Jules

Sadly, they lost their lease and are closing their doors for good tomorrow. Better hurry for a last melenzane sandwich.

You will still be about to buy the bread locally (they are moving the baking stuff) but the cafe has 24 hours of life left.

Smaller, cheaper, more varied, more beautiful and easier traveling than in Oz.

You won’t be disappointed.

Go for 10 days on a quick package and fly everywhere or a spend a year really seeing the place in a 4×4. Anything else will feel too fast or too slow. If you only have 3 months head to NZ where things are closer together travelling is cheaper.

We arrived at the hut in Bark Bay about 20 mins before a 5 hour downpour. Lovely spot to watch the rain. Do the walk. Spend 3 nights. You can do it faster but what’s the hurry?

We did this back in January after a couple of days in French Polynesia. Aitutaki was everything that we wanted to find in FP but couldn’t. Tropical paradise without extreme tourist development. Loved it. I’ll go back. Run (maybe swim) don’t walk to Raro and hop on the next flight.

I spent about 10 days in Chiang Mai this summer. 5 of those days were at the Chiang Mai cookery school taking Thai cooking classes. The classes were tons of fun and a great thing to do at the begining of a trip to Thailand. Once you’ve taken them you feel a lot more confident about what you are ordering on the streets :) Also—- it is a blast to use the professional turbo-charged gass burners.

Sapa is the most beautiful place that I have been in the 3 months that I have been in Southeast Asia. It simply doesn’t compare to anything else. The people are amazing. The terraced rice patties are out of a picture book. The mountains are lush and jagged. At trip to Vietnam is not complete without a few days in Sapa. Halong Bay is pretty but Sapa is in a class by itself.

The only hard part about Hoi An is deciding where to get your clothes tailored. We are here now and still haven’t decided.

When you are there make sure to eat Som Tom (spicy green papaya salad) at least once per day. Bliss.