The locals were out in force at 5:30am, playing badminton, doing tai chi and swimming. Sarah said it was crazy watching them as the sun rose on the bus as we arrived into Nha Trang. After checking into a cheap hotel we went straight to the beach, it looked like a great idea as it was warming up already. The sea was beautiful - just what we needed after the bus journey. We then had breakfast with a fabulous view of the beach and just lazed about all day reading an...

Our final day in Hanoi was spent getting up early to go and see the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, we queued up for ages to wander past the old leader who is kept in a glass cabinet. It was really quite strange and the view from in front of him was crazy - on the white marble wall behind him there were 2 wide red marble strips with the star from the Vietnam flag and the hammer and sickle - the sign of communism. I found this image to be amazing whereas Sarah didn't notic...

We left the crazyness of Hanoi behind and headed for the tranquil waters of World Heritage Halong Bay - an archipelago of over 3000 islands. The islands are made of limestone and rise out of the water incredably spectacularly, as is usual with limestone there are also hundreds of caves dotted about, back in the day it would have been great for pirates or smugglers! Ha long means 'where the dragon is under the sea,' legend has it that the islands of Halong Bay t...

Our 24 hour bus journey from Vientiane that was meant to be horrendous actually turned out quite well, both me and Sarah had a spare seat next to us and a small amount of valium helped us to a full nights sleep!Immediately we noticed that Vietnam is much more populous and there is a huge military presence around, every 5 minutes or so you will see someone in army uniform!! Our hotel in Hanoi is really nice, we even had a bath in the room - luxury!! After a rel...

We had a very interesting journey from Vang Vieng to Vientiane, there were 14 of us squashed in the back of a truck with all our rucksacks for an hour as we drove along the windy Laos mountain roads, Andrew had the right idea stood on the back, waving at all the locals who thought it very funny to see Westerners travelling this way! We then kayaked along the river for a few hours, this was lovely and peaceful and a good chance to see a bit of the countryside you...