Vietnam and Cambodia, Kruger Park and beyond…

Last October I revisited Vietnam and Cambodia for the first time in four years. Little has changed except that Siem Riep, in Cambodia, the hub destination for the great temples of Angkor Wat has grown and grown and grown…and is now one vast building site. The temples, however, should be on any dedicated traveller’s wish-list, and to see them at dawn - even with hordes of other tourists - is still a breathtaking sight.

This year so far I ave been in Kruger Park, still one of my favourite destinations, where a friend of mine and a couple of Oz tourists on an evening game drive were lucky enough to see a pack of wild dogs hunting. Even luckier, we were the only vehicle in sight and were able to stay with the dogs for quite a while.

In early April I stayed at the two new &Beyond lodges, Xudum and Xaranna, in the Okavango Delta, which is one of the world’s last true wilderness areas. To be poled in a mokoro along the papyrus-fringed waterways, across waterlily-studded lagoons, as a blazing sun sinks down into the crystal-clear water is one of life’s best moments.

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