DI-SAS-TER….. the Lonely Planet Guide for south east Asia was left on the bus, Alison is bereft, it was like having her right arm cut off. After our train travels with cockroaches we were a bit apprehensive about the next, an overnight trip from Bangkok to Surat Thani, then meeting a bus to take us to Khoa Lak, a resort north of Phuket. The train although not new, was clean enough and shortly after leaving the station, the immaculately uniformed carriage attendant (starched creases and all) came through the carriage, assembled and made the beds, and attached the privacy curtains. It was a pretty cosy and we had a good sleep passing through the Thai country side. We had bought a joint train/bus ticket and was told the bus would meet us at the station for ... read more

On our original plan we weren’t sure whether we would go to Chang Mai. The easy route would be to go to Bangkok and either fly or train. It was due north and we needed to head south towards Singapore. Two things forced our hand one was if we flew into Thailand we got a 30 days’ visa as opposed to a 15 days one, the other was that Alison wanted to see some elephants. There wasn’t a direct flight so we took two Air Asia flights, the first a short hop to Bangkok then an hour north to Chang Mai. This city is known for three things temples, elephants and cuisine. We were going to experience all three during the next 3 days. On coming out of the airport the first thing we noticed was ... read more

It’s only 4 weeks since we were freezing our wotsit’s off in Outer Mongolia, today in Saigon we are sweltering in the mid 90’s F, even got our shorts on! Boy, did we make a mistake getting here? As we'd had a good experience getting the night bus to Hoi An, we thought we would give it another go. Armed with a couple of books and a downloaded film, we took the 22-hour bus ride from Hoi An to Saigon. First thing was that the bus wasn’t up to the previous standard with broken and ripped seats. We worried also there was no emergency exit and all the emergency hammers for breaking windows for evacuation were missing. We were delayed while 5 motorcycles were dismantled for carriage with luggage below. The more we neared Saigon the ... read more

We arrive at the very warm welcoming Rendezvous hotel in the Old Quarter in Hanoi. Nearly every shop front, hotel or business seems to be the width of a lock up garage. Even the width of our hotel room is the width of the hotel. We decided to put any ideas of what we will do in Hanoi until after we have had a good kip. Stepping out of our hotel, or anywhere in central Hanoi is like stepping out into a Hurricane, in this case a hurricane of Hondas, Suzuki, Yamahas, Vespa’s or any small cc’ed motorcycle transport you can think of. It’s easy to chuckle to see from our extremely regulated traffic, to the seemingly chaotic non regulated driving system here, especially when you see people riding 3 or 4 on a bike, all ... read more

Before setting off for the heady heights of Shanghai our next stop is the beautiful town of Hangzhou, reportedly enjoyed as a holiday retreat by Emperors long gone. But first to tell of our new year on the train. The negotiation of the station was easy, having our own waiting area for the train, and on the platform the attendants were all smartly lined up alongside each carriage. We had magnificent peace and quiet, being the only passengers in the carriage let alone our compartment, after the noise and hustle of Xian it was a treat. Dozing in the compartment, which was the plushest of the trains so far, we saw many red lanterns and occasionally fireworks and that was it. Party poopers or not I enjoyed the peace! And so to Hangzhou. The scenery had ... read more