We travelled from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City on a 7 hour journey, which all went smoothly. We spent an evening in the bustling backpacker district and catching up on our street food, which we hadn't found so readily in Cambodia! We spent a day walking around the sites and visited the huge indoor market, the Reuinifcation Palace and Notre Dame building. It was home to the president during the Vietnam war and is symbolic largely due to the fact that At 10:45 on April 30th 1975, a tank of the North Vietnam Army bulldozed the main gate and ending the Vietnam War. The palace is in the exact condition it was at the time, with all the rooms still in 70s decor.

Our next stop was 15 hours away, a beach resort called Nha Trang. It was so beautiful and we particularly appreciated it having been inland for 5 weeks! We had a few lazy days just relaxing in the sunshine and reading. The weather was perfect, as per usual!

We went to Hoi An next, a little seaside town another 15 hour journey further up the coast. Hoi An is famous for its tailors and there were beautifully made clothes and shoes everywhere. Again, we were distracted by the beach and hired bikes to cycle the 5kms to the cocnut tree-lined beach.

We caught a few buses back-to-back to make the final major leg to Hanoi. We arranged a day trip from the city to Halong Bay, one of the country's major icons. Pictures of the huge limestone cliffs are shown everywhere else in the country so we thought we should check out the real thing. We went on a tour and weer taken the 3 hours to the harbour before getting on our junk boat. We spent the afternoon cruising amongst the high cliffs and stopped for an hour to look in the huge caves within the cliffs, which were really impressive. We pulled up for the evening in the middle of several cliffs and everyone went for a swim. The weather had been perfect again, despite raining all the way there it had cleared as we got on the boat so we were really lucky.

We spent the night on the boat and our room had a perfect view of the cliffs from the bed. It was a full moon night as well so the view was beautiful. The next morning we were up at 6.30 to go kayaking before breakfast and then slowly made our way back to the harbour starting point before going for lunch and heading back to Hanoi. It was a great way to finish in Vietnam and we caught a flight the next day to Bangkok.

In Bangkok we spent a very hectic 2 days doing our last minute shopping. We were going home and had lots of stuff we wanted to get before we left. Phil had a bespoke suit tailored for him, I had my hair cut and we both did a lot of shopping and eating! Our flight home was deliayed by a few hours but we landed safely on Saturday morning. I had been planning on surprising my mum for her 60th birthday and the plan came off excellently - she cried when she saw me in the restaurant so it was well worth the secrecy!

We are now both a bit depressed at being back because the weather is rubbish, but it has been great to see friends and family we have missed.