We're going to China - it has been in doubt a little bit due to the difficulty of getting a visa and sorting out travel. But yesterday on the third visit to the Chinese Embassy we picked up 5 visas. In the afternoon we made our way back to the train station to sort out a ticket from Hanoi to Guilin (20 hour journey). The lady at the counter did not want to speak to us for an hour - but finally we got our tickets - saving $100 from the greedy touts! So we're ...

Ninh Binh - we made our own way there on the train for 70000d (about £3) on a train with hard seats - literally - a wooden bench seat. But for only 2 hours or so it was fine. Fortunately we didn't order anything from the on train buffet as even the local people next to us had trouble biting through the meat & slop. Strangely there were no hawkers when we arrived and the streets were quiet. We walked along the street and came across the Queen mini hotel w...

We had a great trip in Halong bay - mostly due to the great company in our party. 4 a typical 20' something Irish guys on their way to Brisbane to work for a year, Indiana Jones and his wife (Belgium archaeologist), Citron car dealer from Somerset (Tony), 2 ladies from Hong Kong, 2 lively Argentinian students and us. Thien our guide was somewhat typical of vietnamese that we've experienced - on the surface polite and nice, but when it gets down to it somewhat b...

Overnight train up to a hill town called Sapa where the French used to come to escape the madness of Hanoi (as we have). So much for sleeping on the overnight train - too noisy, too slow. Anyway we arrived at 5am in the dark, but as we drove along the very bumpy road, realised that we were going to a very special place. Rice terraces were cut into al the hills, and many of the local people were from tribes and dressed in traditional clothes. The town is on the ...

Woah - place is crazy, if we're not being ripped off by touts, there are motorcyclist to run you down if you're not killed by the pollution, holes in the road or other hazards! Although we appear to be the tourist attraction around here with LM as the star. Everywhere we go, people point at us and say hello - try to touch him or make him smile And its not cheap either - we haven't got the hang of the money and appear to be handling over literally 1,000,000's of...