Note - Our visit took place prior to the enormous earthquake that struck Japan on 10th March. It's Tokyo don't you know! OK, 72 hours to explore and get to know Tokyo - loads of time we thought, as we flew in from Bangkok. Right, but let's think about this, if we knock off the time to transfer to and from the airport, time spent sleeping, time spent looking at a guidebook and trying to plan what to do (something that probably took longer for us than the other things combined) and time spent on the super efficient but super complicated underground transferring between places, that leaves us with about 30 waking, active hours in which to explore the city. Umm. Surely that's not nearly enough time to even start to get to know this amazing ... read more

What to make of little Laos, the country that runs the length of the greatest part of the Mekong River, but is sandwiched between and dominated by the SE Asian giants of Vietnam and Thailand? Without the drawcard attractions of its neighbours, like the ruins which attract so many people directly to Cambodia, or the funds to promote itself to the outside world, it is one place that many people seem to either skip completely, or dash through quickly on their way to better publicised and grander attractions. In fact we didn't really give it a lot of thought at all in planning our route through this part of the world, all we knew in advance was that we didn't want to miss it completely. Think of it like a sympathy vote in the Eurovision song ... read more

Hue - Vietnam's Ancient Capital We made the short journey north from Hoi An to the town of Hue and instantly upon arrival, our impressions of the Vietnamese were significantly restored from the slightly soured version we had on leaving Hoi An. Hue is a bustling workaday city, where tourism has minimal impact; people are incredibly friendly and smiling and would spend lots of time chatting to us, interested to hear about us and what we were up to. This kind nature even seems to extend onto the roads (quite an achievement in Vietnam), where people don't drive motorbikes like maniacs. Courtesy is even extended to the large number of cyclists in Hue - we took to two wheels without actually fearing for our lives! Hue is the ancient capital of the kingdom of Vietnam prior ... read more

Hong Kong After spending nearly 3 months in India and Nepal, it was time for us to return to South East Asia and take in the areas we had not had a chance to take in last time. Our first stop was a fairly big culture shock, moving from the mountainous small capital of Nepal to the gleaming metropolis of Hong Kong. All of a sudden we were back among towering glass skyscrapers, chopsticks and Starbucks, oh and of course London-equivalent prices. It was a little hard for us to take in at first, although it became easier after a gingerbread latte! Just 24 hours earlier we had been in a capital city with an intermittent power supply, to all of a sudden arrive at a luxurious oasis that seemed to have everything. It was jaw-dropping ... read more

Rishikesh We spent a couple of days together in the chilled out and very hippy atmosphere of Swarg Ashram, part of Rishikesh. This was a pretty relaxing time, often spent in cafes overlooking the river Ganges, or watching some of the many Hindus performing holy rituals in and around the river. We also managed to catch up with some of our friends from our time in China, Tik and Emilie. Since we went our separate ways in Chengdu back in July, their travels have taken them through northern China, Mongolia and Nepal, so we had a lot of catching up to do over several dinners - it was lovely to see them again. The (very bumpy) road north to Joshimath After a few days relaxing in town, we hopped on a bus for the journey to ... read more