I dunno why, but we were underwhelmed with Laos from the start. The places were all nice, the people were friendly enough and all of life's essentials were extremely affordable, so maybe it was just us. It didn't help that we were joined on the flight in by an unidentified, but persistent and irritating microbe which couldn't decide if it wanted to be a flu-causing virus or a headcold bug, so alternated between the two. Vientiane is a pocket sized capital city with a river (the Mekong – but of course), a museum and, lo, an international ATM. The museum provided a sterling shelter from the rain and included a display on the Plain of Jars, including an actual 5ft earthenware jar. Linda felt that this should be sufficient to save us the bother of actually ... read more

Our slow boat put-putted its way down the Mekong river. Along the river banks daily life went on. Boat builders and fish farmers smiled and waved as they saw us. We felt welcome even before we had set foot on dry land. Chau Doc is the first Vietnamese town along the river. We could tell from the wide eyes and open mouths that they are not used to Westerners wandering around. Nearly all of the ladies were wearing their traditional dress of a conical hat and matching tunic and trousers. It is very fetching, but in decline throughout the rest of the country as westernisation takes hold. A brand new ATM solved my money worries and put some Dong in my pocket. I took a motorbike to the top of Sam Mountain and looked back across ... read more

We bumped into our friends, Paul and Wendy, and their two kids, Spencer (9) and Ryan (7), in the foyer of the D&D Inn in Bangkok. They had been fast-tracked through immigration and got into town a couple of hours before we expected them. Last time we were in Bangkok we had scouted around the budget accommodation around Banglampu and decided that the D&D Inn was about the best. The rooms can be a bit austere, but they have a rooftop pool and an all-you-can-eat breakfast is included in the price. The six of us did the tourist bit in Bangkok over the next few days. It is possible to do a nice round trip through the city centre using public transport but avoiding the buses (keeping off the clogged roads is eminently sensible). Firstly we ... read more

I had only intended to stay in Penang for a couple of days. Long enough to get a 60 day visa from the Thai consulate and then head for the islands in the Andaman Sea. It didn't quite work out like that. For a start, we arrived on a Friday afternoon and of course the Thai consulate would be closed over the weekend. Penang is itself an island in the Andaman Sea and in the past was of strategic importance. It was home to the first British settlement on the Malay peninsular, founded by Captain Francis Light around 1779. At the time only a handful of indigenous people were living on the island. Apparently they were quite keen to help him build his fort for a payment of 15 Spanish dollars each. What they found to ... read more

I couldn't leave South Africa without visiting Soweto. Since 1980, when a wave of uprisings was in the news, Soweto has been in my mind. Those events even inspired my first decent song (words and music) for my teenage band (the evidence currently resides in a green folder in my mothers attic, along with the rest of my erstwhile musical career). Soweto is big. In fact it is big enough to have its own suburbs. Driving in to the centre on a dual carriageway we passed a shopping mall and an enormous minibus station. It is ordinary. My first reaction was surprise at the ordinariness of the surroundings. Paved roads, brick buildings, football pitches, streets. It is even mildly prosperous with lots of well-dressed black people driving their cars and doing their thing. It is called ... read more