A warm welcome to all from Vientiane in Laos. Well after a gruling 13 hours on the bus overnight which we slept very little, we arrived on Sunday morning about 9am in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Border crossing was pretty smooth at the Friendship bridge, visas on arrival, pay at the kiosk. Arriving on Sunday brought a surcharge for entry though, cheek of it!! Anyway, on arrival the place felt like a ghost town and we had no local currency and only a few dollars. Straight to the cash machine for some kip (local currency about 10,000 to the dollar) [View Full Entry]

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Our last night in Cambodia was spent in downtown part of Siem Reap. Firstly we went to Khmer Kitchen which served up a great feed and was then followed by a trip to Ankor What? bar. The bar plays great music and we all signed our names on the wall. The cocktails flowed and the craic was great. Day 29 started early, the bus left at 7 am to take us on the "dancing road" to the Thai border. The trip to the border is only 150km (less than 100 miles) but it took over 8 hours to get there, including [View Full Entry]

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Thursday 4th October 2007, the day we watched the sun rise over Angkor Wat. Although it was cloudy & not a perfect sunrise it was still pretty incredible! We were up from 4am to get a good vantage point at the Wat, along with many other people & cameras on tripods! Complete with coffee mixed with condensed milk (this seems to be a SE Asia staple!) we watched......the sky changed from dark blues to eventually daylight & we loved every minute! Angkor Wat is the mother of all temples & the world's largest religious building. Lonely Planet describes Angkor as simply [View Full Entry]

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Well, Day 24 brought a fond farewell to Vietnam. Leaving our hotel in Chau Doc by boat early morning, we sailed upstream on the Mekong Delta for an hour or so before coming to the Vietnam/Cambodia border. Our passports were taken off us at the Vietnam side then it was back on the boat for another couple of minutes till we got to the Cambodia side. The pictures show Sarah and I on each side of the border. The crossing was smooth, $20 paid we were back on the boat with our visa and on the way to Phnom Penh (PP), [View Full Entry]

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An early start ensued this morning, with an 8 hour bus ride from Siagon to Chau Doc on the border with Cambodia along with the other 9 people in our new intrepid group. An interesting town where tourists are few and far between! It is unusual for us to be stared at, as most places along our journey are well used to tourists. Adults & Children are really getting to know us & seem to be facinated by our very white skin!! The market is excellent. A real working place where people come to buy their food for the next day. [View Full Entry]

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Since our last update, we survived another overnight sleeper train from Nha Trang to Siagon/Ho Chi Minh City. (For the purposes of our blog we are calling it Siagon!) Arriving in Siagon we had some much needed rest before hitting the central market for some souveniers & our favourite hobby of bartering with the locals! We came away a few million dong lighter! (That's about $60) but very happy with purchases, which included a Chloe bag!!! Friday started with a cyclo tour of the city. First stop was the War Museum. This was very interesting and charted the history & pictures [View Full Entry]

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Day 19 started with a buffet breakfast at the Vien Dong hotel. The hotel is 3 star and clean. Boat trip to the island aquarium in the morning was interesting! We were met by women in round basket boats who took us to shore. This was a highlight of the island tour. Snorkelling in the afternoon was very relaxing. We all jumped off the boats and into the crystal clear water. The coral was close, though it looked bleached and there wasn't much sea life about, a few fish, but nothing spectacular, as we are expecting great things in Thailand & [View Full Entry]

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So we arrived after a 4 hour journey by bus in Hoi An. We had stopped by China beach on the way from Hue which was a welcome break!! It's not as picturesque as we had thought but can see the attraction from city life! We really like the feel of Hoi An, especially by the river with all the restaurants & bars. It is less frantic than Hanoi or Hue & a noticable reduction in the number of motorbikes! We are now pros at crossing Vietnamese roads & negotiating through the street markets!! Hoi An is famous for it's fantastic [View Full Entry]

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After an overnight sleeper train from Hanoi to Hue in Central Vietnam, we arrived tired & ready for a shower on Wednesday morning at 9am. (Bearing in mind we travelled 1st class, the accomodation was basic & toilet facilities better not shared with you!) The 14 hour train ride to Hue was made much easier by lots of Hanoi beer & great craic with the new friends we have made on the intrepid tour! Photo's show all smiling faces - this was all forced!!!! Wednesday afternoon consisted of some much needed R&R. Sarah slept & Mike headed to the local market [View Full Entry]

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For this blog entry we're going to let the photos do the talking. Other than to tell you we both had an incredible, amazing & perfect day & night in Ha Long Bay. These pictures truely don't do thís place justice & is deserving of it's status of a World Heritage Site. We swam through the bay (South China Sea), water was like a bath! Kayacking was definitely a highlight as we watched the sun set together. All these experiences shared with 10 other amazing travellers! Enjoy!x [View Full Entry]

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