This is the story of the man who went up a gorge...and came back a tomato face. It was with a little trepidation that we got up early, finished packing our bags and headed out to the bus stop to get us to the gorge. We managed to arrive early, quiet a feat as we weren't sure where we were going and found out that we had time for some breakfast. Grabbing some local street food, some sort of breadesque base with a fried egg and spices, (which was great) we boarded the bus and headed off to Tiger Leaping Gorge. The views along the way to the start of the trek were amazing and we were happy when we stopped off at a photo spot to grab some early morning piccies of the snow capped ... read more

Many strange and wonderful things can occur when you send your wife in search of hot water on a sleeper train. In this instance Steph ended up talking to a member of the Samaritans Purse, whilst in the hunt for boiling water. It was as a result of this chance encounter that she bounded back into our sleeper carriage and announced that she had secured a free lift from Lao Cai to Sapa with the Samaritans Purse in the morning. It was because of this that, at 6:00am the next morning we were able to walk straight past all of the waiting taxi and minibus drivers and pile straight into the Samaritans Purse jeep along with the American family that were working for the Samaritans Purse and hence had arranged the vehicle. We then proceeded straight ... read more

Our final morning in Saigon was a rather slow affair as we had already done many of the sights close to the hotel, meaning that all we had to do was pack up our stuff and look forward to the bus ride to Dalat, a city up in the hills of Centrel Vietnam, with a colonial feel to it. Compared to many of the bus journeys we had taken so far in Vietnam the ride to Dalat was a slow, if rather enjoyable ride, certainly when you got up in the hills and had a look at some of the stunning views. It was however, a rather slow bus ride, though this never seemed to stop the bus driver from using his horn every few seconds It was evening when we eventually arrived in Dalat and, ... read more

Our fourth and final day in Siam Reap was spent on the Tonle Sap lake visiting a floating village. Unlike the floating village that we had seen sometime ago in Thailand the difference with this village was that, due to the large difference in water levels during the year,this village actually floated and was not on stilts. We had a look around the village and also learned a little bit about the trades of the villagers, who were largely fishermen during the dry season but stopped in the wet season when the fish were pregnant. We also saw the crocodile farm, which we weren't too impressed with as it was very cramped and they did not have that much space. After we returned from the trip we lounged by the pool a bit before taking the ... read more

Arriving in Chang Mai, at the unsightly time of 6:30 am we got to experience our first ever Tuk Tuk ride. Having heard much of the ways in which a Tuk Tuk driver will try to scam you it was a bit of a relief to eventually arrive at our hostel scam free. It was also a relief to be out of the Tuk Tuk as being carried around in what is essentially a demented version of a Robin reliant (with worse build quality), with a driver who believes road markings are merely optional was not a nice way to start the day. We stayed in the MD guest house and had a nice quiet room with a small patio ideal for drying clothes outside. Even better was that the breakfast, which was included, did not ... read more