Monday, February 23rd, 2009 Last night after dinner we finally got the opportunity to get some bank statements and do our last months budget. Wow! We had realized that prices here soared since the publishing of the guidebook, but we hadn't realized just what an impact it had made on our budget! Ouch! The weak Rand and some optimistic initial budgeting on our side also didn't help much. Unless we find some place to volunteer we'll probably only stay another month in South-East Asia before moving on to New Zealand. We packed for the coming trek, checked out of the hotel and went to wander the streets of Hanoi. We saw the Memorial House. It's a beautifully restored traditional Chinese-style merchant home. After that we went to see the Bach Ma Temple, the oldest temple in ... read more

Thursday, February 19th, 2009 After we got our Vietnamese visas we headed to the bus station to catch a bus to the "Buddha Park". An eccentric guy had combined various eastern religions and built a ton of statues from all of their gods. We weren't too excited about it, but is was something to do. At the bus station we found the right bus but it was packed, and the tuk-tuk drivers kept hassling us. Soon Ferdi had had enough and we decided the "Buddha Park" just wasn't worth the effort. We got a baguette and some fresh fruit from the market and headed to a nearby park for a snack. As we were riding around we saw a computer shop and decided to take our laptop in so they could have a look at it. ... read more

Sunday, February 15th, 2009 We slept okay and woke early to see if Vlooi had survived the night. He only squeaked twice during the night and we expected to be up to feed him every hour. We were very relieved when we saw that he was fine and fast asleep. We put him in bed with us and later took turns to lie with him while the other got ready for the day, because the moment we left him alone he would cry terribly. He's rather strong for such a little guy and always on the hunt for food. But if you lay with him for a while he would curl up by your neck and fall asleep. So cute! We were very stressed because we didn't know what to do with him. We just prayed ... read more

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 We woke up very early with the crowing of the rooster just outside our room. The walls in the guesthouse were paper thin, so if someone in the next room moved it sounded like they were inside our own room. The village was rather busy during the night. Luckily the generators cut out at 10pm so the karaoke bar next door went quiet early! There were still some locals living it up, but once we were asleep, nothing could wake us. I (Ferdi) was a little disappointed that Talita wasn’t entirely cured when we woke up, but then God said to me that He did answer my prayer. Talita had slept really well and felt much better! We had a quick bite to eat and headed for the boat. We got there ... read more

Monday, February 9th, 2009 Remember that "Tourist Information" lady that turned out to actually be a travel agent? Well, we had booked an 11 day package with her that included train tickets, transfers, hotel in Chiang Mai, the jungle trek, minibus to Chiang Khong + hotel and a two day trip on a slow boat down the Mekong River in Laos to Luang Prabang. It was so cheap! From Luang Prabang we're on our own again and that suits us just fine! We left Chiang Mai on a minibus in the morning for Chiang Khong on the north-east border of Laos (a country to the east of Thailand and is pronounced "Lao"). Tony and Siubhan (the Irish couple) was on the same bus so we had some friendly faces along for the ride. It was a ... read more