Hello from stunning Vang Vieng - easily the most beautiful town I have visited in Asia. We arrived here 3 days ago from Vientiane after a 4 hour bus journey where at times it looked as if the bus was certain to break down! The driver had immense difficulty getting the public bus into gear, which was a slight problem when we were going up steep inclines! We arrived at about 3pm and I wasted the remainder of the daylight hours eating out (which takes a while in Asi...

And so my trip moves on to one of my more obscure and lesser known destinations - the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Known to westerners as Laos (pronounced louse) I've got used to referring to it as the locals do, which is simply Lao. It has a reputation for being unspoiled and peaceful and I'm expecting great scenery as I travel north in my 9 further days here. The mountain scenery was already spectacular as we arrived to this landlocked country yesterday fr...

This blog isn't so much about the city of Vinh, where we spent just 12 hours, but is more a general reflection on my 16 days in Vietnam. Yesterday we crossed the border over in Laos, where I'll be spending the next 10 days and the final part of my South East Asia group tour. Last I updated I was about to go and watch Andy Murray lose the Australian Open final to Roger Federer. It wasn't a great contest but annoying I had to leave it at the best bit (the 3rd set ...

Hello from Vietnam's capital city, Hanoi. We've spent two full days here either side of an overnight trip to Halong Bay (which I'll cover in another blog) and although neither day was especially thrilling, as ever I have plenty to write about! The last time I updated was ahead of our Australia Day night out in Hue. Despite the occassion there were surprisingly few Australians out on the town in the evening, with our group making up the majority of the bar. With ...

OK well there's rain in Melbourne so the Australian Open final has been briefly delayed, allowing me to come back down and get fully updated on my blog! We departed Hanoi on Friday morning on our 3.5 hour prviate bus journey east to Vietnam's natural treasure, Halong Bay. This was the place I was most excited about visiting in the whole country, so I was a tad disappointed to wake up in the morning to find another grey and overcast day. The drive there was not es...