Our Man In...

Sa Pa

Time to blow the virtual cobwebs from the trusty blog once more as we're out and about in SE Asia again, or as I like to think of it, our second tour of Vietnam. Singapore Airlines had a really quite silly sale on earlier this year and we basically couldn't say no - so here we are. (We alway said we'd come back, I didn't think we could/would so soon!)

We arrived in Hanoi a few days ago and it's not really changed. It's still the hectic, noisy place from three years ago, with added Wifi. I'm typing this up from my netbook (also not invented three years ago) supplied with Wifi from a coffee shop. Even Rach doesn't mind this as it means no more internet cafes and random Skype video chats with people half way around the world...

After wandering around bits of Hanoi we missed last time (French Quarter), we caught a night sleeper up to the far north to Lao Cai and caught a minibus over to Sa Pa, trekking capital of Vietnam. It's quite pretty and very Alpine, tall pines and some strange Alpine / Chinese architecture together with sherlock holmes-esque mists and sub zero night time temps! However the humidity skyrockets during the day. We went out and about today deep into the Mountains to a couple of minority villages. Despite trekking in Laos earlier this year, this was quite different, (I didn't get ill for a start!) and really enjoyable. No piccies with me right now, but I'll try and post some ASAP.

Some stats
Average coffee intake - 5 per day
Number of things lost - 1 - A pair of glasses at Heathrow airport :(
Hours sleep on 'sleeper train' - 1(ish)

a tractor tyre Inner Tube

Moving on from Vientiane, we've arrived in backpacker paradise (or hell depending on which way you look at it - I'm with the latter) of Vang Vieng. (Via a 3 hour bus journey that set off 1 hour late and had to stop at one point to retrieve a wing mirror that decided to fall off the coach) It's a stunning location, a small town on the banks of the Nam Song river, surrounded by massive limestone karst mountains. It's definately overrun by kiddie backpackers, and the town is generally full of bars showin 24/7 Friends/Family Guy/Simpsons - BUT the tubing is worth it.

Tubing consists of sitting in the middle of a tractor tyre inner tube and floating down the Nam Song. Enterprising Lao have built all sorts of bars on the banks of the river and have a variety of measures to entice tubers, including death slides, death swings and a huge water slide. Some stretches of the river are like the Pirates of the Carribean, with people swinging through the air everywhere and huge wodden huts on the side of the river. I now understand why there are so many people on crutches. So we've spent a lazy 4 hours or so floating from bar to bar down the river, over rapids, dodging canoes and have lived to tell the tale - and want to do it again! But we're off to Luang Prahbang tomorrow; another 7 hour bus ride awaits (barring any breakdowns)

Some Stats

Distance floated - 4 km
Number of flip flops at start of trip - 2
Number of flip flops at end of trip - 1 (do'h)
Number of injuries - 0 (hurrah!)

Vientiane

I'm back! - for a limited period only (whilst we're in Laos).

Having missed out Laos the last time as we weren't quite sure we had the time to visit it, we've decided to make a specific trip out here. After a mammoth 14 hour overnight sleeper from Bangkok, which was more like 14 hours of slightly napping as a combination of the state of the track (rollercoaster-esque) and jet-lag prevented deep sleep, we're in Vientiane.

First impressions are 'is it really a capital city?' We had to dodge a cow in the middle of the road, it's that sort of place. It's about as busy as a small town in the UK - but alot hotter and full of Monks (I think I'm winning on the Monk spotting game that was invented the last time we were in SE Asia) .

A brief update - struggling to stay awake - but I'll be back soon.

Some Stats

Hours train was late - 2
Hours slept on train - 2 total
Cows dodged in Tuk Tuk - 1

Technical difficulties

We're currently experiencing technical difficulties accessing the internet where we're staying in London, hence no recent updates.

Please stand by...

Stats a go go

Some Stats

Time away - 129 days
Distance travelled (approximately) 32,671 miles (52,273 km)
Number of countries - 6 (including Hong Kong)
Number of flights - 16
Number of stamps in passport - 16
Number of things stolen - 3 (2x camera, 1x sleeping bag liner)
Number of things lost - 1 (mobile phone)
Number of blogs - 50 (including this one)
Number of photos taken - 2,000+ (will have to figure that one out)
Number of CD's of photos - 15
Number of vehicles rented - 11 (2x car, 3x motorbike, 6x bicycle)
Amount of money spent - about on budget, but that doesn't mean I'm saying how much!
Number of months back since I've got round to posting this - 2 (whoops)
Number of weeks that we've had the internet since I've been in London for those 2 months so I've not had a chance to post - 2 weeks (combined total)

Hong Kong

So after a very long and boring wait, we made it to Hong Kong, where we met Maeve, my sister, who managed to change flight assignments to be in HK at the same time.

Day one we were a bit tired, but managed to get around abit, seeing very typical HK things and riding up to the peak at dusk to see the skyline.

Typical HK scene

The skyline of HK island and Kowloon in the background

The next day, we headed off to Ocean Park, one of two theme parks in HK (the other's Disneyland, the other sister would have got in a strop if we went there without her) to see the Giant Pandas. Only the Giant Pandas were having a new house built and have gone on holiday. Whether they've gone to the same place as Uncle Ho (See Hanoi) I don't know. Still we got to go on some rollercoasters, a logflume and saw lots of shows, which were all alot of fun.

'Whiskers' the sealion.

Then it came to the worst bit of the trip, the last flight home (well the last long flight to get us both to the UK). We flew back on Maeve's flight and so got alot of perks (they couldn't upgrade us as there wasn't enough meals in the upper classes :( including a row of 4 seats each to sleep, all the amenity packs and the freedom to roam the aircraft which is how I got the picture below.

Tibetian plateau - eastern end of the Himalayas

Getting back to Heathrow was a shock - it's a dump, but I didn't have long to wait for my shuttle up to Manchester, where I am now. Rach on the other hand had to wait a while for the BMI flight to Teeside. About 6 hours :(

Some Stats

Number of films watched - 3 (although I can't remember one of them so it can't have been that good!)
Number of hours sleep - 1 (ish)

Melbourne Airport

It's BORING.

We're stuck in transit (think 'The Terminal' - Tom Hanks film) Qantas couldn't fly out of Queenstown last night, so we were overnighted in a swanky hotel, but missed our flights from Auckland to Sydney and Hong Kong. So this morning we were put on 2 Air New Zealand flights to get us to Auckland. We had a few hours to meet up with Rach's brother (whom we were supposed to stay with last night) before getting a flight here to Melbourne, where we've got a 6 hour wait for a 9 hour flight...

Some stats

Number of times we've been around the shops - 3
Number of hours left before the flight (as I blog) - 3