South East Asia October 2012

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Innoculations were the second step, then a visit to the pharmacy to collect what seems to be a veritable chest of stuff to stop trouble - trouble appears to range from malaria to a SE Asian form of Dehli Belly - plus plasters, mossie repellent, anitbiotics, asthma puffers and so on. We turned down the anti AIDS/babies' offerings - too old really.

The first step saved $100 and was a visit to the Vietnamese Embassy for our visas. The travel agency was charging a cool $50 a head for the service!.

So, how much fun are we going to have? And who is 'we'? Heather Waugh, Ali and John Tocker, Rick and Pip Graham and David Betteridge (my long suffering other half) and me - all from the sunny Kapiti Coast, and all members of that informal and amazing travel group called the Kapiti Wanderers. This is a regular event - a trip to somewhere seriously interesting! This time we head out on Singapore Airlines on Friday 4 October.

This time we are all off at the end of the week to Cambodia (Siem Reap) to visit the amazing Angkor Wat temples. We used to have a restaurant in Wellington called this - very exotic in its day, lots of chilli and very tasty food. This should be a highlight.

We then fly to Saigon (Ho Chin Mhin city - which are we to really call it??) and seem to drive immediately to Mui Ne beach some four hours away for a couple of days. While I would rather be in the city than a resort, I guess we are being sent there for a purpose, and I have noted already that they have both a Nick Faldo designed golf course, picturesque fishing fleets, huge sand dunes and a cooking class. We won't be bored.

Then it is back to Saigon for an afternoon followed by the Mekong Delta for a day on a boat. (Note to self, take lots of mossie repellent).

Off next via Da Nang to Hoi An, then a train journey to Hue by train (I can hear all the rock music from my youth already), up to Hanoi, a drive to Halong Bay for an overnight cruise on a junk, back to Hanoi and a return to Singapore.

We leave our friends here, and head up by train to Malacca and KL. We drive up to the Cameron Highlands and the tea plantations, then over to lovely historical Penang, back to Singapore for a couple of days (Davie needs his annual re-outfitting in undies, sox and shirts) and back home to New Zealand in the beginning of November.

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