. After much research and discussion, we've decided to forego Cambodia and head straight to Vietnam. It's disappointing, in some ways, but the issue we're having at the moment is the amount of time we have left in SE Asia before we need to fly to Singapore (three weeks from tomorrow.) Our flight to Singapore is fairly fixed, because we have onward tickets to Australia and then to New Zealand, where we have a campervan to pick up, [View Full Entry]

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Naturally Bangkok, among other Asian cities, is well known for its shopping options. In one respect, as I believe I mentioned, it is a lot like Kuala Lumpur in that there are malls and malls and malls and malls everywhere. Not just the garden variety malls like in North America and in the UK: huge 10 storey malls with hundreds of stores catering to every whim. What surprised me yesterday, though, was a night market we went to. I expected that it would be a bit like Chow Kit in Kuala Lumpur: food stalls, cheap designer knockoffs, live animals... and a [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Bangkok a few hours ago, and it seems like a looooong day. It probably had to do with the fact that we woke up at 4:30am to ensure we were at the airport in plenty of time for our 8:30am flight... nothing runs smoothly in India, after all. (Our flight ended up being delayed for an hour due to "congestion" anyway.) In true farewell style, we arrived to a fair amount of chaos at the airport, even thought it was very early in the morning. I actually just about went completely crazy when I saw not one, not [View Full Entry]

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