The journey to KL from the Cameron Highlands is a fairly straightforward 4-5 hour bus journey, that is unless you dimwittingly ply your youngest child with gallons of strawberry milk before undertaking said journey, only for him to chunder foul smelling sour milk all over you 10 minutes into the journey. The slightly strawberry-ish aroma wasn't even enough to make it bearable. Of course I blame the numerous switchbacks it takes to get out of the Highlands rather than any lack of parenting forethought on our part. Why they never just build the roads so they go straight down is beyond me, sure it might be a bit hair raising at times, especially if you started to reach the sound barrier and i'm sure the noise from vehicles screaming up in 1st gear would be a ... read more

"Holla! City of squala!" - Mr Chow, The Hangover 2 We arrive to a city under siege... Not by the usual hordes of tourists that arrive at this time of year, as dry season has just started, but by the rising floodwaters pushing down from the north. The place is deserted, probably something to do with governments advising against all but essential travel to the city. We chose to come back to the city for two reasons, the first is because Faye wants some new ink (of course, so do I) and second, because it's an ideal place to start our journey south. Does getting tattooed count as essential travel? We stayed on Phra Arthit road, right next to the bursting banks of the Chao Phraya River. The height of the river was the least of ... read more

Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon to pretty much everyone who lives there, it's a city that at first glance appears hard to love, it's just another mega Asian city, it's crowded, it's polluted and it's hectic. So why have we come back? To put it simply, we've grown to love it and the country it belongs to. We've actually spent a bit of time here, the first while waiting for visas to be processed, a wait that resulted in the conception of Nate (clearly, there was nothing on TV that week) and the second while waiting for a friend to arrive back from the UK. Like the rest of Asia, the people lives spill out of their homes and onto the pavement for all to see and we love the openness of it. Friendly faces ... read more

Getting to Siem Reap in Cambodia from Bangkok involves crossing the worst land border I’ve ever experienced at Poipet, and the thought of doing it again for the third time filled me with apprehension. Trying to dodge the numerous scams is tiring and the biggest scam of all on our previous crossings was the ‘fee’ that the Cambodian officials try to impose to speed up the processing of the visa. Last time we sat and waited for an hour while I bargained the fee down to $3.50 from $10 ($5 each), which seems stupid now looking back as $6.50 is hardly worth it, but when you’re essentially paying for nothing (there’s not supposed to be a fee, the visa is $20, that’s all) it’s all about the principle. This time though I had it mind that ... read more

We flew into Bangkok, all smiles... Our favourite city in the world. A city that evokes every emotion and provokes every sense. A city I hate to love. We headed straight to the backpacker Mecca of Banglamphu (Khao San Road), an area that straight away fires up the emotions. The travel snob in me can't help but sneer, how easy, how unauthentic, and how very un-Thai. The tourist in me shakes with glee, the ease, the shopping, and yay a McDonalds! Although we've been walking familiar ground for a month now, Bangkok feels like something else, after so many visits over the years it feels a little like home. Even better yet, my parents were here. They'd arrived a few days earlier and we were here to surprise them. We knew what hotel they were staying ... read more