The flight we booked from Auckland to San Francisco involved a two hour transfer in LA. From the beginning this looked a bit challenging, with immigration and customs to take into account. When we arrived at Auckland to discover a two hour delay on the Qantas first leg things looked to be coming unstuck. However, after initially checking us onto it regardless we were taken off it again. Bad news out of the way we were given the good, we had been booked instead onto an Air New Zealand flight direct to San Francisco. I'm not sure why, not the same airline or even the same alliance but I wasn't complaining. We arrived in San Francisco earlier than we would have done without the delay. In San Francisco the marvellous hospitality continued, this time in the ... read more

Especially on the south island. That's what we were told and people know their stuff. But with winter come bargains and we picked up a campervan deal in Christchurch for about a third of it's peak season price. Van in hand and wearing our new coats we made our way to the airport to pick up Pascal then decided on where to go. There were two places under consideration, Hanmer Springs for some hot spa action or Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. We decided on Akaroa, arriving there the next day. I still don't understand why the arrival was followed by "Ok, where are the hot springs?" from the other two. With not much to do there and with fresh news that a winter festival was taking place in Lyttleton that evening we didn't hang around. ... read more

For the last bit of Asia we returned to Malaysia. After a straightforward border crossing at Sungai Kolok we caught a taxi (the only way to get there) to Kuala Besut in time for the last boat of the day to the Perhentian Islands. Early on, back in Goa, I wrote that the beaches there were paradise as far as I knew. Now with a wide selection of Thai beaches behind me I'd still say it was true, but the beaches here compare well. White sand, no unexpected rocks under the surface, nothing stinging in the water. It was good to start and end with the best beaches. Other ones had many plus points too but for the basics, the sand and the sea, these were top. We spent four nights there in total, the first ... read more

We took the journey from Siem Reap to Battambang by boat. It passes some scenic river life in an eight hour journey. In the wet season they use bigger boats that only take five hours, but the locals don't like those because of the damage they cause. As it was even with the smaller boat there were a few angry people shaking their oars at us as we passed. But it isn't just a tourist boat, the locals take it too, so I'm not going to feel bad about using it. The oar shaking was far outweighed by the smiles and waves. On our day in Battambang, along with Jolanda and Ian who we met on the boat, we took motos with drivers to see the main tourist sites. They consist of a few temples, a ... read more

A small detour on the way to Siem Reap brought us to Kratie. The highlight of a trip to the area is a visit to see the Irrawaddy dolphins on the Mekong river. There are less than 100 dolphins left but 15 kilometres from town at Kampi they are always there to be seen. They don't come close to the boat though so the pictures are excusably poor. We spent a relaxing hour drifting in the river with occasional sightings. For the dolphin visit we once again hired motorbikes, and for the first time there weren't any automatic ones available. So we've now mastered gears, not really too complicated as it turns out. There was much debate about what to do next, continue up to the north east provinces or to Siem Reap for the Angkor ... read more