Uncle Ho territory New day, new city to explore. Keen to get to halong bay as quickly as possible we combined a walking tour of the city with hunting for a live-aboard boat trip. Hanoi has a charm and character all of its own, and the Old Quarter really lived up to its name. Crazy architecture that was more french than Asian with funky little shops selling mostly artisan goodies, street hawkers, and loads of colour everywhere. It still had the crazy traffic of a thousand scooters per square inch, and crossing the road required skill and speed and quite frankly some balls!! We made a quick circuit of the central lake, which was the chosen spot for newly weds to have their wedding photos shot. Every tree and lookout point had beautiful couples dressed in ... read more

Mekong Delta Another golden sunrise, and morning stroll along the river followed by the very addictive delicious beef curry and baguette breakfast and we were ready to venture on to our next country, Vietnam. Team assembled, and we hopped on the minibus for the jetty,expecting to be taken to a modern busy 'harbour' for our boat, we were somewhat surprised to find ourselves in someone's back-garden! The owner was a friendly older chap who sat and chatted with us as we waited for our boat to arrive. We had to make our way through his garden and scramble as elegantly as we could onto the long wooden boat, with our packs wobbling precariously...we all made it safely on board and made ourselves comfy on the sun deck. There were about 12 of us altogether, a mixture ... read more

25.8.10 Mission to the Temples of Angkor. Graeme and Ae kindly drove us to Krabi where we caught the overnight sleeper bus to Bangkok. We arrived at 4:30am and caught a connecting bus from Bangkok’s Mo Chit bus stand to Aranya Prapet. After much confusion and several missions to avoid the scams that surround crossing the border we eventually found the Cambodian immigration. Month long visa in hand and we crossed into the kingdom of Cambodia. Passing the 100’s of casinos we found the Cambodian Immigration point that was a run down lean to building that had a tree growing through it. Stamped in and we caught a taxi with a lively Canadian couple who had just arrived from the Philippines. The 2 hour trip on a tarred road was spent discussing budget traveling the Philippines, ... read more

9.8.10 Ton Sai Beach - A small piece of perfection. Leaving Lanta was a completely different experience from our arrival. Graeme’s car and knowledge of the local area made sure of that. Boys in tow, we made the swift 2 hour ride back to Krabi/Ao Nang, and boarded a longtail bound for Ton Sai bay. In 2002 this was a self organised affair, however this has been stream lined by the introduction of a boat ticketing system. We made the ride out to the island on a rough see with the boys deadly silent as the boat rocked with the waves soaking everything in it. We rounded the corner of the headland to see Ton Sai. Ton Sai is just as insanely beautiful as we remembered it. Limestone cliffs rising from the sea, jungle meeting the ... read more

31.7.10 Bangkok - Back in Thailand The one stop flight from Chengdu to Bangkok via Guangzhou was relatively painless. Though we were sad to be leaving China prematurely due to the floods preventing us from accessing Yunnan and south Sichuan province. The trip to Thailand was only interrupted by a brief run in with Chinese immigration. I decided to try to keep the original Chinese (Tibetan) paper visa as a souvenir and provided them with a copy declaring the original was destroyed by flood water. This was obviously completely unacceptable and we were removed from the line and marched to a private area for interrogation. Admitting defeat I provided the original and we were then escorted back to the grumpy looking official. South African passports are not the most difficult documents to forge and mine was ... read more