The journey on Sunday was exciting. We had caught thelocal train and trundled out to the little villagesuntil our stop and jumped out. The carriage was fullof characters and there was only one incident wheresomeone was killed on a level crossing. We stopped fora while for everyone to get out and have a look andthen after 20 minutes or so carried on. It all seemedso surreal. So we arrived in Dai Lanh. Little fishing village100kms or so north of Nha Trang. Populat...

Last proper update left off with us wondering what todo next with a huge typhoon about to hit the southcoast. As soon as I sent the email we found out thatit had ALREADY hit the mainland and in an area wherewe had been visiting that same day! I think the deathtoll stands at something like 83 people and caused$200 million of damage, which is pretty rough giventhat it is unlikely that anyone has an insurancepolicy to fall back on. And you can forget thecommunist go...

Greetings from Vietnam!We arrived a bare week ago into Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and have had lots of exciting times. This city is so cool!Our flight from Bangkok was extremely civilised and we waited patiently to be scrutinised and allowed out of the terminal. Having battled through the rip-off taxi services and found a metered taxi we set off into the mad roads and proceeded to quiz our driver for a quick language lesson for the basics! On arrival at the backpa...

Ko Phi Phi....I have never been anywhere quite so wonderfully, idylically, beautiful before.The Tsunami from two years ago has wrecked whole sections of this tiny island but this year is certainly the resurrection. Tourist touts on the mainland make a big deal of the fact that there is nowhere to stay in Ko Phi Phi because of the demand (but are happy to "make a few phone calls" to arrange something at an extortionate rate!) and all other businesses are...

So after all the excitement of Sukothai we headed back up north to Chang Mai so that we could go to the mediatation course we had booked ourselves onto - held over two days and one night at a temple nearish the city centre. Changers was packed to the rafters when we arrived - we hadn't clocked that in the north they celebrate the last day of Loi Krathon the day AFTER the full moon. We had a fab time meeting up with our Thai friends Top and Cheep Cheep and we...