18th April 2009 The flight to Hanoi took just a little over two hours, we flew over the famous Gulf of Tonkin where the history of the Vietnam War was shaped and expanded by the USA after the notorious ‘Gulf of Tonkin’ incident. Looking down at the peaceful water it’s hard to imagine what suffering occurred here forty plus years ago. On the mini bus into town we met a couple from France, Xavier and Eleanor. They’d just arrived in Asia and asked for some advice as to where they could stay. We invited them to join us at the Especen [View Full Entry]

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21st April 2009 We were up early and went looking for some breakfast, easier said than done in Halong City. It took us a good forty minutes walking around and asking in every café for coffee with no success until we stumbled on one empty place who did serve us. We finally manage to get an omelette from a street stall near the hotel. We were amazed that a tourist city based at one of the most popular tourist destinations in Vietnam has next to no resturaunt catering for the western tourist. We were collected by a taxi at 12:00 noon [View Full Entry]

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15th April 2009 Today’s journey into Vietnam started with an hour bus journey from Phnom Penh to Kaam Samnor on the banks of the Mekong River where we took a 3hr leisurely boat trip to the Vietnam border crossings at Vinh Xuong and then onto the town of Chau Doc in the Mekong Delta. The trip down the Cambodian part of the river was very boring. I sat on the edge of the boat, poised with camera to record any wildlife we might encounter, NOTHING! I did however loose my hat to the muddy waters, I’d purchased it in Borneo and [View Full Entry]

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20th April 2009 This morning started with bad attitude from the guy on reception at the hotel. Yesterday we’d washed our clothes and asked if we could dry them on the sun terrace with the rest of the staffs' washing. We were told no problem but when we returned in the afternoon the terrace was locked so we couldn’t retrieve our clothes until 8:00am today when the person with the keys return to work. We had wanted to catch the 8:30am bus; this was now out of the question. The hotel receptionist was asleep on the floor when we came down [View Full Entry]

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12th April 2009 This morning at 7:00am we caught our coach to the capital, Phnom Penh. We pick up our Vietnam visas tomorrow and also we’ll be there for the Khmer New Year - the Cambodians throw water at each other to wash away their sins, I’m gonna get a soaking! They also throw talcum powder, which doesn’t sound so great. Our bus was a heap yet again. It was raining in the morning and the rain was dripping through the roof for the first hour of the journey. For the first time in Cambodia we met some friendly natives. An [View Full Entry]

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6th April 2009 I woke Pili at 5:35am, we were running a little late but it didn’t really matter as it had been raining during the night and the sky was overcast, no sunrise. I suggested that we cancel and get picked up at 10:00am and do the normal tour, Pili and I had discussed this the previous night. WRONG!!! Pili in her usual morning grumpy mood decided we should go anyway as we were already up. Normally I’d have no problem with this plan except we had arranged to meet Smiley’s friend Gavin, the Elephant man at 3:00pm, that was [View Full Entry]

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8th April 2009 Our mini-bus arrived to pick us up at the guest house at 7:00am to take us to the bus station. As we’ve come to expect our bus was old and foul and we had a 9hr journey ahead of us. The plan was, and what we thought we’d paid for, was a bus to Kompang Cham to then be met by a mini-bus that would take us the rest of the way to Kratie; you’d think this would be simple wouldn’t you? We made several brief stops along the way, mostly for toilet breaks and the occasional quick [View Full Entry]

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3-4th April 2009 Singapore After a very restless night Pili and I finally check out of Lucy’s Guest House in Kota Kinabalu. Lucy’s was genuinely sad to see us go and we were also going to miss her; she’s looked after us very well and I shall also miss my late night conversations with her. Anybody reading this blog and who are thinking of visiting Borneo please take my advise, STAY AT LUCY’S, she is the best! After a lot of faffing around and several unnecessary disagreements Pili & I get a taxi to the airport. Pili had wanted to catch [View Full Entry]

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30th March - 2nd April 2009 I lay wide awake most of the night listening to chorus of sounds outside in the forest. At 4:30am I went outside to see what was crawling around, I discovered a chestnut coloured Rhinoceros Beetle, again lay on his back waiting to be rescued, again I photographed him and sent him on his way. Reluctantly Pili got up at 5ish and we’re in the forest for 6:00am. We stalked through the damp and gloomy forest for about four hours, again we saw very little although we did hear a subdued dawn chorus. Surprisingly it didn’t [View Full Entry]

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27th March 2009 I was awake by 7:30am after no more than 3hrs sleep. I woke Pili up and tried to convince her that getting to the park before the tourists was a good idea, we had a lot to see today, not the least the World’s largest flower - the Rafflesia, the temperature was also rising rapidly. With a little grumbling (Pili’s not good in the morning until she’s had coffee), we had a sweet bread roll and a banana for breakfast and then informed the girl who ran the guest house we’d be staying another night. Pili joked that [View Full Entry]

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