We arrived in Langkawi on the 28th February following a train journey from KL to Butterworth, a ferry to Penang and then another ferry to Langkawi. The original plan was to stop in Penang but after speaking to various people and reading the Lonely Planet we decided to skip this island and head straight to Langkawi. Our initial intention was to have 4 days on Langkawi but we are now on day 15 and will not be leaving until day 18!!! How plans change! For the firs...

As we emerged from the aeroplane to the sight of Kuala Lumpur airport David announced "I could be in Manchester" - it was a fair comment, the weather was grey (at this point I'd like to point out that we were in an air conditioned building so had no idea how hot it actually was out there!) the airport was big, modern and surrounded by trees. It just had an air of familiarity! After so many months travelling in such different cultures arriving in Kuala ...

We arrived back in Hanoi from our Halong Bay trip at 5pm and after a quick shower and meal with Phil and Sarah we headed over to the Hanoi railway station to catch an 11pm train. The station was incredible as you have to walk across the railway lines to get to your train. After the buses in Vietnam, which have been great, and the trains elsewhere in Asia which have been great, to say we were disappointed with our train would be somewhat of an understatement. The ...

What a hoo ha deciding which Halong Bay and Sapa trips to go on. Every second place is trying to sell you day trips all at varying prices. After 1 1/2 days deliberation we decided to go with the Hanoi Backpackers for both excursions. There were 32 people in total on the Halong Bay trip and whilst all the activities occurred on just the one boat we were split between 2 for sleeping. The boats look a little like story book pirate ships and are referred to as junks....

We arrived in Hanoi at 6am on a lovely Monday morning. As usual we were pounced on by loads of touts and taxi drivers but the thing is that D and I were the only non vietnamese passengers on the bus so that means it's not just the tourists who get hassled - how refreshing is that! In fact when we were waiting for the overnight bus, in the cafe, in the mystery location, the lady proprieter came and asked how much we'd paid for a ticket, when we told her she did a ...