How Cambodian tourism works: We want to go to Siem Reap from Phnom Pehn so ask our hotel receptionist how to book tickets. She sends us next door to a travel agent, this getting a cut of whatever we spend. The travel agent sells us the ticket that gets him the most commission, we get the bus, we get met at Siem Reap by a tuktuk driver offering a good price, and find that his friend hops on board to sell us tuk tuk services to tour around the Temples of Angko over...

Classic Cambodian tourist experience #1 was ticked off the list very promptly as we got in a taxi at the airport and halfway to our desired location, the driver tells us our hotel has closed down. This is of course a lie designed to make us say "sure, take us somewhere rubbish where you'll get a huge commission" but we told him we were sure it was open, please take us there. He nods, drives on, then suddenly pulls over, jumps out and says "I fix car - you go with...

Just a quick stopover in HK- our original itinerary had a simple change here but for our new dates we had to take an overnight stop. We got a fantastic aerial tour of the city as we came in to land... and that was enough for us as, exhausted, we went to our airport hotel to sleep before our morning flight. We'd treated ourselves to a pretty nice hotel (Marriot Skycity- only complaint is no free Internet- come on guys...) and it paid off as we collapsed, ate room...

So our last night in NZ was an unconventional one to say the least, spent on the floor of Christchurch Airport. This wasn't due to any delays or anything, it was all part of the plan! Our flight out was leaving so early that, had we stayed in a hotel, we would have been up at 3am anyway so it hardy seemed worth it. Thus, after a quick check of sleepinginairports.com (seriously!), we spent the evening eating nice Japanese food at Mums 24, blogging, then finding ou...

What a relaxing way to spend our last few days in NZ. There are only a few places you can stay, the Hermitage at the high-end (looked lovely), a lodge, some basic camping facilities or the YHA where we were - and it's the nicest YHA we've been to. It's built like a log cabin and our room (no. 14) looked out across the valley floor directly on to Mt Sefton, the "Footstool" etc. Such a lovely view to wake up to. Just make sure you book ahead, whatever the season - ...