And so, we say goodbye to Asia...  BANGKOK the return.It is true to say that we were not wholeheartedly excited about the prospect of our return to Thailand's capital, but our initial reluctance was swept away in a whirlwind of excitement as we landed at the brand new airport on its first day of opening – whooh! Film crews massed in numbers to film our plane touching down on the freshly laid tarmac, another glimpse of celebrity for lj and Dan...

"Todie prugrem, eat dha bee quest, an dhen, chekking indhe ferrets"! Translation: Today's program after eating breakfast will be trekking in the forest. Our Ha Long Bay tour guide had the full attention of the whole group. HANOI The capital city was to be our base for a number of activities in the north of the country that would take us the best part of a week. We were initially excited about our arrival in yet another Asian capital as the other ma...

...so how much have we spent today?? Can we afford a Snickersâ„¢???" Lj fully gets to grips with back-packing budget priorities. HOI AN After three hours in yet another over peopled mini bus, followed by 15 hair raising minutes on the back of a motorbike taxi, we arrived in the attractive little town of Hoi An. An old merchant trading town, recently awarded world heritage status, and it is the compelling sense of history in the mellow streets of this...

"Hello, welcome to our hotel. We can arrange many things for your convenience, travel tickets, city tours, restaurant & laundry............also, please use our gun shooting service." We were given a hearty welcome by the manager at our Saigon hotel. SAIGON From our previous journies to and through Cambodia, we were not overly excited about the 8-10 hour bus trip over the Vietnam border to Saigon. This proved to be totally unfounded as, to our amazemen...

The journey to Vietnam through Cambodia was not as simple as we first thought................. TRAT We prepared to leave Ko Samet with, it seems, delusions of grandeur. The original plan was to quite simply just catch a bus directly to the capital of Cambodia, stay 1 night and then proceed directly to Saigon - what fools! On researching it became evident that the journey would end up taking 3-4 days in total, stopping at 3 different destinations en rout...