Hello! The overnight bus was smooth although they randomly decided to stop at a service station at 1am in the morning! We were alo impressed with Bangkok bus station, which was more like an airport, with a huge complex of shops and restaurants. The bus dropped us off in Phuket town and from there we got a shuttle bus to Kata beach, the nicest of the numerous beaches down the Phuket western coast. And it certainly was impressive - neither of us had seen sand so white and sea so clear and blue. The sand was almost like talcum powder! And we booked ourselves into a hotel which was right on the beach which was ideal. We could see why Thailand has become such a massive tourist destination, and ironically the tourists were the only thing ... read more

From Phnom Penh, we caught a 7 hour bus to Siem Reap, which is one of Camobodia's bigger towns in the north-west of the country. Primarily, it is used as a base to explore the ancient temples of Angkor, and this is exactly what we did ourselves. The bus journey was smooth, and we managed to get a real taste for rural Cambodia, stopping several times at makeshift 'service stations'! These had a variety of culinary delights on offer - including fried tarantulas!! We declined this opportuniy to broaden our tastes and quickly got back on the bus after seeing several women carrying live ones right next to us. The poverty of the country was really obvious in these more rural areas, with lots of street children wandering around and surrounding Westerners in a way which ... read more

Hello all, We're actually writing this from Cambodia now - a bit behind on the blogging! After Nha Trang we went to Ho Chi Minh; much more like a typical capital city than Hanoi. As well as the markets and motorbikes there were lots of high-rise buildings. We decided to spend 3 nights there to have a bit of a break as it seemed like we had been almost continuously travelling for a while. We spent the first day wandering around and relaxing (finding a Belgian chocolate shop to keep Amy happy!!). In the evening we went to see a water puppet show - something big in Vietnam since the 11th century apparently! It was interesting although obviously we didn't understand a word as it was spoken in Vietnamese. After that we went for dinner in ... read more

Hello! After the overnight train from Hanoi, we just spent one night in Hue, but it was enough to get a real flavour of the place. It seemed much quiter than the bustling Hanoi (as you would expect) and we spent several hours just wandering around the streets when we arrived. We found a brilliant French bakery for lunch and in the afternoon visited the Citidal, an ancient emporer's palace, with many ornate asian buildings / architecture which have been restored. It was a huge site, and takes up a considerable amount of the city's land area. In the evening we relaxed and spent more time wandering around the lively streets near our hotel, which had a real atmosphere as all have busy open bars which surround the roads. The following day we had a brilliant ... read more

Hi everyone! We've just finished a 3 day tour of Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island, off the coast of northern Vietnam. After a 3 hour bus ride from Hanoi, we acquired a guide (which meant we could relax for a few days on the planning side!) and boarded a boat, or 'junk' as they refer to them as, at Halong City. From here we had a 4/5 hour boat ride around Halong Bay, which had fantastic scenery, as thousands of giant rocks/islands stand alone in the sea. Luckily we had fairly clear weather (and it hasn't rained on us yet since China!) and made for some great photographs. On the way we stopped off at one of these smallish islands and visited a giant cave which had been eroded over millions of years - pretty ... read more