Monday 28th February Vientiane today in 35 degree heat.Too hot to do anything. Tuesday 1st & 2nd March Flew to Hanoi on what looked like one of Manx Airlines old propeller planes. We even got free cake and beer (no rose wine or champagne available though). Hanoi traffic - mental.I don't think the cars or mopeds were fitted with indicators or brakes as their horns seemed to do the job of both.Hanoi traffic makes Egypt traffic look like a Sunday afternoon d...

Thursday 24th February Continued our slow boat trip on Mekong for another 7 hours Laos. On the way the others 'enjoyed' a local meal prepared by the boatman's wife. Myself and another tour member had the foresight to decline the offer and brought our own cheese n crackers and apple dannish. I know who enyojed their lunch the most. We then went to visit a local school at Ban Phon Sa Vang and brought them some notebooks, pens, pencils, crayons and a ball. The kid...

Thursday 17th February I limited myself to just 2 films on the flight to Bangkok so I managed to get at least 20 minutes snooze. Hooray - the Thai Immigration Officials allowed me to enter the country. Although I was not carrying anything I shouldn't have been it was a pretty scary experience just walking past the officals. They may have been having a slow day and needed someone to put in prison. Having arrived in Bangkok late in the evening I thought it best j...

Saturday 12th February I managed to buy a monorail ticket in Tokyo Haneda Airport in Japanese! Easy really - just had to match the symbols on the picture of the monorail with the symbols on the ticket selection screen - good job I had my glasses on. Transferred on to the subway and after the weight training session carrying my luggage I arrived safely at the capsule hotel which was my box for the night. Hillarious idea for accomodation. Totally bizarre - leave ...

Wednesday 2nd February 2011 Everything packed into the backpack 17kg! All was going well, as I have resuable vaccum pack bags for my clothes, however the magic packing bags DO NOT work for toileteries. Champagne on the palne and off to Welling to visit Joss, Ian and Zoe. Note to self: Must try harder to reduce the number of beauty products packed (although I DO NEED THEM ALL) Thursday 4th February After spending a lovely day with Joss & Zoe endulging i...