Thanks to Air Asia bumping our flight, we now have to fit in 2 days of sighting into one! So, another early morning in order to catch breakfast opening time at 6am. Only 30 minutes to down breakfast before our driver meets us at 6.30am. A shame we couldn't hover around longer as breakfast was served on the top floor, outdoors overlooking the Saigon River. It's the best array of sumptious food I've ever seen, with every kind of tropical fruit, assorted french pastries as well as the usual Western and Asian fare. I simply never knew croissants could taste so good. Upon exiting the restaurant via the lift I notice another 5 star attention to detail, an imprint of the hotel's monogram in the sand where you butt out next to the elevator door. HCMC ... read more

I'm extremely excited to announce our next family adventure. When our children were younger our holidays have always been in 'safe' places. However, this trip is designed to take my sons' travelling experiences beyond the theme park and into the next dimension of independent travel. This will be their first foray into a third world country on a "planes, trains and automobiles" odyssey. It's my first foray into a Communist country and it's ambitious and I'm sure, at times, I'll be despised, but it is a sacrifice I am prepared for in order to teach my sons about the world in which they live. Next month we are about to achieve in two weeks what the American's (and later Australian's), didn't manage in nearly 20 years during the Vietnam War.... an intense advance from HCMC (Saigon), ... read more

We all have a well-deserved sleep in which I did not feel guilty about at all after the last two nights. Allen & Libby are leaving today so I went over to say good bye. They were really worried about us when they noticed all but one tent remaining at the site (as I had to stagger the exodus due to drying logistics). I thought they might be concerned because that's the sort of people they are, so I thought I'd explain myself and say good bye. I bid them a safe journey back home and there were hugs all round. Unfortunately, it was still very bleak and inhospitable outside. Our only options for the days' entertainment are to spend more money and consume more calories at the Bakery or a café somewhere, just go driving ... read more

At 7.30am I am wide awake waiting for the rain to subside. Those who know me well, realise that I am of no particular religious persuasion, but on this night I am basically praying for a miracle as we are going to need some breathing space to dry out the boys sleeping gear. The sign said "No Vacancies" for the cabins last night so that's not much help right now. The bottom of my air mattress is saturated as is the whole floor despite the ground sheet, so I can only assume the boys' skinny mattresses wouldn't have fared so well either. At 9am my praying worked as the weather finally eased off and we are able to regroup. I go to rouse the boys from their slumber and am horrified to see that Last Born's ... read more

Desert Ship Territory Log Day 18 Contrary to what I said on Day 17, I have decided to add the final day of our road trip to South Australia, but it is written in retrospect upon the insistence of a friend whom I relayed a funny story to about what we saw on the last day. Here goes. Being a short travel day of about 6 hours (if we took the short cut through Hyden) we afford ourselves a bit of a sleep in and are on the road at 0830 hours. Too bad if the short cut doesn’t work out, we’ll just get home a lot later. We are concerned about the state of the road as Norseman had received about 5mm of rain over night. We make our way to the Police Station but ... read more