We had heard that the fishing is good at King Ash Bay near Borroloola in Northern Territory so with two other groups of friends we decided to all meet up in Mt Isa & travel up together.It's about 1800 klms from Bundaberg to Mt Isa & a bit further from Warwick where our other friends were coming from. We'd all lived in Mt Isa at various times in the past, its a mining town about 200 klms from the border with Northern territory & roughly halfway between Townsville & Darwin, we used to go fishing at the Limmen Bight in N.T when we lived in Isa.It's about 1000kls from isa to these fishing spots on the western Gulf of Carpentaria. We came from Cairns where we'd been to see our new grandson so we were a ... read more

Took the Mekong Express bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City,took about 5 hours but it took an hour to go through immigration to get into Vietnam.We had to take all our luggage off the bus & put it through a scanner but things moved along quickly & it was'nt stressful. Caught a taxi from the bus depot, was 100,000dong about $5US, not too bad for the convienience especially with our luggage. The hotel, Huong Sen is very well located in District 1 where most of the tourist areas are.We had a nice swim & then found Bernie's bar & grill & watched NRL live match & had a good feed & Tony had a couple of Bundy's.The traffic is scary, there's no other word for it but you just keep going & they ... read more

Went to Singapore yesterday, managed the border crossing from JB easily without luggage. Got the hop on hop off bus for a look around then went to Boomarang Bistro on Robertson Quay to check if they are showing 2nd State of Origin on Wednesday. very nice place, must hold around 300 or so people, good food & Tony got Bundy rum so was happy. We will be back there on Wednesday for the match. Singapore is quite different to Thailand, much cooler & more western but still very asian. The people were friendly & we noticed how many young people there are. Went to Bugis which is the largest market area in Singapore with 600 stalls.The Bugis mall is very modern. When we went back to the Queen St bus depot to get the bus back ... read more

John Gray Sea canoe Hong By Starlight tour was very good. very proffesionally done & the seafood Buffet was delicious. They also cater for people who don't eat seafood so choise for all.the boat that we went out to the sea caves in is quite large & comfortable & airy so i did'nt get seasick!!! Makes a change. The guide we had called Alik spoke very good english, was very knowledgeable on many topics, especially environmental.The sea canoes are inflatable but very stable, Tony was worried he would tip us over getting in with his new hip & dodgy knee but not too much trouble. The hongs are lagoons encircled by towering cliffs & the only way in is via caves through the rock accessible only at mid tide. very peaceful inside & some of the ... read more

Today the guys have gone fishing with our guide Noom, supposedly for catfish so it'll be interesting to get their comments. Yesterday the other 8 went to the Golden Triangle, the border with Burma, Thailand & Laos where opium was traded for gold in days gone by.We've done the trip 3 times & always enjoy it but Noom suggested instead of doing it all in one day, it was a 7am start & they did'nt get back till 9pm, that it would be better to stay overnight in Chang Rai, makes sense & we'll do it that way next time so we can get time to shop at the border market in Burma.In spite of the big day everyone really enjoyed the trip & were very pleased with the White Temple even though they had been" ... read more