After far too long a break between trips it was time to get back on a plane and hit our next adventure: Bali! This was also a good excuse to get away and celebrate both a birthday and an engagement, and this seemed to be the perfect spot... Arrived in Kuta after a good 27 hours of flying and within the hour we were at our first hotel and cracking a Bintang in the wee hours of the morning, happy to have arrived and too tired to sleep...haha...on a recommendation from K's brother we were to spend the next three nights at the absolutely idyllic Poppies Cottages on Poppies Gang 1, completely recommend it; twenty individual private cottages, all with fantastic outdoor bathrooms, beautiful grounds, a gorgeous pool and very friendly staff. After wandering around the ... read more

Well, we made it to our last destination, Hanoi (well Hanoi and Halong Bay, lumping them into one post...). With only three days left on the trip this was unfortunately going to be a fairly brief stop... We arrived early afternoon and checked into our hotel, the Blue Paradise in the Old Quarter (as recommended by the agent at the Green Field in Hoi An...not sure if there was a sale on brightly coloured paint in Vietnam but it sure made the places easy to find...again probably from Space as well...). Anyway, dumped our packs and headed out to get our bearings...first impression of Hanoi was that the people seemed a little more reserved than the folks in the south...there wasn't the hard sell at most of the shops, which was kind of a nice change, ... read more

We hopped the bus from Can Tho and made our way to one of my must-sees on this trip; Ho Chi Minh City! (Well, Saigon as most the locals still call it...)... I was really excited to get exploring, so after finding our hotel in the Pham Ngu Lao area and dealing with a reservation mix-up we dumped our stuff and headed out into the fray... If I were to pick one word to describe this city it would be "insane"! The hustle and bustle, and especially the traffic/scooters are crazy...I loved it! The "official" crosswalks can be few and far between, so the only way to cross some of these major streets and roundabouts is to time the traffic and then boldly wade out into it and hope for the best...takes a bit of getting ... read more

After a few days getting our legs under us in Phnom Penh we hopped a bus up to Siem Reap, launch point for Angkor Wat... This was one of Karen's must-sees on the trip, and after some research I too was keen on seeing the temples. What to say, amazing! After reading up and seeing the maps/layouts in the Lonely Planet guide I was still blown away by the size and number of temple sights, it's quite hard to explain the enormity of it all. Arrived in Siem Reap mid-day; we really only had a day and a half here so spent the first afternoon poking around town. SR is a pretty cool hang; lots of restaurants, cafes and bars to quench that thirst and hunger...and a cool market full of souvenirs and food in all ... read more

Wanderlust was growing so we decided to do a weekend in New Orleans to bridge the gap between other adventures... Always wanted to visit here; the music, the food, the culture, and for the most part we weren't disappointed! Arrived around noon to a wonderful blast of heat and humidity (starting to get cold here in Canada) we made our way down to the French Quarter and our hotel, the Andrew Jackson. Perfectly situated on Royal St. in the heart of the Quarter, it was a great launch point for all the activities... First on the agenda, pint! Okay, we did a bit of walking; checked out Royal St. and the antique shops and art galleries, took a stroll down Bourbon St. to get our bearings and then ducked into the great courtyard at Pat O'Brien's ... read more