Travelled to Sapa on a night train and bus from Hanoi which took nine hours train and one hour bus, all the sleepers were sold out so I was on a soft seat in a crowded locals coach, very interesting when a bunch of tipsy suited guys in their 30's jumped on at 2am on the way. Not much sleep and lots of laughing at my expense I think as I was left with the most drunk and loudest crammed in next to me! At one time he offered me a wad of 100 dollar bills for my wat...

After a very short plane journey from Laos I had a taxi ride to my hotel in the old quarter of Hanoi that was like being in a test simulator where cars, bikes, pedestrians kept popping out in front of you or cutting you up, what an introduction to Vietnam! I am assuming that there is order to all this apparent chaos, this city has millions of motorcycles, I think I saw a few thousand of them on the way from the airport. Met up with Poonam from work and hubbie Chi...

A one hour flight on Laos airways and I was here in no time at all, first impressions of this town are very positive, once you get your head around the monopoly curreny (remember the Italian lire) 10000 kip is 86p, makes bartering at the market very academic as you haggle to get 10p off a t-shirt that costs £1.25. Beer Lao is 86p per big bottle, whilst this country is one of the poorest in the world at least they have cheap beer! This has all the appearance of...

A five hour bus trip, air conditioning and two seats and I arrive at Chiang Mai and after being in quieter less touristy places on the way here from Bangkok it is weird again to be in a big city, this is the second city to Bangkok in this country. Busy traffic, neon bars and lots of westerners, this is a big part of the tourist trail. This place has been a great stop for me, so much to do, temples, zipping through the jungle, cooking school, elephants and celeb...

Been working my way through Thailand, back through Bangkok on the train from Hua Hin and then train up to Ayutthaya and then coach to Sukhothai and then coach up to Chiang Mai. Train from Bangkok was bottom class and took two hours and cost 30pence, I think our costing structure could learn something from this country! Third class was a bit basic but with the window open for air con it was not too bad, The busses were all air conditioned, none of this luggage o...