To say my second day on Skye started off cold would be a massive understatement. When I left the B&B it was – 4 degrees. The car was covered in a thick frost and I had to scrape the screens. To be fair, I must sing the praises of the windscreen on the Volvo. It has a barely visible electrical element laminated into the screen and actually clears the frost in a matter of a minute or so. Brilliant! My plan for the day started off with a visit to the Quiraing. The Quiraing is a part of what’s known as the Trotternish ridge. This is a huge land slide that stretches for 30 kilometres all the way to the northernmost point of the Isle of Skye. Apparently the Quiraing is the only part of the area which is still moving and the road at it’s base requires repairs every year. Arriving at the base of the Quiraing I was faced with a long steep drive up to the car park. This entailed lots of tight bends and I was mindful of there being a lot of ice on the road. One large patch of ice in the middle of a tight bend had me moving forward literally at a snails pace as the front wheels spun whilst trying to achieve traction. Finally the tyres bit into the asphalt and I was able to carry on to the top. Mine was one of only three cars parked there, maybe because it was so early and cold. Strangely, when I set off from the starting point of the Quiraing walk it wasn’t long before I came across a group of photographers who I can only assume must have travelled together in one car. I wonder if they were as disappointed with the conditions as I was. Don’t get me wrong, the scenes were fantastic but the sky was absolutely cloudless. I would have preferred more moody atmospheric conditions but nevertheless the place was promising lots of great views and I carried on to look for compositions. The following two images are my favourites from the morning.

The light was a little harsh and there was plenty of contrast. The walk was strenuous and slightly dangerous in places with icy patches underfoot. I was still feeling the effects of the previous days hike to Camasunary and back. I was well into the walk but not as far on as I would have liked when I looked at my watch and realised I’d been out for almost two hours. The problem was that I had only paid for three hours car parking. Consequently I had to set off back to the car, only realising when I got back there in a little over 35 minutes, just how much of my time out is taken with setting up a tripod and taking photos. I was annoyed with myself for not allowing more time but it just means that sometime in the future I’ll have to come back to Skye and do it all over again, not really a hardship is it?  

Back at the car I decided to head back to the B&B and have an hour or so relaxing before setting off for the Neist Point Lighthouse which is as far west as you can go on Skye. Back in Portree I bumped into Nora (the landlady) at the B&B.  She was as helpful as ever and I paid her for the extra night at a reduced rate of £40 by way of cutting out Booking.com. After an hours rest I set out for Neist Point. Once again the route consisted mostly of single track roads with lots of passing places. The Isle of Skye must go down as one of the wildest places I’ve ever been. Everywhere you go the scenery is incredible and there are tiny remote communities scattered here and there. As magical as the place is, it’s difficult to imagine actually living somewhere so remote. When I eventually reached the car park for Neist Point there were quite a few people there. The walk to the view points was a proper path with the choice of a concrete slope or steps side by side. It was so steep that when I moved onto the slope to let someone by on the way up, I almost lost my footing and had to do a weird little run to stop myself slipping on my arse! At the bottom of the hill it was a short walk to where I was under the impression that the viewpoint would be. Unfortunately it seemed it was going to be necessary to climb another steep hill. Having lurched and gasped my way to the top I was hit by the realisation that this wasn’t the view point I wanted either. 😭 I took a couple of photos anyway. I perched very precariously on the edge of a cliff to get those images and I’m including one of them in spite of the fact that this wasn’t the view I was looking for. 

After taking that photo I then moved on to another viewpoint where there was a whole gaggle of other photographers lined up at the edge of yet another cliff. I politely asked if they minded me squeezing in amongst them and realised that this was the same bunch I’d seen this morning at the Quiraing. Once again the viewpoint wasn’t the one I wanted and even though I spent a good half hour there I didn’t get anything that I would consider worth including here. At this point I was ready to give up and said my goodbyes to the guys still there whilst all the time thinking I couldn’t really work out what they were waiting for as it was dark now and past even the blue hour. On the way back to the car I then had to climb the steep path which I’d almost slid down earlier. All joking aside, this really did almost kill me. You know that feeling when it’s all you can do to put one foot in front of the other, well, this was a real struggle. Thankfully I wasn’t the only one having problems as there were a number of (younger) people struggling just as much as I was.  It was only as I got to the top that I realised there were still people with tripods set up at the top of the highest cliff off to my left. So, even though it was now dark I decided to have one last try to get my shot. Finally this turned out to be the view I had been wanting all along and it was all of five minutes walk from where I’d parked the car!🤬 This is the resulting image. Taken with a 30 second exposure which just goes to show you must never let a little thing like almost total darkness deter you if there’s a shot you just have to get.

So a trip I thought was a failure turned out ok in the end. The drive back to Portree was another matter. Single track roads in absolute darkness and endless miles of them through the aforementioned wildest country I think I’ve ever experienced made for a sphincter twitching hour plus long ride. Anyway, after getting back to Portree I spent another evening at the B&B feeding on pot noodle. The plan for next day was to make my way home and see what I could photograph along the way. I was wide awake at 5.00 am but didn’t want to leave so early. With sunrise on Skye not happening until around 8.45 I was hoping to go to Sligachan in time for first light. The problem was that when I drove down the A87 towards  the Kyle of Lochalsh I managed somehow to miss it. I have no idea how, as I’d been there before on a couple of occasions so this time it was as if it had disappeared off the face of the earth. Next stop along the way was the Eilean Donan Castle. I’m cutting this ramble short as I’m sure you’ll agree it’s getting a bit boring. Here are the pics from Eilean Donan Castle.

There were a few stops on the way home during what turned out to be a 13 hour journey but only one which produced photographs I was happy with. Passing through Glen Coe I couldn’t resist revisiting the Etive Mor waterfall. I visited last November but this time the waterfalls were all frozen and although I knew it to be the same place, everything looked totally different. It was another one of those occasions where my fingers did their best to curl up into useless claws due to the excessive cold but it’s such a beautiful location I was determined to work through it! These are the two images. Lookout for the frozen parts of the waterfalls.

I drove 510 miles home from Skye and the only traffic incident happened three miles away from home when some idiot on the Small Heath bypass decided to overtake on the inside and cut in front of me a matter of inches off my front bumper. When I gave hime a quick flash to let him know I thought he was a wanker he decided it would be a good idea to slam his brakes on. A combination of me, and the car braking for itself led to me just stopping in time. Let me explain, the car occasionally decides to brake for itself thanks to it’s collision avoidance system so this time probably saved the day. It was quite noticeable approaching Birmingham that all the mental cases seem to come out of the woodwork in the evening and I’d just had an encounter with the king of em all. I wish I could say it made me glad to be home but alas, far from it!

I can’t help wondering at times if anyone is finding anything about these blogs even remotely interesting. I’m perfectly aware that they’ve taken a distinct turn towards more photography content. I generally fall short of talking technicalities which I think for anyone not interested would take the boredom to another level. I had a couple of great days on Skye which left me absolutely worn out physically. I often crave being able to disappear and do my own thing but in reality I missed having Lynne with me and I found even one full day of hiking and chasing locations alone to be totally exhausting. That’s not to say I don’t want to do it again but next time I think it would be a better idea to pace myself a little more. Over four days I’ve hiked roughly 15 strenuous miles and driven around 1400 miles. Thoroughly enjoyable but ultimately very tiring! Having said all that, I’ve already been home a couple of days as I’m writing this and in my head I’m already thinking about when I can do it all over again.

Lynne embarked on her first cruise on Monday, travelling to Madeira, Lanzarote and Lisbon amongst others, so I decided that, as I was going to be home alone, it would be an ideal opportunity to return to Scotland for some serious photography time. Long story short, at 5.45 this morning I set out to drive back to the Isle of Skye. It’s a distance of 505 miles and I expected it to take roughly ten hours. The first part of the journey was the usual war of attrition with slow traffic and a mix of a steady filthy drizzle and the occasional torrential downpour. Couple this with what seems like the entire European continent’s articulated lorry population and quite often you find yourself pointing the car in what you hope is the right direction without actually being able to see very much. This particular version of man made hell was compounded by the ubiquitous 50 mile an hour average speed cameras which run for about 20 miles from just before junction 13, past junction 15 on the M6 which may not sound like much but at 50 mph with uncomfortably narrow lanes and masses of blinding spray from the hundreds of lorries it seems to go on for ever. This set the tone for the duration of the English part of the journey, crazy slow traffic passing every major conurbation, ie, Stafford, Crewe, Manchester, Liverpool, Preston, Lancaster, etc, etc, and contraflow systems everywhere! Can anyone please tell me why our roads have to be so shit?

Thankfully, having left the parts of the motorway that feed into the large towns and city’s the traffic thinned out and the driving became less of an ordeal. Strangely having driven most of the way in that steady fine drizzle which is neither one thing or the other, almost the moment I passed the welcome to Scotland sign where the M6 becomes the A74 the sun broke through and lit up the already impressive Scottish countryside. That definitely sounds like a case of the other mans grass being greener but in this instance it actually was! The journey actually took 11 hours with a couple of stops, once for coffee and another for diesel. Arriving at the Feochan B&B in Portree I was greeted at the door by the host, Nora. She was really nice and extremely helpful. She guessed immediately that I was there for photography and offered to ask her husband, who it turns out is a tour guide on the island, to come see me and offer some pointers for where to go. I’d actually already worked out exactly where I wanted to go for the next two days but he did pop in and showed me some amazing photos on his phone. After a gruelling 11 hour drive, all I wanted to do was to chill out in my small but comfortable room. Nora assured me that there is a beautiful view from the window but it was pitch dark and the the only thing visible were a few twinkling lights in the distance so I’ll have to take her word for it.

Next morning I left the B&B at 7.15 in absolute darkness to drive the 40 miles to Elgol Beach in the south of the island. By the time I reached Elgol it was getting light. I had made the mistake of putting a post code in the satnav and as seems often to be the case it tried to take me the wrong way. Not far from the destination it instructed me to turn left towards a village called Drinan. Thinking instinctively that this was wrong I carried on without turning. A couple of hundred yards up the road I came upon an older man walking toward me. I wound down the window and having exchanged cordial good mornings, I asked if I was on the right road to Elgol? Strangely, he replied that if I wasn’t I was going to be in trouble. I don’t know what he meant by that but it was said with a big beaming smile. He was quite old but with a healthy looking ruddy complexion and twinkly eyes that suggested someone completely happy with his lot. Anyway, he eventually agreed that I was heading in the correct direction and just to carry on to the end of the road. Then he added, just for good measure, “next stop America”. I thanked him and drove on laughing to myself at his good humour. When you consider the traditional Scotland/England rivalry it never ceases to amaze me how really friendly the people are!

Arriving in Elgol I found there was plenty of parking right next to the beach and it was obvious I was going to have the place all to myself. The following photographs are the result of my spending almost two hours wondering up and down the beach looking for different compositions all featuring the same group of mountains across the water. The sun was just coming up and casting it’s first light of the day on the distant mountains.

Leaving Elgol, I then made my way back three miles to a car park I’d seen along the way which was the start of the walk to a place called Camasunary. The sign at the start of the walk said Camasunary was 2.5 miles. I set off on foot at about 10.20 am. The walk started off easy but soon became an uphill slog. I was mindful that at some point I was going to be going downhill to get to Camasunary at sea level. What I hadn’t anticipated was that for long stretches the path was made up of millions of fist sized rocks which weren’t kind on the feet. The walk back to the car proved to be pretty strenuous and I wasn’t completely convinced it had been worth the effort. The following two images were taken on the downhill stretch into Camasunary. As you can see it’s a happening place with the tiny white building at the far end of the beach, one only of two dwellings. Unsurprisingly neither one of them looked inhabited as there doesn’t appear to be any vehicular access to the area. Having said that, I’m sure the track I walked along would be fun to drive in an off-roader.

The whole hike took over three hours including the obvious stops for photographs. I only saw one other person the whole time. A young guy, maybe mid 30s passed me twice, in and out, running! His dog, a beautiful Irish Wolfhound trotted dutifully behind him. By the time I got back to the car I was well and truly knackered and more than happy to see the car. After a brief rest and drink I set off in search of Talisker Bay. This is a huge beach with a large sea stack at one side. After parking the car I set off on what would turn out to be another 30 minute walk to get to the beach. Thankfully it was flat most of the way as my feet and knees were beginning to send painful little signals to my brain that they’d had  enough. The path passed through a farm yard with a barn on one side and the farmhouse on the other. They both looked extremely run down and I couldn’t see any signs of habitation. It did occur to me that maybe the owners might not be too friendly, judging by the sign at the beginning of the driveway stating that ‘Dogs may be shot due to livestock!’ Due to livestock what? Livestock suffering from dogrophobia? Who knows? On a serious note, I know all about dogs and sheep and I suppose the farmer has every right to protect his livestock but the sign just seemed to set a slightly unnecessarily unfriendly tone. On the way back to the car, I walked through the farm again but by now it was getting dark and I couldn’t help looking at the farmhouse a little nervously as it seemed quite spooky. I half expected to see a pale ghostly face at one of the upstairs windows. The second this thought had flitted through my tiny mind, a car pulled up at the gate about 50 yards ahead and the driver, who I can only assume must be the owner of the farm, got out to open the gate. As he pulled his car through the gate and got out again to close it, he asked me if I’d got any decent shots. We had a short conversation about the beach and how beautiful it was and I have to say, he didn’t seem like a character from the Adams Family at all. In fact he was very well spoken and quite polite which just goes to show, you really can’t judge a man by the house he lives in!

I drove back to Portree in total darkness and couldn’t help noticing how polite all the other drivers are. Most of the route consists of single track roads with passing places. Whenever I stopped to let another car past they would respond by giving one blink of an indicator. I don’t know how they manage that one blink, I’ve tried it and can’t get anything less than a full turn indication. On that full-blown waffle, I think it’s time to conclude this blog before I lose my (tiny) audience. My first full day on Skye and it was a full day of photography and hiking which left me exhausted and I couldn’t wait to get back to the B&B for a shower and a much anticipated Pot Noodle! Yes, I’m living on Pot Noodles. Probably just as well I’ll only be here for a few days!

We’ve been in Edinburgh for a few days now and my photography activities have been severely curtailed. All we’ve really done is wonder around the Christmas market and then the Royal Mile. We’ve been spending time with Lynne’s brother Jet and his wife Jean. Subsequently I thought it would be rude to be on a photography mission where I’m stopping every five minutes, when all they really want to do is mooch around the shops and market. So, nothing much to report from Edinburgh except to say I don’t recall the bus journeys to and from the city taking quite so long last year. Each journey seems to have become progressively longer to the point where it starts to feel a bit like a Chinese water torture. Last night we got on the wrong bus away from the city centre but only realised our mistake around 15 minutes into the journey. When I asked the driver if the bus would eventually go to our intended destination, his answer was “yes, but it will take about two hours, the best you can do is get another bus back from the other side of the road”. So we got off and went to wait on the other side of the road. We waited about twenty minutes until the bus we’d just gotten off came along and we got back on. The driver  asked if there had been any other buses along before him. I was tempted to say, “don’t you think we might have got on one if it had come along” but we just got back on and prepared for the longest and most boring bus ride ever. By the time we got back to Edinburgh’s Caravan & Motorhome club camp site an hour or so later I was well and truly pissed off and we went more or less straight to bed. So Edinburgh was a story of long boring bus rides and, incidentally, the one I just wrote about wasn’t the last or even the worst! Most of the time which wasn’t taken up with endlessly tedious bus rides was spent at the Christmas market and strolling up and down the Royal Mile. I really do like Edinburgh but one shop full of cashmere is pretty much the same as the next shop full of cashmere, and believe me, there are lots of them.

Anyway, this is my boring attempt to wrap up the blogs from our Scottish trip. Edinburgh didn’t give me much to write about as nothing of note really happened although we did indulge in a quite exceptional meal at a restaurant near the castle called The Witchery. This is a beautiful restaurant at the top of the Royal Mile. We booked a couple of days ahead as it definitely doesn’t seem like the kind of place where you could just walk in off the street and expect to get a table. Anyway, we had a wonderful evening, the food was exceptional and the company excellent. The only down side was the inevitable bus ride back to the camp site. To anyone not interested in motorhome/caravans, you would be amazed how many you’ll see as you travel around Scotland and the campsite was constantly full with people leaving and quickly being replaced so that there were rarely any spaces vacant.

To sum up, there are no photographs from Edinburgh because I didn’t take any but with Lynne going off on a cruise with her sisters not long after we return home, it is my intention to return to Scotland in the next week or so.

PS. By way of a confession, As I just finished writing this, I’m already back in Scotland, or more specifically, Portree on the Isle of Skye. Today I drove 510 miles so now I’m so knackered I’m not even going to attempt to write a full blog, but hopefully I’ll be rested tomorrow and with any luck there’ll be some photos to share, (always assuming anyone is interested). Once again, watch this space!

After leaving the Kyle of Lochalsh we drove east and headed towards Loch Ness. Having wild camped for three nights we’d decided to try to find a camp site where we could have electricity and also fill up with drinking water as we were getting really low. Personally I was in desperate need of a shower and although Lynne was kind enough not to complain I’m sure I must have been smelling pretty funky after three days of wild camping. I called a camping and caravan club site in a small village called Foyers and booked a pitch for one night. I thought the cost was pretty steep at £28.90 for the night. The lady on the phone sounded really pleasant and told me that they were very quiet at the moment. Not surprising really, given the cost. It’s hardly the height of the season is it? Anyway, after what had been three or four days of driving mixed in with some pretty strenuous hikes all either of us wanted was to get showered and spend an afternoon relaxing. The day had started off overcast with a steady drizzle and seemed to continue in that vain for the rest of our journey. We did have one stop along the way at a small village called Invermoriston. I’d seen photos of what’s commonly known as the Old Bridge at Invermoriston and thought it would be good to go there but our arrival there was pure coincidence. Anyhow, while Lynne waited in the van, I went off in search of the old bridge. I’d barely walked 200 yards when I came across a wooded area with the most amazing autumn colours and couldn’t resist photographing this tree and the wonderful autumn colours surrounding it. The second image is the Old Bridge at Invermoriston although it is partially obscured by what I can only assume is the New Bridge at Invermoriston!

Moving on with our journey towards Foyers and the campsite where I was looking forward to having a shower and de-stinking myself after three days of rationing water whilst wild camping. The road to Foyers took us through more amazing scenery with vast vistas and mountains along the way. I must say that this trip has been my most satisfyingly intense period of landscape photography and I’m thankful to Lynne for her patience regarding the countless number of times a simple journey from a to b was interrupted because I’ve seen something I can’t live without pointing a camera at! Arriving at the campsite at Foyers at 1.30 pm we checked in at the reception only to be told we couldn’t actually move on to the site until 2.00 pm. Some kind of weird Scottish regulation they have to adhere to. Personally I couldn’t see the point, I mean, who do they think is watching? To say the site is in the middle of nowhere would be a huge understatement! While we waited I used the time to fill up with drinking water. When we were finally admitted to the site I headed straight for the upper tier in the hope that the higher ground would give us a better wifi reception. Scotland has been slightly sketchy where Vodafone’s  mobile broadband is concerned. There have been numerous places where we couldn’t get any internet. When you consider that last year we travelled all the way north in Norway and never once went without internet I find it surprising that in Scotland it’s not so good. I know it’s a sign of the times and Lynne always tells me I would die without the internet which is a bit of a stretch, but when you’re camping in the wilds of Scotland it’s great to be able to plan your next move using Google maps/earth. So, having settled in and done a few chores, like emptying the toilet, and getting the gas switched on we both went for our much anticipated showers in the commendably clean shower block. It was so nice to feel human again after a good hot shower and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening relaxing as planned. The higher ground did indeed give us a good enough wifi signal and the tv worked too so we were spoilt for choice on the entertainment front. The campsite was nice although not terribly busy but part of the attraction had been that it was situated on the shores of Loch Ness. Unfortunately the shores of the Loch were all fenced off so the only access would have been to walk back beyond the entrance and out of the site. Lynne and I were both so knackered we couldn’t be bothered!

The following morning we stuck to our usual routine of being up at roughly 7.30 am and watching three episodes of Frasier, I can’t really explain why as I’ve seen them all a dozen times or more. Afterwards we set off in the direction of a small village called Cannich with the intention of carrying on to Glen Affric. Having passed through Cannich we quickly found ourselves on a single track road with passing places. This went on for miles. Eventually we came to a turning with a dead end sign at it’s entry. Lynne said, “that can’t be it, it’s a dead end” so I drove straight past. Then I realised that the road I wanted for Glen Affric was a dead end albeit a long one! After doing a fifty point turn, even a smallish motorhome is not something you can throw around, we went back and found ourselves on an even narrower road passing through an ancient woodland with a combination of gnarly beardy old trees and Scots Pine. The road seemed to go on and on endlessly and we didn’t see more than a handful of other cars along the way. Amazingly we did see a tractor towing a gritter so it was obvious we could look forward to another cold night. Eventually reaching the end of the road we got to the car park at the far end. I had planned to camp there but unfortunately there was a sign indicating no overnight parking. I would have ignored this as I couldn’t imagine anyone being up there in the middle of nowhere to check on it but Lynne being a stickler for the rules, simply refused to consider staying there in case the bogeyman came knocking in the middle of the night! Consequently we headed back the other way and soon found a piece of flat land where there was one other camper van parked. The only problem was, there was no TV or wifi reception and while I love being out in the wild I do have my limits and a whole evening with no internet fix was more wild than even I could stand! Imagine the horror of Lynne and I having to spend an evening conversing with each other for the entire evening, unthinkable!! At that point we decided we needed try to find a phone signal so that Lynne could at least call Jean (sister in law) to let her know we reached our destination safely. The reason for this was that we were planning to meet them in Edinburgh and had been in touch every now and then to compare progress of our respective trips. So off we went back towards Cannich in the hope of finding a phone signal but not before I’d walked up the road to photograph a magnificent Scots Pine which I’d seen from the road earlier.

We eventually found a signal eight miles down the road and along the way I saw another place  where we  could camp. It was in a remote place just above a dam on the River Affric and the biggest bonus was that we had wifi again, oh bliss! Once again it was bloody cold overnight which meant everything was coated in a thick white frost in the morning along with a heavy mist as I ventured out with the camera. I quite liked this spit of land jutting into the water behind the dam and the thick mist meant you couldn’t see anything beyond it.

After what passes for breakfast we set off back to the car park at the top of the road and got there in good time. We had made an earlier start than usual because I had one photo in mind and given the fact that there was thick mist about, I wanted to get there before it disappeared. On reaching the car park, we duly slotted in the two pounds for the days parking only to find that, presumably because the machine was totally frozen, it made all the noise having accepted our coins and then decided not to give us a ticket. Once again the stickler for rules, yes madam, you know who you are, was not happy about leaving the van without a ticket displayed. That was when she who must be obeyed decided to stay there while I did the walk on my own. As it turned out the walk only took me about ten minutes to get to the viewpoint I wanted, and the view was everything I’d hoped for with the mist and all! This is the resulting image and for me it makes the whole trip worthwhile so as you might have gathered, I’m more than pleased with it. I suppose I could have wished for more drama in the sky but hey, you can’t have everything!

I was back at the car park in just over half an hour and ready to move on to other things. There were so many incredible scenes and trees to photograph I was starting to feel, and behave, like a kid in a sweet shop! I don’t know how interesting any of this is for anyone reading, but just to reiterate, this is primarily a record for our own personal benefit. The following image is another characterful Scots Pine which I couldn’t resist including here.

Once again, an amazing location with lots of incredible subjects for photography and one I fully intend to visit again in the near future. I spoke in a previous blog of having to travel a hundred miles to find suitable landscape locations to shoot and the fact that I needed to find places closer to home. Unfortunately a hundred miles just got extended to two hundred because after Scotland I can’t imagine where I’ll ever get the kind of buzz I’ve had whilst being in Scotland! I reluctantly drove away from Glen Affric with the intention of reaching the Pitlochry area and finding somewhere to camp the night. Once we were on the A9 heading south and it started getting dark we were lucky to find a place called Raily Cafe which had a large car park and after asking in the cafe if it was ok we stayed the night waking to another hard frost in the morning before setting off for Pitlochry.

Leaving Loch Lochy to make our way to the Isle of Skye we headed north and then west towards The Kyle of Lochalsh. along the way we passed through wonderful mountainous valleys full of autumn colours. Its easy to forget when living in England, that we have this incredible beauty practically on our doorstep. The only problem is that if you visit in summer there are the Scottish midges to contend with. This is the reason Lynne and I will only ever visit during autumn/winter simply to avoid the millions of flying teeth! On reaching Kyle of Lochalsh we drove right through as there is very little to see or do there as we’d found last year whilst stopping over for one night. Crossing the Skye Bridge I was, not for the first time, reminded of our time in Norway last year where we crossed countless bridges of the same type. Arriving on the Isle of Skye though, was at least initially, slightly underwhelming as we drove for the first few miles through fairly unremarkable landscapes. Happily they soon gave way to more interesting features as we approached Portree. The plan had been to walk up to the Old Man of Storr the day after arriving in Skye but after we had driven past Portree and arrived at the Old Man Of Storr Parking place it was 2.00 pm so we decided to do the walk as soon as we got there. 

The walk starts out as a fairly civilised path but is actually very steep in places. Lynne and I made good time but as we ascended the steep path it became obvious that the path further ahead was going to be much more difficult. When it became apparent that the path ended and the only way up was by climbing treacherous slippery and muddy grass banks, Lynne decided that she wouldn’t attempt to carry on so I continued on alone. Lynne’s intention was to wait for me there but I had no idea how long the remaining climb would take. The rest of the climb turned out to be as far again as we had already travelled but by comparison to the first half was a real slog to get up. As it turned out it took me about an hour and a quarter to do the full walk but that got me high enough to be at least level with the Old Man and while I was there I only saw two other people get up that high. It certainly was hard work getting there and it certainly gave my heart and lungs a good workout before I finally reached the top. After taking a few moments to recover from my exertions I managed to take a number of photographs and I’m including what I think is the best of them here.

The other two people at this height were a young French couple and after obliging them by taking their photo standing precariously close to the cliff edge overlooking the Old Man of Storr I started to make my way down. The descent was more difficult although much quicker than the ascent. The obvious paths down were slippery and muddy and a couple of times I found myself unintentionally mud skiing which certainly sped up my descent. Once back on the more recognisable path I passed a family who were also on their way down. Dad was slightly overweight and lagging behind his young family. As I caught up with his wife, a Chinese/American woman with her two children I heard one of the two kids say in a strong American accent, “look mom, he’s an old man and he can still hike”. Kids don’t do subtlety do they. I looked around at the woman and she smiled at me apologetically while I just laughed and carried on walking. I suppose the only way to take it is as a kind of compliment although I really don’t need reminding of my age! In the end it took me 35 minutes to get back to the motorhome where Lynne was waiting for me having gotten tired of waiting at the half way stage. I hope you’ll agree that the photograph of the Old Man of Storr was well worth the gruelling climb.

I’m including the following photo to give an idea of the kind of conditions on the way up. I would estimate that this is the end of the proper path and the dark well trodden so called path you can see going from the bottom middle of the frame up towards the right, is the trail to the point the photograph was taken from. I’ve marked the spot with a small black dot on the top of what looks like a small peak to the right of the frame.

What you don’t see from this photo is that at one point well into the climb you actually go downhill for about 500 yards and then have to start climbing again. That really knocks the stuffing out of you when you feel like you’re about to draw your last breath!

As I was near the bottom of the trail there were still people starting the walk up and I couldn’t help wondering if they realised it was going to be dark in about half an hour. Back at the van we decided to look for somewhere to camp for the night. About three miles up the road we came across the Lealt Falls car park. There were still people parked there but I guessed that as darkness descended they would all disappear which is exactly what happened. We set up for the night and as soon as we had the car park to ourselves I set the generator working so that we could charge my computer amongst other things  and not worry too much about the battery running down.

Next morning I looked out to see a lovely sunrise developing. I dressed quickly and went out to see what the Lealt Falls looked like. I ended up looking over a huge cliff at the ocean and various islands out to sea. I did take some photos none of which were very inspiring but within ten minutes my fingers were so cold my hands literally wouldn’t function so I made my way back to the van. It was only when I opened all the blinds in the van that I realised that the windscreen had a thick layer of ice on the inside. Lynne and I had been warm and toasty in the bed but hadn’t realised quite how cold it was outside. We had woken to a beautiful crisp cold morning and I have no idea how cold it actually was but later as I was photographing the bridge at Sligachan I noticed that there was thick ice on the running water of the river. How cold does it have to be for running water to freeze? This following pic is the bridge at Sligachan and below it a close up of the weird ice formations with the river running underneath it.

After Sligachan we headed for the famous fairy pools where we payed £5 for parking along with the hordes of other people. It was another long uphill walk to the fairy pools with lots of waterfalls along the way. It’s easy to see why they’re called fairy pools as there are pools under the numerous waterfalls which are an amazing blue/green colour. Lynne and I took roughly an hour to get to the top where the best shot was. Most of the other people there didn’t get this far up so I had the place pretty much to myself. It’s a place I’ve wanted to visit for such a long time and I’m really not sure about the resulting image. I can’t help feeling I could or should have done so much better.

So there we have it, three more bucket list items ticked off and our flying visit to the magical Isle of Skye was almost over. There is so much more to see and do on this fantastically beautiful island and I’m certain I will be returning before too long. To say its a landscape photographers paradise would be a massive understatement and I can’t wait to return! After two brilliant days on Skye we were heading back to the Kyle of Lochalsh we we found ourselves wild camping for the night in exactly the spot we stayed at the same time last year.

We’ve now been in Scotland for two full days. We arrived in Gretna on Wednesday evening after an uneventful four and a half hour drive. I have to say, the nearer to Scotland you get the more pleasurable the driving. Obviously the further north you drive the sparser the traffic becomes with the exception of Glasgow. It rained on and off for the whole journey and was still pretty damp when we got to Gretna. Having checked in at the reception at the Braids caravan park I proceeded to ignore their directions to our pitch and got hopelessly lost within the confines of the aforementioned caravan park. You wouldn’t have thought that possible would you? Well, this is me we’re talking about so anything might happen! Once we were settled in our spot, which incidentally, I’d driven straight past within 20 seconds of leaving the reception, we went for a walk down to the local outlet village. I haven’t checked, but this might sound very much like something  I wrote last year as we did exactly the same thing back then! So a little bit of Deja Vu, but in our defence there’s very little else to do in Gretna which is why we always choose it as a simple stopover on the way north. 

Next morning we took it easy, making full use of the electrical hook up and the camp sites’s excellent wifi before leaving at 11.30 am to make our way to Glencoe. Back on the motorway it felt at times as if we were the only ones on the road but needless to say that as we passed Glasgow this feeling soon disappeared. We drove without incident all the way to Glencoe and headed straight for the Glencoe Mountain resort. I’d heard about this place in a Thomas Heaton YouTube video and thought it would be a good place to base ourselves for one night so that we could do some walking in the Glencoe mountains the next day. We checked in and it cost us £15 for the night. We decided not to make use of the cafe as one glance at the menu on the wall was enough to convince us both that we didn’t want to pay £5.80 for a baked potato and beans amongst other things. Before darkness fell I took the following photograph of a nearby mountain the name of which escapes me but I liked the fact that there was snow on the peak so much that I promised myself I would get out of bed early in the morning to see if I could catch some sunlight on that peak with the sunrise.

The following image is the result of my early rise the next day and as luck would have it we had quite a bright sunrise.

I love the way the sun is just kissing the tip of the mountain but unfortunately the boring blue sky adds no interest to the scene at all. It had been quite a night on the campsite at the mountain resort in Glencoe. We had no internet as the reception on my mobile broadband was down to 2G and completely unresponsive, also the area we were in was very remote with hardly any signs of life anywhere. Thankfully the satellite TV was working so we did manage to watch Young Sheldon! We certainly do live life on the edge don’t we.

Later in the morning we moved on but only a short way down the magnificent valley where we managed to park the motorhome before setting off in search of the days photographic subject. Lynne and I picked our way up the hillside in search of The Ralston Cairn. The story goes that Ralston Claud Muir was a train driver who loved to hike the glens. It seems Glencoe was his favourite. He fell ill on Christmas Day 1999 and died 16 days later of multiple organ failure caused by a rare form of leukaemia which he was unaware he had. He was 32! The cairn was placed in his memory by his friends and family in a spot overlooking one of his favourite views of the glen. We hadn’t walked far when I realised we were on the wrong track and we doubled back almost to where we had joined the path and once again started walking uphill to where I imagined the cairn must be. There were two Scottish guys up there flying a drone and I asked them if they knew where The Ralston cairn might be. They had no idea but as they packed up and left they hadn’t gone more than 30 or 40 yards downhill before they called out to me and pointed the cairn out! The following is the resulting image with the cairn playing a very minor role in the overall composition. It does however show clearly the sheer majesty of this wonderful Scottish glen.

Having ticked off this bucket list item we made our way back to the van and set off for Fort William although we had no set plan to stay there. A few miles up the road we saw what looked like a nice campsite and decided to stop by and see if we fancied staying the night. As I pulled up outside the reception a man drew alongside me on a bicycle and asked if he could help. They had vacancies but the price for one night was £27 which Lynne and I both thought was too much so we declined and carried on with our journey. Before long we were in Fort William and decided to stop for some shopping. We wondered around a Lidl and couldn’t help being impressed with how nice it was compared to our local one at home. The main reason for the shopping trip was to get a plug to charge the toothbrush so that we could both keep our pearly whites in pristine condition! Cutting a long boring story short we had to go to Morrison’s for the plug and then we set off for another photo opportunity. This time it was an old boat stranded on the shore called the Old Boat of Caol. This is another iconic photo spot and when we got there, there were three other photographers already in place including one with a massive old fashioned large format camera, you know, the type where just before they take the photo they though a large sheet over their head to cut out the light in the back of the camera. (I think).  This is my attempt at capturing the atmosphere around this grand old boat falling into ruin.

Two bucket list items in one day, woohoo! By now time was getting on and we thought it was time to look for somewhere to wild camp. More or less this time last year we had taken a break in the middle of the day outside an old ruined castle called Old Inverlochy Castle. This seemed like as good a place as any to spend the night so we headed there and parked up. As we sat there long after dark, a car pulled up and stayed alongside us for a few minutes which had us both wondering what the hell they were doing, given that it was a dead end road and there was no apparent reason for anyone else to be there. Not long after they left another car pulled up alongside us and did the same thing. Had we stumbled upon some kind of drug dealers rendezvous? Or worse still, a dogging spot!? Strangely it wasn’t long after I offered up this second alternative that Lynne decided we should move on! So, at 9.00 pm we packed up and headed for a place called Loch Lochy where, on Google maps it looked like there were a few decent lay-bys where we could stay. We soon found a suitable place which we had all to ourselves tucked well away from the road. This was the first night where we used the generator. Previously we hadn’t had much luck with it but as we were using the heater in the van, and I was aware that this quickly runs down the leisure battery I thought I’d give it a go. To my surprise it started quite quickly and ran faultlessly so that we could use the electrics without worrying about the battery. Unfortunately the Satellite dish couldn’t find a signal so we settled for watching a couple of Netflix and Amazon Prime comedies via the internet which was now functioning perfectly.
Next morning I was up with the lark and ventured out to see exactly how close we were to the Loch as, during the night we had been able to hear waves lapping the shore. I’m including a picture just to illustrate the kinds of places we sometimes find ourselves waking up to after arriving in complete darkness the previous night.

Next destination is the Isle of Skye but I’ll be covering that in my next blog. Thanks for reading, always assuming anyone is!

It’s been roughly five weeks since we returned to the UK and it’s like we were never away. The last week in KL was spent avoiding being outdoors due to the unpleasant haze apparently caused by fires in Indonesia. These fires resulted in visibility being severely restricted and the government recommending schools close and people work from home if possible due to the poor air quality. Consequently we weren’t sorry to leave for home. Unfortunately the reality of being home is that we both miss everything about being in Kuala Lumpur. Nights out, food, warm weather, even the daily thunder storms!

Having said all that, the reason for this blog is really just to share some photographs taken since returning to the UK. As the countryside is displaying all the wonderful colours of Autumn I find I’ve taken to woodland photography. Having followed Simon Baxter’s woodland photography on Youtube for a couple of years now, I decided that the time was right to have a try myself. The first obvious benefit from trying woodland photography is that there are opportunities closer to home. I always seem to have to drive a hundred miles or more to find landscapes I think worth shooting. One of the images I’m sharing here was taken at Hay Woods which is less than ten miles away from home. However by way of a contradiction of everything I just said, the first image is from a trip to the Lake District. Lynne and I left home at 4.00 am to be at Blea Tarn in time for sunrise. Unfortunately the light wasn’t great and there was a slight wind creating ripples on the water so the reflections I had hoped for never materialised. Hence those photographs were consigned to the digital bin! Instead I’ve decided to share this image from the River Brathay just outside of Ambleside. It has the reflections I was after but I missed the best of the mist by about two minutes, seriously, there was a beautiful mist when we got there but in the two or three minutes it took me to set up, it was almost gone, just a tiny wisp remaining in the far left of the frame.

Most people love a blue sky but for landscape photography it’s pretty boring. This photo could have been so much better if there had been cloud in the sky to add a little drama to the scene. The next picture is from the same location, just a little further up the river.

This is taken around nine in the morning and because of the lack of cloud the photography is already a bit of a battle with the really harsh light. The top left hand corner is dangerously close to being completely overexposed and burnt out. Later in the day we climbed Loughrigg Fell to reach a viewpoint over Windermere. I’d seen this many times online and there was always a stile over the wall which people used as a focal point for this image. We got there after a long circuitous route which at one point entailed us both climbing over a high dry stone wall only to eventually get to the location and find that the stile which I thought was so important to the image I had in mind is gone! They seem to have replaced it with stone steps let into the wall which provide no visual interest whatsoever. This photo was another battle with the harsh light as the sun was in completely the wrong place and it was difficult to avoid lens flare.

It turned out almost ok in the end although normally you wouldn’t bother given the relatively awful light but having almost killed ourselves getting up there, I was determined to come away with something by hook or by crook! Annoyingly, we tried a different route for our descent and found that by following a tiny path that slowly turned into a stream we got back to the car in a quarter of the time it took us to get up.

This next image is from Hay Wood in Warwickshire. I had driven by in the past but never thought to take a walk through the forest. This is a mental block I need to get over as I seem to have a mindset that says there is nothing worth photographing close to home. Well, as you can imagine, a three hour drive to Wales or the Lake District or even a two hour trip to the Peak District starts to work out to be pretty expensive once it gets to be a regular thing. Hence I’m quite happy with my new found passion for woodland photography because as I already said, there are plenty of opportunities for that within a relatively short distance from home. It’s just a matter  of finding them!

So, my first real attempt at woodland photography. I was really quite pleased with this image. I was there really early and because it had been raining everything was wet which I think gives a nice sheen to the foliage. Added to that the flash of Autumn colour in the ferns in the left of the frame and the leading line of the path disappearing into the distance gives a nice depth to the image.

The next few photos are from the Peak District. My intention had been to be at Mam Tor overlooking the Hope Valley in time for sunrise but after a tedious drive following a long line of lorries through the countryside I arrived just a few minutes late and missed it. There were some other photographers there who very kindly informed me that it had been the best sunrise they had ever seen there and that the mist in the valley had only just dissipated a matter of minutes ago. Thanks for nothing guys, another missed mist! I did get lucky though because not long after sunrise the sun disappeared behind a cloud and gave the following amazing affect.

So all was not lost and I’m quite happy with this image. I particularly like the sun rays popping out from the top of the cloud. These are actually known as crepuscular rays in case anyone is interested. The following photo is at the same location but using a longer focal length to show the Hope Valley Cement Works. I know it doesn’t sound like something you would want in a landscape photograph but it’s been there for so long now it’s widely accepted as part of the scene. I’ve photographed it many times and I have to say I actually quite like it!

I like the fact that the sun is casting shadows from the trees throughout the valley and also the cement works chimney!

Next is the view in the opposite direction from the great ridge at Mam Tor. I’ve tried on numerous occasions to get this shot but with limited success thanks to the weather. The most notable occasion being in a snow storm with the snow coming in sideways directly in my face making photography impossible when that was specifically the shot I had driven all that way for! The road is really the main point of interest here as it winds away into the distance.

Here are three more examples of my attempts at woodland photography taken at Padley Gorge in the Peak District. Two of them are quite dark and spooky and I couldn’t resist the ubiquitous waterfall image with a splash of Autumn colour.

The last photos in this blog were taken in Savenake Forest. This forest is ancient woodland with lots of huge ancient oaks. There’s another bonus from shooting woodland in as much as you don’t necessarily need to be out at some ungodly hour in order to catch the sunrise. We left home at about 7.15 am and as a consequence of going out of our way for cheap petrol we didn’t get to the Savernake forest until about 10.00 am. However, it didn’t take long to find my first photo.

Well, this was my most self indulgent blog yet focusing entirely on the photography I’ve enjoyed since returning home from Kuala Lumpur. It’s been a relief to be able to get out with the camera and indulge in some proper landscape photography. Lynne and I both love life in KL but from my point of view it doesn’t tick all of my boxes photographically! As much as anything this was also an attempt to fill the massive void since my last blog which was a classic Brummie whinge from Thailand 5 or 6 weeks ago. Hopefully there’ll be more in a little over a week as we are preparing for a trip to Scotland in the motorhome. Watch this space!

Yesterday we returned to Kuala Lumpur. It was a relief to get back after our trip to Phuket in Thailand which can only be categorised as an abject failure! To say we didn’t like Phuket would be an understatement! The first day there as I’ve already covered in my previous blog, we got the hotel shuttle into the main town of Patong. Didn’t like it one little bit! Back at the hotel we struggled to see what we might do for the following couple of days. We were nowhere near a beach, the nearest one being a not terribly pleasant walk along a busy main road of at least 2.5 kilometres. Once you get there it’s not the nicest of beaches and without at least having towels there was no way we would go in the sea either and with the brutal heat you definitely need to cool down somehow. Consequently our second full day was spent in and around the hotel pool which is something I never thought we would do. In fairness it was quite pleasant as we had the place pretty much to ourselves for most of the day. Unfortunately, even though it was  overcast a lot of the time and we spent lots of time in the pool and under the umbrella, we both burnt more than I expected so now three or four days later I’m shedding my skin like some kind of geriatric snake!

Our last two days were spent in our room or on the balcony as, even though we have been in Kuala Lumpur for so long we just couldn’t cope with the heat. So, nothing really interesting to write about and quite frankly it’s a trip I’d rather consign to history and forget about. The only saving grace was a restaurant which we visited twice including on our last night. This was called Baan Rim Pa Kalim. I have no idea what any of that means but I’m glad to report that this place was a glorious oasis in a desert of mediocrity! Unlike the other places we had eaten, where, to be fair, the people were nice but the facilities were slightly ramshackle, this restaurant was simply magnificent. It wasn’t particularly cheap and we declined the wine list where the cheapest bottle started at almost £60, but the service was excellent and the food was exquisite!

To add further insult to injury, on the day we checked out we had to wait until 9.40 pm for our flight. The logic behind this decision was that we should have been having such a great time that we wouldn’t mind an extra few hours to eke out the last crumbs of pleasure from this location. However the reality was, we killed three hours sitting in the hotel reception before getting a taxi to the airport to kill another three or four before it was near time for the flight. Oh, and did I mention, the whole time we were busily killing time, it was pissing down with rain!  So, not sorry to leave and I don’t foresee us returning anytime soon. This has to be one of my shortest blogs yet and I apologise if it sounds like one big whinge.

The above image was taken at one of the bars at the hotel. At first I though it was a leaf that had blown onto the railing but as I moved closer he turned his head toward me in a weirdly slow robotic movement which I have to say I found most disconcerting. Thankfully there was a four feet wide water feature between him and me although I have no idea whether or not they can fly. As we sat drinking our hideously expensive beers, he slowly moved along the railing with a silly walk that John Cleese would have been proud of! This was one of the more interesting moments of our trip as I don’t think I’d ever seen a Praying Mantis before.

So that’s it from Phuket in Thailand. Not my most interesting blog I suspect, As I’m writing, we have been back in Kuala Lumpur for a couple of days without leaving the apartment. The reason for this is the horrendous haze which seems to have settled on the city during the time we were away. Apparently this is caused by forest fires in Indonesia. Visibility is severely restricted and we can’t see the mountains in the distance which are usually the more attractive element of the view from Dan’s apartment. According to the news, air pollution is currently way above a level considered to be healthy. Consequently, Lynne and I have opted to stay put for now. Next week we will fly back to the UK and normality whatever that is. I wish I could say I was looking forward to returning home but alas, I’m afraid after just three months, Kuala Lumpur now feels more like home to me than home, if that makes any sense at all!

Well, with less than two weeks to go before we have to return to the UK we decided to squeeze in another trip out of Kuala Lumpur. This time we find ourselves on the Island of Phuket in Thailand. We only arrived yesterday afternoon and having gone through immigration we went to the nearest taxi rank to find a ride to the hotel. At the booths outside the airport building they wanted 800 Baht so we decided to go with Grab which was priced at 750. The app found us a driver pretty quickly and we tried to wait in a spot where we could see him when he turned up. Unfortunately the app then notified me that he had arrived but we couldn’t see him anywhere. Then my phone rang and it was the driver asking where we were. A long conversation ensued during which I could barely understand anything he said other than he was not allowed to enter the airport. Not a lot of use when your customer is in the airport and absolutely unfamiliar with the surrounding area! I went into the app and cancelled the booking and off we went to pay our 800 Baht (about £20). Within a minute we had a driver and were on our way. It was a slightly nervous ride for 50 minutes or so as the driver was somewhat erratic in his driving. At one point I got the impression we were in a race with a large people carrier as the two of them seemed to compete with one another to be further ahead in a stream of quite fast moving traffic. The countryside along the way was very lush and green but most of the towns or villages we saw, looked run down and decrepit. There are telegraph poles (I think) with wiring of all sorts coming into them from all directions and each pole takes on the appearance of a huge ball of black spaghetti. If repairs were ever needed I wouldn’t want to be the poor bloke that has to sort that lot out.

On arrival at the hotel we walked into the reception and were instantly underwhelmed by our first impression of the place. After the magnificent reception area of the Wyndham Legend in Halong Bay, the reception of the Wyndham Grand here in Phuket was a bit of a let down to say the least. I get the impression that the hotel was probably built in stages as, since we’ve been here it turns out that there are at least three areas which function as receptions. To get to our room we have to go up three floors in the lift, then a short walk through what looks like a second reception and up another two floors in a different lift to get to the room. Once in the room, we both noticed a quite strong smell of musty wood. I’m guessing this can be attributed to the extreme humidity and the icy cold air conditioning. The room we had booked was meant to have two single beds but the receptionist asked if we would like a king sized bed. Obviously we said yes but we were unprepared for the actual size of the bed. We’ve travelled numerous times to the USA and seen some big beds in our time, especially in Vegas but this one certainly took the prize for the biggest. Later that night, instead of kissing goodnight as we’ve done for the last 30 odd years (romantic isn’t it?) we actually just waved to each other from a great distance! For some reason it reminded me of an old Spike Milligan sketch where he took the piss out of an Indian family sleeping in shifts in the same bed. That was back in the days when you could indulge in harmless piss taking without offending the snowflakes and then finding yourself vilified by the PC brigade. Anyway, they could have slept six or seven at a time in this bed or even more if they didn’t mind sleeping head to toe!

While we sat on the balcony after unpacking we watched a troop of elephants stroll past the hotel. There is an elephant sanctuary just round the corner from the hotel but these ones were heading in the opposite direction. Looking at the website for the sanctuary it appeared that they encourage people to take rides on the elephants with pictures of 3/4 people at a time riding one elephant. Lynne and I really don’t like this kind of thing and because of that, I don’t think we’ll be visiting. I also couldn’t help wondering why all of the men riding the elephants had to have what looked to me like a vicious looking rusty ice pick kind of thing. I’m including a not very good photo just to illustrate my point. I wonder if anyone knows, what on earth would they use that for?

Since writing that last paragraph I’ve looked at reviews of said elephant sanctuary and the prevailing sentiment seems to be that the general practices there are quite cruel. Lots of stories of the keepers hitting the animals with their spikes when they refuse to move and one reviewer points out that elephants aren’t naturally given to having humans riding on their backs. The ugly truth is that as young elephants they are tortured to break their spirit. The process even has a name, Phajaan or ‘the crush’. I make no apology for pulling the following excerpt from a review which details this horrific practice and perfectly answers my question about what I thought was some kind of ice pick but I now realise is the bull-hook mentioned in this review.

Phajaan or ‘the crush’.

It involves ripping baby elephants away from their mothers and confining them in a very small space, like a cage or hole in the ground where they’re unable to move. The baby elephants are then beaten into submission with clubs, pierced with sharp bull-hooks, and simultaneously starved and deprived of sleep for many days. Elephant mistreatment doesn’t stop after they’ve been tamed. Many elephant camps continue to employ bull-hooks to control the animals. While they may not be stabbing them constantly like they did in training, it’s the fear of being stabbed that’s used to motivate them to work. Elephants never forget!

As I write we are actually into our third day in Phuket and examples like the above have tipped us towards not liking it much so far along with the fact that there is also a so called Tiger sanctuary not far away, where, from everything I’ve been able to glean from the internet, it seems certain that the animals are kept in tiny cages and sedated so that the visiting public can safely pet them and have photos taken with them. At the risk of sounding self righteous in my outrage, I find it difficult to imagine this kind of thing can still be happening in an apparently civilised society and what kind of moron would pay to help perpetuate such practices? The human race? I despair! Rant over!!

Later that evening we walked out to a local restaurant that was Thai/Mexican called Salsa/Mexicana. We wanted to sit at a table overlooking the sea but it was raining and the waitress who I think might also have been the owner said we couldn’t as it was raining and she was concerned that we might get wet, however, the rain stopped soon after and she came over to see if we wanted to move. Consequently we had a glorious view over the sea for about ten minutes as we studied the menu, then it went dark and we couldn’t see a thing! We both ordered a huge bottle of beer each and I had steamed squid. I asked if there was anything else I might need with it just in case it wouldn’t be enough on it’s own. The waitress assured me that it would be plenty. I definitely needn’t have worried because when it came, it was the biggest squid I’d ever seen and I struggled to eat it all in spite of the fact that it was delicious! This was the only restaurant I’d ever been to where, amongst the many condiments on each table, was a mosquito spray! That was our first day in Phuket and not withstanding the elephants which we can do nothing about other than not patronise the place and therefore help to perpetuate their practices, it was just ok. I don’t want to go into another rant about the fact that somewhere in the hotel’s sales blurb was mention of a walk through to the beach. Never mind the fact that the nearest beach was in fact private and unavailable to us. The nearest beach we could actually access was almost two kilometres away!

The next day, after breakfast, which I have to say is probably one of the best we’ve ever had, we got the hotel shuttle into the main town of Patong. This is about 5 kilometres away and we can see it further along the coast from our hotel room. The shuttle dropped us in the car park of a large modern shopping mall. On entering the mall we immediately found ourselves in a large modern food hall. Within minutes I was drooling at the sight of lots of displays of cooked meats that looked so appetising that I couldn’t take my eyes off them. Lynne had to drag me away as I was making involuntary mewling sounds at the sight of a beautifully cooked brisket! Damn her and her vegetarianism!!😩

Having failed to pack a pair of shorts for swimming we proceeded to look around the mall and soon found that this place was not gonna be cheap. The only shorts I could see that I liked would have cost £77. Needless to say we carried on looking. Once we left the shopping mall we bumped into an Indian guy who sounded Australian. He engaged us in conversation and seemed nice until he gave us a ticket each. Then he asked us to open them at which point it turned out I had won a t-shirt. Can you see where I’m going with this? Lynne’s ticket turned out to be the jackpot. I can’t remember exactly what it was she was supposed to have won but one of the choices was a cruise amongst others. The only catch was, yes, there’s a catch. You already knew didn’t you. The catch was you had to go down the road and try to look interested in a presentation for some kind of new club. No, not time share, we’ve been had like that before. The whole thing would only take 90 minutes which as far as I was concerned was 90 too many. As I grabbed Lynne’s hand and started to walk away, our little Indian guy didn’t want to give up just yet because he could see his 1000 Baht commission slipping away. However, having had a similar very unpleasant experience years ago in Bali there was no way we were getting talked into wasting 90 minutes for some ‘prize’ which would most likely turn out not to exist anyway! When Lynne politely tried to decline by saying our ride back to the hotel was booked and we would miss it by giving up this 90 minutes he then said we will get you a taxi back to your hotel. At that point I had to tell him quite bluntly that we weren’t interested and it was not gonna happen! We left our Indian friend looking ever so slightly disgruntled and carried on walking.

I wish I could say that was the end of it but I would estimate that in the space of a little more than an hour walking the streets of Patong we were approached 7 or 8 times by similar people. Some would pull up on a motorbike and want to tell you about some amazing opportunity down the road somewhere and others would profess to being an ‘Aussie tailor’ wanting to make you a cheap suit. I’m walking along in shorts and a t-shirt sweating my nuts off in 35 degree heat, do I really look like I want a new suit just at that moment? Looking around at the array of clubs and pubs in such a small area Lynne and I both agreed that this place at night would probably be our idea of hell on earth. Shit, it wasn’t far off in the middle of the day when we couldn’t walk a hundred yards without being accosted by someone or other, whether they be pushing timeshares or shitty cheap sunglasses. I look around and wonder about the British people there, if that’s the kind of place they want, why not save your money and flight time and just go to Benidorm? By now you’ll be getting the impression that we didn’t like Patong very much and you’d be absolutely right. I can’t see any good reason why we would ever go back! I did manage to get a pair of shorts which cost slightly less than £77 at £12 so all is not lost! I’m including one photo taken on the beach at Patong just to break up the textual boredom in the unlikely event that anyone should ever read any of this! This image stood out for me as an illustration of how miserable it must be to be a Muslim woman. I don’t intend to be offensive in any way, but can you imagine dressing like that in such intense heat. Also, why on earth would you choose to push an empty pushchair around on a sandy beach?

That night we walked past the Mexican restaurant to the next one along which was called The Paradise Viewpoint Restaurant. As we arrived at the front door we startled a guy who looked like he’d just gotten comfortable and seemed shocked to see two potential customers. Walking in, a waitress led us to a table overlooking the sea. As we sat down I had the uneasy feeling that the whole deck upon which we were now sat was leaning precariously towards the sea. Our waiter turned out to be a frail old guy who looked to be having trouble standing up, let alone walking and there were lots of steps to negotiate between wherever the kitchen was and where we were sitting. We ordered two large beers which for some reason appeared to cause considerable consternation for the old chap. Three times he came back seeming to want to confirm that we wanted two large beers by using gestures to denote big and then two. The last time he came, it became obvious what the problem was. He asked, once more using gestures rather than words if we definitely wanted two large beers. YES! 🤬 Sorry, we’ve only got one, was the eventual answer. We had to settle for one large and one small as they only had one large bottle of beer. I can only imagine what might have happened if they’d had more than than one table to serve. What kind of restaurant has a menu but only keeps one of each item? The food was average at best and it won’t go down as even slightly memorable in terms of dining experiences but I felt so sorry for the old man who sat close by as we ate, presumably so that he could attend to anything else we might want, that he hadn’t got, that I tipped him as we left and shook his hand. Occasionally, just occasionally, mediocre food and questionable service can be negated by the sheer graciousness of the host who I’m sure for all his obvious frailty was doing his absolute best!

So, our second day in Phuket and not exactly a resounding success. I can already say with some certainty that we will never be coming here again!

We left The Wyndham Legend Hotel in Halong Bay at 11.00 am with yet another driver who didn’t speak English so it was a very quiet journey to Hanoi in a converted Transit van which could have comfortably seated ten people. Consequently, Lynne and I were spoilt for choice where seating was concerned. The strange thing was that I had naturally expected to travel via the same route as our previous journey from Hanoi airport which took three and a half hours. This time however, the journey took a little over two and a half hours and comprised of nothing but motorway which was straight for as far as the eye could see. Unlike motorways at home in the UK there was only light traffic on the road too, so absolutely no hold ups.

I had looked up Hanoi on Youtube as I always do looking for hints for what to see and do and only succeeded in making us both worry that we might not like it. Most of the Youtube videos I managed to find devoted most of their time to giving tips on how not to get ripped off and how to survive the traffic. Having loved Halong Bay and it’s people so much we wondered if a big city might be a bit brash, so it was with a degree of trepidation that we approached the city. As we entered the city it was obvious that it was massive and the nearer we got to our hotel the more hectic the traffic became. After leaving the Wyndham Legend in Halong Bay we both felt slightly disappointed with our first sight of the Sunline Paon Hotel in Hanoi.

This didn’t last long though because the people at check in were so charming and the hotel, although small was equally charming. Within ten minutes of arriving, all our doubts disappeared. The room we had booked was classed as a Business Room with a lake view. I’m including a photo of the lake view and if you keep in mind that the lake is about three blocks away, that should explain what you’re actually seeing!

Ok, so definitely no lake to be seen. Lynne and I found it highly amusing that they could class this as a lake view but we deemed it not to be worth complaining about as it’s blindingly obvious that no room in the hotel could possibly have a lake view! By way of consolation the room itself is lovely. It’s clean, the wifi is fast and the air con works, what more could you want? Also we need not have worried about whether or not we would like Hanoi. From the moment we stepped out of the hotel for our first walk we fell in love with it. It’s noisy, smelly, dirty and chaotic. Qualities I’ve come to love in my 30 years married to Lynne!😂 Anyhow, we both loved it instantly. I had watched videos online about how to cross the road. There are thousands of motorbikes and scooters everywhere. It doesn’t matter how many there are on the road, the way to cross is to step out and keep moving at a steady pace and all the bikes and scooters will find their way around you. I have to say I found the whole experience quite exhilarating. We tried to avoid crossing when buses or bigger vehicles were coming but when it was just bikes there was never really a problem. The first time we tried crossing was on a large main road which might easily accommodate five lanes of traffic. There were literally hundreds of motorbikes and scooters coming at us but we took the leap of faith and stepped into the traffic. All we had to do was keep walking at the same pace and sure enough we got to the other side unscathed! Brilliant! It’s a bit nerve wracking the first time but such fun, I kept wanting to cross just for the sake of it. The only downside is the heat. Within minutes of leaving the air conditioned comfort of the hotel we were dripping with sweat. That’s a level of humidity I hadn’t experienced since Lynne and I spent a holiday in New York in July sometime in the mid 90s. This time we sat on a bench for five minutes or so and I had the feeling there were bugs on my legs but it was just beads of sweat rolling down. During our four night stay I showered almost every time we returned to the hotel.

After our first road crossing adventure we returned to the hotel to freshen up before going out again to find somewhere to eat. The busy road we had crossed earlier that afternoon was closed to traffic and there seemed to be a huge party going on. One of the girls at the check out at the hotel in Halong Bay had told us that the weekend was the best time to visit Hanoi and now we could see why. All the roads around the lake were closed to traffic and it looked as if the whole population was out having a party. We soon found out that this happens for three nights every weekend. There are street performers everywhere with crowds of people watching. Areas of the road are sectioned off and children ride around in small electric vehicles which represent everything from fire engines to JCB diggers. The kids obviously love it and it’s refreshing to see the spectacle of entire families out enjoying themselves. Given the fact that there are tens of thousands of people on the street I can honestly say that not once in the time we spent there over the three nights of the weekend did we see any kind of aggressive behaviour and I’m sure it’s a safe bet that no one got stabbed. A stark contrast to life in the UK these days. As we reached the far end of the lake we came across a young group of musicians headed by a guy on electric violin. They had a large crowd watching them and for good reason, they were brilliant! The guy on the violin was incredible and made it look so easy but there was also a young lad on guitar who had the chance to solo every now and then and he also was brilliant. He and the rest of the group looked all of 14 but they were so good we spent a good 40 minutes there watching them. I was reluctant to walk away while they were still performing, but after a busy day of travelling we were both hungry so we left to go and find food. It didn’t take long to find an amazing restaurant which looked more like an old fashioned gentleman’s club inside. We ordered drinks and then food. This was the first restaurant I’ve ever been in that gives you the menu on an iPad.  I had a large plate of grilled octopus. The plate is actually the pan that the food is cooked in which I suppose saves on the washing up! Strange that it’s described as grilled octopus but it comes in a pan which suggests that it’s actually fried? Whatever, It makes me drool just thinking about it. Lynne shared some of my food whilst waiting for hers to arrive. It was only after a few minutes that we realised my plate (pan) also had small chunks of fried pork which was unfortunate as Lynne is vegetarian and wouldn’t knowingly have eaten any of it. It was a pity we didn’t notice sooner so that I needn’t have shared my octopus with her! Selfish as ever, that’s me!!

I must say I always feel slightly guilty when eating octopus as we constantly hear how intelligent they are. Whilst on the Halong Bay cruise, our guide pointed out a boat that was on its way to fishing for octopus. You could see that the boat had a whole string of lights hung out and apparently they sail into dark caves and then switch on the lights and the octopuses immediately come to them. The poor old octopus has the misfortune to be so delicious, which makes it irresistible, but if all you need to do is shine a light, they can’t be that clever can they? Well that’s my justification for eating them and I’m sticking to it. Anywhere we go that has octopus on the menu, that’s what I’m gonna be eating! The restaurant was called Si Cuisine & Mixology and the service as we’ve found everywhere in Vietnam was amazing, they just can’t do enough for you. As we were eating we could sense two waiters hovering close by ready to jump in if we needed anything. Anywhere else I would find that quite disconcerting, but in Hanoi it seems perfectly natural.

After eating we walked along the west side of the lake watching all kinds of street performers along the way and when we reached the top, or north end of the lake we came across the street market. Once again the street is closed to traffic and market stalls are set up for the full length of the street which seems to go on for ever. It seems like there’s nothing you couldn’t buy there. Lynne bought a pair of bluetooth earphones for the equivalent of about £7. I know you’re supposed to barter for everything in Vietnam and we had been warned against getting ripped off, but really, when the prices are so ridiculously low anyway, it’s difficult as you end up feeling like you’re robbing them! On the way back to the hotel we took a slight detour from the street market and found ourselves in a the middle of a crowded street food area. This was even more crowded than the street market and progress was slow as we fought our way through the crowds. Everywhere there were people sitting on tiny plastic stools eating the various offerings from dozens of different street food stalls. Back in the cool of our room we were left to reflect on our first experience of Hanoi and the simple fact is, we absolutely love it. It is uncomfortably hot and humid and each time we’ve returned to the hotel I’ve made straight for the shower. I can’t remember when I ever had beads of sweat rolling down my back whilst simply walking around but I would happily endure the heat and humidity to spend more time here. We both slept well that night in spite of the cock crowing somewhere outside our window at the crack of dawn.

Our first full day in Hanoi began with the usual ritual of trying to work out how the hotel’s buffet breakfast works and where everything is. Initially we couldn’t find a free table anyway so we went for a short walk in the hope that there might be a free one when we got back. The breakfast was pretty standard fare really and having eaten, we soon made our way out with the intention of finding Hanoi’s train street. This is a very narrow street with a railway track running the length of it. I had heard that the train only comes through twice a day and we set off on a long walk hoping to see the train come through at 3.30 pm. The long walk entailed expending lots of sweat and making lots of strangely enjoyable street crossings. I know it probably sounds childish and I can’t really explain it but as I said before I found the idea of stepping out into the chaos of Hanoi traffic with all it’s inherent dangers ridiculousy exhilarating. I’m not sure Lynne was quite so thrilled about it but I just grabbed her hand and went anyway! She really had very little choice about it and had to trust in me not to get us both killed!😂 The following image is taken from film which I managed to get of us crossing a moderately busy road. The view is actually of the oncoming traffic with us being more or less in the middle of the road at that point. I wish I’d picked a better moment to film as there were other occasions that we crossed through much heavier traffic than this.

It took ages to get to train street and we badly needed drinks when we got there. Walking along the railway track, there are lots of small cafes and bars set up on the track. Tables, chairs, the lot! About five minutes before the train comes, they rush round and move everything to the side and warn all their customers to keep well back. I had seen this whole thing previously on Youtube but nothing prepares you for the moment the train comes through. It’s big and it’s fast! I thought it might just come trundling through at a sedate pace but the reality is that it comes through scarily fast and being so close you get a real sense of how big and heavy and unstoppable it is! This next pic is five or ten minutes before the train.

Whilst waiting for the train Lynne and I sat at the trackside having a beer and enjoying the breeze from a large fan that the lady serving was kind enough to switch on for us to help cool us down. As if proof were needed that people do really live here, there were some children playing across the street. They were teasing a small dog which appeared to be chasing them back into the house every time they ventured out. I think it made for a delightful photograph which could only have been better if I’d been able to get the dog in the frame too but it was at that moment that he chose to disappear.

Speaking of dogs, it seems that the Vietnamese people love their dogs and during our time here we saw literally hundreds of people with dogs. They seem to favour what I think of as small toy breeds and we saw them everywhere we went. Maybe they like to have dogs that they can carry easily. Hopefully it’s not because they fit into the pot easier! It took about three minutes for the locals to clear the track and a minute or two later the train came thundering through. Within minutes of it passing, the chairs and tables were back in place and life carried on as if nothing had happened. You have to admire the people there who manage to eke out a living from the tourists who come from all over the world to see something as simple as a train passing through a residential street. They don’t appear to have much but I don’t think I ever met nicer people! Just by way of a side note, the train isn’t just a tourist novelty either. Lynne filmed it passing by on her phone, and watching the film later, I counted 14 carriages. 

During the long hot and sticky walk back to the hotel we started noticing the things you would never expect to see in the UK or even Europe for that matter. First was a dental practice which was no more than a shop front where you could have watched the dentist pulling teeth from the pavement outside. I can’t imagine you would ever see that In England. Not long after the dentist I saw a man getting a haircut in the street while the mad Hanoi traffic honked and hollered it’s way past. I tried to get a photo and the guy ended up giving me the evil eye. I’ve never been good at street photography, you never know how people are gonna react and me being a bit of a shy shrinking violet it makes me kind of nervous!

We saw an old man taking a wizz at the side of the road too. In broad daylight with no shame at all, although he did try to turn his back when he saw Lynne approaching. Can’t say I blame him, he’d probably heard of her tendency to bite! We were about 30 minutes walk away from the hotel when the heavens opened and we got a hint of what I imagine a monsoon must feel like. We had absolutely no way of protecting ourselves from this sudden downpour but it wasn’t long before people appeared selling flimsy plastic macs. We got conned for the first one which cost 50,000 Dong which is roughly £1.75. We bought a second one a few minutes later for 15,000 dong which is about 50 pence. By then it was absolutely howling it down and my main concern was for my camera, it’s a professionally rated camera with supposedly weather proof sealing but there’s no point in allowing it to get wet needlessly. Back at the hotel, in spite of just having had a free shower outside the first thing I did was to shower again before having an hour to chill before going out to eat.

I had read on Trip Advisor about a restaurant called Poke Hanoi which got really good reviews. Apparently Poke refers to a type of food but not just in Hanoi because I’ve since found that they have them in Kuala Lumpur too. Anyway, I digress. We walked to the restaurant at the southern tip of Ho Hoan Kiem (the lake) and after negotiating our way through lots of kids driving their miniature fire engines and police cars and Lynne narrowly avoiding getting run down by a small JCB, we found it at the end of a narrow alleyway and up a number of flights of steep stairs. Once inside you get to choose what to have in your bowl. It’s all very healthy, being mostly vegetable and fruit based, along with a choice of salmon or shrimp and sticky rice. As usual the service was lovely. I know they’re in a service industry and expected to be nice to customers but nevertheless the warmth of the welcome we get everywhere we go is quite exceptional. An hour later and we were ready for more walking. We headed back to the street market area but there seemed to be even more people out on the streets than the previous night, it was Saturday night after all. The whole place was heaving with people and we decided against walking the length of the street market as it looked a bit like a football crowd. Unlike the previous night we took what we thought was a more direct route back to the hotel rather than fight our way through the street food areas. Putting the route into google maps we discovered that the route we had previously been using to get to the lake and all the surrounding attractions in Old Town Hanoi was probably three times as far as we actually needed to walk and this time we were  back at the hotel in a fraction of the time.

The next day we planned on walking to the Temple of Literature. Being such a literary giant myself (sic) I felt it incumbent upon me to pay a visit to Hanoi’s shrine to literature thereby condemning Lynne and myself to another sweaty day of walking. We had only been walking for ten minutes when I made the mistake of telling Lynne she had a stain on the top she was wearing. I knew instantly that we would have to go back to the hotel so that she could change. Secretly, I was glad of the chance to change my own T-shirt as the one I was wearing was a touch on the snug side and I was already sweating profusely. After the false start we set out again with the best of intentions but soon came across a coffee shop called Note that did egg coffee. I don’t know exactly how egg coffee is made but it’s creamy and thick and delicious. The cafe is completely decorated with small post it notes  and everyone is encouraged to leave their thoughts on the walls, windows, anywhere you can find space. Some of the messages are profound, others are just “so & so was ere” kind of thing but one of the most amusing was a typical English wit who wrote “don’t go to Blackpool UK, it’s shit”! Brilliant, couldn’t have put it better myself.

This was the day when we came across another Vietnamese phenomenon, polite young people who want to learn. First time was a young man who was obviously a student. He approached us and asked if we spoke English and if so would we mind him asking some questions in English because it was part of his study to learn and converse in English. We were only too pleased to accommodate him and couldn’t help laughing when he asked where we were from. When we told him we not only spoke English but were from England too, he did a little dance and could barely contain his excitement. I have to confess that for a few moments I wondered whether he might be leading to some sort of con trick but he turned out to be totally genuine and I had to admonish myself for being so cynical! It was a pleasure to have that all too brief interaction with a young guy who was so obviously keen to learn. Later in the day the same thing happened again with a younger boy who asked most of the same questions and was just as keen. They both said they wanted to go into engineering and I couldn’t help admiring their determination  to learn a language that would obviously be hugely beneficial to them in their future careers. Coincidentally we spoke to a taxi driver in Kuala Lumpur about learning English and he explained that in engineering there are some words for which there is simply no translation in Malaysian and I imagine the Vietnamese would probably have exactly the same problem.

On reaching the Temple of Literature we opted for the audio tour and entered the ancient complex to start the tour. The audio tour was actually very good but I must say I found being bombarded with a lot of old Chinese names and dates a little meaningless and I’m sure I haven’t retained even a small part of the imparted knowledge in my tiny brain. Consequently we just wandered round looking at the wonderful old buildings with Lynne saying “if only they (the bricks) could speak” like she always does whenever we go to Stratford! The Temple grounds do provide a wonderfully peaceful respite from the manic pace of the huge city that sits beyond it’s ancient brick walls and it was an enjoyable afternoon despite listening to a commentary that I had very little understanding of. Maybe I’m not as big a literary giant as I thought I was! I’m including a couple of other images from the Temple grounds for no better reason than I liked the photos anyway without any real clue as to their significance, so here they are.

After leaving the tranquility of the temple grounds we set off on another mammoth trek back to the hotel. I forgot to mention that on the way there we had gotten hopelessly lost for a short while. I use google maps on my phone all the while but I think it’s fair to say I don’t get on with it at all well. Sometimes it’s hard to get your bearings and to work out which direction to go in. We sorted it out eventually but not before a couple of needlessly long diversions. Lynne bought a fan from a lady outside the temple before we entered so she was ok but I was left with my bodily fluids leaking from every pore and orifice. Yeah, sorry, too much information!

The walk back was just as hot as ever but we managed to navigate the route without getting lost this time. As we got back into the thick of the busiest parts of the old town, Lynne was approached by one of the fruit sellers who we had done well to avoid so far. This one was clever though, with a big smile she looked at me with my camera and said “you want photo” and before we knew it Lynne had her fruit carrier (couldn’t think what else you would call it) on her shoulder and the woman’s hat on her head. This was all done so quickly and with such good humour that it was impossible to say no.

Needless to say we had to buy some pineapple too which I thought was expensive but I suppose it was a few moments of fun and we got an amusing photo out of it too.

That evening we went back to Si Cuisine & Mixology to eat. I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself. The call of the Octopus was just too strong! It was a different experience this time though, the service was just as good but the place was full and they now had loud music playing which I would have to say wasn’t much to my taste and in amongst the various so called rap songs we heard, there seemed to be a lot of choice language with the N word most in evidence. I think it’s safe to say they wouldn’t get away with that in the politically correct UK these days! The food was as good as before though so we walked back to the hotel happily satiated but not before we had to give English lessons to two young girls who asked if they could speak to us in English. Just like the two young guys previously, they wanted to ask all kinds of questions for their school work while their proud parents hovered in the background. The girls were about 9 or 10 years old and very keen to speak English although one was clearly much better at it than the other. After 10 minutes or so talking to them we were about to leave when their parents asked if they could have a photo of the girls with us. I still find it difficult to comprehend how friendly the people are in Hanoi and these people were visibly proud to have their daughters speak to us.

I still have one day to cover before we had to leave on the Tuesday to go back to KL but we spent most of the day just mooching around with Lynne buying a few small gifts and we stopped by the Note cafe again for some of their delicious egg coffee. The girls in there remembered us from the previous day and thanked us for coming back. Once again, such lovely service which I never get tired of. We also stopped for ice cream at one of the street food vendors. Lynne and I shared a coconut ice cream which was as close as we ever got to street food. We had arrived in Hanoi fully intending to try the various street foods which I’m sure would be wonderful but we found such lovely restaurants and at such ridiculously low prices that we couldn’t resist. As we were returning to the hotel in the late afternoon we were approached by a young man outside a restaurant called Chestnut Central. He was very polite and charming and he succeeded in selling the restaurant to us and we promised to return in time for happy hour where we could get two drinks for the price of one.

I have a last couple of photos to share which give a taste of what life might be like in Hanoi. First one is not an uncommon sight in Hanoi as entire families get around on small motorbikes. I’m assuming this is a father and his kids and not a kidnapper although the boy immediately behind him doesn’t look too happy!

In amongst the general chaos we came across this small shop with it’s immaculately arranged display. One can only imagine how much care it takes to arrange everything here so perfectly. It certainly stood out amongst all the other shops which mostly have a character all their own and that’s being kind.

After a short break back at the hotel to freshen up we ventured out again to go to the Chestnut Central Restaurant. As soon as we got there we went up to the roof for drinks at the Chestnut Skybar. Lynne had a Sex On The Beach (the drink) and I ordered a Daiquiri. We hadn’t been there long when the lad that we’d spoken to earlier that afternoon came to say hello and to say how pleased he was that we came back. Obviously loads of people probably say, yeah, we’ll be back, and never do. When we ordered food they set up two small tables for us so that we could stay outside at the skybar with amazing views of the city lights twinkling into the distance. I had ordered a huge plate of king prawns and the waiter very kindly offered to peel them for me. I was only too happy to accept as I’ve never found a dignified way of eating prawns without getting in a mess. He put on a pair of plastic gloves to peel the prawns whilst informing us that he has to do the same thing for his girlfriend even though he’s allergic to prawns. Once again, service above and beyond the call of duty! Later during the evening the young lad who had invited us in earlier in the afternoon and whose name was Lucas, came over and we had quite a chat with him about where he came from and his family and all the places he would like to travel to himself. Thanks to Lucas and the prawn peeler whose name I didn’t catch, we enjoyed another wonderful evening.

As we were half way through the meal, Lynne broke her glasses. So, bearing in mind it was around 9.00 pm by then, she decided we should go to an optician after eating and get some new ones. I was sceptical to say the least given the time and the fact we were flying back to Kuala Lumpur in the morning. Nevertheless, we found an optician which was still open and cutting a long story short, they put her old lenses in new frames and then made a new pair with a different prescription for distance. Unbelievably the total cost was $32. Not only that but they delivered them to the hotel later that night to save us hanging about!

As you may have gathered Lynne and I both loved Hanoi but the highlight of our week in Vietnam has been the warmth and friendliness of the people. I can’t speak highly enough of them and it is my fervent wish that Lynne and I will be able to return to Vietnam at some point in the not too distant future!

If there is anyone who’s read this far without slipping into a coma, congratulations and thank you. You obviously have a greater threshold for boredom than I would have thought possible!