Japan - Tokyo

Jenni was a little nervous on the flight after the last time, but there were no scary times to talk of – apart from getting most of the way through the new star trek film before they switched it off before landing!

No health screening any more thorough than any other place in Asia, nor any great difficulties getting through immigration or customs. Which was nice as I felt a cold coming on!

Contrary to popular belief on some websites and at Shanghai airport, you cannot get a JR railpass once you are in Japan. They will only accept the voucher bought in your own country. Ah well, we just thought we'd use cheaper options starting with the Kesei line from Narita airport. A lady came and told us what the announcement said in case we didn't understand, and another old lady asked if we needed help at another station. So friendly!

It didn't help at all that the hotel gave us no directions! So I headed for Soka, assured it was close to Asakusa. As £30 in a taxi later from Asakusa says, it was not that close. Although taxis in Japan are EXPENSIVE!

Dormy in Yatsuka was an interesting little place. The hotel had semi double rooms which meant the beds were about a large single size. Snuggly! The bathrooms were like the inside of portakabin bathrooms, all plastic and the likes, but powerful, hot water and a toilet seat with built in bum-washers! Yes! Next up was it's location. Yatsuka was definitely in the suburbs, only about 25 minutes from the centre, but far enough out to be quiet and peaceful. We liked it. When we tried, and failed, to use the internet in our room they moved us straight away to another room where it worked, no problems! Still the same size though!

First night was just finding the place, my cold had degenerated and was slowly making it's way over to Jenni too! I couldn't breathe, didn't sleep very well and kept Jenni awake too. Oops. So we got up late and headed to Asakusa. Not researched much of Japan, so just winging it really, we headed down the back streets out of the station and checked out the old town. We happened across the famous Karimarron gate (or whatever it's called) and the sensoji temple. It was nice enough, plenty of girls in full kimono get up as well. We just wandered for a bit and retired back to the hotel, stopping for supplies on the way. Eating out is also expensive in japan. It's fun to go shopping in Japan. The store assistants can see that you cannot (probably) speak Japanese, yet they babble on at you. They are so polite though.

Next day Jenni was sicker than me! So again we spent the morning recuperating and headed out to Ueno on the train. There was a nice park there, so we wandered. Saw a beautiful cat, and a lady was clearing it's eyes and other people were gently fussing it and it was so contented. A pleasant change! There were street entertainers, the temperature was mild enough to be bearable (much cooler than Osaka in August in my experience) and we had a nice stroll. Went over to the lilypad lake, wandered around another one near the zoo and headed back to the streets.

We found a TGI Fridays – not very adventurous, but it wasn't KFC or McDonalds so we opted to go in with our ¥500 discount voucher! The food was delicious, really good, and the refillable drinks were refilled in 15 seconds and 3 minutes after putting the glass down! Pricey, but worth it. We sat and watched Tokyo go by, all the different fashions, the pretty girls, the geishas and so on.

Following that we wernt to Yodobashi Camera, my favourite store of gadgetry heaven! Couldn't buy a sim card though! Looks like you need a japanese phone and contract before they give you a sim card. Weird.

We got our things next morning and headed for Mount Fuji. I read on the website that you could take a bus, so we did that at less than half the price of the train and to be honest a similar if not quicker journey.

Things of note so far in Japan:

Queueing politely, and in a single file for trains.

People randomly helping us

Kindness to animals

Politeness

People stopping in the street to let you pass.

The kids are cute

People have so many varied styles

Cars letting pedestrians out and not trying to mow you down.

Yammering at you, even though you don't understand

The toilet seats!

The weight of oppression has lifted!

China - Shanghai

We got our train on time, it was a swanky, high class one and went very fast! We shared our cabin with Ting Ting (or Evia was her English made up name) – and she was very nice and spoke English :) There was another guy – Mr Snorey but the less said about that guy the better. Not much sleep was had, so we were tired getting to Shanghai, so grabbed a cab and flopped at our hostel. It's nice, in an old towel factory! Slept a bit, called Boo and arranged to meet on the Saturday (next day) so we headed out for dinner and to do a bit of sightseeing. We saw the aquarium, the tower and the bund without going into any details! Got some nice cake from I love Cake.

Next day, we had brunch with Boo at a great place – all you can eat buffet – thanks for the lunch, Boo. It was delicious. We didn't get to spend as much time as we'd have liked with Boo due to his new arrival, but that's cool. We get that...

So, off to Tokyo. We intend to take the maglev train to the airport. I believe it goes at about 400kph. We will see!

It actually reaches 301 kph as we found out! Still, pretty quick. A day spent pottering about to the airport, just took our time, took the public transport, no cabs and got there just fine. Then we got to potter in the lounge for a bit too!

China - Xi'An

Couldn't get train tickets for over a week to Xi'An and due to the unique rubbishness of the Chinese railway booking system you can only get them in the town you are leaving from! So, skipped Xi'an and the “ceramic” army which is a shame.

China - Beijing

We got to Beijing West railway station pretty much on time – about 13:45 – and decided to try and buy our tickets to Xi'An. Tried at one desk and the lady didn't speak any English, so she couldn't tell us that there were no tickets! I asked a policeman and he was very helpful in shouting at people to find out who spoke english, before telling us to go upstairs and find counter 16! When we got there, there were still no tickets for a week!

We jumped in a cab to our hostel and booked up a tour to the great wall and Ming tombs. Just took a little wander along Wangfujing road which was pretty touristy and had countless number of shops there including many watch shops!

We were picked up at 7:30 to go on our tour, stopping off at a Jade factory on the way. We learnt about mining Jade and how the jewellery was produced. From there we arrived at the Ming tombs at about 10am. We went to one of the tombs as they all appear to be the same. Of the 16 emperors, 13 are buried at the tombs and they have their own place, with their empresses and concubines. This one had an extra chair at his dinner table as he had 3 wives due to conception of an heir problem!

The frenchies on our trip decided that they wanted to see more so we went off to the spectacular sacred way of the tombs. They went and had a look and we waited for them, only half an hour but we weren't in a rush.

We then headed off to the great wall which is an awesome sight, just stretching for miles on end up and down the mountains. So we had 1 ½ hours to go climb and play around and it was hard work. The steps were uneven and some very steep indeed. It was hard work and we were ready for our lunch by the time we'd finished. It was just a shame (and a blessing) that it was a dank, cloudy, cool day. No way we'd have climbed as far on a hot day. But the downside was the lack of visibility.

On the way back we made a few stops, I didn't expect them to be interesting but they were. Lunch, in a traditional chinese way then off to the traditional chinese medicine research centre. The old doctor gave us an old school check up, told Jenni she needed to lose weight and that I had back problems and numbness. Prescribed some medicines that I took a trial of but Jenni declined.

Next was a silk factory where we followed how silk is made from worm, to cocoon to making the quilts or clothes. If there are 2 or more worms in a cocoon then it is used for quilts and only one for clothes. We saw how the cocoons are wetted and stretched or weaved to make them strong. Very interesting, and very nice stuff too.

Next on the list we passed the Birds Nest stadium on the way to a China Teahouse where we saw a tea ceremony. We tried some different types of tea before leaving for the hotel. We actually got dropped off at the railway station as we had to buy tickets to Shanghai instead of Xi'an. The train station experience was no better. You'd think they'd have a better system, but it is a shambles... 45 minutes in a queue (1 of 30) with people pushing in, wandering about, shift changes, people buying 20 tickets. Manic! Anyway, we got the tickets for the day after tomorrow, so we get a bonus day in Beijing. Back to the hotel via the steak factory – the food was pretty good on the whole, but the ribs were a bit fatty :(

Next day was spent market shopping and relaxing and trying to sort out our room that the hostel managed to cock up - “yes you can have your room for one more night” and next day “oh sorry you have to move we have already given your room away”. Mean Jenni got on the case and sorted them out, so we got a dorm to ourselves for dorm prices.

Our final day in Beijing was one of hanging about until our train at 9:35pm. We ventured out of our room at the last minute, stored our luggage and headed out for lunch. We then wandered through a lovely little park along a stream to Tianamen square and there we spent about 5 minutes – maybe less. It's a square, a big one. It was also baking hot with scorching sunshine, we weren't for hanging about. We went across the road to the forbidden city – again maybe due to the searing heat – it was disappointing. Lots of gates. All the same. You seen one, you've seen them all! If you want to see any of the exhibits inside, you have to pay more, and the ones that are free you have to peer from the edge of the gate!! Annoying and we found it a bit of a waste really, the architecture is lovely, but same as the Ming Tombs really... Off to Shanghai we went...

China - Guangzhou Again

We packed and took a cab to taste of India for a curry before our long train journey to Beijing. The curry was awesome, really tasty and way too much! Headed to the station, a different one to the one we went to and from Hong Kong. It was mayhem! Hundreds of people queueing outside the station to get in, for a baggage check and body scan that no-one seemed to pay much attention to (the staff anyway). Inside was no better, just people rushing about for their trains that left over half an hour later, it was crazy. Seems that they have no idea how to use planes, trains and in fact automobiles in Asia. Rush to get on, rush to get off, then wait around being annoying and disgusting!

So, we wandered to our train, our 4 bed soft sleeper already had 4 people in it. 2 adults and 2 kids. Why does it appear that kids don't count as passengers in Asia? As it happens they had to pay 256 for the kid anyway. The annoying ADHD boy who didn't stop talking and going up and down and up and down from top to bottom to top bunks... Banging about, shouting, ate noisily, squealed and was generally just annoying. But what do you expect when you take kids on a 21 hour train journey! The little girl was 100% better. Why boys are favoured here, I have no idea. I think Jenni was ready to kill him.

The chinese didn't want to speak to us, unlike in Vietnam where the little girl gave us some fruit and they tried to make conversation, on this journey there was none of that. Just no drinks to buy except green tea, smoking everywhere on the no smoking train and the guards didn't seem to care, hocking in the washrooms, just a disgusting race of people really.

We whizzed past some greenery in the centre of China, a welcome relief from the smoggy, built up urban areas of everywhere else.

And it's no wonder they get hit by bird flu and swine flu around here, because they are disgusting, with no personal hygiene (coughing, sneezing, hocking – it's gross) and little respect for other people – queue jumping and pushing past is normal. I feel sorry for Sam stuck here. We have a week left, hopefully it will fly by...

China - Hong Kong

Sam was asked why she didn't live in Hong Kong and commute to Guangzhou and we could see why when we got there. Compared to the dirty Chinese places, HK is quite clean. As demonstrated by the fact that once you enter HK on the train, you can't use the toilet as it will make the place dirty! They want to stop the kids pissing in the queues at Disney then!

We took the train at 9:50 after figuring out the train station and surviving the journey. More immigration and passport stamps and then negotiated lunch and the subway system. People were nice and helped us find our way. The hotel weren't ready for us so we made them give us a room that was ready and kicked up a fuss. Signs and roads and buses etc reminded us of home, probably after 100 years of ownership of HK! We ended up getting to Disney at about 3pm.

Apart from a few little things it was still Disney! Jenni was happy and it was a nice atmosphere. There was only 1 ride of any speed and note – space mountain and even that was a bit lame compared to some of the others we'd been on. There was a lack of characters knocking about, but other than that we had a good time on the many other rides and attractions around the place. Made us feel a bit happier. The parade was good, sprayed water on everybody and the fireworks at the end were nice too. Shame about some people pushing in and letting their kids wee themselves in the queues... Weird.

We took a train to HK island and saw the lights around the harbour area, but we were too knackered to traipse around more to find a restaurant, so we ate quickly and headed back to the hotel.

After a good sleep we took our stuff and headed to Noah's Ark, via shuttle buses and so on – we had to ask a few people and they helped us nicely. It looked so nice from the outside, a great big replica of Noah's Ark and we looked forward to going in. I don't think our attitude was aided by the crap they served for lunch. Noodles with pork or duck that was riddled with bones and didn't taste too good. Onwards to the brainwashing, I mean attractions within. Education centre was weird with preachy messages and most of it was in Chinese. We waited to go into the Ark Expo and once in there found out that Noah worked for over 100 years to build the Ark (about 5000 years ago) and that god destroyed the rest of mankind with a great flood because they were violent. Get the picture, communist brainwashing in action! All in all it was way too godly for us and pushing messages at us. It was good for chinese kids, perhaps but not for us. We couldn't get out of the expo and the place quick enough!

We just headed for the station and got the next train out at about 5pm. Home, pizza and sleep!

China - Guangzhou

Just had a nice chilled day to recover from the traumas of the travel day and treated ourselves to a nice dinner at the Latin restaurant. All you can eat meat of skewers, a bit like Churascaria in New York, but we got to try camel hump this time!! Lots of other meat, possibly the best was Cow hump. So tender and melty!

China is definitely oppressive. I'm sure I'll be using that word a lot, but it is so apt! No facebook, no youtube, no blogspot. Nowhere that you can see other people's opinions. Nowhere that you can express yourself. Stories of people disappearing if they don't conform. People are generally unfriendly and there are only a few exceptions to that rule. Not a place that once I have been here and seen I shall be rushing back to.

Next day we headed for Chimelong wildlife park and theme park for the day. It was chucking it down again but it didn't deter us. We took lots of pictures as we went round the animals, got to fuss and hold baby tigers for photos and Jenni got a second fuss of the white bengal cub, who was very cute!

We also spent some time looking at Pandas and other new creatures on our list (seeing the elephants was sad though)

We moved on to Paradise, the theme park, and had a wicked time on the rides. No queues = more fun! Jenni doesn't like the rides, but is excited to see other's enjoyment. So Sam and I jumped on some terrifying looking rides – Dive Coaster and 10 Inversion coaster and motorbike coaster amongst others – straight to the front, no waiting, awesome fun! We got Jenni on the teacups before eventually heading home, tired and hungry.

Next day was about relaxing on the whole and in the afternoon we went to “the Mountain”, Baiyun Mountain was just on the edge of Guangzhou and we took a cable car up to the top. The views were nice across Guangzhou and we could appreciate the size of the city. We decided to walk down the mountain, followed the road before heading off and along the foot massage path. Basically reflexology for the feet by walking over stones and pebbles! It killed! Sam did the whole path, I did most of it and Jenni laughed and took pictures! It was still oppressively hot and humid and we got to the bottom after being bitten loads.

Once at the bottom we went into the park, not expecting much, but it was a place of beauty and tranquillity that we spent a while just sitting by the lake and relaxing. It is a one of a kind place around the area.

Travel Day

Up early for a cab at 6:15 (but we don't think it was ordered until we started getting shirty at 6:20!) and headed to the airport. First flight Hanoi to KL was delayed by 30 minutes – this was after we investigated getting direct flights to Guangzhou, but they were a little pricey! The first flight was OK, the cabin crew were OK, and showed a little concern to Jenni's fears, but not much!

We didn't have long in KL to get our bags, get through immigration, check in again due to the idiot chinese people in front of us that took forever to get checked in... Back through immigration again and security and only a few minutes in the lounge. Eventually taking off about 45 minutes late.

Trouble was, it got murkier and murkier and took off into greyness. Looked like a storm to me and the lightning confirmed a storm was somewhere nearby! The ascent was horrendous, bumping and jolting about, dropping here and there and Jenni was in tears. The stewardess was really nice this time and concerned too for “Miss Jenni” but it was a genuinely scary time. The rest of the flight was without much incident but we landed amongst lightning in Guangzhou later on.

Sped through immigration and health check to get our bags and meet Sam!

Vietnam - Halong Bay

We took the bus (eventually) to Halong bay which took about 4 hours of faffing about around the city, then a stop along the way and haring down the roads with what can only be described as “hairy” overtaking manoeuvres! Got to the marina and waited a bit, waited some more and after waiting some more, boarded our boat to cruise around in. Everything was delayed due to the hurricane and that all the boats had left the bay!

We boarded Discovery 02 and had some lunch before setting sail across the bay. We stopped at some caves for a nosey about for a while before getting back on to the boat. Now that sounds easy, but when there are hundreds of tourist boats about, it means a fair bit of clambering about from boat to boat to get to the desired place!

Halong bay was stunning, other-worldly, but after a while it started to look the same. We cruised some more then took a kayak around a portion of the bay, after taking it from a floating area of houses and fish market etc. No problems kayaking now between the wife and I so we enjoyed our brief trip. A bit of jumping in the water followed, with a real tricky ascent out of the water up the boat's ladder!

We had dinner on board and then relaxed before heading to bed in our cabin, clean and nice enough, but without air conditioning it was unbearably hot, so not much sleep was had.

The following day we cruised to Cat Ba island, changed boats and pretty much cruised back to shore, all the time being amazed by the scenery. Any more than the 2 day, 1 night trip might have been too much. On the way back we watched the Top Gear Vietnam Special to see what we'd seen! We got back to our hotel and found there was no room for us, so we got on the back of motorbikes and headed to a sisters hotel or something nearer the centre and stayed there. Was a bit of an inconvenience and typical of Vietnam. I watched United lose in the Charity Shield :(

Overall, I would have mixed feelings about Vietnam. It's a beautiful country with many wonderful places to see. Some oppressive history and still can be oppressive to some of the southern old styled republicans, but nowhere near as bad as China! After a while, whether it's the food, the inevitable sickness, the people or what, it makes you want to go home! You realise the comforts of home, how the people are and so on. Don't get me wrong, the Vietnamese people as a whole are a friendly bunch, but they still are asian and have a lot of their gross habits. It did seem the further north you got, the worse it got. We definitely preferred the south. I think if we'd have found reasonably cheap flights home, we'd have gone!

Vietnam - Hanoi

We got to Hanoi at about 8:30am – 4 hours late. That had made me nervous at around the time we should have arrived, but were actually stopped in the middle of nowhere for ages over apparently nothing! Anyway, a boy from the hotel had been waiting for us for 4 hours, bless him – and even then he didn't have a car as promised, but simply hailed us a cab – we could have done that ourselves!

We got to our hotel, it was OK, and relaxed for a bit. Went for a little wander to find the Singapore Air office and change our reservation, which we managed successfully and headed back in a storm. We got so wet running the 3 metres from a bank where we sheltered to a taxi! We weren't a huge distance from the hotel, but as it turned out there was a hurricane in the area!

We got back to the hotel and tried to book a trip to Halong Bay, but we were told that due to said hurricane in Halong Bay itself, we were unable to book a trip. Later on though we did manage to book it for the next 2 days. For dinner we headed out through a hastily rising night market randomly in the streets and to Thai Express. We left bad feedback as it was very average! Up for an early start the next day for our trip.

Vietnam - Hue

We took the bus to Hue early morning and stopped for fried rice and pork and noodles and pork for breakfast along the way. Might have been what made me poorly later on! The food places are a bit gross here, so unclean. Anyway, we got to Hue and 12:30 and were accosted by travel agents, cyclo drivers, taxi drivers and hotel people, some even before we could get off the bus.

Jenni noticed her sandal was coming apart already – not even worn for one day! I emailed the shoe shop but the email did not work, of course! So I emailed the tailor shop... Who knows what will happen.

Anyway, I opted to go into a hotel to check out what to see in Hue, that we could fit in. I arranged for a “tour” to the citadel so we could ditch our bags at the hotel and got a taxi to the train station sorted. We headed to the Citadel and were dropped off – that was the tour! The Citadel, or imperial palace was a bit run down, but we had a good nosey round. There were nice moats and ponds with beautiful water lilies floating about and some interesting rooms and ruins. They were restoring the place bit by bit and it needed it as it had become very run down, but it could be a very beautiful place.

After the Citadel, we headed to the train station and got our train to Hanoi. In our carriage were a family of 5 people (I think) including a cute little girl – Twi Ling! She was adorable. So we chatted in broken english and vietnamese, but it was nice to try! Jenni and I played cards and I wrote up some diary. This train was nowhere near as comfortable as the previous one, but that's how it goes I guess.

Unhappy Soles

Hoi An
We spent 3 nights in Hoi An, mainly relaxing and dealing with our tailoring. After being dropped off by the easy riders, we ordered some stuff. 2 Suits, 4 shirts and a winter coat for Ali and 2 pairs of shorts and a dress for Jenni. At the first try on, the suits were spot on, the coat needed some tweaking, but Jenni's dress looked horrible. She was mortified and was all too quickly engulfed by the homesickness and lethargy. So as she mooched off back to the hotel, I defied orders and went back into the shop. I told the lady there was a problem with the dress, pointed out how it should have been and she set to work. I went back and explained myself to Jenni.
Later that day at the next trial, the dress was a million times better, better fit, better hang, everything and Jenni now loved it. So she ordered 2 more dresses and a winter coat! Our mood was better, so we went to get some shoes made too from the tailor's sisters shoe shop. We ordered a pair of shoes, 2 pairs trainers and flip flops for Ali, and a pair of shoes, a pair of boots and some sandals for Jenni.
Next day, and our last in Hoi An we returned for final dress fittings and several shoe fittings. SO DISAPPOINTING! The shoes fitted nicely, but their designs and fabrication were definitely second rate. Pay the little bit extra and buy real shoes! Jenni asked for some changes to her shoes, as any changes could be made – apart from these ones, so we had to pay extra for her to get another pair of shoes made. It just felt like a swizz, and the quality of shoes was average, and they looked noth8ing like the catalogues! In hindsight, we should not have bought the shoes. Happy Soles was the shop, but we did not have happy souls afterwards. We had trouble with the finishing of shoes, with the painting of them etc. Jenni's new shoes had no bows, and the boot's buckles were being painted silver instead of being silver! They still were not ready by the time we left so we paid for them to be shipped, along with most our clothes.
Tailors, great. Shoe shop, gross.
We also checked out the old town which was very pretty and bought a cool lantern and some ties. We saw the old Japanese bridge and some of the other quaint sights of the ancient town before returning to tailoring! There were so many foreign tourists in Hoi An, especially after our trip through the mountains, not sure we liked it!

Vietnam - Motorbike Tour

Motorbike Tour Day 1 – Nha Trang to Dak Lak (Lak Lake)

Mr Si and Mr Thanh arrived on time at our hotel and proceeded to put our rucksacks in green bags and attach them to the back of the bikes. We donned our helmets and were away! 5 days lay ahead so we hit the highway. For the first part of the journey we held on, not being familiar with biking, but as we grew more confident, we relinquished some of the grip. I was keen on this trip as it pushed my boundaries somewhat..

We stopped quite often so as to get used to the bikes. And to take in some of the early sights. For instance we stopped just outside of Nha Trang near the water and Si told us the story of a guy and a girl who were in love, but he died out to sea, so she turned into a mountain or something like that and he turned into a rock. Weird, but interesting! A little further we turned onto Highway 1 which was very busy and stopped to see some of the views and shrimp farms. Not too much further up and we hit the smaller roads again, and after buying a face-mask for Jenni we continued on to a brick factory! It was quite interesting to see them making the bricks – the women doing most of the hard labour! They get clay from the river, put it into blocks and dry it then bake it!

We stopped at a couple of cafes for drinks and then lunch and also saw a coffee plantation and peanut trees, lots of screaming kids (when they saw us), a furniture shop, amazing scenery and some bumpy roads. I reckon we went at speeds of up to 80kph but averaged at a more leisurely 50 or so. We got to the resort about 5pm and Jenni went straight off to bed. The guys gave me some rice soup and a concoction of salt and lemon juice in a shot glass. It was refused! They also tried a various concoction of drugs to try and make her feel better, but they didn't really work! I went for dinner, it started raining and there were hundreds of lizards and bugs about. Ugh!

My Butt hurt a bit! But clouds, mountains and really green fields were the highlight of the day.

Some facts about Dak Lak: The largest province in Tay Nguyen Highlands, is located to the southeast of the Truong Son Mountains and shares a 240 km border with Cambodia. Though the population of Dak Lak is not large, it includes several different ethnic minorities such as Kinh, E De, Gia Rai, and M'Nong. Dak Lak has many beautiful lakes such as Ea Kar, Ea Sup. Lak Lake is where the M'Nong minority has been living for many generations. Dak Lak's historical vestiges include Buon Ma Thuot Prison, Dak Tua Underground Tunnels, and Bao Dai King's Building. The annual average temperature is 24°C. Economic potentialities: bamboo, hydro-power reserve.

Motorbike Tour Day 2 – Dak Lak to Buon Ma Thuot

Breakfast and then off to the nearby minority village with the M'Nong people. The village was very self sufficient with pigs and piglets, chickens and dogs free roaming with elephant walks available for tourists. We opted to skip the elephant walk in protest to their conditions! Onwards from the village we stopped at a mushroom farm, where there were rows of soil bags hanging in a shed. They were moist and had mushrooms growing from them. Weird. They also had a cage full of really cute fluffy bunnies, that we later found out were to feed the pet Python with... Jenni was not happy about that!

Firstly the guy who owned the house pulled out a scorpion from a cage and let it scurry about. I kept my distance! Seems the scorpions end up in the rice wine! Next was the snake. I held the snake, which was quite a big deal for me as I really am not a fan of snakes. It was about 8 feet long and liked to wrap itself around me. Ugh, I shudder at the thought of it, but I did it! Jenni was thinking too much about setting the bunnies free to hold the snake.

We arrived at our hotel about lunchtime, dropped off our stuff then hit a dirty little place for lunch of chicken rice and headed to the waterfalls. It started to get wet! Rained all the way to the waterfalls, it was annoying but the waterfalls were beautiful. There was also a bridge crossing the river, another kinda scary bridge! A bit unstable. We headed back in even more rain, but it stopped eventually – for a bit – and so we got back all bedraggled. We headed out on our own that evening and opted for KFC for some chicken & rice respite! We also popped into the supermarket to get some supplies and found we were like lepers! Everyone was openly staring at us, which was kind of weird. Especially Jenni and her blonde hair and pretty white skin!

Motorbike Tour Day 3 – Buon Ma Thuot to Kon Tum

Stopped at a war memorial along the way after waving to some army guys! After that it started raining and didn't stop all the way to Kon Tum, so we were wet and irritated! The scenery would have been nice, but for the incessant rain. Not much else to note, but our dampened mood. The bed in the hotel was rock hard too, so that did not help!

Motorbike Tour Day 4 – Kon Tum to Kham Duc

The morning started where the previous evening left off, wet. Rain, rain, rain. We were pretty much at our lowest ebb by this point, of the entire journey so far in fact. Whether it was the 3 month itch, or the rain, or whatever, it was not a nice feeling. Jenni just sat down in reception and cried because she just wanted to go home. I could understand, and it made me upset to see her like that. So much so that we enquired about getting a taxi to Hoi An! Mr Si talked us out of it, mainly due to him losing out or not having happy customers, so the thought of an expensive taxi ride and no refund made us soldier on.

The guys even admitted it was no fun for them either. So, off we trotted, ipods in, rain pouring, feeling homesick. We skipped the days scheduled events – orphanage, coffee and rubber plantations. We stopped for snacks, still in the rain and lunch, still in the rain and went a bit further along the Ho Chi Minh Trail until we reached the mountains. It all of a sudden stopped raining and got warmer. We saw a waterfall that looked like a scorpion (loosely) and then were able to take the waterproofs off! By this point my ipod had got wet and stopped wanting to work, but at least it was dry and warm!

We were caught up by some more easy riders and Mr Thanh managed to hold off the other guy at high speed as they raced to our destination for the night! Jenni turned up several minutes later! The mood was definitely better out of the rain, we quizzed Mr Si about Vietnamese culture and the wars and history etc before hitting the sack.

Motorbike Tour Day 5 – Kham Duc to Hoi An

The last day of the tour and no rain! Much better. Much better moods too. We stopped at a waterfall, pineapple farm (saw 1 tree!) and ate delicious pineapple (minus the salt...), and the end of the Ho Chi Minh trail. I don't think we passed far from the border with Laos. The fork in the road at Ho Chi Minh trail was where the north Vietnamese troops met up before joyously defeating the south and reunifying the country. Interesting history. At Hoi An we were taken to a recommended tailor and measured up, then headed to a hotel and parted ways with Mr Si and Mr Thanh.

Vietnam - Nha Trang

Nha Trang

We were due to take the train at 19:40 on Saturday – from Saigon to Nha Trang. We'd paid for a soft sleeper berth but only as we got on did we realise that it was a hard sleeper and the nice girl at reception had swizzed us! Only a few dollars difference, but sharing with 4 others instead of 2 was not ideal. At least our companions were intent on sleeping – an old lady and 2 people accompanying. The train journey was uneventful – arriving 40 minutes early into Nha Trang. The only issue was that Jenni was getting sick. She was so hot on the train, she burned me! She really wasn't well, so I had to get a porter once off the train to get her back. She carried the pillows herself!

We got a cab, meter said 22,000 and I only had a 200,000 note so when the cabbie took it and said thank you, I was a little surprised at his willingness to take a 178,000 dong tip! I had read of these scams so stood our ground till he coughed up the change.

Jenni was sick. Normally it's me, but this time it was Jenni. Her temperature was real hot, so I went and bought a thermometer. Hopefully not Swine flu! Anyway, I had a wander around town, not much going on but the beach. I was offered some “bang bang” but I politely declined! See what happens when I'm left to my own devices? Bang bang and I eat chocolate!!

I went next door for dinner and got chatting to an aussie guy that lives here and manages the next door backpackers house – a nice place, good restaurants but was perhaps a little noisy for us, so we are next door. Anyway, big Phil was real nice and when I bumped into him next morning, got the owner of the place – little Phil – to help out. He got the chefs to make some ginger tea and rice soup for Jenni. Unfortunately it didn't help and Jenni continued to be ill... Just meant time to add photos, write up diary / blog and to play mobwars on Facebook! At least this was a quiet, beachy stop so we're not missing much!

Jenni was sick the whole time we were in Nha Trang and I always got in to trouble when I went out alone... So, I went for a walk along the beach and stopped at some sort of monument when I was approached by a dude on his motorbike. His name was Mr Si and he was from pro easy riders, a company that specialise in motorbike tours. I had no intention of doing anything like that, so I took a minute to get out of the blazing sun and checked out his photos and comments book. It was at that point that I realised that in order to experience the real Vietnam, a tour like this might be necessary. So, I was seduced by the idea of sampling the open air, the mountains, all from the back of a bike, so I took a ride with him back to the hotel and excitedly told Jenni about it. She was ill, so she didn't care!

Anyway, I called Si back the next day and he came over with Mr Thanh to meet us and Jenni was able to come downstairs and see what the fuss was about. To be honest I think she agreed only because I wanted to do it! Which is a lovely thing to do, what a nice wife! So the next day we were off!