A belated happy Easter to everyone! Excitingly, we managed to find an International Baptist Church to join for Easter Sunday whilst in Kanazawa - on top of a lovely service, Ros was dressed in a full kimono (picture added to the album!) and we were offered some traditional Japanese tea. We also had our favourite katsu curry at a nearby cafe. The cherry blossom festival had just started when we were in Kanazawa - so we bought some traditional sweets from the stal...

Did anyone spot our April's fools?! Our meeting with Jackie Chan wasn't quite as we made out - although we did see many people taking photos of him, it was of his Madame Tausauds' waxwork rather than him in the flesh (sorry to anyone disappointed by this revelation!) After flying into Kansei (Osaka) airport, we stayed 5 days in a self contained flat near the temples in Kyoto (owned by an American so we got some good tips on the best bakery for bagels!) Althoug...

We flew from Da Nang to spend 3 nights in Hong Kong. This was a complete contrast to Vietnam - with prestine pavements, fancy shopping malls and impressive 80 storey glass blocks - not to mention having to get used to paying western prices again! Whilst in Hong Kong, we met up with Phil's cousin Nick, and his lovely dog Ghost, enjoying Peking Duck and a trip to the night market. Ros and I also went up the peak funicular to enjoy the spectacular views of the city...

Our final week in Vietnam was spent in Central Vietnam - in Hue, Hoi An and Da Nang. Our time in Da Nang was the least memorable of the three places due to the weather (it rained for the entire day making the hotel pool and beach sadly redundant!) - however, we used the time to have massage at the hotel (the first of our trip!), get laundry done (much cheaper at the local laundrette than the hotel!), and to watch insurgent at the cinema (again much cheaper than ...

Our time in Ninh Binh was awesome - for me my favourite place of the holiday so far - with beautiful countryside and limestone mountains to cycle around (accompanied by the friendly greetings of the villagers that we passed by). The region's jewel in the crown is its caves (known as Halong Bay on the land). For a small fee, you get to be rowed around a series of caves (some which involve significant amount of ducking!). The stamina of the old lady that rowed us ...