We had a good time in Singapore - it was the start of a two month long hectic schedule. I'm writing this from Rotorua, New Zealand. In two days we fly to Rio and then straight onto Salvador for the Carnaval - so the pace is set to continue. We had a great time in Singapore thanks to Tasneem and Joakim, our couchsurfing hosts. As with all the people we've stayed with over the last 6 months, they gave us a glimpse of real life and used their local knowledge to hel...

Picking up from where we last left off - just about to leave Laos for Thailand, about December 20th. As soon as we got on the bus we knew things would be different in Thailand, 'Step Up 2' was the film on the bus, not the Chinese version of Police Academy, which I can recommend. After the film, which Em loved, the Essex girls sitting behind us asked to put their Al Pacino DVD on, but when the credits rolled it turned out to be a bad copy of a film starring Leo...

Luang Prabang is one of the prettiest cities in Asia, it is UNESCO heritage listed. It really was quite pretty, a mix of architecture, lots of temples and mountains and near rivers. But we were a bit uninspired by it all (herds of gappers and yet more handicraft stalls) and we spent a good few days doing little but eating very budget nice food and Christmas shopping. We 'stayed another day' (the slogan aimed at tourists here in Laos is 'stay another day') to give...

Having flown (if you don't mind) from Cambodia, another ridiculously ill-prepared border crossing - this time, no passport photos despite having had to rip the one out of my international driving permit to get into Cambodia - luckily they let us cut the photos out of our very high tech Angkor Wat passes.We later found out a dollar bribe would have worked too - how differently are you treated when you arrive by plane? Or was it something to do with this famous Lao...

Next we were heading to Cambodia, via Chau Doc. We surprised ourselves by getting to Chau Doc early enough to make it to the border (about 1 hour away by motorbike) and made a decision to try and get there straight away. Our hand was slightly forced by the fact we just found out what date it actually was - three days later than we thought it was. However we didn't have enough cash in our current account and had already forgotten all our other pin numbers, there w...