Mekong Delta (Chau Doc & Vinh Long - Vietnam): 6th April - 9th April 2011 We boarded the boat to Chau Doc, our first stop in the Mekong Delta and indeed in Vietnam. It feels very surreal to be in Vietnam and a massive milestone on our trip. It is difficult and a little bit sad to believe that we have now left Thailand, Laos and Cambodia behind us but very exciting at the same time. Time is passing so quickly now and our time on the Trans-Siberian Railway fee...

Siem Reap & Phnom Penh: 30 March - 6 April 2011 We decided to fly from Vientiane, Laos to Siem Reap, Cambodia to save two days on bus travel and to give us a bit of extra time before we meet our friend Chris (aka Nutski) in Ho Chi Minh City on 12 April. Siem Reap is very highly geared toward tourism, more so than we expected. The airport is sleek and modern, the road into town wide and smooth and lined with top-end hotels catering for the masses of visitors...

Pakbeng, Luang Prabang, Vientiane We crossed the Mekong river from the Thai town of Chiang Khon to the Laos town of Huay Xai, checked through passport control (chaos!) and paid for our Laos visas before boarding the boat that would take us two days down-river to the town of Luang Prabang. We were initially a little disappointed with how busy the boat was. It was basically an old cargo boat converted into a tourist ferry (using what can only be described as old ...

Ayutthaya & Chiang Mai: 16 - 23 March We left Koh Tao on the slow boat to Chumphon on the Thai mainland; leaving at 2pm and arriving 3 hours later feeling rather cooked - there were two choices of seating - up on deck where you could enjoy the breeze but fry in the sun, or inside the greenhouse like cabin out of the sun but with no breeze or aircon. We plumped for the latter. After a couple of hours wait at the train station we boarded the overnight train n...

Koh Tao, Thailand: 8-16th March 2011 We arrived on Koh Tao and checked into our hotel which we had booked for the first night only, on the assumption that we would find a dive school pretty easily on the beach, which we did. There are lots of places to choose from and if you decide to do a course or sign up for a dive you get a preferential rate on the rooms. We chose "Coral Grand Dive Resort" which was nicely situated at the quieter far end of the bea...