I spoke too soon! On our last evening in Laos I remarked to Roger how lucky we had been that all our transport arrangements had gone so smoothly. The very next morning we arrived at Vientiane airport to check in for our 11.40 am flight to Bangkok only to be told that it had been cancelled and the earliest flight we could get was 6.45 that evening! We were not enthralled at the prospect of 8 hours hanging about at the airport and made a fuss nicely! Anyway wh...

Our first impressions of Vientiane weren't good. After the beautiful and tranquil Luang Prabang it seemed to have very little to commend it - a ramshackle city without much of a discernible centre or character. Second impressions were a little better but it remains one of our less favourite spots. We spent some time visiting the sights - the Sisaket Wat which is the oldest and only one to survive the Siamese occupation was quite distinctive and lovely: the ol...

We flew from Hanoi to Luang Prabang in Laos. At the airport Roger was somewhat bemused and gratified when a little Vietnamese boy asked to have his photo taken with him. I'm not sure whether he mistook him for David Beckham, Daniel Craig or maybe John Candy or whether he just found the sight of a six foot two genial giant with his happy Buddha tummy (although not much of that remains) an inspiring photo opportunity! Luang Prabang is lovely - such a culture ...

The journey to Hanoi was an experience as we travelled from Hue to Da Nang by sleeper bus even though it was day time. The bus was very battered and none too clean and the air conditioning wasn't very effective so the bus smelled a bit of sweaty bodies (ours included!). We secured the best seat for Rog, on the upper bunk level and over the gangway, so that he just stretched his legs and feet out. I did feel rather sorry for the people below as we had all had ...

We drove by private car from Hoi An to Hue stopping of at Marble Mountain (Da Nang) on the way where we took a lift up a mountain to visit a complex of temples and pagodas. One of the temples was situated in a huge natural cave with a large Buddha statue and was most impressive. The drive was spectacular across the Hi Van Pass with sweeping views of the coastline, fishing villages and US bunkers used in the Vietnam war. Our hotel in Hue is very comfortable (...