Landed in Vientiane in Laos after a fairly uneventful flight from Hanoi. The pace of life was a considerable shock after the rush of Vietnam - sort of like being transported from Central London on a Friday afternoon to somewhere in the middle of Lincolnshire on a Sunday afternoon (out of season) I guess. We wandered around muttering "and this is the capital!" - everyone (all 5 locals and a bunch of tourists) seemed to be going soooo slowly it was funn...

Xin Chao from chuffin' cold Hanoi! Left sunny old beachy place Nha Trang on a night-bus and suffered a 13 hour journey cuddled up 5 berths wide with a nice Aussie couple. Arrived in Hoi An (about half way up the country where its fairly skinny) and booked into a hostel that was as delightful as the weather was cold and rainy. Spent a couple of days wandering around looking at the old colonial style centre of the town and getting some clothes made (Hoi An is THE ...

With bus travel being so cheap here (6 dollars per person for a 10 hour bus journey) we hedged our bets and bought a bus ticket all the way to Nha Trang with the idea that if we liked the look of Mui Ne half way along the route and we could find a room we would get off. Turned out it was a great bet as Mui Ne looked too quiet with 5 star "resort" type places all lined up along the beach - not our cup of tea at all. Arrived in Nha Trang which is Vietna...

Good Morning Vietnam! Got the bus from Phnom Penh in Cambodia to Ho Chi Minh City (previously Saigon and hereafter known as HCMC). Wahey - despite not replying to our e-mails our hotel had actually got the reservation and they managed to squeeze in an Aussie couple we dragged in off the same bus. Might be the season or something but SE Asia seems hard work on this booking lark and everywhere is running at full capacity. Went for a wander around on the first d...

Set off from Bangkok stupidly early and got to the Camodian border reasonably mid-morning. Crossing the border itself was quite straightforward but we were very careful as the place itself (Poipet) is scam central. Between the two border posts is a gambling den of casinos and once over we found we had gone back in time about 20 years by comparison to Thailand. The road from the border to Siem Reap is dirt road and we shared the taxi with a German girl and her Ja...