A couple of hours by bus and we reached the Cambodian border. Usual rigmarole and queues, fingerprinting and photographing, as well as temperature taking (I thought they were shooting me!!) before we were allowed to go through.!!) before we were allowed to go through. First impressions of Cambodia – much poorer than Vietnam, a lot of flooding, rice fields, houses on stilts, white cows! We crossed a river (Mekong I think!) by ferry, but a lot of people seemed to be travelling, laden up, the other way....we learnt later that there had been severe flash flooding and that a lot of people (and tourists) were being airlifted to safety or evacuated. Reached the hotel (Town View 1) about 3.00pm ish and then had a wander down to look at the Independence Tower and the waterfront, where ... read more

17th Sept - 22nd Sept Hoi An and Nha Trang, We left the hotel at 8.30am and drove along the road, past all the corn and rice laid out over one carriageway of the road to dry and soon reached the Hai Van Pass, the highest mountain Pass in Vietnam, 500 metres above sea level. Fairly scenic and we stopped at the top for scenic pictures of the coast and Da Nang below. Back to the mini-bus and carried on for about 45 minutes before reaching Marble Mountains, a well known tourist spot. There are five ‘mountains’ made of marble, a whole host of marble shops below selling everything from marble statues for the garden to small marble buddhas for 1$, and a flight of about 60 steps (past a rat and a snake!!) that takes ... read more

11th Sept – 16th October 2011 I am in love!! – with Hanoi!! Our flight from Hong Kong arrived at about 4.00pm and we then took the public minibus ($3) to our hotel, so we have only been here a couple of hours, but our first impression is that Hanoi is absolutely charming and delightful! Motorbikes, scooters and bicycles crowd the streets – hundreds of them! ( fact – nearly 4 million in Hanoi!!) And the old town where our hotel is (Hong Ngoc 3) appears to be a maze of tiny, busy, tree lined streets! I can’t wait to explore tomorrow! Awoke to heavy rain! Undeterred we set off, suitably attired in our ‘Maid of the Mists’ mac and an umbrella borrowed from the hotel. Decided to walk to the lake, set off in totally ... read more

Up at 5.45am (aagghh!!!) breakfast and on the road in the minibus by 7.00am. Arrived in Wu Han (a small city of 10 million people!!) for lunch, before boarding the train at 3.00pm for our overnight journey to Guilin. An uneventful journey, although seemed longer than the others (novelty factor now worn off!!) and we arrived in Guilin at about 05.45am. Transferred straight onto the local public bus which left at 6.00am and arrived at Yangshou (Li River Hotel) at about 7.30am knackered!!! Of course the rooms were not going to be ready for a few hours so we dumped our stuff and headed off with Millie and the group to a local western cafe for a full English breakfast! Excellent! And it had free wifi as well so managed to upload some blog although internet ... read more

Chengdu The next morning we had a flight at 10.40 to Chengdu and arrived at our hotel in our next smog ridden destination about lunchtime. The food in this area is particularly spicy so we skipped lunch and wandered down to the local park where it was jam packed of people dancing, singing karaoke, acrobatics, playing musical instruments! Quite a racket!! Soaked up the atmosphere and had a boat ride on the lake before heading back to our hotel for a beer before bed! (Hotel Starway) The next day we left Chengdu at 7.30am to go and visit the Breeding and Research centre for the Giant Panda as if you go early in the morning they are more likely to be active! We were lucky!! Got some fantastic pics and also some good bits of video ... read more