Angkor Wat: the seventh or eighth man made wonder of the world. Despite the hoards of tourists (2 million each year making it one of the most visited tourist attractions in the world), it is still an absolutely incredible place. It is huge and every piece of sandstone is intricately carved. Angkor had a population of something like 1 million people when london was just a village of 30 thousand in wooden buildings!! We hired a guide and tuk tuk to hoon around in- ...

So, we wrapped up our Laos trip to one of the local waterfalls, which were about 1 hr out of town by tuk tuk. The waterfalls have to be some of the most stunning you could see owing to the minerals in the limestone which gives the pools a milky blue/ green colour. good place for swimming and rope swinging into cold water. There is also a bear rescue centre there which cares for injured and resuced bears from bile farms, horrific practice. We did our bit by buying...

Luang Prabang is a pretty amazing place. It is listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site; unique mix of beautiful Buddhist temples, stunning landscape and French colonial architecture. Lots of monks, very spiritual and superstitious country it seems, and communist to boot (Russian flags everywhere). the down side is that it's very touristy in the main area and sanitation is pretty awful, just another issue the Laos people have to deal with, in addition to unexplo...

Arrived into Laos border town of Huay Xai on the Mekong on 30 Dec. Greeted by a surly immigration lady who sniffed the $100 US that I handed over in case it was counterfeit. Welcome to Laos. The Laos people are hard to read; generally not as helpful and friendly as the Thais, however we have met some great laosians as well. I'd say it's been a pretty hard road for this country, including USA carpet bombing during the Vietnam war, poverty, etc From Huay Xai we he...

months of holiday planning and finally we arrived in Chiang Mai, ancient city of northern Thailand. Xmas eve at the Raming Lodge and then we headed up to big Buddhist temple on Xmas day called Doi Suthep with a million Thais and a few tourists. East meets west. So we spent about 1 week in Chiang Mai: eating, Thai massages, walking, exploring the old city. Gotta love the Thai people, so friendly. (Richard, some of our good finds in Chiang Mai were: the Green Bamb...