We're hitting the road, or in this case the air, in the wee hours of tomorrow morning and are Vietnam bound. We're flying from Bangkok to Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh city as we should probably get used to calling it. Having come back to Bangkok after the few days in Chiang Mai, we were faced with the decision of where to head to next. After a few days of proscrastination, we decided not to cycle through Laos or Cambodia (we're heeding advice to avoid malarial regions at the moment, but more of that anon). It was also considerably cheaper to fly direct to Saigon, as Air Asia - the Ryanair of the southeast Asian skies - flies there from Bangkok, but not to Siem Reap in Cambodia, where we'd planned on travelling to to spend a few days exploring the ruins of Angkor Wat. We've also flown with Air Asia in the past and found them surprisingly bike friendly. We still plan to take in Angkor Wat at some stage in our travels. Perhaps we'll travel there from Vietnam as part of a visa run when our visas run out in a month.

We had yet another hair-raising cycle through the streets of Bangkok this afternoon, having picked up our now gleaming and well tuned bikes from the bike shop. We were happy to be reacquainted with them though. I then spent an hour or so bagging them up for the plane tomorrow, which seemed a pity as they were so clean and shiny!

We'll miss Thailand, we've had a magical two months here, but are very excited about Vietnam.... spending a few weeks volunteering in an orphanage, having a base (we're planning to rent an apartment) in Saigon and therefore our very own kitchen (!) for a while, cycling along the cycle tourers' mecca of Highway 1 from Saigon to Hanoi and, of course, hitting the beach again!

A new month, a new country. Good morning, Vietnam!