Rice to see you...to see you...err..Rice!!! Most nights we ended up at Thomo's bar where a small band of musicians who were unknown to each other had come to the island to get away from it all had created a band. Thomo advertised every night as an open mike night but it was mostly these guys who 'headlined'. We sat on bean bags, candles all around in the still warm Thai evenings listening to these guys playing together, mainly JJ Kale stuff well into the nigh...

Tent Sauna, Benny Hill and Battered Guitars Ray and I had every intention of finishing our trip in Laos and flying back to blighty from Bangkok but the Thai visa system scuppered that plan. The problem we discovered was that travelling back through Laos and down the Mekong River then over land and across the border into Thailand would only have given us 14 days on our visa but flying into Thailand would give us a month. So we made the decision to miss Laos and...

CHUC MUNG NAM MOI OR COCKA DOODLE DONT ! We arrived in Hanoi just as the Vietnamese/Chinese New Year celebrations were taking shape. The shabby streets were being decorated and adorned with balloons and bunting and signs reading Chúc mừng năm mới were everywhere. The crazy moped chaos and millions of people continued to buzz about in this city and while we were looking over the balcony of a restaurant at lunch time, we actually witnessed a lady, lade...

THE SAD TALE OF A LIGHT BLUE AUSTIN WESTMINSTER.... Hue (pronounced Wey Hey!) was the old imperial capital of North Vietnam until 1945. At its centre there is a citadel hiding a forbidden city within its walls which was erected for the emperor's between the 17th and 19th century. In days gone by only the emperor's, their concubines, their closest family and advisors were allowed to enter. Nowadays it is a tourist attraction but as we cycled round and round, ...

DIAMOND GLINAWAY.............. #The next stop on our tour of duty in 'Naaam' was a very pretty little town called Hoi An, a picturesque and kind of Chinesy Padstow and a place that is recognized as a world heritage site by UNESCO. We arrived in a lovely hotel called The Sunflower where we were greeted by a very small, very pretty but very loud lady who checked us in. She asked for our passports and seemed to have real problems in pronouncing Rays name: Sm...