From Mende we popped 3 hours back North to see some friends now living in Clermont-Ferrand. It was great to see them and meet their lovely girls – even if I did receive a dodgy makeover and glitter nail varnish thanks to their daughter Robyn. Clermont-Ferrand is a lovely city Read more…
Le Trefle (The Clover) is a three day motorbike enduro event with 700 competitors and many thousands of spectators – it is huge! We went along to support The Sheepskull Enduro Riders team with a couple of guys from the Isle of Man and a few guys from the UK. Read more…
Here in Bourges we decided to buy French Sim cards so updates can be a bit more frequent now. While waiting in the Orange shop we saw (on the news) pictures of flooding throughout the region from all the rain. Perhaps this isn’t normal then???? We keep having sunshine interspersed Read more…
With no exact plan as to where we will go in France on our way to Mende (we need to be there in 6 days’ time) we stumbled upon Arras. After a self-guided walk around the town the next morning we climbed the belfry overlooking the main marketplace which, with Read more…
Today we arrived in France after a couple of days with friends and family in the UK. The UK weather wasn’t quite up to the Manx summer so we decided not to do more mountain biking and instead spent the time catching up and taking my cousin’s boys to the Read more…
We had allowed two weeks on the Isle of Man to unpack and get ready for the next leg of our adventure. We arrived with a beautiful sunny scenic flight, although of course we were greeted by the familiar cold Manx breeze. The preparations included finding accommodation in France, buying Read more…
People keep saying to us “Wow, have you really been gone three and a half months!” – see time flies. That is why we have to make the most of every day and every opportunity. We took the opportunity to fly back from SE Asia in time for my cousin’s Read more…
As we have both been to Bangkok before (Pete twice), we have seen most of the tourist sights therr already but as our visits were 20 years ago we thought it would be fun to spend a day and night in the city and see how it has changed. Since Read more…
We rented a moped and, despite the stormy clouds and dodgy weather forecast, took to the roads to explore the island. We went to a waterfall on the East side of the island, called Tranh Stream. By the time we walked up the rocky path to the small falls, we Read more…
We decided our last few days of our SE trip should be spent on an island, soaking up the sun. So from Hanoi we flew to the very South of Vietnam to Phu Quoc. After a 2 hour direct flight we checked into the Eco Beach Resort in Ong Lang Read more…
We arrived in Ninh Binh and for once checked in at a gorgeous homestay in Tam Coc and got ourselves sorted all before a beautiful sunset. Our accommodation was really quiet and we had soft mattresses – bliss! !!!! We just need to get a message to the cockerals that Read more…
A false start, brought about by waking up to heavy rain and thunderstorms, we delayed our trip by a day and spent an extra day in Hanoi catching up on blogs, research, booking of flights etc. Finally we strapped our luggage to the Honda XR150 motorbike and hit the road. Read more…
For a second time we are in Hanoi and we were all set for a road trip in the mountains today but woke up to a thunder storm and torrential rain. We decided to postpone for a day but our hotel room was already booked. After a night of dodgy Read more…
So everyone has heard of, or seen pictures of, Ha Long Bay and that was where we were thinking of heading until we heard how many cruise boats (junk boats) were all visiting the same places plus within a two day trip you only got to kayak for about half Read more…
We have just spent a few days in Hoi An and loved it. Other travellers told us it was their favourite part of Vietnam and we thought it was because of the beaches, but Hoi An is so much more. Hoi An has an old preserved colonial town full of Read more…
We kept our motorbike one more day so we could explore the sights around Da Nang. Da Nang itself is a strange place with lots of big hotels but no real centre. It has lovely golden sand beaches and we stayed near My Khe beach – a huge golden beach Read more…
Our trip around The Golden Loop had started as an idea of riding the Hai Van Pass, a pass made famous by Top Gear and one which Jeremy Clarkson said was “the best coastal pass (pause for dramatic effect) in the world”. And today was the day to ride this Read more…
We headed to Da Nang and rented a 155cc moped from Danang Bikes. Pete navigated the crazy traffic to get us out of the city (in what world does no traffic rules seem like a good idea? – but somehow it does kind of work here) and set off towards Read more…
Back on the coast we arrived at Hue to find it raining and cold. We expected that weather in the mountains, not here! Oh well, we dug out our jeans and coats from the bottoms of our rucksacks and it almost felt worthwhile carrying them around for the last two Read more…
Da Lat was spared from heavy bombing in the American war so the are still many French Colonial buildings there, however now these are joined by many flash new hotels to cater for all the weekend visitors who fly in from Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, as well as Read more…
Ooh where to start ?????? We spent a few days on the coast in Mui Ne. It is known (and surprisingly popular with Russian tourists) for its wind allowing for kite and wind surfing – or lots of local fishing in a most bizarre and unstable-looking sea-going vessel (like a Read more…
Pete’s foot is finally healing well, no longer swollen and today was his first day back in flip flops! Bliss! Now it is Janet’s turn. After a sore throat for the last eight days and, the last two days with swollen glands in the neck that looked like the growth Read more…
Often you visit places and the history is so old it doesn’t really seem relevant to you. Here in Ho Chi Minh that is definitely not the case. Most of the history we have been reading about is since the Second World War with lots of twists and turns and Read more…
Sometimes it is the random acts of kindness that stay with you and really make your travels special. We have had some great examples of this on our trip so far such as a hotel receptionist coming to find us at the bus station at 10pm even though it was Read more…
In South East Asia you get many opportunities to see elephants but not always in the best way for elephants. We have already seen elephants being ridden with big baskets on their backs in two different places and we passed “sanctuaries” in Thailand where the elephants had no space to Read more…