After leaving Uncle Tan's we headed for Semporna (Waddya wanna watch? I wanna Semporna!). The sole purpose for going there was for some of us to have a go at diving but when we got there we fund that there was also a regatta on that weekend. The harbour was full of decorated sea gypsy boats and there were stalls and plenty of people. One young boy took a shining to Mam and walked around the market with us, getting hold of her hand before waving to any of his friends. There were lots of children around, many of them [View Full Entry]

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Having met up with Mam, Dad, Susan and Martin we had a few hours in SIngapore before heading to Kuala Lumpur. One thing about having them come over and meet us is that we start to notice things again that we had started to take for granted or have just ignored. One thing is people staring or watching us. We don't really notice it anymore unless someone points it out to us. Once in Kuala Lumpur we headed to Masjid Jamek, a mosque where Mam had to dress in a robe and headscarf before we were allowed in. The mosque [View Full Entry]

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We flew to Indonesia with lots of preconceptions of what the country would be like. These were based on government warnings about travel to Indonesia on the FCO website, which had us fearing that all Indonesians would be terrorists intent on kidnapping us or blowing us up, and western media portrayal of what 'muslim countries' are like. It turned out to be completely different to what we expected. The first suprise on landing was that, far from being a bunch of western-hating extremists, Indonesians are friendly, welcoming people. A guard took us straight past the immigration queue at [View Full Entry]

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Chiang Mai reminded us a lot of Luang Prabang, mainly because of the sheer number of temples there. Allee claims it must have the most temples per square kilometre in the world, something we are now spreading as fact. And so, as we walked tryihng to find particular temples we would also have a look at a few others which were not in the guidebook and were pleasantly empty. We also had a look at the inside of a few cafes as the 38 degree heat meant that we didn't get far before being overcome by tiredness and sweat. That evening [View Full Entry]

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To get to Phonsavan we wound through the mountains once again, passing through lots of bamboo villages where, apart from the odd TV aerial, it is easy to imagine that life has barely changed over the last 100 years. Everyone in these areas must work to survive and we passed young girls who would still be in primary school in the UK, carrying large baskets of wood on their backs as they walked to their village. The other noticeable thing during the journey was the smoke in the valleys and the scarred landscape - a result of the slash and [View Full Entry]

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When it comes to capital cities, Hanoi and Vientiane and like chalk and cheese. After the constant noise of Vietnam, we were suprised to find Vientiane very quiet. So quiet in fact that by 20:00 in the evening we could have laid down in the middle of a main road with no fear of being run over. By 22:00 everywhere is closed and the residents are presumably in bed. We spent our first day there walking around, from the Laos version of the Arc D'Triomphe back into town. Along the way we went into Vientiane's biggest market where the laid [View Full Entry]

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The first part of our journey on the Reunification Express from Hoi An to Hanoi took us through some very nice coastal scenery which we couldn't get any pics of because the windows, like the cabin, were filthy. The further north we got the less interesting the views became until we got bored and thoughts turned to what we are missing from home. Sorry to disappoint people but it was mainly food - sausages, sunday dinners, lamb, beans and yorkshire puddings. We decided to explore Hanoi's old quarter on foot, which was nice as we got to squeeze down the [View Full Entry]

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After Kon Tum we climbed aboard another minibus, this time only for a five hour drive to Hoi An. Sharing the bus with us were a drunk who almost intoxicated us with his breath, two soldiers and a dog which was wandering around the floor of the bus. The scenery was once again spectacular as we wound our way along the Ho Chi Minh trail through the mountains. There were waterfalls and the hills were packed with trees, some of them enormous. Almost as entertaining as the views were the amount of animals on the road as we swerved around [View Full Entry]

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We are now in the Central Highlands and have made our way from Saigon to Da Lat to Kon Tum. The bus journey from Saigon to Da Lat took us through some wonderful scenery which gradually changed from jungle covered mountains to coffee and tea plantations. Not even these winding mountain roads with their sheer drops and blind bends can stop Vietnamese bus drivers from overtaking with a honk of the horn so we were pretty pleased to arrive in one piece. The first thing we noticed about Da Lat was the change in climate. As we are now in the [View Full Entry]

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First of all, I'm in trouble for forgetting to mention our haircut on the last entry. In Phnom Penh we both decided to go to the barbers. I had the basic shaved head, shaved face while Allee had her hair washed, cut and straightened, a head massage, a manicure and nails painted. At one point there were three women pampering her at the same time. Anyways, this was a real dent to the budget, coming in at a total of 2 pounds fifty for both of us. How they dare charge these prices I don't know. We are now in Ho [View Full Entry]

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