Good Bye Vietnam And that was Vietnam. I found some great new places in Sapa, Hoi An and Phu Quoc. I don't think I could ever get bored of Ha Long Bay and I met heaps of friendly people along the way. I don't think HCMC was my favourite, it's more westernised than the North (and more expensive too and there are a few more million bikes to content with! I can leave you with one last fact, in Hanoi they placed a order for a million motorbikes with the Chinese. Aft...

Playing Herbal Doctor We had one extra day in Ho Chi Minh City, there is a Herbal Medicine museum named the FITO that we went to. It was housed in a wooden Chinese style building and went across multiple floors. The highlight was when the tour guide asked me to put on the traditional doctor outfit and go an pretend to diagnose Tash whilst she took pictures! You also get to see how they make the herbs into powder, using both their feet and arms to move the grind...

Goodbye Coconut I spent my last 6 hours in Phu Quoc contemplating life and wondering how I would live without at least one fresh coconut a day. Of course the best way to do this was to have one over lunch. Earlier that morning we had been back in the sea for one last swim. The water was full of little fish and crabs, I managed to escape with all my toes in check but Tash got stung by something unidentifiable but lived to tell the tale. I wonder how Phu Quoc wi...

Pearls, Pepper & Fish Sauce We organised a tour of the south of the island through our resort. It was meant to be part of a group so when we found out the group was the two of us, plus our driver and tour guide we thought we had struck gold, a far cry away from the bus jamming of a few days ago. Our tour guide then told us she found out 30 minutes before that she would be our guide, it was her first ever tour, and second time of being in Phu Quoc. As you wou...

Eating Pho at the beach Much of the 16th was written off, I felt ill when getting up early to fly to Phu Qouc, a island off the south-west coast of Vietnam and close to Cambodia. It's governed by the Vietnamese but the Cambodians also claim it. My rough guides travel book says you should get to Phu Quoc before it looses its charm. After arriving I spent most of the day in bed. I did find some time to have some fresh coconut water just after the sun went down th...