It's nice when a plan comes together. We last visited Hoi An in January 2019 - after Ho Chi Minh City and before Hue, Hanoi, Phu Quoc and then on to Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, India and Sri Lanka. Suffice it to say it was lucky we enjoyed our restful time in Hoi An in January 2019 - because we didn't stop until the March. As much as we want things to stay the same in this world, we know it's not possible, usual or, sometimes, even desirable. But jeez it's...

Back in the US, back in the US, Back in the USSR... Da'nang me, Da-nang me, oughta take a rope and hang me - higher than the highest tree… (to quote The Beatles and also Robin Williams in 'Goodmorning Vietnam!' - here we are, back in Saigon (which is still used a whole lot more than the well-deserved but loooong Ho Chi Minh City). Saigon? Much easier. Lazy? Not us. Well most people, yes, because it is almost a moral and economic sin here to be energetic. ...

We visited Khao Lak for the first time at Christmas, just a few short years after the Boxing Day Tsunami tragedy. Back then, the wounds to the peoples psyches and to the landscape were still raw - recovering, but raw. We recently (and foolishly) watched the Netflix drama 'The Impossible' about one family's experience of the day and the aftermath. And then we tootled off to Khao Lak to enjoy 16 days on a Luxury Escape deal purchased during Covid (aka The End of...

We loved being in Sydney, hitting up our favourite shops, long walks, treasure hunting and planning for September onwards. As we see news coming in from around the world of extreme everything (flooding, heat, storms… yada yada) we feel that we are looking down the barrel of a gun as summer approaches*. We're the weirdos who actually enjoyed the cool wet summer we spent in Sydney during La Niña - not so keen on being here for her b****** mate, El N...

After the housesit in Bowral and a couple of weeks at home it was time for our Melbourne adventure. We had a credit to use on Qantas so flew down and booked the sleeper train for the trip home. The flight down arrived only 40 minutes late which seems to count as pretty much on time these days. We made a point of using up things that needed using and we had a couple of Qantas Club lounge passes to use. It took a bit of effort to apply them to the booking but it...