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 ...

Boy have we had a hectic time here! We came to Hue on the day bus through the usual amazing and diverse landscape - we drove along the coast, over mountains, alongside paddy fields, through jungles even driving through a huge tunnel!. The reason for coming to Hue is to do 2 tours - one looking at ancient Hue and one at wartime Hue. As usual we decided to get a few prices for the tours so asked our accommodation to give us a quote - the tours were quite competit...

We travelled to Hoi An on the plushest overnight bus we have been on so far! Take a look at the Nha Trang photos to see it. Hoi An is what you'd call a picture postcard town. It has been labelled a UNESCO world heritage site so the properties in this zone have the same kind of restrictions as listed buildings in the UK. If any building work is necessary the goverment are required to pay 50% of the costs.Now a tourist attraction it was once a bustling trade centr...